Fr. Colm Larkin
We are excited to announce that one of the newly ordained, Fr. Colm Larkin, will be assigned as a parochial vicar here at Ascension, starting July 1. He will also serve as the chaplain of St. Thomas Aquinas High School and will split his time 50-50 between Ascension and Aquinas.
Fr. Colm (pronounced column) Larkin was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 2023. His home parish is Holy Cross in Overland Park, but he is not originally from the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. He was born in Salina, grew up in Omaha, went to high school in Cedar Rapids and then attended Benedictine College for his undergraduate. He graduated in 2016 with a degree in Biology before entering St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver for the Archdiocese of Kansas City.
He is the youngest of four children and his parents are retired, living south of Atchison, KS. Coming into college, his original plan was to go to KU Med after graduation in order to become a primary care physician for rural areas in need of medical support, but during his time at Benedictine, he began to think that there might be something more that the Lord was asking of him.
According to an article he wrote, Fr. Larkin said that with the help of some spiritual direction and prayer, he decided to give seminary a shot for at least a year or two. Years later, he is still there and is very excited to be ordained for this Archdiocese. He said, “It is amazing what God can do with a small ‘yes.’”
As far as hobbies are concerned, he really enjoys the outdoors. He loves to fish and chances are that if he is not around at the parish, he is at a local lake. Being out in Denver for five years has helped him to get into fly fishing as well. Apart from fishing, he loves music and movies and just relaxing with his brother seminarians and soon to be priests. He used to be a great athlete, but various injuries have sidelined him as of late, but he still loves cheering on the Chiefs, the Royals, and the Jayhawks. Please join us in welcoming Fr. Larkin to Ascension.
As you all have already heard, Fr. Viet has been named a pastor and will be leaving Ascension at the end of June. We are grateful for his years of service to our Ascension parish; we will certainly miss him. We will be scheduling an opportunity for parishioners to say good-bye to Fr. Viet (check upcoming bulletins for details). We hope he comes back to visit often.