about father matt
Hi! I’m Fr. Matt Siegman.
I grew up in Wichita, Kansas, attending All Saints Catholic School and Kapaun Mt. Carmel Catholic High School for my primary and high school education. I then attended Wichita State University and received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 2008.
At WSU, I focused my studies on power systems. Nuclear power, transmission lines and distribution grids were very interesting to me. Unfortunately, jobs in these fields were hard to come by in Wichita, so I began working as a co-op student at Bombardier in the Flight Test Center as a Software Engineer. After graduation, I was given a full-time position there, in which I worked on many internal projects in a range of programming languages: C, C++, C#, Perl, PHP, HTML, JavaScript, and seemingly everything else. I enjoyed that job immensely, and was lucky to work with a number of amazing people.
My personal life was fairly active too. I was involved in my home parish (All Saints). I would cantor and lector at Sunday Mass. I joined the 4th Degree of the Knights of Columbus and have the honor of being Past Grand Knight of All Saints Council #9767.
In 2013, everything changed: I entered priestly formation as a Seminarian for the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, Kansas.
Since entering seminary, my life has changed drastically. I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO in 2015. Going into philosophy school as an engineer, I did not expect to learn anything. I was surprised when I learned more than I could have imagined, especially in the works of the greats: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas.
After completing my philosophy studies, I went to University of Saint Mary of the Lake - Mundelein Seminary in Chicago, IL for Theology school. I particularly have enjoyed the scripture classes. I was lucky to have Dr. Scott Hahn as my professor for the Synoptics (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) and Acts of the Apostles class. I also particularly enjoyed my class in the Pentateuch & Deuteronomic Histories (the first five books of the Old Testament and most of the history books) and my class in the Prophetic Literature. I was blessed to participate in a 9 week pilgrimage to the Holy Land, during which we took classes, visited every holy site imaginable, and took in the culture of the people living there now. It was an unforgettable experience.
On May 19, 2018, I was ordained a deacon by Bishop Kemme at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Wichita. I preached my first official homily–homiletics class doesn’t count!–that night at All Saints, about how we can respond to the Holy Spirit. During my last year of school, I took some amazing classes. My favorite classes have been where we learn to perform the Sacraments, specifically Reconciliation and the Mass. I was blessed to be able to study both forms of the Roman Rite, as well as take an elective on the Liturgical Movement which aimed to renew Catholic life by promoting the participation of all Catholics in the Liturgy and culminated at Vatican II in the document Sacrosanctum concilium. In January, I led 33 other men from Mundelein Seminary to the annual March for Life. It was an amazing and humbling experience: I witnessed the massive number of people who support the rights of our unborn brothers and sisters.
In March of 2019, I received my call to orders to the Catholic Priesthood. Bishop Carl Kemme ordained me a priest on May 25, 2019 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Wichita, KS. My first Mass in the Ordinary Form was at All Saints Catholic Church on Sunday, May 26, 2019. A week later on June 2, 2019 I celebrated my first Mass in the Extraordinary Form—a Solemn High Mass, no less!
My first assignment as a priest began in June of 2019 as the parochial vicar at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Wichita, KS. In June 2022, I became the administrator of Blessed Sacrament. After a year, Bishop Kemme asked me to become the pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in the Delano neighborhood of Wichita, starting in late June of 2023. He installed me officially as pastor on July 30, 2023 at the 9:30am Mass. It was such a joy to celebrate that moment with many of my new parishioners and with my bishop.
God has been so good to me! While I am sure many challenges are in my future, I am also looking forward with great hope and faith that God will be please to do amazing things through me!