Justin Farr to be ordained transitional deacon in Nashville

Justin Farr, one of the nation’s African-American Catholic seminarians, will be ordained to the transitional diaconate Saturday, Dec. 21, in Nashville, the latest step on his path to the priesthood.

The 30-year-old Tennessee native graduated in December from Saint Meinrad Seminary and School and Theology in Indiana with a Master of Divinity, following six years of study. 

He will receive the sacrament of Holy Orders by the hands of Bishop J. Mark Spalding of Nashville at the Cathedral of the Incarnation.

“Seminarians all over await this very point in the journey,” Farr posted to his popular BLACKCATHOLIC social media accounts, which he has operated as an apostolate throughout his vocational journey.

Raised in Nashville, Farr is a convert to Catholicism, having been baptized as a Baptist in his youth. After a few years, his family did not actively attend church, but he returned individually while in high school.

“I started to gradually feel the conviction that one day I do want to go back to church, because I could no longer just kind of solely practice my faith alone.” he told Nashville Catholic in an interview this month.

“I really gravitated towards Catholicism the more I looked into it, and I began to be more attracted to it.”

Farr began attending Mass in 2011 and was received into the Catholic Church two years later while attending Middle Tennessee State University, where he graduated in 2016 with a degree in history. He then served as a volunteer catechist at the cathedral for two years, while working part-time for St. Mary of the Seven Sorrows Catholic Church.

Farr entered seminary for the Diocese of Nashville in 2018, and received the ministries of lector in 2021 and acolyte in 2022. 

In addition to his BLACKCATHOLIC apostolate—wherein he shares his perspective as an African American embracing culture alongside his faith—Farr recently served a six-week assignment at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in New Albany, Indiana. 

He also spent a pastoral year at St. Ann Catholic Church, where he attended his first Catholic liturgy.

“[It] was one of the places that I wanted to spend a summer, and I ended up spending a whole year there,” Farr told Nashville Catholic. “It was good to be able to come full circle.”

Upon his ordination, Farr will become one of the nation’s few African-American transitional deacons. A member of the National Association of Black Catholic Seminarians, he is one of roughly 30 U.S.-born Black Catholic seminarians overall.

Saturday’s Mass will begin at 10am CT at the cathedral and is open to the public. Farr has noted that he will preach his first Mass at St. Mary of the Seven Sorrows thereafter, and the diocese says he and two others—Joseph Hinderer and Joseph Ngo—will be ordained to the priesthood in summer 2025.

Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.

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