Rev. James E. Ennis-Assignment

Assignment Record– Rev. James E. Ennis

Born: August 20, 1925
Ordained: April 16, 1950
Died: February 12, 2000

Start	Stop	Assignment	Town/Accusations	State	Position	Notes
1950 Bishop of La Crosse was John Patrick Treacy (1948-1964).	1951	St. James	La Crosse	WI	3/3 Ennis was last priest listed, after Rev. James J. Sheridan, pastor, and Rev. Peter Stoll, S.V.D.	St. James had a school with 469 students.
1951	1956	Sacred Heart of Jesus Mission- Fall Creek WI	Eau Claire	WI	Pastor was Msgr. John W. Pittz. Revs. Norbert Wilger and Bernard Quint also worked at Sacred Heart during this time.	Sacred Heart had a school with 300-400 students.
1956	1959	Our Lady of Perpetual Help	Arcadia	WI	2/2 Ennis worked under pastors Rev. Cyril J. Smetana (1956-1957) and Rev. John Trant (1957-1959).	Parish had a school wtih 302 students.
1959	1961	St. Michael's	North Creek	WI	1/1
1961 Bishop of La Crosse replacing Treacy was Frederick William Freking (1964-1983).	1968	St. Bridget's	Ettrick	WI	1/1
1961	1968	St. Ansgar	Blair	WI	1/1	St. Ansgar was a mission church of St. Bridget's in Ettrick.
1968	1969	St. John the Baptist	Wilton	WI	1/1
1969	1971	St. Therese of the Child Jesus	Rothschild	WI	Pastor. Other priests were Revs. Robert Hundt and Thomas J. Rudolph.	Parish had a school with roughly 300 students.
1971	1977	St. Killian's	Blenker	WI	1/1
1977	1978	St. Joseph Nursing Home	La Crosse	WI	Chaplain
1978	2000	St. Aloysius	Hillsboro	WI	1/1
1981	1982	St. Patrick's	Elroy	WI	Administrator
1983 John Joseph Paul replaced Freking as La Crosse Bishop (1983-1994), followed by Raymond Leo Burke (1994-2003).	1997	St. John's	Dilly	WI	1/1	St. John's was a mission church of St. Aloysius. St. John's closed in 1997.
1990	2000	St. Joseph's Memorial Hospital	Hillsboro • Named in a 1992 civil suit for damages for sexual assault against a child (La Crosse Tribune December 7, 1996)	WI	Chaplain	The Official Catholic Directories actually list Ennis as hospital’s chaplain from 1990 to 1994 and from 1997 to 2001. No priest is cited as chaplain from 1994 to 1997. It’s likely that Ennis continued to be chaplain during this interim period, and the Directory simply didn’t list him, but it’s also possible that no chaplain was assigned to the hospital from 1994 to 1997. Ennis no longer appears in the Directories after 2001. He died in Wisconsin February 12, 2000.

Source: Official Catholic Directory (New York: Kenedy & Sons, 1951-2001).

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy & Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.