New chancellor brings ‘experience, passion’ and ‘witness of faith’
New archdiocesan chancellor Justin Reyes, right, and his wife Laura pose with their children on the Indianapolis Colts football field at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Aug. 22. Lily sits in front. Behind her are Giorgio, left, Joseph, Justin and Peter, and Laura holds 4-month-old Faustina. (Submitted photo)
By Natalie Hoefer
In college, Justin Reyes envisioned a career in marketing and advertising, “doing sales pitches to companies one day,” he says.
God had a different vision.
“I would say a theme throughout my journey has been God always had a different and much better plan than my own,” Reyes says with a smile.
Despite his bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing, he felt led by God down a career path primarily focused on serving the Church at the parish and diocesan levels.
Yet there was still “a stirring of my heart of, ‘Alright, Lord, where do you want me one day? What might be next?’ ”
So, when the Archdiocese of Indianapolis began searching for a new chancellor earlier this year when former chancellor Christopher Walsh announced he would retire in June after six years serving in the role, Reyes applied for the position.
It turned out to be the answer to what was next. Reyes was hired and began serving as chancellor in July, settling with his wife Laura and their six children near Indianapolis.
As chancellor, Reyes will help implement Archbishop Charles C. Thompson’s vision for the Church in central and southern Indiana through the archdiocesan pastoral plan and in other ways.
“Justin comes to the archdiocese with high marks from those who have served with him in previous dioceses,” says Archbishop Thompson. “In fact, one bishop described him as ‘a rock star.’ He brings a great deal of energy, experience, passion and, especially, witness of faith.”
Those traits developed through a faith-based career path with stops in four states.
But before that journey began, the “rock star” took his first steps in Tampa, Fla.
‘God, what do you want me to do?’
Reyes lived his first five years in Tampa before a job opportunity for his father took the family to New York City. When Reyes was 11, the family moved to Orlando, Fla., “where I would say my roots really are,” he says.
He was raised in the Catholic faith, although he admits the family was “on again, off again” in going to Mass. It was a pattern he followed through his junior year at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla.
The death of a friend before Reyes’ senior year led to a “big reversion to the faith,” he says, moving him to change the question “What do I want to do?” to “God, what do you want me to do?”
The answer led him “to really want to work with young people.”
So, after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing in 2009, Reyes worked in Jacksonville, Fla., for two years as an educator for Teach for America, a national network of leaders working to expand access to education and opportunities for children.
He then “felt called” to return to Orlando—and soon understood why. The pastor of the parish where Reyes grew up asked him to serve there as coordinator of youth ministry and expanded it to include young adults.
After three years, he noticed that he managed the ministry “with kind of a business mindset. … So I thought, ‘Maybe I should go back to business school.’ ”
Reyes spent the next two years at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C., earning a master’s degree in business administration, followed by two years working for a consulting firm in Orlando.
Once again, God had other plans.
“I’d say within six months of being in the business world, I felt a call back to ministry, taking what I had learned from business school and applying it for the sake of evangelization, because that’s our mission as a Church,” says Reyes.
He joined the staff at St. James Cathedral in Orlando, serving as its director of pastoral ministry for 15 months. Then “a door opened” in Texas to create and head a new Office of Family Evangelization for the Diocese of Victoria.
After about three years there, “another door opened that God led me to,” says Reyes. That door was in the Diocese of Joliet, Ill., where he became director of its Department of Catechesis and Evangelization.
As part of that role, Reyes was tasked with developing and leading the implementation effort of the diocese’s pastoral plan and “animating the bishop’s vision across the diocese”—experiences that set Reyes up for what was next in God’s plan for him one state to the east.
‘A great gift to the archdiocese’
“To be honest, I always thought, ‘Could [the role of] chancellor be a good fit for me?’ ” says Reyes.
When Pope Leo XIV called then-Bishop Robert A. Hicks of Joliet to lead the Archdiocese of New York in December 2025, “that was kind of a discernment time for me,” he says. “And then this door [as chancellor] started to open” in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
Reyes applied. As it turns out, the role of chancellor was “a good fit” for him—he was hired for the position, which he started in early July.
“Justin brings a tremendous amount of leadership experience and a deep understanding of the Catholic Church,” says archdiocesan vicar general
Msgr. William F. Stumpf, who served on the hiring committee for the position. “That was certainly evident during his time in the Diocese of Joliet, where he played an important role in assisting with the drafting of their diocesan pastoral plan and later in developing their implementation strategy.”
Reyes also brings “a unique perspective from his studies in business administration,” he adds. “That combination of faith, leadership and practical business experience makes him a great gift to the archdiocese.”
Reyes in turn is excited by “a chance to serve and learn from Archbishop Thompson. He is so well regarded among the bishops of our country.”
As for his new role, “You could ask 10 different chancellors in our country what they do, and you’ll get a little different answer from each,” says Reyes.
According to the Church’s Code of Canon Law, he explains, a chancellor is defined as “the primary record keeper of the archdiocese. Thankfully, we have an awesome archivist here,” Julie Motyka, who fulfills that task.
Instead of record keeper, Reyes views his role as “a little bit like Moses and Aaron … .” Just as Aaron served as the voice for Moses, Reyes sees the chancellor as “an Aaron for the archbishop in [sharing] his vision” laid out in the archdiocese’s recently released five-year pastoral plan.
“How do we bring this vision to life across our archdiocese in the different areas [of the plan]? … How do we just immerse ourselves in it and be a part of it?”
As chancellor, he’s also “thinking a lot about how I can support our priests and our pastors and those that support them.”
In the meantime, Reyes looks forward to “getting around the archdiocese, meeting people, getting to know the archdiocese and its needs.”
He’s impressed by its size—the largest area he’s served in terms of deaneries and counties.
“And there’s such a history here,” Reyes adds. “We’re coming up on 200 years, so just understanding that breadth and depth, … I look forward to driving around and getting the flavors of the different places.”
Reyes and his family have already started exploring Indianapolis—a city he considers “special.”
‘I’m humbled by the opportunity’
“Indianapolis has been a special place for me, like many Catholics in our country—even from out of our country,” he says.
That connection goes back to his time as a youth and young adult minister in Orlando, when he took high schoolers to the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis in 2013.
He returned with his wife and children 11 years later for the National Eucharistic Congress in July 2024.
The Reyes family has grown since then. He and his wife Laura now have six children ranging in age from 11 years old to 4 months, so “life is a little busy right now,” Reyes admits.
The family settled about 30 minutes from Indianapolis to enjoy rural life—and the rosary.
When looking at houses, Reyes recalls, “I said, ‘What’s a car ride that’s between 20 to 30 minutes?’ I need to pray my daily rosary, and I actually do that on the car ride into work.”
And it’s still close enough to Indianapolis for the family to enjoy what it offers—especially if a referee is involved.
“The sports scene here is great, especially for families,” says Reyes, who has already enjoyed a few Indianapolis Indians baseball games and a Colts preseason game with Laura and their kids.
He also likes to play golf “whenever I can.” And he’s a big fan of “Florida Gator sports, even though I know the archbishop is a big Kentucky Wildcats fan,” he quips.
Despite the difference in team preference, Archbishop Thompson praises Reyes.
“Although [it’s] a new role for him, Justin has embraced the responsibilities of chancellor with much vigor and enthusiasm,” he says. “We are blessed to have him with us.”
Reyes feels blessed, too.
“I’m excited, and I’m eager to get to work [and] seeing the archbishop’s vision in the pastoral plan become more fully alive in the coming years,” he says.
“I hope to see the Church [in central and southern Indiana] become even more vibrant, evangelizing and growing. I’m humbled by the opportunity, and hopeful as my service begins.”
(To learn more about Reyes, watch the ArchIndy Vox episode, “The Role of the Chancellor: Meet Justin Reyes” go to tinyurl.com/ArchIndyVoxReyes.) †
