Parish natives share priestly experiences with woman’s group
LINCOLN (SNR) – The women’s event committee at St. Teresa Parish in Lincoln hosted “A Day in the Life of a Priest” Aug. 13.
Three former members of the parish who went on to become priests for the Diocese of Lincoln presented insight into the daily lives of priests and answered questions from those in attendance.
The parish’s native sons represented varied priestly experiences.
Msgr. Paul Witt was ordained in 1971. Now retired, he served in many parishes throughout his priesthood, including seven years at St. Patrick Parish in Lincoln, and 20 years as pastor at St. Mary Parish in downtown Lincoln.
Despite his own decades of service and his own nature as a “self-starter,” even he was impressed by all his brother priests’ experiences.
“There’s a lot going on,” he said.
Father Lothar Gilde was ordained in 2006 and is currently pastor at St Patrick Parish in Imperial. He explained that “typical” days in the priesthood are anything but. A pastor serves the varied needs of his people, he explained. Some are expected: CCD and RCIA classes and nursing home visits, preparing couples for a wedding, preparing parents for the baptism of their child, helping family members select readings for the funeral of a loved one.
But some activities are tailored to special requests. This summer, for example, several parishioners had Quinceañera celebrations for their 15th birthdays, an occasion which marks a girl’s passage to womanhood. Father Gilde had the young women come to classes in order to reflect on their faith and the significance of being a woman of faith within the family of God.
Sometimes a pastor finds a family in which a child has “slipped through the cracks” and missed Confirmation since different dioceses confer the sacrament at different ages. In those cases, a pastor might meet with the families individually to prepare them for the sacrament.
But a pastor does many unexpected duties, as well, he said.
“I spent many hours this summer tending to flowers – and especially pulling weeds – around the church grounds,” he said. “I feel and hope that a well-kept area with the added beauty of flowers will ‘plant’ ideas of wonder about the Catholic faith in the minds of those passing by on a walk or a drive.”
Other periodic meetings and activities “manage to continually fill up the calendar,” he said. They included tasks like writing an article on faith for the local newspaper, meeting with the local association of ministers, and meeting with parish groups like the Altar Society, Knights of Columbus and parish council, as well as deanery and diocesan meetings with priests.
Father Christopher Stoley was ordained in 2015 and is currently pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Crete and chief administrative officer of St. James School.
Father Stoley agreed with Father Gilde that “as priests, we don’t have typical days.”
He described the schedule he tries to keep, with the Liturgy of the Hours, school duties, office hours and meeting whatever is scheduled, day to day. He said he tries to get in a workout every day and his list included eating supper “at some point, maybe,” depending on the number of items on his agenda.
When asked what surprised him about the priesthood, Father Stoley said his greatest surprise was how poorly catechized many people are.
“Most of my homilies are catechetical in nature,” he said, “because I have found that a lot of my people just don’t know their faith – or they knew it and lost it over the years. It really influences my preaching. It’s not anything against the people, but if you don’t know much about the faith, you can’t really come to know how to follow Jesus too well. Good catechesis can really add reverence to the Mass and bolster our friendship with God.”
In Father Stoley’s case, a further complication is that roughly 80% of his parish is Hispanic. Stoley celebrates Masses in both English and Spanish, but about half of his Hispanic parishioners are from parts of Guatemala where they don’t even speak Spanish, but rather a Mayan dialect.
So some of the people “come to the church to pray, because they’re Catholic,” he said, “but on Sundays they go to one of the evangelical churches in town because the ministers speak their dialect. The language barrier can totally disrupt catechetical efforts, and there is a huge part of the population that slips through the cracks because I don’t know one of the 30 dialects they might speak.”
When asked how parishioners can help, all the priests said praying for them was the most important thing.
“But also maybe check in on your priests and try to understand them,” Father Stoley remarked. He said it doesn’t have to be anything formal.
“Just a pop-in and say, ‘hey, just wanted to see how you’re doing.’
“Most people assume our job is: say Mass, and then just chill the rest of the day and be available,” he explained. “They don’t see the day-to-day life of ministry and it can be exhausting. But knowing that there are people in the parish who care is encouraging.”
Margy Stoley of St. Teresa Parish – and Father Stoley’s mother – organized the event.
“It was wonderful hearing about their days and enjoying the time, and laughter, with them,” she said. “It was an enlightening experience for all those in attendance. We encourage other parishes to set up a similar event to learn more about the lives of priests.”
Msgr. Witt agreed. He complimented the women’s event committee at St. Teresa Parish for the idea and said he recommend other parishes hold similar events and “just listen” to what their priests have to say. He added that young people would benefit from hearing what led a priest to answer the call to the priesthood, to “what was that spark?”
