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Out in Greene County, Iowa
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 It's celebration time for a Priest's 50th anniversary and his church building's 100th
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER
June 7, 2009
JEFFERSON, IOWAWe had one of the finest, and most fun days I can remember during my five years of membership at St. Joseph Catholic Church here today, when we celebrated the 50 years of priesthood of our pastor, Rev. Don Ries. Who knew it’d be such a kick?
The church was packed for an 11 a.m. mass, and then more than 325 were served at a midday banquet that overflowed the parish center. There’d also been big crowds Saturday night in neighboring Grand Junction, where our sister parish St. Brigid Catholic Church celebrated with Father Ries at a late-afternoon mass, and then a big dinner at which he and his extended family were the honored guests.
This starts a very special summer for St. Joseph Church here. The church building is 100 years old in 2009, and we’re having a three-day celebration of that centennial September 18-20. That event is named “The Gathering of 100 Years: A Festival of Hope.” There will be several events leading up to that celebration, at least one every month, too. The congregation’s history actually stretches back to the first mass in about 1870.
To help herald the two celebrations, the 100-year committee, on which I’m one of four co-chairpersons, ordered the making and hanging of two huge banners on the exterior walls of the church steeple. One banner, 40 feet five inches long, salutes “a century in this holy building” for St. Joseph Church. The other banner, 35 feet five inches long, heralds the “half century of priesthood for our pastor, Father Don Ries.”
A Jefferson company, Action Graphics & Embroidery, made the 36-inch-wide banners. The hardware to hang and anchor the banners was designed and assembled by Derrik Bauer, a parish member who is part of the staff at Tri-County Lumber in Jefferson, and installed by contractor Jim Guillman, another member of St. Joseph.
You’ll see in the photo captions below that we’ve also hired our first-ever “Steeplejack” to take charge of the hanging and removal of the banners, 17-year-old Nathan Steussy. He is a senior-to-be at Jefferson-Scranton High School who is athletic and thus nimble enough to make several climbs of the steeple this summer when we hoist the banners for special occasions, then take them down. They went up for the first time Friday, June 5, and the plan is to leave them up through next weekend’s 30th annual Bell Tower Festival in Jefferson.
They added a distinctive touch to the celebration of Father Ries’ 50th.
A native of Pocahontas in northwest Iowa, he holds a bachelor degree from Loras College, a master’s from Creighton University, he graduated from St. Bernard Seminary in Dubuque in 1959 and was then ordained in Sioux City. He has served pastorates and taught in Spirit Lake, Algona, Breda, Schaller, Storm Lake, Algona, Sutherland, Primghar, Emmetsburg, Sioux City and Fort Dodge before being assigned to Jefferson and Grand Junction nine years ago. His stay here has been his longest anywhere.
“I’ve now began my second 50 years of priesthood, and how long it will last, none of us know,” the 75-year-old Ries said in leading off his homily to the big crowd Sunday morning. Not only was there a nearly total turn-out by St. Joseph Church members, but many from the Ries family, parishioners from his earlier assignments, and four or five of his high school classmates were also attending. One guest drove from 600 miles away.
Father Ries closed his sermon by saying, “So I thank you who’ve come out of your past – or out of my past – to come here to pray a little and celebrate a little. And remember, that no matter what we’re doing or where we go in the future, God is always with us.”
He concelebrated the mass with four old priest friends – including former St. Joseph pastor Rev. Roger Linnan, now a pastor in Hawarden; Rev. Dick Sitzmann, now a hospital chaplain in Sioux City; Rev. Clair Boes, who is retired in Rockwell City, and Rev. Richard Remmes, retired in Arcadia.
After mass, there was a huge banquet meal served to more than 325 people at the parish center, with everybody welcomed as guests of the parish.
Following the meal, Father Sitzmann, who could do stand-up comedy, served as emcee and chief roaster at a grilling of Father Ries, whom he told us has always had the nickname of “Barney” among the priests in the diocese. He kidded Ries about how often he goes on vacations, including for golf and skiing, and how he’s traveled nearly everywhere on Earth.
“My brother is kind of an Irish wit, and he says Barney Ries is bound to go to heaven, because he’s already been everywhere else,” said Sitzmann. “This Barney, he was cool before cool was cool, you know? He could stand in a hurricane and not get his hair messed up.”
Other “roasters” in a fast-moving 20-minute program were Father Linnan; Father Ries’ former parish member Marilyn Schimmer, of Sutherland, and current parish member Johnette Kellogg, of St. Brigid Church.
Bob Larson, president of the St. Joseph parish council, noted that members of the congregation had contributed to a special collection for a gift for Father Ries. Larson presented him with a gift certificate “that will buy you a very, very, very nice set of custom golf clubs, and we had enough left over that you’re going to be able to go on another one of those vacations and probably even be able to buy a mulligan or two.”
And thus began what should be a very memorable summer for the whole community around St. Joseph Catholic Church.
More of the story is told in the photos and captions below.
You can write the columnist at chuck@Offenburger.com.
One of the most identifiable features of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Jefferson is the distinctive top of the steeple. This photo is featured on the special T-shirts being made now to observe the 100th year of the church building.
Rev. Don Ries, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church, celebrated his 50 years of priesthood with special masses on Saturday, June 6, at St.Brigid Church in Grand Junction, and on Sunday, June 7, at St. Joseph Church in Jefferson. Here he is shown outside the church, which has been decorated with two banners flowing from the steeple. The left banner salutes the 100 years of the church building, the right one heralds Father Ries’ 50 years of pastoral service in 14 parishes around the Sioux City Catholic Diocese in northwest Iowa.
Father Ries is shown here delivering the homily at the mass on Sunday, June 7, in a packed St. Joseph Church in Jefferson. He always speaks without notes, standing in the front middle of the altar area.
Father Ries as he concluded his homily at his 50-year celebration: “And remember, that no matter what we’re doing or where we go in the future, God is always with us.”
One of the largest crowds in recent history at St. Joseph Church filled nearly all the seats on the main floor and in the old choir loft upstairs. The congregation is shown here, holding hands while singing “The Lord’s Prayer,” which has become a tradition in the parish.
After the special anniversary mass, Father Ries followed his usual practice of greeting parish members and visitors at the church door. Here he says hello to members Angela and Jeremy Bane of Jefferson.
Here Father Ries has a quick conversation with Mary Fachman, a visitor from Fort Dodge.
More than 325 people attended a banquet meal at midday Sunday, June 7, as part of the celebration of the 50 years of priesthood of pastor Father Don Ries. Here he is shown with his old pal, Father Dick Sitzmann, now a chaplain at Mercy Hospital in Sioux City, who co-pastored churches for 11 years together earlier in their careers. Sitzmann, who is hilarious, served as emcee of a “roast” of Father Ries after the banquet meal.
Here is a view of the Parish Center at St. Joseph Church, filled for the banquet meal after Father Ries’ anniversary mass. Classrooms up and down an adjacent hallway were also filled by diners. All were guests of the parish.
Father Ries had a steady stream of people coming up to congratulate him at the head table between the banquet meal and the program that followed. Talking to him here is Denise Lopez, of Sioux City, and clockwise from Lopez are Jane Alexander of Jefferson, Louise Vogel of Churdan, Janet Schnabel (Father Ries'' sister) of St. Cloud, Minnesota, and Benita Williams of Sioux City. Williams, who is an old friend of the pastor, donated a baby grand piano to St. Joseph Parish in 2004.
On the “Banner Day” of Friday, June 5, the banners were hung for the first time at St. Joseph Church. Here, left to right, Derrik Bauer, Nathan Steussy and parish member Dennis Tiffany install one of the anchor pipes in the base of the 100-year banner.
Pat Harrah, left, of Action Graphics in Jefferson, here is shown helping Nathan Steussy roll up the 100-year banner so he could carry it up into the St. Joseph Church steeple.
With the banners and other equipment in hand, Derrik Bauer (left), Michael Hoyt and Nathan Steussy start into St. Joseph Church, then up to the second level, and then Hoyt helped hand the materials up into the steeple. Steussy and Bauer made the climb on up to the top, while Hoyt came back to join the ground crew. He, like Steussy, is a member of the St. Joseph Church youth group, and was working in the last session of Vacation Bible School at the parish when he was drafted for help on the banners project. The steeple, once you climb through the ceiling of the second floor of the church, goes up through one 10-foot-high chamber, then up through another chamber about six feet tall, and then finally out into the belfry.
When the 100-year banner was fully lowered, then Michael Hoyt and others began the process of anchoring it on the base of the steeple.
Here, Michael Hoyt and Dennis Tiffany are shown on ladders after they had anchored the 50-year banner on the south exterior wall of the steeple. Note it is anchored above a door into the church. This banner celebrates the half-century of priesthood of pastor Father Don Ries.
Here’s how both banners look on the church steeple after they were completely anchored, as well as tightened and secured up in the belfry. Michael Hoyt and Dennis Tiffany are shown standing on the sidewalk in front of the church. Barely visible up in the belfry are Derrik Bauer and Nathan Steussy. The first hanging of the banners required two and a half hours.
While working on the banners project, and other parts of celebration of the 100 years of the St. Joseph Catholic Church building, the committee has become aware of the many distinctive architectural and design touches of the church. Note the different crosses on the three peaks of the church.
There’s a wonderful greeting and farewell sign that hangs above the rectory next door to St. Joseph Catholic Church in Jefferson, and that sign is shown here.
You can write the columnist at chuck@Offenburger.com.
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