The Institute of Catholic Theology

Fr. John Lankeit, the youngest of three children from a faithful Catholic family, first began sensing a call to the priesthood in 1989, shortly before graduating from Seattle University. After earning a degree in marketing and with a minor in psychology, he pursued a career in professional sports marketing with the Seattle Mariners. He later worked in the coffee industry, with a couple of stints in the high tech field sprinkled in. Toward the end of his pre-seminary career he began taking voice-acting lessons and dabbled in voice-overs, being featured in radio commercials and radio dramas. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Phoenix, on June 3, 2006, the Feast of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs.  He was assigned as Parochial Vicar of St. Anne Catholic Church in Gilbert, where he served just under a year and a half before being named Pastor of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Tolleson. He served at Blessed Sacrament for two-and-a-half years.  On June 1, 2010, he began his current assignment as Rector of Ss. Simon & Jude Cathedral.