By Linda Leicht
Springfield News-Leader
January 24, 2008
http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080124/NEWS01/80124056
When John Leibrecht was announced as the new bishop of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Catholic Diocese in 1984, his old friends were not surprised.
Leibrecht, known as Jack to his classmates, was voted most likely to succeed when he was in seminary, said the Rev. Ralph "Jake" Duffner, who was in school with Leibrecht back in the 1950s.
"If anyone gets (to be a bishop), Leibrecht will get it," was the students' conviction, said Duffner, a priest at St. Ambrose parish in Chaffey, in the east part of the diocese.
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| Bishop John J. Leibrecht performs a baptism at St. Agnes Cathedral. |
Leibrecht graduated from Cardinal Glennon College and Kenrick Seminary and was ordained a priest on March 17, 1956. On Thursday, his successor as bishop was named at a news conference in Springfield. He has served as a priest for more than 50 years.
While still a young man in school, Leibrecht was a good student and a serious liturgist, Duffner said. But it was his athletic prowess that Duffner appreciated most.
In high school, when the two young men were both attending Cathedral Latin School in St. Louis, there was an established rivalry between the Irish and the German students on the athletic field.
"Leibrecht always went with the Germans even though his mother was a Fitzgerald," Duffner recalled. "We said, 'Thank goodness you're on our side.'"
Athletics almost led Leibrecht down a completely different path. He and two friends had planned to attend a Catholic high school where they were sure they could play on the varsity basketball team. Circumstances left only young John still registered at the school before the academic year began.
That is when Leibrecht began thinking about something his fourth-grade teacher had said to him. Sister Jolene had encouraged him to think about going to seminary.
"She was very wise," said Leibrecht, still tall and slim like the young basketball player of his youth.
"She said, 'That doesn't mean you're going to be a priest. It means you might well think about being a priest.'"
He thought about it.
He chose to attend the Latin school, a pre-seminary high school. By the time he graduated from high school, he had decided to go on to study theology and then to seminary.
Life of detours
Leibrecht may have been the top choice of his classmates to become a bishop, but he says he never expected the honor.
"Never, never in my life did I ever think about being asked to serve as a bishop," said Leibrecht.
He planned to be a parish priest like the men who had influenced him at his own parish, All Souls in Overland.
"That was my ideal," he said.
He even volunteered to serve in the rural diocese of St. Joseph in northwest Missouri. He was ready to go there after ordination, but was informed the archbishop had changed his mind and he would have to stay in St. Louis.
He understood that decision a few months later when the state was reorganized. The Diocese of St. Joseph was joined with the Kansas City Diocese, and two new dioceses were formed — Jefferson City and Springfield-Cape Girardeau.
The young priest began working as an associate pastor at the St. Louis Cathedral, still hoping for his own parish. But after only two years, the bishop told Leibrecht he would be going to the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., to get his doctorate in education.
He was crushed.
"That was a very difficult time," he said.
Years later, he went back to that bishop, Cardinal Joseph Ritter, and thanked him.
Leibrecht worked in education for 20 years, as a high school principal, on staff at the archdiocese's office of education and eventually as superintendent of education.
Then he decided to pursue his original dream of being a simple parish priest. In 1981, he became pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Florissant.
Only three years later, he received a telephone call that changed his life course, once again.
"I thought, I'm finally back where I want to be, in a parish," Leibrecht remembered. "Then I got a phone call on a Wednesday morning from the Nuncio in Washington, D.C., saying the Holy Father wants you to go to Springfield-Cape Girardeau as bishop."
Leibrecht had heard rumors about who might be sent to the southern diocese, but he was sure there were no rumors about him going.
"When I got that call I was absolutely stunned," he said.
He said yes and hung up the phone.
"I could not get out of that chair, literally," he said. "I thought, 'Glory be to God, my whole life has been changed.'"
Then he remembered those detours in his life — his high school decision, not being allowed to serve in St. Joseph, being assigned to serve in education instead of a parish.
"I just thought, that worked out beautifully," he said. "Let God guide you and see what happens."
Waiting was his next step, and it took three days. He was not allowed to tell anyone about the phone call until he got another call from his own archbishop.
But that call didn't seem to be coming.
"I thought, 'I have several friends who can really do a good Italian accent,'" he said with a chuckle. "I wonder if my leg is getting pulled."
It wasn't, and the archbishop called on Saturday.
Once again, his dream of being a parish priest was derailed. Then a friend told him to think of the job as being a pastor of a very large parish.
Making the time
Springfield-Cape Girardeau is certainly large. It covers the entire southern part of the state, with two cathedrals, one in each of the cities in the diocese's name.
There are 265 miles between the two cathedrals, and the diocese stretches beyond to Joplin.
"I do a lot of work in the car," he said. "I dictate my weekly columns in the Mirror (the diocesan newspaper). I prepare homilies. And I pray."
The Rev. Scott Sunnenberg is one of the priests who appreciates Leibrecht driving all the way to the east end of the state to visit his two parishes and schools.
"When the bishop travels, he will do 15 or 20 things in the course of his travels," Sunnenberg said. "I know that he does make a real effort to try to be present."
Being "present" has been the feature Sunnenberg, a Springfield native, appreciates most about his bishop.
"One of the things that sticks in my mind was the bishop's presence with us in the yearly seminary gathering down in Branson," he said. "The bishop always made time to come down. ... He's always taken that very seriously."
Sunnenberg, who is 31, grew up with Leibrecht as his bishop. He remembers fondly the bishop stopping in at his high school graduation party.
Leibrecht ordained the young priest, but it was the "very special way" that he shared the moment that sticks in Sunnenberg's memory.
"It was just a very powerful moment of joy that he was emotional about," he said. "The bishop just shared in that joy in a very real, very familiar sort of way."
Leibrecht credits those in the diocese with creating that sense of sharing and joy.
"I still remember how warm the welcome was, from the priests as well as from the people," he said of his arrival in 1984.
He spent that first year as bishop visiting every church, mission and school in the diocese, receiving open arms and welcoming smiles wherever he went.
"After that year, I said, 'Thank you, God, for this privilege.'"
Expecting to retire
His new diocese was not only geographically different from St. Louis, it was denominationally unlike the predominantly Catholic area he had left. The southern tier of the state is only 6 percent Catholic.
That, too, he said, has been an unexpected blessing.
"This is the Bible belt," he said. "I had no previous contact with the Assemblies of God or Pentecostals.
"I loved it. I learned from them and I hope that (they) learned something about our Catholic faith, too."
He still remembers fondly his relationship with the late J. Robert Ashcroft, then president of Evangel University. Ashcroft would stop by the bishop's office regularly to pray together. When Ashcroft died, the family asked Leibrecht to speak at the funeral.
"I think he has just been an incredible person as a representative for the Catholic diocese here," said Julene Turnage, director of communications at the Assemblies of God, who also participated in various ecumenical dialogues with Leibrecht.
"That is a real legacy that he is going to leave in this area," she said. "I think he's a wonderful spiritual leader and he's a great guy."
Gary McGee, a professor at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, also got to know Leibrecht during those unofficial dialogues.
"He's just a prince of a Christian leader," said McGee. "I think he's been a real strong voice for Christian ethics here in the Ozarks."
Leibrecht's openness and strong values have helped "change a lot of attitudes" among Protestants and Catholics in the diocese, said McGee.
Leibrecht was one of the many clergy who welcomed the Rev. David Hockensmith when he came to Springfield in 2001 to serve as executive director of the Council of Churches of the Ozarks.
"I felt like I had met a brother in ministry," Hockensmith said.
He appreciated the bishop's spirit, especially after hurricanes Katrina and Rita sent so many Gulf Coast residents up to the Ozarks. The diocese and the council worked closely together to provide needed help for those displaced people.
"I think the bishop's perspective on ministry permeates his organization," said Hockensmith. "We are all children of God."
After more than 50 years in the ministry, Leibrecht is excited about what the new bishop will bring.
Leibrecht plans to retire in Springfield, where he will be a "senior priest in service," available to fill in as needed.
"I will be here strictly to be where I'm needed," he said. "That's what I'm looking forward to."
He will finally be a simple parish priest.
"God has a great sense of humor about timing," said Leibrecht. "I trust the Lord's timing more than I trust my own."
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