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Church of St. Louis King of France

Our Priests

Fr. Kyle Etzel

Greetings to you, parishioners of St. Louis, King of France! This is Fr. Kyle Etzel writing to you, and I am most humbled that Archbishop Hebda has asked me to serve you here at The Little French Church, along with my brethren, Frs. Bryce Evans and Byron Hagan. I was ordained to the priesthood on 27 May 2023, and prior to that, I had been in formation at The Saint Paul Seminary (SPS) for six years. My first assignments were at the Church of St. Joseph in West St. Paul and at the Cathedral of St. Paul, for two years and one year respectively. I am also the chaplain for Unity Catholic High School in Burnsville.

Carver, Minnesota is my hometown and I graduated from Chaska High School in 2010. St Hubert Catholic Church in Chanhassen is my home parish, where Fr. Rolf Tollefson (a son of this parish) was my pastor. My parents, Mike and Tracy Etzel moved to Independence, MN to be nearer to our extended family in 2016. Nick Etzel, my brother, and his wife, Shelby, live in St. Michael, and my sister, Sarah, lives in Golden Valley with her husband, Noah. Both my siblings are younger than I am, three years in Nick’s case and six years in Sarah’s.

After high school, I spent four years at Iowa State University studying engineering, business, and military science. When I began to fall in love with the Church and rediscover the mercy of our Lord after some years away from them, Christ re-entered my life in a profound way and brought a desire to serve His people and to make Him known and loved in the world. In the fall of 2014, as I was about to finish my business degree, I transferred to the University of St Thomas to more actively discern the priesthood. Whilst there to pursue a Catholic Studies degree, I lived in the St. Charles Borromeo rectory in St. Anthony Village and worked in youth ministry at the parish. My degree was finished in the spring of 2017 and I immediately entered the Pre-Theology Program to complete my philosophy studies through SPS, which were followed by the customary four-year theological formation program.

Those years of seminary were an ongoing process of affirmation of my vocation to Jesus’ Priesthood, especially in my opportunities to spend time in parishes with the people of the Archdiocese and to serve my brothers in the house. Another part of my discernment and formation while in seminary was with my friends, the aforementioned Fr. Bryce Evans and Fr. Byron Hagan who, along with myself and our brother-in-formation, Kai Olson, are aspiring to form an Oratory of St. Philip Neri–a stable community fostering priestly and lay community for the sake of the evangelization of society, especially in service to this local Church.

I look forward to helping, however I can, to bring about the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit in the lives of our people here at St. Louis through my priesthood and with the help of all of you and your prayers.

Please ask me about any of these things and more. I want you to get to know me, and I want to get to know you.

Frs. Byron Hagan and Bryce Evans began ministry at St. Mary’s as co-pastors on 1 July 2021. They are diocesan priests aspiring to establish an Oratory of St. Philip Neri in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The Oratory is a form of communal life in the Church, wherein priests and brothers commit themselves to the pursuit of common life in fraternal charity with the aim of building up a lay community through prayer and apostolic work.

 

Fr. Byron Hagan

Born and raised in upstate New York. Trained in classical and jazz piano, during high school attended Eastman School of Music Preparatory Division. Studio musician and composer in Nashville and Los Angeles, 1990-2007. Received into full communion with the Catholic Church in 2006. Began studies for the priesthood in 2007. B.A. in Philosophy, Latin, Catholic Studies (University of St. Thomas); Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Theology (UST St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity), where he published a thesis on the metaphysical theology of St. Thomas Aquinas. Ordained to the priesthood in 2015. Parochial Vicar of Epiphany Coon Rapids (2015-16), Divine Mercy Faribault (2016-17), Holy Cross NE Minneapolis (2017-21). Co-Pastor of St. Mary’s Lowertown, St. Paul, July 2021 to present. Tutor in the Anselm House Fellows Program at the Univ. of Minnesota since Fall 2021. Adjunct Instructor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul Seminary/School of Divinity, Spring 2022. Half-time Catholic Chaplain at Regions Hospital, July 1 2021, through June 30, 2024.

Fr. Bryce Evans

Born and raised in Corcoran, Minnesota, Fr. Evans attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, earning a degree in Theology in 2006. After graduating, he spent three years discerning religious life with the Society of Jesus, including spans at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the Jesuit Novitiate in Saint Paul, and the Jesuit house of studies at Fordham University in the Bronx. In 2010, he departed the Jesuits, and, after some months of formation at the Casa Balthasar in Rome, spent a year volunteering with Catholic Youth Expeditions in the diocese of Green Bay, WI. In 2011, he resumed his seminary formation at Mundelein Seminary in the archdiocese of Chicago. In 2013, he returned home to complete his formation at the St. Paul Seminary, where he earned a Masters of Divinity and a Master of Arts in Theology, publishing a thesis on the fundamental theology of John Henry Newman and Joseph Ratzinger. He was ordained to the priesthood at the St. Paul Cathedral in May of 2017. Prior to his service at Saint Mary’s, he served as parochial vicar at Holy Name of Jesus parish in Medina, MN, from 2017 to 2019, and at Our Lady of Lourdes in Minneapolis from 2019 to 2021. Between Fall 2019 and Spring 2023 Fr. Evans served as part-time chaplain and co-director of the Habiger Institute for Leadership at the Center for Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas and between Fall 2021 and Spring 2023 as Adjunct Instructor of Theology and Catholic Studies. In July of 2021, he was appointed by Archbishop Bernard Hebda as co-pastor of St. Mary’s. Fr. Evans is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Sacred Theology at the University of St. Mary-by-the-Lake in Mundelein, Illinois. Having completed the additional coursework for the doctoral degree in the summer of 2024, Fr. Evans begins work in earnest on his dissertation as well as taking a part-time position as Spiritual Director at St. John Vianney Seminary for the academic year 2024-25. In addition to that work Fr. Evans will serve as Adjunct Instructor of Theology at the Univ. of St. Thomas and at St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity for the same academic year.