Michael Delaney: Through all Things Christ Strengthens Me

Eighteen-year-old Michael Delaney is currently training for one of the biggest competitions of his life, and then, he’s preparing to train to be a priest. 

Delaney, 2026 Pope John Paul II High School graduate enrolled to enter St. Joseph’s Seminary College (affectionately called St. Ben’s) on the Northshore for the fall semester, but before he begins his priestly training, he will represent the United States at the North American powerlifting championships in Canada from Aug. 2–8. 

“This is actually my first-year powerlifting - I started last Nov. 2025,” he said. “I have been involved in sports and working out my whole life and have been really serious about swimming, as well as running track and playing soccer through high school. With all the training I usually do, I thought, ‘hey, why not try powerlifting my senior year’ and it turned out I was pretty good and won the high school state competition.”

“I was able to swim all five years for Pope John Paul II winning state and division championships each year but quit track my senior year to focus on powerlifting and switched to a management position on the soccer team to put all my focus on my new passion.”

Standing at 5 feet 10 inches and weighing 175 pounds, Delaney trains four to six times a week max lifting 605 kg in practice and 556 kg during squats, benching 297 kg and deadlifting 585 kg.

“I’m lucky to live in Slidell and so close to my coaches,” he said. “Right now, we just started getting into our heavy weight training block and prep. I’ve been training at Covington High School since the U.S. team coach John Burford and my coach Billy Steele, who was at PJP are there now. I was coached by Coach Steele, and it is awesome to have two of the best coaches around working with me and coaching the U.S. team,” he said.

There are nine male members on the U.S. team in Delaney’s division, and those that are unable to work out in Covington record their workouts when at home for the coaches to critique and for each member to achieve that 1% advantage and edge on the competition, he said.

“Our team is spread out all over the country, I’m just fortunate enough to live close to the U.S. coaches,” he said. “I had wonderful coaches at my school, and the reason I’ve been successful is because of the people I’m around. I’m very grateful for my coaches and teammates.”

Delaney said it is a small miracle that he is even on this team since he didn’t do as well as he had hoped in the high school qualifier meet in Omaha, Nebraska and had another disappointing meet in the division qualifier in Corpus Christi, Texas.

“One day out of the blue I was hanging out with my friends, and I received an email from the head coach of team USA saying I was selected to represent the country (in the up to 18-year-old division) in Canada this year,” he added. “I was like whoa I was not expecting that, but God works in mysterious ways, and this is really exciting, I was not expecting it at all. I will be competing against athletes from across the Western Hemisphere.”

While the powerlifting championships is a very exciting event to look forward to, Delaney said preparing for the priesthood and what God has in store for his life is beyond exciting.

“I made my decision to begin the application process to enter St. Ben’s to start discernment to become a priest in April 2025,” he said. “I move onto the campus Aug. 15, right after I return from competition.”

“I do believe I was called by God, and I am making sure my prayer life is in order and trying to make sense of all of this because it does seem surreal some days,” Delaney said. “I have been blessed to have Father Jorge Gomez, parochial vicar St. Margaret Mary in Slidell, as my mentor always checking on me, supporting me and my family and serving as my spiritual director.”

He said that Father Gomez reminds him that God is going to call him to seminary and when he is there God is going to call him to continue on or call him out, but whatever he does he must listen to God first.

“I’m just very excited to see what the next step is in my vocation and what God has in store for me during my discernment,” Delaney added.

When he told his parents about the application process for the seminary they were overjoyed. “I am the last of their sons, they got one of them to look into being a priest it seems,” he said. “I have five siblings – three older brothers and two younger sisters. I don’t think they were really shocked by my decision, like they knew something was up because I started going to daily Mass. They are excited and are playing the waiting game now.”

Michael’s father is Roy Delaney is the principal of St. Dominic School in New Orleans,

“I’ve heard the Holy Spirit speak to me in several small moments over the years and knew I should follow this path to discern becoming a priest,” Delaney said. “One moment I distinctly remember was at Mass by myself and during the celebration of Eucharist I look up and see Father Jorge lifting the Eucharist up. In the back of my mind I heard a voice say ‘I want to do that’, and I was like what in the world – I could hardly believe it, after that I was like ok, let’s go, what are we waiting for, and I started the process for seminary.”