MY FAVORITE PRIEST

Proud of him

By Sheryl Temaat

n When I met him in 1962, Msgr. Joe Stremel was "Father" Joe, the pastor of a thriving country church, Immaculate Heart of Mary, in Windthorst, Kansas (in southwestern Kansas near Dodge City). He was also the superintendent of the public elementary and high school in Windthorst, coordinator of all the sports activities, teacher of religion, and he ran a little store for the students.

Fr. Joe probably had a day off now and then, but he never skimped on religious devotions. There were Forty Hours devotions, Rogation Days; on the feast of Corpus Christi, there was a procession all the way down the road bordering the pasture next to the church. He was always in the confessional according to the schedule, and he was always there for daily and Sunday Mass.

And he never missed any of the sporting events that the students were involved in. He must have been overworked, but he never complained about all the roles he filled. He hustled about his many duties with a smile, and even had time to hear complaints from a young farm housewife who wanted a different life.

I remember him sitting in his office on hot summer days listening to my crying about how I had gone from college life to cleaning up after and cooking huge meals for a bunch of farmers. I was not happy.

"I want to leave this place, Father Joe," I would sob. "I can't stand it."

His advice always was to rise above adversity. Besides, he would plead with me, "We can't lose our young couples. Windthorst will die."

But we did leave, and Windthorst school did die. And the beautiful church there is now a designated historical monument with Mass only every other week. All of this is very sad.

But the saddest part is what Father Joe said to me on our last visit February 19, 1996: "So many of our married Catholics are having two children and that's all!" He lamented the fact, as if Catholics have a right to limit their families for convenience the way non-Christians do.

Family limitation among Catholics has played a significant role in the decline of not only Catholic communities like Windthorst, Kansas, but of Catholic schools across the nation.

Fr. Joe and I had this wonderful last talk in Windthorst where we had met once more for a burial. He told me again, as he had a few years ago, how proud he was of me for writing articles for his favorite magazine Homiletic and Pastoral Review. "I give subscriptions to it to our new priests, and then hope that they keep it up," he said.

He told me that he often writes letters on subjects we both were concerned about, and that some secular newspapers in Kansas would print them but not the diocesan newspaper. His latest one was on sex education: "I have it ready to go," he said, "but I will suffer repercussions from it." He added, "I always do." He didn't say from whom.

On February 28, 1996, nine days after we had this last conversation Father Joe died suddenly from a heart attack. I wondered if he had mailed his letters on sex education before he died, so I phoned one of the Kansas newspapers he had mentioned. They had received his letter, one of the editors told me, and they had printed it.

In his letter, Fr. Joe began by saying that on February 14, 1996 the Kansas State Board of Education had voted 6-3 against restricting sex education in public schools to lessons in abstinence. He noted that a home-schooling mother had informed him that there are forty Home Education Programs now operative in her public school district primarily because sex programs are not acceptable.

Giving his own opinion, he said that
"a teacher with a 'condom mentality' or
one inebriated with humanism is simply
persona non grata to parents who regard condom use (mutual masturbation) as immoral."

He quoted statistics to show that the number of abortions and children born outside wedlock have increased right along with the implementation of sex education programs.

He ended by advising parents to consult with their minister, rabbi or priest to develop and promote an acceptable program to be taught in the home by fathers and mothers.

Father Joe's last letter was printed in the Garden City Telegram on February 22, 1996, a Thursday. Father died the following Wednesday at the age of 77. Maybe he escaped criticism this time. And maybe he didn't care.

I'd bet my money, however, that where he went he received only praise for what he wrote. I am so grateful that we had our last talk. I am proud of him. n