Casmir Cozzi, pictured at the Chapel of Immaculate Conception at Mundelein Seminary on Aug. 30, 2023, is expected to be ordained as a priest in the Diocese of Belleville in October 2027 (Submitted photo).
Casmir Cozzi can’t remember a time when he didn’t want to become a priest.
“I wanted to be two things: a pilot, like my dad (Dan), who flew airplanes for the Air Force, or a priest,” said Cozzi, 23. “I was taught that I had a Father in Heaven who loved me way more than my earthly father. As much as my dad did love me and showed his love, he always talked about how our Father in Heaven loved us even more than he does.
“So I always held the priest as an image of my Heavenly Father. The priest is the one who brings Jesus to us. As a second-grader, that was how my brain worked. That’s how the seed got planted.”
Cozzi is one of five seminarians in the Diocese of Belleville, including transitional deacon Levi James, who will be ordained a priest in June at Cathedral of St. Peter.
Cozzi currently is on a pastoral internship at St. Teresa Catholic Church in Belleville, after which he will return to his theological studies at Mundelein Seminary in northern Illinois. He is on schedule to be ordained a transitional deacon late in 2026, then be ordained a priest in June 2027.
It will be the culmination of a calling Cozzi received from God in his formative years growing up in Mascoutah, which followed stops with his military family in Oklahoma, North Dakota and New Jersey.
The most challenging times for Cozzi came when he entered Mascoutah High School as a freshman. That followed what had been to that point a Catholic education at Holy Childhood Grade School, where he spent fourth through eighth grades.
“In high school, it was still on my heart (to be a priest), but I didn’t want to look at it too much,” Cozzi said as he reflected on this period of discernment that was “intense” and “a little scary.”
“When I went to a public high school, it gave me my first taste of seeing how other people chose to live their life outside the faith,” he said. “High school was a big time for me. ‘Am I sticking with the faith my parents taught me growing up?’ or ‘Do I want to try to live a different way?’
“By the grace of God, he kept bringing me back. Each time I started to stray or go down whatever path it was, whether it be worldly pleasure or going for achievement, fame, glory, whatever it was, eventually He showed me there was a better way. That meant coming back to my faith and living the way Christ teaches.”
Things settled down a bit when he entered Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., for his freshman year. But even then, Cozzi spent a considerable amount of time pondering his future.
“I went to study engineering, but over the course of that year, I realized I didn’t want to be an engineer,” he said. “I had some awesome opportunities to experience what an engineer does. I had an internship at Boeing, which was the coolest place to do an engineering internship.
“But that year, the Lord revealed (to me) that I really didn’t want to be an engineer. He opened my heart up to the possibility He might be calling me to be a priest … It was the Lord’s invitation to take the next step. It wasn’t necessarily, ‘You’re going to be a priest.’ It was more like, ‘Come follow me. Come see what you could have.’ It took a lot to get to that point, but it was good.”
Cozzi has greatly enjoyed his pastoral internship at St. Teresa. He has been working closely with Fr. Joseph Oganda and has been able to spend time working with students at St. Teresa school across from the church.
“It’s been an incredible experience getting the opportunity to do full-time ministry and dive into parish life, being at daily Masses with the people and going over to the school,” Cozzi said. “It’s given me the opportunity to see what my life will look like as a priest. It’s the first time I haven’t been in school since preschool. It’s one of the first time I’ve been able to step away from the studies and the books in the past four and a half years. What I’ve received in the seminary has helped me grow.”
Seminarian education/vocations of the Diocese of Belleville is supported by the Catholic Service and Ministry Appeal.