14/08/2026
Monsignor Thomas Powers, Rector, is pleased to announce that Most Reverend Earl A. Boyea, Bishop of the Diocese of Lansing, has agreed to release Father Daniel Westermann ‘14 to serve as a spiritual director at the College, effective September 1, 2026.
Father Westermann entered the seminary after attending Father Gabriel Richard Catholic High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2014 after attending St. John Vianney College Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and the Pontifical North American College in Rome.
After ordination, he served two years in East Lansing at Saint Thomas Aquinas Parish and Saint John Church and Student Center, which serves the students of Michigan State University. He then returned to Rome to finish a licentiate in Moral Theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas (Angelicum). Upon returning to the Diocese, he served as the associate pastor at the Church of the Holy Family in Grand Blanc, and the following year was moved to serve as administrator of St. Mary and St. Joseph in Durand. In the summer of 2019, he was appointed the pastor of Saint John the Baptist Parish in Ypsilanti, which serves Eastern Michigan University. In 2025, he was assigned to the staff at Saint John Vianney Seminary, where he served as a formation advisor and spiritual director. He is currently completing the Spiritual Direction Training Program through the Institute for Priestly Formation.
Commenting on the appointment of Father Westermann, Monsignor Powers said, “I am very grateful both to Bishop Boyea for allowing Father Westermann to serve as a member of the formation team at the North American College, and to Father Westermann for his generous ‘yes.’ Along with his experience in seminary formation and his training in spiritual direction, I am confident that he will also model for the seminarians a prayerful, joyful and priestly example.”
