The end of the 2024-2025 academic year marked a special occasion for a group of Catholic men at UW-Madison.
A celebration including Mass and a banquet was held on May 3 in honor of the 10th anniversary of the rechartering of Phi Kappa Theta-Wisconsin Lambda with the university.
Held at St. Francis Xavier Church in Cross Plains, part of Holy Cross Parish, Phi Kappa Theta brothers past and present gathered to honor the chapter’s new beginning.
A ‘commanding and compassionate’ call
Phi Kappa Theta (PKT) is a national social fraternity and its history at UW-Madison dates to 1922, but after nearly 50 years, the chapter had closed in 1970.
In 2012, Catholic students at UW-Madison decided to push for the fraternity’s rechartering.
Under the guidance of Fr. Eric Nielson, then-pastor of Saint Paul’s Catholic Student Center, Stephen Leeb and Michael Hess spearheaded the effort.
Hess described the call he received to start the fraternity, saying that he was praying at Saint Paul’s, “in this front pew, no one else around me, dead silence, right in front of the tabernacle, when God spoke audibly.
“He said, ‘Michael, you need to start this fraternity. It has to happen.’”
Hess said that after receiving that “commanding and compassionate” invitation, he and Leeb formed a plan and zealously pursued the chapter’s rechartering.
Three years later, PKT returned to UW-Madison in May of 2015.
Leeb graduated that same May. Hess was a rising senior and served as the inaugural chapter president until January of 2016.
Priestly and Religious vocations
Now 10 years later, it’s “more than just a milestone,” said Fr. Matthew Kirk, an alum of the chapter and a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
“It’s a moment to reflect on how God uses community to shape us, strengthen us, and call us into deeper holiness,” he continued in his homily for the Mass honoring the fraternity.
Father Kirk said, “When I was a student at UW-Madison, I learned a lot of things. . . but the most lasting lessons came through Saint Paul’s [Catholic Student Center], through Phi Kappa Theta.
“I learned that no one becomes a saint alone. If I wanted to grow in holiness — I wanted to be set apart — I needed prayer, sacrifice; I needed brothers who would push me towards Christ. . . that’s what Phi Kappa Theta became for me.
Father Kirk said that he gives “thanks for friendships that became spiritual brotherhoods, for sacrifices that led to deeper love, for the ways God continues to pour men into humble, holy service”.
In 10 years, the PKT chapter at UW-Madison has fostered eight priestly and Religious vocations.
Those for the Diocese of Madison include Deacon Casey Cooney, who was ordained to the transitional diaconate on May 14, and Hess, who is scheduled to be ordained to the transitional deaconate next year.
Looking ahead
After the Mass, a banquet for Phi Kappa Theta (PKT) brothers and their families was hosted in the church’s fellowship hall.
About 100 were in attendance.
The evening included a meal and presentation on the vision for the future.
Leeb said that part of the fraternity’s vision is “a house on Langdon [St.],” the street that houses the majority of UW-Madison’s Greek life.
Currently, PKT is located a block south of Regent St., near St. James Church, part of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, at 15 S. Charter St. in Madison.
Leeb said that the motivation to move the fraternity to a permanent home on Langdon St. isn’t about imitating Greek life already there.
Instead, Leeb said, PKT’s mission is to be “a light to Greek life, trying to bring back God to the center of fraternities and sororities,” and moving to Langdon St. would help that mission in a tangible way.
Hess said, “The mission that this fraternity has is to be a light to Greek life and a light to those in the community.”
Hess added, “Tonight’s event is not only an occasion to grow in brotherhood with brothers from across the generations, but it’s a moment to mark a milestone and fan the flame and grow conviction to the call that we’ve received.”