Supplements

current ISSUE

eleven diocesan priests celebrate anniversaries

Story by RAFE MIDDEKE
Photos by LIZ QUIRIN
Messenger staff

Eleven diocesan priests are celebrating anniversaries of their ordination to the priesthood this year of 60, 50, 40 and 25 years.

Celebrating 60 years of priesthood are Father Charles Kribs and Father Donald Lenzini.
Golden jubilarians are Msgr. Donald Eichenseer, Father Leo Hayes and Msgr. Joseph Lawler.
Five priests are observing their 40th anniversaries. They are: Father Thomas Barrett; Father Henry Fischer; Msgr. Thomas Flach; Msgr. James Margason; and Father Eugene Neff.
Father Jose Ancheril is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his ordination.

Two priests, who have served as parish administrators in the diocese, are also celebrating their silver anniversaries. They are Father Jose Jacob, SMM and Father Urban Osuji, CM.

The priests, their families and friends participated in a diocesan anniversary celebration May 31. A jubilee liturgy, with Bishop Edward K. Braxton as the main celebrant, was held at St. Peter Cathedral in Belleville, followed by a dinner at Fischer’s restaurant.

Included in this congratulatory supplement are summaries of the jubilarians’ ministries in the diocese.

60th Anniversaries
Father Charles Kribs
Father Charles Kribs was born Oct. 2, 1925 in Shawneetown, the son of William and Juanita McGehee Kribs.
After attending St. Henry Seminary in Belleville, he completed his seminary studies in philosophy and theology at Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis.

He was ordained at St. Peter Cathedral May 15, 1951. From 1951 to 1958 he was assigned
as an associate at St. Mary’s in Centralia, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Herrin and Holy Angels in East St. Louis. His first pastorate assignment in 1958 was at St. Leo’s in Modoc, followed by a pastorate assignment to Immaculate Conception Parish in Kaskaskia.

Beginning in 1962, he served as the pastor at St. Rose of Lima in Metropolis and St. Paul in Vienna, St. Mary in Chester, St. John the Baptist in Smithton and St. Joseph in Prairie du Rocher. He retired in 1995.

During his active ministry Father Kribs also served as a chaplain at Menard Correctional Center in Chester and St. Mary’s Hospital in East St. Louis.

In diocesan appointments he served on the Clergy Aid Board and Presbyteral Council. He is currently a resident at the Hincke Sense Retirement Home for Priests in Belleville.

Father Donald Lenzini
Father Donald Lenzini was born in Zeigler Feb. 18, 1926, the son of Joseph and Josephine Herzog Lenzini.
He began his seminary training at St. Henry Seminary in Belleville and completed his
philosophy and theology studies at Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis and St. Mary of the Lake
Seminary in Mundelein, Ill., before his ordination May 15, 1951 at St. Peter Cathedral in Belleville.

Father Lenzini’s ministry as an associate pastor included assignments at St. Peter Cathedral, St. Andrew in Murphysboro, St. Charles in DuBois and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Herrin.

He was the temporary administrator at St. Joseph in Marion for several months before
his first pastorate assignment at St. Mary Magdalen’s in Todd’s Mill in 1960. Later pastorates were at Immaculate Conception in Centreville, St. Damian in Damiansville and St. Joseph in Benton, all for about 10-year intervals.

Father Lenzini’s diocesan appointments included serving as Dean of the North Central Deanery and on the Presbyteral Council.

After his retirement in 2000 he served as a temporary administrator at St. Augustine in Breese and St. Anthony in Beckemeyer and for some years was a weekend assistant at SS. Peter and Paul in Waterloo.

He currently resides at the Hincke Sense Retirement Home for Priests.

50th Anniversaries
Msgr. Donald Eichenseer
Msgr. Donald Eichenseer was born May 3, 1935 to Victor and Barbara Mueth Eichenseer in Hecker.
After attending St. Henry Seminary in Belleville, he completed his seminary studies at St. Thomas Seminary in Denver, Colo. He was ordained May 27, 1961 at St. Peter Cathedral.

As an associate Msgr. Eichenseer was assigned to St. Philip in East St. Louis and St.
Henry and
Blessed Sacrament in Belleville. In 1969 he was assigned as a full-time teacher at Notre Dame Academy in Belleville and part-time associate at St. Clare in O’Fallon.

In 1973 Msgr. Eichenseer began his first pastorate at St. Joseph in Olney, and also assumed the pastorate of St. Joseph in Stringtown in 1977.

He later served as the pastor of St. Clare in O’Fallon and of St. Teresa in Belleville before beginning his current pastorate at St. Damian in Damiansville and St. Bernard in Albers.

He was a member of the diocesan executive team of Worldwide Marriage Encounter, 1979-1981.

In diocesan ministries he has served as a member of the Presbyteral Council, the Personnel Board, the Board of Education, the Review Board, and is currently a member of the Diocesan Finance Council and the Clergy Aid Board, and an advocate at the diocesan Tribunal.

He was named a monsignor in May 2000.

Msgr. Eichenseer plans to retire after the 150th anniversary celebration of St. Damian Parish later this summer.

Father Leo Hayes
Father Leo Hayes was born Dec. 2, 1935 in East St. Louis to Leo and Angela Stroer Hayes. He began his seminary studies at St. Henry in Belleville and completed them at St. Meinrad in Indiana. He was ordained May 27, 1961 at St. Peter Cathedral.

Father Hayes’ first assignment was as an associate at St. Augustine Parish in Belleville.

In 1966 he was appointed to the diocesan mission in El Progreso, Guatemala. He also served there for six months in 1972.

Returning from Guatemala in 1967, he was named the associate at St. Andrew in Murphysboro.

Father Hayes was named the pastor of St. Elizabeth in Ava, St. Ann in Raddle and St. Joseph in Willisville in 1968 where he continues as pastor.

In 1974 he became the chaplain at the Menard Correctional Center in Chester, a position he held for 26 years.
DePaul University’s Center for Church/State Studies in Chicago presented Father
Hayes with the John Courtney Murray Award in 2000 for helping inmates exercise their religious freedom while incarcerated.

Msgr. Joseph Lawler
Msgr. Joseph Lawler was born Dec. 11, 1935 in Ridgway, the son of James and Lucille Duffey Lawler.
He entered St. Henry Seminary in 1950 and completed his philosophy and theology studies at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Ill. He was ordained May 27, 1961 at St. Peter Cathedral.

Msgr. Lawler’s first associate assignment was at Queen of Peace Parish in Belleville, and then at
St. Joseph in Murphysboro, where he was also the chaplain at St. Joseph’s Hospital. His final
assignment as an associate was at St. Stephen in Caseyville, ending in 1967.

In that year he was named the chaplain at St. Teresa Academy in East St. Louis, and a year later the temporary administrator of Sacred Heart Parish in Dupo, while also serving as a part-time assistant at St. Martin of Tours in Washington Park and deanery Catholic Youth Organization moderator.

Msgr. Lawler received his first pastorate assignment at St. Patrick in Enfield in 1969 and in 1971 was named the pastor of St. Stephen in Flora. In 1977 he was named the pastor of St. Joseph in Ridgway and also served for four years as the pastor of St. Joseph in Equality.

In 1983 he was assigned to the pastorate of St. John the Baptist in Piopolis, and in 1998 also of St. Clement in McLeansboro and St. John Nepomucene in Dahlgren. He was named a monsignor in 2000.

He serves as the Dean of the East Deanery and for many years was the diocesan director of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference.

Msgr. Lawler served the diocesan mission in El Progreso, Guatemala by designing and building homes there following the 1976 earthquake in the Central American country. He plans to retire later this year.

40th Anniversaries
Five diocesan priests, ordained June 5, 1971 by Bishop Albert Zuroweste at St. Peter Cathedral, are celebrating the 40th anniversary of their ordination.

Father Thomas Barrett
Father Thomas Barrett was born May 30, 1945 in Eldorado to Philip and Leola Martin
Barrett. After attending St. Henry Seminary in Belleville he continued his seminary studies
in St. Louis at Cardinal Glennon College, Kenrick Seminary and St. Louis University School of Divinity.

Father Barrett’s associate assignments were at St. Henry in Belleville and St. Philip in East St. Louis.

He was a member of the diocesan vocation team, the Althoff Catholic High School faculty and the Camp Ondessonk staff before being assigned to his first pastorate at St. Philip in East St. Louis in 1978.

After pastorates at St. Clement in McLeansboro and St. John Nepomucene in Dahlgren, he was assigned to pastorates at St. George in New Baden (1994), St. Lawrence in Lawrenceville and Immaculate Conception in Bridgeport in 1999 before his current pastorate at St. Paul in Vienna and St. Francis de Sales in Stonefort in 2009. He is also a prison minister at the Shawnee Correctional Center in Vienna.

Father Barrett has served on the Diocesan Personnel Board and the Presbyteral Council.

Father Henry Fischer
Father Henry Fischer was born June 26, 1945 in Trenton to Henry and Elizabeth Nordman
Fischer. His 12 years of seminary studies were pursued at St. Henry Seminary in Belleville and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Ill.

After his ordination he served as an associate at St. Peter Cathedral and St. Mary in Belleville before his first pastorate assignment at St. Mary in Mound City, St. Catherine in Grand Chain and Our Lady of Fatima in Ullin in 1976.
He began a 17-year pastorate at St. Joseph in Freeburg in 1982, before his assignment as the pastor of St. Cecilia’s in Bartelso in 1999, where he is continuing as the pastor.

Father Fischer has served on the Diocesan Personnel and Clergy Aid boards.

Msgr. Thomas Flach
Msgr. Thomas Flach was born Feb. 3, 1945 in Belleville to Paul and Zita Brenner Flach. He attended St. Henry Seminary in Belleville, St. Meinrad Seminary in St. Meinrad, Ind., Kenrick Seminary and St. Louis University School of Divinity in St. Louis.

Msgr. Flach’s associate assignments were St. Albert the Great in Fairview Heights and St. Stephen in Caseyville.
In 1976 he was assigned to his first pastorate at St. Patrick in Ruma and St. Leo in Modoc and as the chaplain at the Adorers of the Blood of Christ motherhouse in Ruma.

Subsequent pastorates were at St. Cecilia in Bartelso from1981-1988, St. Stephen in Caseyville from 1988-1998 and SS. Peter and Paul in Waterloo from 1998-2009 before beginning his current pastorate at St. Joseph in Marion. He was named a monsignor in 2000.

Msgr. Flach was on an extended sick leave in 2007 after he was stricken with Guillain Barré, which had left him largely confined to a wheelchair. His recovery made it possible in 2009 for him to accept his present assignment at St. Joseph in Marion.

He served as the chairperson of the Belleville diocese’s centennial celebrations in 1987 and 1988. He has also served on the diocesan Board of Education and the Althoff Catholic High School Board.

Msgr. James Margason
Msgr. James Margason was born Oct. 24, 1941 to Charles and Mary Rose O’Connell Margason in East St. Louis. Prior to entering the seminary he worked as a social worker with the Missouri Division of
Employment Security and the Illinois Department of Public Aid. A graduate of Assumption Catholic High School in East St. Louis, he began his seminary studies at St. Henry Seminary in Belleville and completed them at Kenrick Seminary and St. Louis University School of Divinity in St. Louis.

He served as the associate pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Belleville before being assigned in 1975 to St. Thomas Aquinas University in Rome where he earned a license in Canon Law in 1977. He worked in the diocesan Marriage Tribunal and was named diocesan Family Life director until Bishop John Wurm named him the Vicar General of the Diocese and Moderator of the Curia in 1983.

During Bishop Wurm’s illness he was named the apostolic administrator of the diocese and the administrator after Bishop Wurm’s death. He served as the administrator of the diocese on two other occasions after the transfers of Bishop James Keleher and Bishop Wilton Gregory.

Msgr. Margason served as the Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia for Bishop Keleher and Bishop Gregory from 1984 to 2005, except for four years after 1990 when he resigned from his diocesan offices to devote his full time to pastoral responsibilities.

Currently the pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Shiloh, Msgr. Margason has served as the pastor of St. James in Millstadt, St. Joseph in Lebanon and St. Luke in Belleville. He has been the short-term administrator of Blessed Sacrament in Belleville, Holy Rosary in Fairmont City, St. Mary in Valmeyer, Immaculate Conception in Madonnaville, St. Mary in Belleville, St. Stephen in Caseyville, and continues as the canonical pastor of St. Joseph in Lebanon. He was named a monsignor in 2000.

Father Eugene Neff
Father Eugene Neff was born Jan. 3, 1945 in Belleville to Eugene and Dorothy Klinkhardt Neff.
He attended St. Henry Seminary in Belleville and completed his seminary studies at St. John Seminary in Little Rock, Ark., and Catholic Seminary of Indianapolis, Ind.

Father Neff has been the face of diocesan ministry to the sick and aged for 37 years of his priesthood — a special ministry to which he was first assigned in 1974. As director of the Ministry to the Sick and Aged he has developed a large number of volunteers who serve as visitors and Communion ministers to area nursing homes, has sponsored or co-sponsored educational conferences, and has expanded to include service to people with disabilities He
has been the Catholic chaplain at Memorial Hospital in Belleville and at a number of Belleville-area nursing homes, where he regularly celebrates scheduled eucharistic liturgies. He earned
a certificate in gerontology in 1994 from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.

Father Neff has served as the pastor of St. Luke in Belleville, St. John the Baptist in Red Bud and is currently the pastor of St. George in New Baden and the Sacramental Minister at St. Joseph in Lebanon. He was also an interim administrator at St. Francis in Aviston.

25th Anniversaries
Father Jose Ancheril
Father Jose Ancheril was born in India to Mathai and Anna Ancheril on Jan. 10, 1954. After attending St. Charles Seminary in Nagpur, India and Nagpur University there, he was ordained to the priesthood by
Archbishop Eugene D’Souza of Bhopal, India.

Father Ancheril’s first pastoral assignment in the Belleville diocese, where he was incardinated in 1996, was as the sacramental minister at St. Liborius in St. Libory in 1992. After being assigned as the associate at St. Teresa in Belleville in 1993, he was named the pastor of St. Liborius in 1996 and the administrator and later the pastor of St. Anthony in Lively Grove and St. Anthony in Coulterville.

In 1999 Father Ancheril was assigned as the pastor of St. Paul in Vienna and St. Francis de Sales in Stonefort, continuing there until 2009. He also served as the pastor of St. Rose of Lima Parish in Metropolis from 2001 to 2007.
Assigned as the parochial vicar at St. Henry in Belleville and chaplain at Althoff Catholic High School in 2009, Father Ancheril retired from active ministry in August of 2010 for reasons of health and is a resident at the Hincke Sense Retirement Home for Priests.

Father Urban Osuji
Father Urban Osuji, a member of the Vincentian religious community, was born March 29, 1958 to
Livinus and Lucy Osuji in the Province of Enugu in Nigeria, Africa.

He attended Bigard Memorial Seminary in Enugu and was ordained by the Most Rev. Mark Unegbu Aug. 9, 1986.
He has been the temporary administrator of St. Mary in Valmeyer and chaplain to Gibault Catholic High School in Waterloo since January of 2008. He is on loan to the diocese for five years.

Father Osuji has served as a former provincial of his religious community in Nigeria. In the
United States he has served in parish ministry in the Archdiocese of Detroit and as chaplain for the Dominican sisters in Oxford, Mich. He has studied pastoral theology at St. Louis University and at Loyola University in Chicago, earning a master’s in theology.

Father Jose Jacob
Father Jose Jacob, a member of the Missionaries of the Company of Mary (Montfort Missionaries), was bornin India May 15, 1958 to K.P. and Annamma Chacko. He attended Christ College in Bangalore, India
and major seminary Dharmaram Pontifical Institute.

He was ordained on his 28th birthday, May 15, 1986, by Archbishop Joseph Powathil.

In this diocese, he served at St. Patrick in Tipton where he celebrated his 25th anniversary and the completion of work on his doctorate at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis.

His final liturgy at the parish occurred on his birthday and anniversary of ordination. After spending time with his family in India, Father Jacob will return to New York to the Montfort Missionaries’ motherhouse where he will be reassigned.

On assignment in this diocese for six years, he began his assignment as administrator at St. Patrick in February 2005. Father Jacob said the past six years with parishioners at St. Patrick had been six of the best years of his priestly ministry.