DETROIT — Three young people from the Archdiocese of Detroit made their first profession of religious vows during the past month.

On July 28, Michael Palmer of Berkley and Dennis Strach II of Rochester Hills made their first profession of vows with the Congregation of Holy Cross in the United States Province of Priests and Brothers in Notre Dame, Ind. The Congregation of Holy Cross comprises 1,200 religious men dedicated to education, parish and mission service in 16 countries on five continents.

Palmer is a 2007 graduate of University of Detroit Jesuit High School and earned a bachelor of philosophy degree from the University of Notre Dame in 2011. Strach is a 2006 graduate of Notre Dame Preparatory High School in Pontiac and earned a bachelor’s degree in music with a Spanish minor from Oakland University in 2010.

Both men will continue as temporarily professed seminarians at Moreau Seminary at the University of Notre Dame to work toward the priesthood.

In addition, Sr. Rita Clare Yoches, the daughter of Robert and Mary Yoches of St. Frances Cabrini Parish, Allen Park, made her first profession of vows of poverty, chastity and obedience with the Franciscan Sisters, T.O.R. of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother, on Aug. 6 before Bishop Emeritus Gilbert Sheldon of the Diocese of Steubenville, Ohio.

Sr. Yoches grew up and went to school at Divine Child Parish and was a member of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish before entering the religious life. A University of Detroit-Mercy graduate with a degree in sports medicine, Sr. Yoches opened up a private training facility for athletes and played women’s professional football for six years after college.

It was on a pilgrimage to Assisi, Italy, in 2004 that she first began hearing the call to religious life. She entered the Franciscan sisters in 2009. To learn more about the Franciscan Sisters, T.O.R., a community founded to renew the contemplative dimension of the Franciscan Third Order Regular, visit www.franciscansisters.org.