By Reagan Scott
for the Register
When Father Sean Timmerman, pastor of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Plattsmouth, began to notice decreased participation in altar serving among the high school boys in his parish, he started to look for ways to establish some sort of fraternity or group that would encourage them to keep serving each weekend.
Father Timmerman wanted to find something that could help set the high schoolers apart from younger servers, and would also include spiritual formation and catechesis as they went though a formative time in their lives. When he came across the “Templars - Knights of the Holy Temple” program, he found that it checked all of the boxes.
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Templars is “committed to forming young men in the faith, wisdom and traditions of the Catholic Church,” according to the organization’s website. The program does this not only through altar serving, but also with monthly meetings, service projects and annual retreats that give the teens leadership opportunities and a place to grow in fellowship with their peers.
The parish priest serves as chaplain for the chapter, while designated lay men, called confrères, serve as mentors for the Templars (the teens in the program) and ensure smooth operation of the chapter.
However, it is the Templars who serve as officers within their chapter and are tasked with running their monthly meetings, coming up with service projects and determining the roles and tasks they take on when serving at Mass.
John Kanel lives in Lincoln and is on the national team for the Templars organization, serving as the chapter success coach for all the chapters throughout the United States. He stressed that at its core, the mission of Templars is serving first at the altar.
Kanel explained that Templars is a spinoff of “Knights of the Holy Temple,” which started in the Diocese of Lafayette-In-Indiana in 1999.
Because Knights of the Holy Temple has proved to be impactful in Indiana, Kanel said the mission of the Templars over the past few years has been to take the program and develop it into something that a priest can implement in a programmatic way in his parish.
Currently, Templars has 45 active chapters in addition to Holy Spirit. This includes St. Mary Parish in Ashland and Sacred Heart Parish in Lincoln, which are in the process of launching. There are also three chapters in the Archdiocese of Omaha, at Mary Our Queen and Christ the King parishes in Omaha, and St. Patrick Parish in Fremont.
While the Templars program is designed for teens between the ages of 14 and 18, Father Timmerman said that for Church of the Holy Spirit, he wanted to keep the group exclusive to those in high school, and give the middle school boys something to strive for.
After launching the program at Church of the Holy Spirit this spring, there are eight members of the group, ranging from freshmen to juniors in high school. Now, the Templars are the exclusive servers for Church of the Holy Spirit’s 10:30 a.m. Mass every Sunday.
Kanel said one of the expectations for the program is that a parish will set aside one particular Mass to be served by the Templars.
“When these older guys really take this seriously, it’s clear to everyone in the parish that it’s not just a random group, that it’s a fraternity, that they’ve given their time and attention to serving at the altar and doing so in a way that glorifies God. It’s a powerful thing,” Kanel said.
Many of the Templars’ roles during the Mass encompass tasks that an acolyte might normally take on, such as carrying the cross and handling the incense. The teens at Church of the Holy Spirit are also set apart in their dress – wearing red cassocks instead of black, and longer, more detailed surplices than the simple ones worn by the elementary and middle school boys.
The first project for the Templars at the Church of Holy Spirit will be building the group’s own wardrobe in the sacristy to house their cassocks and surplices, as the original for all of the servers is getting full.
Ryan Vulgamott is a confrère for the chapter and has been a member at Church of the Holy Spirit since his family moved to Plattsmouth in 2016. When he became an acolyte, he said, it changed his perspective and motivated him to get more involved and learn more about his faith.
“I saw [the Templars] as an opportunity to get more people to appreciate what I see,” Vulgamott said. “When you’re an acolyte or a server or a lector, you’re up there, right there at the altar, and it had a profound impact on me. So I saw it as an opportunity for them to really just grow in their understanding of things.”
At the start of the program, Vulgamott and the chapter’s other two confrères worked to help the Templars establish their processes for meetings and set up the serving schedule. Now, the members are taking over those tasks themselves and the confrères will step back into the role of chaperones, modeling their faith for the members and helping where needed.
One of Vulgamott’s hopes for the future is that cross-chapter gatherings can be organized, where the young men can exchange ideas and establish a community across parishes and dioceses.
Father Timmerman said that since the formation of the Templars, he’s seen the role of altar serving taking on a more personal dimension for the boys.
“I think they’re paying a lot more attention to the Mass,” he said, “and I can tell that that reverence is very important for them. When they were younger, in junior high, they did a good job, but now they’re taking ownership, and taking pride in it and wanting to do a good job for God.”
So far, Father Timmerman said, he feels the group has a good foundation, and will continue to grow and gain new members, even as the older members graduate. Vulgamott said he hopes his son, who is in middle school, will want to join as well one day.
Father Timmerman said, “If these boys take a new ownership of their Catholic faith, if they grow in reverence and love, especially of the Eucharist, if they continue to grow in the virtues and to practice their Catholic faith after high school, that’s my number one goal.”
Additionally, Father Timmerman said that it has been a long time since a priestly vocation has come from the parish. While that is not the main goal, he is hopeful that having the teens serving at the altar might change that fact.
“I think that the more experiences our boys can get up on the altar and serving, especially when they’re in high school, they might realize, ‘I could see myself as a priest doing this.’ Or, ‘I like to serve, maybe I would like to someday be a priest and offer the Mass,’” he said.
As the program continues to take root, the fruits of the Templars, already being felt at the parish, will only continue to grow.
During the initiation of the new members Oct. 5, each young man declared, “With obedience in faith to Christ, my Lord, and with trust in the Mother of Christ and in the Church, I accept my place in the Army of Christ.”
Matthew Lorence, a member of the Templars and a freshman in high school, said, “I really enjoy serving at a higher level at Mass, especially with other guys my age. I think our Templars program has elevated our Mass at Church of the Holy Spirit.”
