Late call to priesthood: hard decisions by a teacher

Late call to priesthood: hard decisions by a teacher

On June 23, 2025 we will take a look at the exciting journey of Harald Stehle from Biberach-Rißegg. The 63-year-old is not only a religion and history teacher at the Bishop Sproll Education Center, but also vicar in the entire Biberach parish. His path to becoming a priest was anything but straightforward and promises exciting insights into the challenges of faith and vocation.

Stehle grew up in the small town of Gammertingen, where he grew up with his two brothers and a mother who worked as a seamstress. “Even back then I was influenced by the church,” he says. He helped as a sexton, was an organist and served as an altar server. After graduating from high school, he took the path of theology and studied in Freiburg, where he briefly became a candidate for the priesthood. But celibacy was a hurdle that made him hesitant. Instead, he moved to Münster to study history and education and soon set his sights on a more secure career.

A rethinking of life

“I didn’t want to give up my teaching profession,” admits Stehle. After his studies, he worked as a private teacher in Brussels and at a Catholic school in Saxony. But life would show him a new path. In 2005 he found his place at the Bischof Sproll Education Center in Biberach, where he taught Catholic religion, history and French. A personal event, the death of his father in 2011, led Stehle to consider ordination.

In the years that followed, he took a serious look at his calling. He asked the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart whether it was possible to become a priest without giving up his teaching profession. Fortunately, he learned of the opportunity to serve as a permanent deacon with a civilian job. He began his training in the Archdiocese of Freiburg and was ordained a permanent deacon by Archbishop Stephan Burger in 2014. Here we see how the permanent diaconate has established itself as a significant office in the Roman Catholic Church. This office not only offers an independent pastoral role, but also makes it possible to be active alongside another professional career Wikipedia reports.

The step to becoming a priest

The final decision on priesthood came later. In 2022, Stehle was released from school for six months to complete a parish internship and attend seminary courses. The consecration finally took place in July 2022. On an important day he was ordained a priest in the Rottweiler Minster Church by Bishop Gebhard Fürst.

“I see myself as a priest with a civilian job,” he emphasizes. Stehle does not want to appear clerical in the classic sense, but rather takes his place as vicar to a senior pastor in Biberach and plans to apply for an open pastor's position when he retires. This flexibility and the combination of faith and profession are essential features of the permanent diaconate, which gives independent deacons broad tasks in pastoral care as well as in preaching and the service of charity [Diakonat.at explains](https://www.diakonat.at/diakon- Werden).

Over the years, Stehle has found a path that made him what he is today, despite the hurdles that the priesthood presented him. A man who is deeply rooted in his faith and has the courage to discover his calling even in his late years.