Diplomas of faith

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — As if to prove all things are possible to those who have faith, Joe Molitor, a dairy farmer from St. Cloud, recently graduated with Bachelor of Arts degrees in philosophy and theology. This came after a decade-plus of online schooling — all while maintaining his vocation to his farm and family.

“Ten years ago, (did I know) it was the will of God that I go to school?” Molitor said. “I was not 100% sure, but now that I finished, yeah, that’s what it was.”

Joe and his wife, Shirley, were both raised in Catholic families who practiced their faith and prayed the rosary. This faith carried into their own family of eight daughters, living on a 700-acre farm with approximately 260 cows.

After Shirley passed away in 2011 and their youngest, Maggie, was 7 years old, Molitor considered joining the priesthood. However, he said discerned it was not the appropriate time because of his family and farm responsibilities, but he remained in contact with the Diocese of Saint Cloud for the possibility down the road.

“I had too many cows and too many kids,” Molitor said. “I had kids in five schools, and you don’t go run off and do anything. However, a couple of years later, I thought maybe ordination was something I wanted to do; I am single. So, I just started taking (online) classes to prepare because I could not leave the farm nor leave my first vocation, the family.”

Molitor started by taking classes at St. Cloud Technical & Community College in 2012. Starting here allowed him to take fundamental classes, specifically learning how to operate the computer and type.

A priest friend got Molitor connected with the Holy Apostles College & Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut. Molitor started with a class in logic in 2017, which turned out to be a hard course for him, and it resulted in the lowest grade out of all the classes he would take. Along with theology, Molitor wanted to study philosophy, particularly from a Catholic perspective.

“When I got there (to online HACS classes it was), a much more difficult college and faster moving,” Molitor said. “You had to turn all of your work in online, and I had to learn that because I didn’t know too much about computers. I still don’t know some of the basic stuff after all these years.”

The technological aspect of online education was challenging.

“When I registered, I knew nothing,” he said. “I just never did anything on a computer … There weren’t many emails with the farm, and if there were, the kids took care of it or something like that.”

Eight years later, Molitor began taking more core classes for HACS, but they were time-consuming and difficult.

Molitor completed about 40 classes to reach his degrees, including advanced academic writing, church history, liturgy, ethics, fundamental bioethics, epistemology, philosophy of God, metaphysics and various courses on Scripture.

Molitor took one class at a time from HACS, doing classes year-round, even during the summer. For the last year and a half of his studies, though, he had four classes per semester, a full-time load. To keep up, he put in approximately 30 hours per week on studying and coursework, waking up at 3 a.m. to handle his schooling before his cows’ 5 a.m. milking.

“I was just chipping away,” Molitor said.

Because the online classes did not have a set meeting time, Molitor could listen to the lectures, handle the reading selections and answer write-in discussion prompts on his farmer’s schedule. He would make his own to-do list for every class along with the days and times their assignments and tests were due, which kept him on track. He also printed all the materials he needed.

“I bet I bought 20 boxes of paper,” Molitor said. “I was obsessed with it; that’s why I did it. … The kids always knew where I was.”

Finally, graduation day came April 25. There were about 40 students in Molitor’s graduating class, about 20 of whom came to walk in the commencement. Molitor was there with two of his daughters, Hannah and Kristin, who accompanied him to see him get his diploma in the HACS Our Lady Queen of the Apostles Chapel. Molitor said his class was nearly an even split between graduates in their 20s and 30s — except for him in his mid-60s.

Nothing, however, could dampen Molitor’s enthusiasm when he finally had his diploma in hand.

“I could sing in front of people,” he said. “It was just like I was in a daze.”

Now, Molitor can take master’s-level classes, including courses that priests can take.

While he is unsure if that is the direction God is calling him to go with his education, he continues to dairy farm. Molitor is looking towards the future and is currently milking 105 cows and farming 220 acres after downsizing in June.

“You know the will of God is what happened,” Molitor said. “Generally, if you are following what He wants you to do, He doesn’t tell you maybe until the morning of it.”