Moving on faith

They say that location matters in real estate, and it also seems to matter in building your Catholic faith. An increasing number of people are moving to the Bismarck area from other states attracted by the strong Catholic culture. 
 
In the last couple decades, we’ve seen a priest shortage turned around after a diocesan-wide call to pray for vocations. Bishop Paul Zipfel, bishop of the diocese from 1997-2011, began assigning a priest in every Catholic high school. He also held an Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus over the diocese. Bishop David Kagen renewed both initiatives. Another big piece is that the University of Mary went from a largely regional school to often hiring professors from other states, and the school being included in guides listing authentic Catholic education. 
 
Mandan residents, Will Gardner and his wife, Laura, who have been selling homes together with Century 21 for almost 10 years, have seen an increase in out of staters attracted to the Catholic experience here. 
 
“I’m helping an attorney from California find a lake home,” Gardner said, “and I just helped their son who graduated from UMary find a home. One family that moved here from Nevada said they felt like they were in heaven being able to go to Mass every day and at different times at so many churches.”
 
The first wave
  
David Fleischacker, St. John Henry Newman Chair of Liberal Arts at the University of Mary and his wife, Christine, moved to Bismarck in 2010 with their five children. Christine teaches biology there now, too.
 
“We found the Catholic community and parish life is strong here so that’s why we stayed,” he said. “It’s definitely one of the better places in the country if you want to live out your faith and have a good family life.”
 
David Tamisiea, Executive Director of the North Dakota Catholic Conference representing the Dioceses of Fargo and Bismarck, originally came to Bismarck with his wife, Seana, and their six children in 2018 to teach theology at the University of Mary after previously working in Texas and Florida. 
 
“I was looking to work at a Catholic university that was faithful to the Church’s teachings and had a vibrant Catholic campus,” he explained. “I also was attracted to the idea of working at a university that honors Our Lady because I have always had a strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.” 
 
Tamisiea said he came for the job but was pleasantly surprised by the vibrant Catholic community, “rock-solid” Catholic schools, two excellent bishops in North Dakota. 
 
“There are so many good priests who call upon us to follow Christ and strive for holiness and are good models for our children and us,” he said. “I also appreciate many of the values of the wider culture in North Dakota like hard work, community involvement, neighborliness, personal responsibility, frugality and common-sense.”
 
Sande Volkman and her husband, Tom, were living in San Deigo when their second oldest daughter of five children attended University of Mary. The third daughter soon joined her sister in Bismarck to get away from the ultra-liberal culture at home. 
 
“After a couple visits, we felt it was more peaceful and calmer here,” Volkman said. “We’d get off the plane from San Deigo and immediately felt a lightness here. We casually started talking about it the possibility of moving here, prayed about it and everything fell into place. Tom felt God was leading us here.”
 
They moved to Bismarck in 2018 with their two boys who were in high school at the time. Tom works as an engineer at the Bobcat company and teaches an engineering class at the university. In San Deigo, Volkman said they were often fighting liberalism in the churches such as preparation for Holy Communion where the speaker brought in crystals and only said the word “Eucharist” once to say it means “thanksgiving” or a priest who changed the words in the Nicene Creed. 
 
The second wave
 
Lacey and Mark Gallik, parents of seven children, moved to Bismarck from Bozeman, Montana in 2021. Their children attend St. Mary’s Central High School and Cathedral of the Holy Spirit Elementary School.
 
“It was a long discernment,” Gallik admitted. She and Mark had helped form an independent Catholic School which had about 60 students. “As our kids were getting older, we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to find a place that is super faithful but big enough to have a football team?’”
 
While praying about it, Mark crossed paths with an old friend, Mike McMahon a former football coach and admininstrator at the University of Mary.
 
“Bismarck has it all,” he told them, “young charismatic priests and a vibrant college and community.”
 
When the COVID pandemic hit the country, Mark’s job as director of finance for a software company became remote in 2020. They visited Bismarck during an overcast cold week in March but driving home, every child in their family said they wanted to move here. 
 
They came in July of 2021 and Lacey’s parents moved here in February. 
 
“My heart is totally settled,” she said. “I have total confidence that this is where God wants us. Mark and I feel that home is where our family is. We weren’t attached to Montana, but we were attached to the idea of making our kids saints.”
 
Something that helped them make decision to move here was when Mark made a spread sheet of all the sacramental opportunities across town. 
 
“If the sacraments are going to sanctify our lives, there’s Jesus being adored all throughout the day in town and there’s confession every day,” Lacey said. “Montana’s faithful Catholics call this area the ‘frozen chosen.’ There are so many people coming from other states. It’s pretty wild, but people are willing to do radical things for their family and faith.”
 
Kyla and Stuart Anderson are both pharmacists from Great Falls, Montana. Their son graduated from Carroll College in Helena, Montana and their next child, a daughter, enrolled in University of Mary in 2015. When the family visited, Anderson said she fell in love with Bismarck. Then a second daughter began attending college here. 
 
“I started praying,” Anderson explained. “I would tell our Lord that I would so love to live in such a Catholic-rich environment.”
 
They owned a pro-life pharmacy and the opportunity to sell it presented itself. In the meantime, their son, Carter, entered the St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota for the Helena Diocese under Bishop Austin Vetter. During a conversation with Bishop Vetter, who originally served in the Bismarck Diocese, he confirmed to the Andersons that Bismarck was indeed a faithful Catholic community. 
 
They moved here in May of last year. Their oldest daughter lives in St. Paul and is expecting her second child, one daughter is at the University of Mary and the two youngest children are at St. Mary’s High School and Saint Anne Elementary School.
 
“Bismarck has exceeded our expectations,” Anderson shared. “I want to say thank you to the people of Bismarck, not just the Catholic community. People have been so kind and welcoming. I am astounded at the common courtesy and the hard work ethic here.”
 
Students staying
 
Derek Turbide, the oldest of eight children came here in 2012 from Palos Verdes Estates, a coastal city in Los Angeles County, California. He wanted to experience the Midwest for four years while attending a small, affordable Catholic college and then return home. This prompted him to visit the University of Mary during his junior year of high school. 
 
“My mom said, ‘We’ll visit, but you have to go in the coldest part of the year to know what it’s like.’”
 
They came and experienced a February blizzard, but Turbide was sold by the warmth on campus. 
 
“There was a real joy that I had never experienced anywhere else,” he said. “The Benedictine values shine there from the university president to faculty and students.”
 
Back home, he shared the experience with his high school buddy, Mark Dever, who was a year older, planning to attend a small local college where his father was a professor. Turbide suggested that Dever instead have an adventure and go to the University of Mary. 
 
“If you like it,” he said. “I’ll meet you up there. If not, no harm caused because you can always come back.”
 
Dever liked it so much, he has stayed after graduation and is the head of creative direction for a local Catholic media company called Stand Firm Productions. So Turbide followed, planning to be here for just four years. But he met Bridget from Littleton, Colorado whom he married, and they are putting down roots here. His younger brother, Adam, graduated from the University of Mary last year and is also staying. His sister, Teresa, is in the university’s nursing program and the next sibling, Catherine, will be attending in the fall.
 
Turbide also fell in love with the great outdoors becoming an ardent hunter and fisherman, often joined by Bridget. He works at Dakota Strategies and serves as the Young Republican’s North Dakota National Committeeman. 
 
“Something is going on in North Dakota that is very big, very powerful and very Christian,” he said.
 
The best part, according to him is that churches here are unlike any he’s ever been to—there are so many children!
 
“They say if your church isn’t crying it’s dying,” Turbide said. “I almost felt a moral obligation to stay here. It’s such a good place to raise a family. I’ll be here for the rest of my days.”