Photo provided by Mr. Josh Shudder, C.S.C. Pictured from left to right are Rev. Mr. Timothy Paul Wymore, C.S.C., Rev. Mr. Andrew James Copp, C.S.C., Most Reverend Bishop Kevin Rhoades, Bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, and Rev. Mr. Keenan James Bross, C.S.C.
“We heard a summons to give over our lives in a more explicit way. It was a call to serve all people, believers and unbelievers alike. We would serve them out of our own faith that the Lord had loved us and died for us and risen for us and that He offers us a share in his life, a life more powerful and enduring than any sin or death.”
Congregation of Holy Cross Constitution 1:3
With great jubilation, the Congregation of Holy Cross, United States Province of Priests and Brothers announces the Ordination to the Diaconate by Most Reverend Bishop Kevin Rhoades, Bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, of Rev. Mr. Keenan James Bross, C.S.C., Rev. Mr. Andrew James Copp, C.S.C., and Rev. Mr. Timothy Paul Wymore, C.S.C.
Rev. Mr. Keenan Bross, C.S.C., is from Wentzville, Missouri, and graduated from the University of Notre Dame with an undergraduate degree in physics and philosophy and a Master of Divinity.
“After I had been discerning priesthood for about a year in high school, one of my classmates lost someone very dear to her to suicide. For some reason, I was the first person she talked to that very night. Throughout the next year, I tried to walk with her as she worked to get up in the morning, make it through a school day, and just keep it all together. I learned that suffering has no cheap answers or quick solutions. But somehow, the closer I came to her grief, the more alive I felt. I had nothing to give her but a gentle and persistent hope. At the end of that year, I joined Holy Cross in our Old College Undergraduate Seminary. In my years of formation since, I’ve learned that I don’t just feel called to be a priest but a son of Our Lady of Sorrows: a priest who is in touch with his own brokenness and suffering and who draws close to the brokenhearted, offering them more than platitudes or performances but hope in the Cross of Jesus Christ that offers us eternal life,” shared Bross.
Rev. Mr. Andrew Copp, C.S.C., hails from La Grange Park, Illinois, and graduated from the University of Notre Dame, earning an undergraduate degree in environmental engineering and a Master of Divinity.
“In 2015, I hiked and backpacked through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico with 80 other men and women discerning the priesthood or religious life. The Keough Hall community — especially Fr. Pat Reidy, C.S.C., Fr. Nate Wills, C.S.C., and Fr. Brogan Ryan, C.S.C. — were immensely important to encouraging my relationship with Jesus. I was certain of my Christian vocation of discipleship and service, but I had always followed my own plan: become an environmental engineer and have a wonderful family,” noted Copp. “The summer before my senior year, Fr. Brogan and I had a really important conversation: ‘Andrew,’ he said, ‘you will never have 100% certainty about anything, especially not your vocation. At some point, you have to take a leap and trust that you’ve listened to God’s invitation long enough to say Yes!’ I finally found my need in prayer: to listen for God’s plan. Once I began to listen, God kept prompting me back to religious life. I went on the undergraduate discernment retreat at Moreau Seminary, read the Holy Cross Constitutions for the first time, and I felt a burst of love and encouragement from God to apply to the Postulant Program.”
Rev. Mr. Timothy Wymore, C.S.C., is from Madison, Wisconsin, and graduated from the University of Notre Dame with an undergraduate degree in political science and a master’s in education.
“Around my First Communion, I started wondering whether God might be calling me to be a priest. My confirmation and then my undergrad years at Notre Dame kept this question alive. During my senior year, I joined the Holy Cross vocations pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi. It was there I received a powerful and prayerful (yet perplexing!) sense of vocation to the priesthood. God was very patient with me; rather than actively pursuing this call further, I went to work in Washington, D.C., after graduation,” shared Wymore. “But this persistent tug on my heart never went away. I spent some time as a novice at a Benedictine monastery, but it was not the place for me. Then I taught for eight years at a Catholic high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, all the while growing in important ways. It was there, in 2019, that I received from God the interior freedom I had sought to return to active discernment of priesthood and religious life. And now, in a way I have returned to where I started: to the community and the ministry of Holy Cross, where I am even now growing as a man with hope to bring. Thanks be to God!”
Provided by the United States Province Communications Office, August 2026.
