June 19, 2009 to June 11, 2010
Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus 2009-2010
Pope Benedict XVI has announced a “Year of the Priest,” June 19, 2009–June 11, 2010, a year of prayer that ordained priests may more fully conform themselves to Christ, their Savior and Lord.
On this page we will occasionally feature one of
the priests who served Saint Lawrence Parish.
Fr. Joseph M. Kuemper was the founder and first pastor of St. Lawrence Parish.
Father Kuemper was born March 22, 1855, in Ibbenbueren, Westphalia, Germany (about 25 miles north of Műnster). His parents were farmers who died in their 40s. Father Kuemper was one of six children. He studied at University of Leuven in Leuven, Belgium, then the Grand Seminaire in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and then St. Francis de Sales Seminary in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was ordained to the priesthood March 7, 1880, at St. Raphael Cathedral in Dubuque, Iowa.
1880-83 Father Kuemper taught at St. Joseph College (later, Loras College) in Dubuque and helped at St. Mary Church in Dubuque. 1883-87 he was pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish in Centralia, then 1887-1900 pastor of Saints Peter & Paul parish in Sherrill where he built a new church, school, and rectory and founded St. Francis Parish in Balltown where he built a church, school, and rectory. During one of his years in Sherrill (late 1890s), Father Kuemper made weekly train trips from Dubuque to Mount Carmel to oversee the building of a new church there Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish was temporarily vacant and the second church had been destroyed by fire.
In June 1900 Father Kuemper was appointed pastor of Saints Peter & Paul Parish in Carroll and lived the remainder of his earthly life there.
He built a parish hall at SS. Peter & Paul, added to the school, and enlarged the rectory. In 1903 he purchased land from his own funds for the new Saint Anthony Hospital and recruited the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (LaCrosse, Wisconsin) to operate it. The hospital was dedicated in 1905, and the School of Nursing began that same year.
In 1904 Father Kuemper founded and was pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Maple River (1904-08) while continuing as pastor of Ss. Peter & Paul. In 1909 he started the St. Angela Domestic Science School (Academy).
In 1914 he founded and was pastor of Holy Family Parish in Lidderdale (1914-19). The same year he founded St. Lawrence Parish on the north side of Carroll and was pastor until a resident pastor (Fr. Joseph Cordes) was appointed in 1917...all this while caring for Ss. Peter & Paul.
Saint Lawrence Church was dedicated December 3, 1916. Because neither Bishop Philip Garrigan nor his Vicar General (Msgr. J. T. Saunders of Corpus Christi Parish, Fort Dodge) could attend, Father Kuemper conducted the dedication himself. He said: “The founding of St. Lawrence Parish will mark the beginning of a new progress for Carroll, hastening the settling of a new section of the city. Carroll will grow in a northerly direction since people will settle near the new church and school. The time will come when the original St. Lawrence building will be too small.”
St. Lawrence School opened in September 1917.
Father Kuemper contracted rheumatism in the summer of 1918. From July 1919 until his death September 13, 1922 (67 years of age) his pastoral work was limited by his illness. More than 2,000 mourners attended his funeral Mass at Ss. Peter & Paul Church, including 130 of his brother priests. All Carroll businesses closed during the funeral out of respect for this great priest and missionary. Father Kuemper was a generous man. All his income beyond his personal expenses went to works of charity, the parishes, hospital, and schools he founded. Most appropriately, at its founding in 1953, Kuemper Catholic High School was named after Father Joseph Kuemper. His spirit lives among us. May he continue to inspire us to do our part for the mission Christ entrusts to us.
A Prayer for Priests by Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J.
The priest is not an angel sent from heaven.
He is a man chosen from among men, a member of the Church, a Christian.
Remaining man and Christian, he comes to you
because God has told him to proclaim God’s word.
Perhaps he has not entirely understood it himself.
Perhaps he betrays it even.
But he believes, and despite his fears
he knows that he must communicate God’s word to you.
For must not some one of us say something about God, about eternal life,
about the majesty of grace in our sanctified being?
Must not some one of us speak of sin, the judgment, and mercy of God?
So my dear friends, pray for him.
Carry him so that he might be able to sustain others
by bringing to them the mystery of God’s love revealed in Christ Jesus.
