Hello! My name is Fr. Zachery Feldker CPM and I am member of the Congregation of the Priests of Mercy or Fathers of Mercy who minster here at the National Shrine of our Lady of Champion. After being ordained to the priesthood on June 7, 2025 I am excited to have been assigned to the shrine as a chaplain for my first priestly assignment.
This assignment is very special blessing for me not only because it is the place where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Adele Brice in 1859 but also because it is the place where I received my vocation. About ten years ago in early autumn of 2015, I arrived in the Diocese of Green Bay after graduating from Carthage College with a degree in biology. I had come to serve as part of a young adult missionary team known as SPIRITUS based in Menasha, Wisconsin. As a SPIRITUS missionary, I would help run retreats for young Catholics throughout the state of Wisconsin, many of them preparing for the sacrament of Confirmation, and I was afforded the opportunity to witness to God’s action in my life.
Oftentimes, when I was not busy preparing for or running a retreat, I would make visits to the Blessed Mother here at the shrine. Admittedly, at many of these early visits, I was “complaining” to our spiritual mother about what I viewed at the time as a delay in pursuing my vocation. Yet, the more and more I came to pray at the Shrine, and the longer I spent in adoration before our Lord in the Eucharist, the less I complained about matters and the more I began to love. I began to really love living in community with my SPIRITUS teammates to the point of viewing them more as beloved family members; to love traveling to give retreats and those I met while on them; to love spending time with our Lord in prayer and asking for his forgiveness in Confession. Before long, my initial commitment of one service year turned into three!
Throughout those years, I would continue to make pilgrimages to the Shrine, and one day, when praying before the statue of our Lady of Champion, I heard these interior words, “Go speak to my sons, the priests here.” When I received the courage to respond to that call, I spoke with Fr. Jewel, and after I described to him how much I loved what I was doing as a SPIRITUS missionary, he smiled at me and said, “Zach, you just described our life. Why don’t you come visit us in Kentucky?” I made that visit and would later enter the Fathers of Mercy in the summer of 2018. After completing my initial formation and seminary studies, I am now blessed to begin priestly ministry here at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion!
Come & Meet Fr. Zachery!
Find refuge and spiritual healing on the peaceful, sacred grounds where the Blessed Mother appeared to Adele Brice in 1859, The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion is the first and only approved Marian apparition site in the United States.
Champion Shrine has been designated as a pilgrimage site for the 2025 Jubilee Year! From the Walk to Mary in May, to the Assumption on August 15, to the Solemnity of Our Lady of Champion on October 9 – there are wonderful opportunities to pilgrimage to Our Lady’s Shrine this year to obtain special graces.
Start planning your pilgrimage today at ChampionShrine.org/visit.