Father Frank Schuster was making dinner February 26 when he got the call.

“I was cooking chicken in my oven, which ended up becoming very crispy by the end of the evening,” he said.

It was after the Saturday evening Mass at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Federal Way, where he became pastor last year.

“I was just getting ready for a normal evening and the phone rang, and on the phone it said, ‘Apostolic Nuncio.’ And so I thought, Oh, I’ve never received a call like this before.”

The call was from Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Pope Francis’ ambassador to the United States.

“He must have done this a few times,” Father Schuster joked, “because he kind of eased me into it and shared with me that the Holy Father has asked that I be auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle. And so my response was, Wow, I wasn’t expecting this, but I’m looking forward to serving the Church however the Lord wants me to serve.”

The appointment was announced March 8. Father Schuster, who is 50, will become the eighth auxiliary bishop of Seattle, serving alongside Bishop Eusebio Elizondo in assisting Archbishop Paul D. Etienne. His ordination Mass is planned for May 3 at St. James Cathedral.

‘It’s still a shock’

The bishop-elect told Northwest Catholic he is “feeling good” about his surprise appointment to be a successor of Jesus’ apostles.

“It’s still a shock. I’m still trying to process what this all is going to be, but I’m excited as well. I’m very grateful to the Holy Father for trusting me in this way, and really grateful for Archbishop Etienne, for his trust in me as well.”

Father Schuster is also “delighted” at the archbishop’s plan for him to remain in parish ministry.

“The ability to stay rooted in a community of faith is going to be grounding for me and lifegiving,” he said.

The only thing Father Schuster seemed uncomfortable with was the attention that would come with the announcement of his appointment.

“My prayer is that this doesn’t become too big of a deal,” he said. “I’m being asked to serve the Church in a new way. And so I’d much rather it be about Jesus and about the Church, about our archdiocese, than about me.”

A Catholic childhood

Frank Raymond Schuster was born May 20, 1971, in Mount Vernon, the second of Jack and Gini Schuster’s three children, and baptized at Immaculate Conception Parish. He has an older sister, Carolyn, and a younger brother, John.

The future bishop with his siblings, Carolyn and John. (Courtesy Bishop-elect Frank Schuster)

When Frank was about 6, the family moved to Maple Valley and became parishioners at St. Barbara in Black Diamond.

“We drove a little further for that because the kids, myself included, just enjoyed Father Chuck Palluck,” he said. “He always radiated joy and he always had homilies that we wanted to listen to, and so going to church wasn’t a drudgery — it was like, Oh, we get to go to church.”

It didn’t hurt that the head usher let Frank ring the bell in the belltower, “so I got to be a Quasimodo every week,” he said. “It was pretty great.” He also served as an altar boy.

“I don’t want anyone to think that I was some kind of saint growing up, because I wasn’t,” he said. “I had my fair share of detention. But I’ve always had a very close relationship with God all the way along, since I was a young kid.

“I used to play Mass when I was 5 years old at the piano bench, with the bedsheet as my alb and my teddy bear as the server, and the hosts were Wonder Bread and Nilla Wafers.”

He spent a lot of time walking along the river trail next to his house, talking with God. “I just always felt comfortable in my prayer life, you know: Hey God, what about this? Hey God, what about that? And I would just listen. And I just always felt Jesus in my heart that way.”

After attending Kennedy High School in Burien, where his father was principal for more than 20 years, he went to the University of Washington.  

“I got a bachelor’s in psychology,” he said, “but my real major was in the Newman Center.”

Frank Schuster plays guitar as a student at the University of Washington Newman Center. (Courtesy Bishop-elect Frank Schuster)

He had chosen UW for the “big university experience,” he said, but “the Lord kept on sucking me into ministry” — first playing guitar in the choir for Mass, then helping with retreats and serving as a resident peer minister. It was at the Newman Center that he began to seriously consider the priesthood.  

Another bishop in the family

The idea of becoming a priest had never felt weird to young Frank — largely because he will not even be the first bishop in his family. A big presence in his formative years was his great-uncle Bishop Eldon Schuster, who led the Diocese of Great Falls, Montana, from 1961 to 1977.

“Unkie,” as he was affectionately called, would often visit for family events, including the annual “Schusterpalooza” in Spokane, and would celebrate Mass in the backyard.

“He was just there for us,” Father Schuster said. “He wrote us birthday cards. During important moments in our lives, he’d just be there. And so I was close to him.”

When Frank started discerning the priesthood, he spent a week with his great-uncle in Great Falls.   

“I sat down with him and asked him about the priesthood. And he gave me a prayer book and said, ‘Frank, a priest is first and foremost a man of prayer. He’s someone who prays for his people.’”

Those words have shaped his understanding of his vocation ever since, and he finds great comfort in the Divine Office, the rosary and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

With encouragement from Seattle Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy, who had been his great-uncle’s successor in Great Falls, Frank entered Mundelein Seminary near Chicago in 1994.

Father Frank Schuster as he graduates from Mundelein Seminary (with one of his professors, then-Father Robert Barron). (Courtesy Bishop-elect Frank Schuster)

‘Wherever you want me’

“Blessed.” That’s how Father Schuster describes his nearly 23 years of priesthood in the Archdiocese of Seattle.

“I was ordained with the attitude: Whatever you want, Lord. Wherever you want me to be, I will go.”

After his ordination on June 12, 1999, Father Schuster spent eight years in Bellingham, serving (in various combinations) first as parochial vicar and then as pastor at Assumption and Sacred Heart parishes, and as chaplain at Western Washington University.

A young Father Frank Schuster celebrates Mass as chaplain at Western Washington University. (Courtesy Bishop-elect Frank Schuster)

In 2007, Archbishop Alex J. Brunett appointed him pastor of the fledgling Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Parish in Woodinville, which did not yet have a church building.

“My first office was in a barn” at the Woodinville Riding Club, Father Schuster said. “It had a very, very distinct smell.”

Sunday Masses were celebrated in the cafeteria of Leota Junior High. “We affectionately called it Our Lady of Shrek,” he said, because of a prominent poster of the animated ogre sporting a milk moustache.

Father Frank Schuster distributes Communion at St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish in Woodinville, where he was pastor for 14 years. (Ray Meuse)

The parish soon moved into a warehouse at the Check Ride truck driving school.

“We transformed that warehouse into the Sistine Chapel of warehouses, I’ll tell you that,” Father Schuster said. “We called it Our Lady of the Truck Stop. You gotta have a sense of humor with this stuff, but it was beautiful.”

After a successful capital campaign, the parish began construction on a permanent building in the spring of 2011, and Archbishop J. Peter Sartain dedicated Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Church on March 25, 2012.

Father Schuster led a pilgrimage of 85 parishioners to Rome for Mother Teresa’s canonization in 2016, after which the parish became St. Teresa of Calcutta.

Father Schuster’s parents Jack and Gini traveled to Rome for the canonization of Mother Teresa. (Courtesy Bishop-elect Frank Schuster)

‘It’s about serving the people’

Father Schuster has also served as director of the archdiocese’s diaconate formation program, helping prepare 21 men for ordination as permanent deacons in December 2020.

“That was amazing to be able to journey with these men as they were formed to become deacons of Jesus Christ to serve the Archdiocese of Seattle,” he said.

“The word ‘deacon’ comes from the Greek word diakonia, which means ‘service.’ And every priest, before you’re a priest, you are first ordained to the transitional diaconate. And that is very, very important, for a priest to understand, before he’s a priest, that first and foremost ministry is about serving the people.”

Father Schuster’s understanding of his role as a priest, and now as a bishop-elect, is summed up in Jesus’ words, “I am in your midst as one who serves” (Luke 22:27).

“Jesus at the Last Supper was on his knees, washing the feet of his disciples, telling them, As I do, you should do. And that really is at the heart of priesthood, and of being a bishop. It’s about service, it’s about serving the people where they’re at.”

That includes getting outside the church doors, encountering people on the margins, and proclaiming the joy of the Gospel, he said.

“It’s about going to the hospital when someone calls you. It’s about being there for people when they’re down. Having time to be able to sit down with someone who’s homeless. It’s things of that nature that we have to have at the heart of our vocation.”

He added, “Our lives should point to Jesus and should reflect Jesus, who washed the feet of the disciples and calls us all to do the same.”

Father Frank Schuster receives his first zucchetto from Archbishop Paul D. Etienne on the morning his appointment as bishop-elect was announced. (Stephen Brashear)

Looking ahead, the bishop-elect said he is excited for the ordination Mass at the cathedral, and to start celebrating confirmations, but beyond that he’s not sure what to expect.

“I’m just taking it day by day, soaking it in, reflecting on it, praying about it,” he said. “I’m just enthusiastic to do whatever Archbishop Etienne needs me to do as his auxiliary.”

“This was not on my radar,” he added. “I’m just happy to be here. I’m happy to be of service.”

This story also appeared in the April/May issue of Northwest Catholic magazine.