From practicing law to answering a call to the priesthood, Bishop Robert Boxie’s faith journey has led to multiple milestones, including becoming the youngest U.S. bishop and the first African American to be appointed to the leadership role in nearly a decade. With an Ivy League law degree, a successful career, and the ability to travel, Robert Boxie III seemed to have it all. Yet, he said he felt the Lord calling him to something even greater: religious life. Originally from southern Louisiana, Boxie grew up where “Catholicism runs deep in the soil,” he said in an Aug. 21 interview with “EWTN News In Depth” host Catherine Hadro. With that faith instilled in him, Boxie went on to attend Vanderbilt University, where he received a degree in chemical engineering and a second degree in music. He then worked for a year in France teaching English. Upon returning to the U.S., he continued his education at Harvard Law School before working as a law clerk in Maryland and then as an associate at a law firm in Washington, D.C. Then, following much discernment, he entered seminary for the Archdiocese of Washington and was ordained a priest in 2016. After a decade as a priest, Pope Leo XIV appointed Boxie an auxiliary bishop of Washington. Cardinal Robert McElroy ordained him into the order of bishops at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on July 8. “Itʼs still new. Itʼs still fresh,” he said. “The ordination … was tremendous. It was a real gift to me, and my family, and my community.” “Itʼs a new reality that Iʼve never experienced before, but itʼs one where I know that the Lord has prepared me for this moment,” he said. “There have been a number of graces before the ordination, at the ordination itself, and since then. Lordʼs just been incredibly generous with me.” Before attending law school, “my faith was just something very personal and very private,” Boxie said. “But it was really in law school where my faith became more public, and I was able to share it with others.” Boxie joined the Catholic Law Student association and attended his first vocation retreat for the Archdiocese of Boston, where he really began to consider the priesthood. “I eventually went on another vocation retreat for the Archdiocese of Washington to see if the first one was a fluke, or if that was just a happenstance,” he said. Read more: ewtnnews.com/world/us/bishop…