Fr. John Lankeit was born in Billings, Montana, April 24, 1967, but spent most of his life in Washington State. He began discerning the priesthood shortly before graduating from college in 1989 while living in Seattle, WA.  

Prior to priesthood, Fr. Lankeit earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing with a minor psychology from Seattle University. He went on to work for the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball team in corporate marketing. Later in his 12-year career in corporate America, he worked in the coffee and high-tech industries, did corporate training, and late in his career was beginning to do voice acting on the side. 

From the time he was very young, his faith in God was strong, though his catechetical formation was grossly inadequate, as was the case with most Catholics in his generation. Despite earning a comfortable salary and enjoying professional success, he found himself hungry for deeper meaning in his life.

In Lent of 2000, his job brought him from Seattle to Phoenix. A year and a half later, in Fall of 2001, he entered St. Meinrad Seminary to begin formation for the priesthood. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 3, 2006, at Ss. Simon & Jude Cathedral on the Feast of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs of Uganda.

After serving as an associate pastor for just under a year-and-a-half at St. Anne Parish in Gilbert, he was assigned as parochial administrator of Blessed Sacrament in Tolleson in late 2007 and named pastor there in 2009. On June 1, 2010, Fr. Lankeit was named Rector of SS Simon and Jude Cathedral, where he served until Easter Sunday of 2021. 

Fr. Lankeit is passionate about the universal call to holiness, priestly and religious vocations and building a culture of life. He loves being a priest and is delighted to be serving as Parochial Vicar at St. Bernadette Catholic Church.