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April 10, 2025

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here.

Local parish priest and alum says his high school experience at Notre Dame helped set him up for a life of serving God and others.

After graduating from Notre Dame High School (Harper Woods) in 1976, Bill Promesso attended the University of Detroit and finished with a degree in marketing. He started his professional career in banking and sales and marketing, but that didn't last as he looked for more meaning in his life. 

That's when he began a journey to the priesthood that now includes his current roles as priest in solidum and pastor of Christ the Redeemer parish in Lake Orion. 

“I became disillusioned with business,” he said in a 2021 article published by the News-Herald after he became pastor of St. Cyprian Catholic Church in Riverview, Mich. “I turned to the Church to find meaning, but it never crossed my mind to be a priest until a good friend suggested it.”

Writing was on the wall

The seminary was next for Promesso and after ordination in 1989 he eventually became pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas in Detroit until he was reassigned to St. Cyprian where he served until moving to Christ the Redeemer in 2020.

"Many things led me toward the priesthood though I didn't recognize the signs until someone else pointed them out," he told IRISH magazine during a recent interview. "I went to Catholic schools, I sang in the boy's choir at St. Veronica grade school and became a cantor, communion minister and lector."

He also was a founding member of the St. Veronica Youth Group while a student at NDHS and served on his parish council as a youth representative. 

"Maybe others could see the writing on the wall, but I didn't at first," he said.

However, once that writing on the wall became impossible to ignore, Promesso jumped in with both feet. He became a diocesan priest even as he was pursuing Master of Divinity and Master of Theological Studies degrees from St. John's Provincial Seminary in Plymouth, a Doctor of Ministry degree in preaching from the Aquinas Institute of Theology, and post-doctoral certifications in pastoral Spanish, Catholic health care ethics and leadership development.

A solid base layer

Now firmly entrenched at Christ the Redeemer, Promesso stays extremely busy at his parish, part of the Bald Mountain Family of Parishes. He says there's no typical day or week in parish life.

"Each day presents new blessings and challenges. Parish priests have to balance the administrative and spiritual responsibilities where my heart is often filled with gratitude, but also broken by the pain and troubles of the people I serve."

He adds that being with people during the highs and lows of life has helped him grow in compassion and mercy. "I'm a firm believer in the Golden Rule, treating others as I want to be treated. Respect, kindness, love, acceptance."

Reflecting on his time at the Harper Woods campus of Notre Dame High School, Promesso says he has fond memories of the Marists and the lay faculty who ministered at the school and served on its administration and in its classrooms. He cites Tom Schusterbauer, Bill Schram, Fr. Ron DesRosiers, s.m., and Ken Parent as being particularly influential during his time there.

"Looking back almost 50 years since my NDHS graduation, I can see that Notre Dame provided me with a great foundation for the experiences of my future, whether in academics or ministry," he adds. "There have been many courses of stones placed upon that foundation. But like any structure, the base layer must be solid. That's what NDHS did very well."

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here.

Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org

About Notre Dame Preparatory School
"At Notre Dame Prep, we inspire our students to become the best versions of themselves. We challenge them through an experience of academic excellence, focused on active, project-based learning. We invite them to explore a world of opportunities beyond the classroom. We guide them as they grow in spirituality within a community strong in its Catholic and Marist identity."

Notre Dame Preparatory School is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. Notre Dame Preparatory School's upper school enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame Prep's middle and lower schools enroll students in pre-kindergarten through grade eight. All three schools are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDP is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the National Association of Independent Schools. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School, visit the school’s home page at www.ndpma.org.