Father Anthony M. Vinson, OSB

Father Anthony M. Vinson, OSB, is a Benedictine monk of Saint Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad, Indiana. He entered the monastery in 2001 and was ordained a priest in 2005.

He was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa. After attending Corpus Christi Grade School, Sacred Heart Junior High School and St. Edmond High School in Fort Dodge, Iowa, he attended Northwest Missouri State University and earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations in 1998. He then earned a Master of Arts in Catholic Thought and Life in 2002 and a Master of Divinity degree in 2005, both from Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology.

In 2009, he was named administrator of St. Boniface Catholic Church in Fulda, Indiana, and St. Meinrad Catholic Church in St. Meinrad, Indiana. From the time of that appointment until November 2016, he served on the Council of Priests for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis as a representative of the presbyterate of the archdiocese, assisting the archbishop in fulfilling his role as chief pastor.

As pastor, he re-established the pastoral council; secured financial stability at the parishes; oversaw growth in membership, programs, ministries and activities; and created and grew existing endowments for pastoral ministries, facilities and grounds and perpetual care of cemeteries for both parishes. The parishes have initiated service and outreach programs at the local, national and international levels. He secured the funds for a $1.2 million facilities infrastructure improvement for St. Boniface Parish, including the restoration of the stained-glass windows for Historic St. Boniface Catholic Church listed on the National Register of historic places.

In 2016, he was appointed to serve on Saint Meinrad Archabbey’s Safety Committee.

Since 2003, he has served as a spiritual director and retreat and group facilitator for strategic and long-range planning on and off campus – for seminaries, dioceses and religious communities, as well as regional nonprofits.

From 2016-2020, he served on Saint Meinrad Archabbey’s financial review committee and the Human Resources and Benefits Committee.

From 2017-2019, he served his community as Monastic Liaison/Inter-Community Relations. In this role, he oversaw operational aspects of the infrastructure, institutional systems, and policies and procedures to optimize the resources at Saint Meinrad Archabbey, to mitigate risk, and to ensure that monastic values, concepts and practices continue to be incorporated within the larger community. During this time, he served as chair of the Archabbey’s Administrative Cabinet.

From 2013-2020, he served as general manager of the UnStable and Jack’s in the Commons, campus pub and coffee shop, respectively. Both are managed and operated by students, serving seminarians, graduate theology students, co-workers, retreatants, and guests.

From 2013-2019, he served as director of Pastoral Formation for Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology. As a member of the seminary formation staff, he developed and implemented the program of pastoral formation for priesthood candidates and oversaw the development of seminarians’ pastoral abilities in parish, school, health care, and social service settings in southwestern Indiana, and the north central and northwestern regions of Kentucky.

From 2010-2012, Fr. Anthony was an associate spiritual director for Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology

From 2004 to 2009, he served as director of monastery vocations for Saint Meinrad Archabbey. He restructured and organized the vocation process and earned certificates from the National Religious Vocation Conference (Assessing, Understanding and Fostering Psychosexual Integration) and St. Luke Institute (Candidate Assessment).

Fr. Anthony served from 2005 to 2009 as director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Formation at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, overseeing the “One Bread, One Cup” (OBOC) Summer Liturgical Leadership Conferences for high school youth and campus and youth ministers. This included forming and mentoring the college students who served as part of the conference leadership, staff, and catechists in the OBOC College Ministerial Internship Program each summer.

From 2007 to 2013, Fr. Anthony served on the National Religious Vocation Conference Board of Directors, serving as chair of the finance committee, and a member of the rural life committee and the editorial advisory board of Horizon, the journal of the National Religious Vocation Conference. In 2013, he was a site coordinator for the English-speaking venue for the 14th International World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America.

In 2013, Fr. Anthony served as a founding member of the commission that established a multimillion-dollar National Fund for Catholic Religious Vocations, which assists religious institutes in accepting candidates with educational debt. Beginning in 2014, he served as board secretary/treasurer and chair of the investment committee. In 2020, he began serving as board chair and a member of the grant selection committee.

The organization completed a five-year strategic plan, created and integrated a board members’ service manual, and launched the Decade of Promise Club. Its mission is to secure the financial resources to help remove the obstacle of educational debt to religious vocations and enable a new generation of men and women to answer God’s call to a life of service in vowed life.

In November 2011, Fr. Anthony was a member of the United States delegation that traveled to Vatican City to attend the Congregation for Catholic Education’s 70th Anniversary of the Pontifical Pastoral Ministry for Priestly Vocations symposium on the Pastoral Guidelines for Fostering Vocations in Priestly Ministry.

He also serves on the Catholic Charities advisory board for the Tell City (Indiana) Deanery, as president of Cooperative Action for Community Development Inc. (CACD) and as director of CACD’s Project Warm located in St. Meinrad, Indiana. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Lincoln Hills Development Corporation Inc., representing the low-income sector of Spencer County, Indiana. From 2013-2016, he served as a member of the Board of Directors of CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) for Children in Spencer County.

Fr. Anthony is chaplain to Saint Xavier High School, Louisville, Kentucky. He previously served as a chaplain at Branchville Correctional Facility, Branchville, Indiana, from 2008 to 2012, and was a sacramental moderator for the Kentucky Catholic Student Coalition from 2005 to 2008.

From 2004 to 2008, he served on the Pastoral Advisory Commission at Norton Healthcare in Louisville, Kentucky.

In 2006, Fr. Anthony was part of the group that founded Delta Chi Fraternity A’s Academy, a values-based curriculum for leadership development and goal setting, designed for the Delta Chi chapter presidents. A member of Delta Chi, Fr. Anthony served in various leadership roles while an undergraduate, including chapter president for two years, new member educator, and regional leadership conference coordinator.

In June 2023, Fr. Anthony was a participant in the 48th General Chapter of the Swiss-American Congregation. Later that year, he was appointed by Archbishop Charles Thompson to the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council. The Council is a consultative body of the laity, religious, deacons, and priests of the Archdiocese who enter into dialogue and prayerful discernment on issues related to the pastoral life of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.