Deacon Steven Cartwright, a Boothbay Harbor native, will be ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Robert P. Deeley at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland on Saturday, June 13 at 10 a.m. Cartwright has completed his final year of theological studies and priestly formation at Saint John XXIII Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts. 

“It has been such a long road,” Cartwright said. “It’s very humbling. A sign of the Lord’s love. When I think about my upcoming ordination, there is an inner harmony. I’m at peace with the Lord calling me to his priesthood.”

Cartwright, 35, began his high school career at Boothbay Region High School (1993-1995) and graduated from John Bapst Memorial High School in 1997. He attended St. John’s University in Jamaica, New York (1997-1998) and St. Bonaventure University in Olean, New York (1998-1999), majoring in philosophy while minoring in theology. In 1999, Cartwright was accepted as a seminarian by the Diocese of Portland and entered the Basselin Scholars Program at Theological College at The Catholic University of America. He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 2001 but then decided to leave formation.

“I just thought it wasn’t for me,” he said. “My life was taking me in a different direction. Since I was eight years old, the only two things I wanted to do with my life were to be a priest or be a Division I head coach. It took a lot of courage to leave seminary without knowing where I was going to go, but that was the path I followed.”

Cartwright swam collegiately at all three of the universities he attended. After briefly returning to Maine to coach a swim team affiliated with the Seacoast Swimming Association in Dover, New Hampshire, Cartwright moved back to Washington, D.C., where he was hired as an assistant swimming coach at Georgetown University. In 2006, he was named head coach.

“But there was something missing,” Cartwright said. “Even though I was at a school like Georgetown, having the gift of being a Division I head coach, working with smart, hardworking, talented and faithful kids, there was still a sense that there was something more. This tugging on the heart never went away. I thought that there was something more that the Lord wanted me to do. If we are honest in prayer, the Lord will guide us along the way.”

Cartwright resigned as head coach, leaving one of his boyhood dreams to pursue the other. In 2010, he resumed priestly formation for the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina, by attending St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Overlook, Pennsylvania. In 2012, he transferred to the Diocese of Portland and continued his studies at Pope Saint John XXIII Seminary (formerly Blessed John XXIII) in Weston, Massachusetts.

"There is a deep sense of peace, not only in where I am and who I’m with but in what the Lord wants for my life,” said Cartwright, who looks forward to serving the people of the Diocese of Portland after his ordination. “Maine will always be home for me. This is where the Lord wants me to be. He is very generous.”