Mike Schmitz
Michael Thomas Schmitz is an American Catholic priest and Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries in the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, as well as a Catholic speaker, author, and podcaster. Schmitz is known for his Internet presence, especially his YouTube videos. He has been a speaker for various Catholic programming, including the Fellowship of Catholic University Students leadership summit, Ascension Press, and Steubenville conferences. Lighthouse Catholic Media publishes many of his talks. Schmitz is of Irish and German descent, his paternal grandmother comes from County Cork. Biography. Though raised in a Catholic family, Schmitz was largely indifferent  about Catholicism until a particular experience of confession at age 15. According to Schmitz, this encounter "led me down the road to asking God what He wants." He attended Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity and was ordained in 2003 for the Diocese of Duluth. He is the director of youth and young adult ministry for the diocese. He is the Newman Center chaplain at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Projects. Since 2015, Schmitz has been the primary personality involved in Ascension Presents, with free videos offering Catholic perspectives of cultural societal issues. Schmitz's videos are posted weekly and  have covered topics from mixed martial arts to "". Beginning in 2017, these talks were also offered in audio form as podcasts. On January 1, 2021, Schmitz and Ascension launched a new podcast, "The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)", which consists of 365 episodes in which he reads the entire Bible along with his own prayer and commentary every day. Even before it launched, it had become the number-one ranked podcast overall on Apple Podcasts. The podcast concluded on December 31, 2021, after its 365th episode.