March 29 Chrism Mass invitation-only due to pandemic
Story by Randy Porter
LINCOLN (SNR) - Bishop James Conley will celebrate the annual Chrism Mass Monday, March 29, at 5 p.m. in the Cathedral of the Risen Christ, 3500 Sheridan Blvd., Lincoln.
Bishop Conley will bless the Oil of Catechumens and the Oil of the Sick. He will consecrate the Sacred Chrism for use in parishes throughout the diocese.
All priests of the diocese will make a solemn renewal of their priestly promises. Seven priests will celebrate a milestone anniversary known as “jubilee.” Priests celebrating jubilees are given special recognition at a dinner with their brother priests.
Father John Zastrow — 65 years
He’s nearly 97, but don’t underestimate Father John Zastrow.
Zastrow said he is happy to celebrate this special jubilee anniversary.
“I’m doing well,” he said. “I’m in good health for my age.”
He was born and raised to a Catholic family with nine children. The youngster lived in Dakota County, Neb., across the Missouri River from Sioux City.
His first assignment was at the Cathedral in Lincoln (now St. Mary Parish). Among his assignments, Zastrow worked in Holdrege 15 years where he was pastor before retirement. He has always enjoyed being a pastor. His priesthood also includes 12 years as superintendent at Bishop Neumann High School in Wahoo.
What does he like most about being a priest?
“I like the idea that I’m doing something for God and his people,” he said.
A World War II veteran, Zastrow served in the Air Force 2 1/2 years. He was a navigator.
He has advice for a young man if asked about entering the priesthood.
“I would ask how strongly he is thinking about it,” Zastrow said. “If he was in high school and thinking about it, I’d advise him to go to seminary and see how he still feels about it.
“I also would tell him it’s a good life.”
Msgr. Paul Witt — 50 years
Known to some for his jokes, his word-of-the-day homilies and his large RCIA classes, Msgr. Paul Witt had a vivid dream as a child.
After that, Witt wanted to be a priest since the fourth grade. His parents were “Catholics to the hilt.”
“I had the idea of being a priest when I grew up, but they were very supportive,” he said. “I can really thank my parents.”
Born in Columbus, Witt was raised in Lincoln. He graduated from Campion High School, a Jesuit boarding school for boys in Prairie du Chien, Wis. He studied at St. Thomas Seminary in Denver four years then Saint Francis de Sales Seminary in Milwaukee. He rode the train back and forth on major holidays.
The jubilee celebrant served in various parishes from one to three or four years throughout his priesthood. He also served seven years at St. Patrick Parish in Lincoln, and 20 years as pastor at St. Mary Parish in downtown Lincoln.
There are so many great things about being a priest, Witt said: offering the Mass, preaching, hearing confessions and home visits. He made home visits a particular goal in his priesthood. He tried to visit the home of each parish family — and hit 100 percent in Valparaiso.
The best way to encourage young men to enter the priesthood is to be a happy priest, he said. “They’re going to be more attracted. It comes from being faithful.”
He said he became even more interested in the priesthood when he met priests who enjoyed their lives.
Witt spoke about one issue that still challenges him.
“I would like people to internalize their faith better, and explain it better to someone else in their own words,” Witt said. “Don’t just tell them what you think, tell them what you know.”
On various occasions, he has challenged many to recite The Ten Commandments. Only one came close. “Get it down so you know what you are talking about,” he said. “We can’t skim the surface.”
Read some good Catechism, he advised. The more people read, and take it in, the more they can receive the gift of knowledge and understanding to explain it to others.
The biggest disappointment during his priesthood is the number of Catholics who don’t live their faith.
“Live the faith, don’t just practice it,” he said. “Don’t just attend Mass, practice it. Too many are just attending.”
Witt always gave word-of-the-day homilies because it’s easier for parishioners to remember one word than an entire homily, he explained. If they remember the one word, they may remember the general context of the homily.
One of his biggest RCIA classes was in Plattsmouth. Nearly 240 people filled the school gym there.
“I pray the Mass, I don’t say the Mass,” Witt said. “I preach, I don’t read, except when asked to read a special communication. I will never, ever read a sermon.”
Father Rudolf Oborny — 50 years
It was Saturday, May 29, 1971.
Richard Nixon was president, Pope St. Paul VI led the Catholic Church, the voting age was lowered to 18 and “Rudy” Oborny was ordained a priest.
Father Rudolf Oborny was unable to respond to the Register due to health problems. Although he was unable to answer questions personally, others provided a great deal of information about him.
One of his former parishioners, Marie Konecky of Wahoo, described Father Oborny.
“His kindness is so great,” Konecky said. “He is so loving.”
She has always been close to him as a priest, she said. She feels Father Rudy patterned his life after great priests.
“He’s just so thoughtful,” Konecky said. “He’s a wonderful person who even calls people on their birthdays.”
Oborny was born in Columbus. He entered Conception Seminary in Conception, Mo., where he studied philosophy. He then studied theology at St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee.
The young priest began his career in Wahoo. He willingly and enthusiastically accepted various other assignments. His priesthood sent him, for example, to Lincoln, David City and even the diocesan mission in Venezuela.
He returned to Wahoo before working in Hebron, Fairbury and Alexandria.
Sister Andrea Goeckner, superior of St. Joseph Convent at the Bonacum House for retired priests, knows Father Oborny.
He came to Bonacum nearly eight months ago, Sister Andrea said. It was, of course, an adjustment. Oborny took the high road regarding his new residence. He chose to embrace it and pitched in whenever needed.
A jovial man, Oborny is a very special person, and loves doing God’s work, the sister said. He is a priest “through and through.”
“The last month has been difficult and now he bravely faces his road to recovery,” she said. “I am confident he will come back with our prayers.”
Fr. Douglas Dietrich —25 years
His family wasn’t Catholic, and not church-goers, but they laid the groundwork well for Father Douglas Dietrich to become a Catholic at age 23.
“We were taught how to pray when we were children, but going to church was rare,” Dietrich said. “But my mom and dad were good parents, hard workers who taught me the importance of generosity and self-sacrifice.”
Born and raised in Lincoln, he grew up only three blocks away from Blessed Sacrament Church, but never set foot in it until he was in his 20s. The priest earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Nebraska, which he has utilized more than he ever dreamed, he said. The Lincoln native also studied philosophy at St. Philip Neri Seminary in Toronto as well as four years of Theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary & College in Yonkers, N.Y.
Dietrich said he has special thoughts, feelings and memories as he reflects back from ordination through this milestone anniversary.
“The priesthood has literally been a dream that came true,” he said. “I started thinking about the priesthood when I turned 29, and would imagine what it would be like to stand at the altar and offer Mass.”
The reality of it barely scratches the surface, Dietrich said. The years have flown by. He loves being a priest and can’t imagine living a life with more meaning and purpose.
Asked what advice he could give a new priest, he said each has to be formed as priest, and all have to change a great deal. Each man called has unique gifts, abilities and aptitudes that God wants to utilize for his own ends.
“Some are meant to be high school teachers, some to run a big parish, some to respond to the special demands of smaller communities who expect different things from their priests,” Dietrich said. “Some to missionary work, some to suffer for their flock.”
“Just share who you are with the people to whom God sends you,” he said.
Fr. John Birkel — 25 years
At one time, Father John Birkel didn’t think he was good enough to be a priest.
After graduation from Aquinas High School in David City, he worked in manufacturing five years. It was during that time it became clear to him that the Lord wanted Birkel to be a priest.
He entered seminary studies for the Lincoln Diocese. His second and third years in seminary were at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia. His fourth year was at Saint Philips Seminary in Toronto.
Birkel earned a bachelor of science in philosophy from Saint Charles. For theology, he attended Saint Joseph Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., also called Dunwoodie. From there, he earned a bachelor of science in theology and a master’s of divinity.
No one moment is most memorable as a priest for him, Birkel said. His experience as a priest interacting in the lives of people in various ways is difficult to explain. “People want you as a part of their lives, even if they don’t know you,” he said. “They know you are a priest. And they know that they need a priest.”
For him, it has been often a matter of when people experience death.
“The power of the sacraments is awesome beyond my belief oor understanding!” Birkel said.
It is the power of the sacraments, particularly the Mass—that is, the sacrament of the Eucharist—he said, that allows him to offer up everything he has, and Jesus unites that to his own sacrifice and suffering on the cross. That makes his life worthy of the merits of the sufferings of Christ.
Born in Genoa, Birkel recalls visiting his grandmother who was a housekeeper for a priest there. One day she told him, “Johnny, I think you would make a good priest.”
From that day on, it was clear to him that’s what he was called to be, he said. It just took time to sink in.
Fr. Loras Grell — 25 years
Born in Beatrice to great Catholic parents and raised on a nurturing family farm, Father Loras Grell had the priesthood on his radar at an early age.
“My father prayed that I would become a priest and let me know about it,” Grell said. “We prayed as a family and I believe living on the farm also gave me more time for reflection.”
After ordination, he began teaching in Lincoln. His first pastorate was at Dwight and Bee. The young priest taught at David City for six years. He then became school administrator at Lawrence where he worked until 2013.
Grell was administrator at Plattsmouth for four years before his current assignment to the parishes in Aurora and Giltner.
“Over the years, I have learned so much about myself because of the wonderful people I have served,” he said. “Seeing the faith of God’s people, the sacrifices of schools and other experiences has formed me.
“I have grown more to want to teach the faith — to let others know how great it is,” he said.
“The greatest thing about being a priest is knowing I’ve got the greatest job because I get to do God’s work every day,” he said. “The late Bishop Glennon P. Flavin told me when I was accepted into seminary it’s a great life and I agree with him 25 years later.”
Grell said it’s important to note, in the Year of St. Joseph, he owes so much to his home parish of St. Joseph where he received his sacraments and celebrated his first Mass.
Fr. Thomas Brouillette — 25 years
Father Thomas Brouillette is home, again.
Born and raised in Hastings, Brouillette now serves there where he is chief administrative officer at Hastings Catholic Schools and administrator for Sacred Heart Parish in Roseland and Assumption in Juniata.
He began his priesthood in Lincoln, then worked five years in North Platte. Subsequently, the priest served in Weston before assignment to Roseland and Assumption and back to Hastings.
“It was a little awkward at first to return home as a priest,” Brouillette said. “But it’s great to be with family and old friends.”
His greatest experiences as a priest include the profound mercy that God has shown him, he said. “That would be number one.”
The jubilee celebrant also remembers with gratitude the excitement of major school and church renovations in Weston.
Third, his priesthood is a growing experience — continuing to try and understand the healing, compassion, and other gifts he has witnessed.
Brouillette began considering the priesthood after a trip in high school to New York where he visited a seminary. After that, he felt the calling, but only said, “I’ll try it.” Later, he strongly sensed his life would not be complete without priesthood.
The Hastings native most enjoys the people he serves, preaching, and prayer.
“The people make it exciting,” he said. “Another thing I enjoy most is preaching. You grow from what you have learned and, with experience, from prayer as an active and integral part of priesthood.”
Brouillette credits his parents, first and foremost, for their lives of faith as a major influence on him. Hastings Catholic Schools also played a major role in his formative years. The manner in which priests, nuns and others cared for students had an impact on him.
“Gratitude is an important element of our lives and healing,” he said. “When healing is understood, Christ can make us whole again, not just repair us.
Remember, God’s compassion and healing are never exhausted.”
