Parish/Church
St. John the Baptist – Howard
Date and Mass time
October 3, 2015 – 4:30PM Mass
Celebrant
Fr. John Bergstadt
Deacon Manny Torres
The trip there and back
Our trip this month was predicated on the wedding of my cousin’s old son Jason Nelsen. The wedding was on the west side of Green Bay so I started looking there and found St. John’s. We had been there once for a wake but never for Mass. This is also the parish that our niece Tara teaches at.
As is usual, getting ready for a wedding can take some time, so we weren’t there as early as usual, and we also got behind some slow traffic on Tower Drive bridge cause more slight delays. Not a big deal but we didn’t get all the outside pictures we normal would. But the grounds there are HUGE so we would not have been able to anyway unless we got there an hour ahead. Maybe we will take another trip to do that.
We got to the wedding in plenty of time and have a good dinner. Congrats to Jason and Jennifer!
Weather
Another gray fall day. The temps have gone down over the last week, and although it IS October, it still has been a shock. I would guess we maybe got up to 60 degrees today, but just barely if we did due to the clouds. But it was a very nice day for a ride.
Parish History
The website has a timeline of the parish history. On the way out we wondered what the “old” stone church was used for as it was still up. The timeline answers that as a Youth Ministry center.
Timeline of St. John the Baptist Parish/School
1849 Log church built under direction of Rev. Father Bonduel, near Duck Creek, 3.5 miles northwest of Fort Howard, old cemetery established
1853 Fr. Turcotte was appointed the parish's first pastor.
1860 Fr. Goey was our pastor. He was the first postmaster of the settlement.
1877 Large brick veneer church built on present property -- church entrance on west side
1881 Rev. Edward F. Van Hootegem, Pastor, St. John the Baptist, 1881 - 1892
1887 Three bells for the church were purchased for $252.82.
1888 St. Leo's school was built with four rooms. The Sisters of St. Francis of Bay Settlement led the school.
1889 St. Leo's school dedicated, October 1st, 1889
1894 New pastor's house constructed after fire destroyed the old one
1913-1915 Corner church constructed using stone from Duck Creek quarry
1949 New eight room school built to replace the original school of 1888 (this is now the middle section of the present school)
1953 The parish celebrates it's 100th year anniversary (centennial). Fr. Hennessey was the pastor at the time.
1956 Fr. Goetz was appointed pastor and served our parish for 19 years.
1957 1894 rectory razed and the present rectory built
1958 Four room addition to the school on the east side built
1958 Twenty room convent constructed to replace the 70 year old structure
1964 Addition to the school on the west side, consisting of five classrooms, cafeteria, kitchen, large meeting room, and a tunnel connecting the church and the school constructed
1975 Basement of corner church converted to a chapel
1988 Frs John Penzenstadler and David Plier, both diocesan priests, were appointed co-pastors.
1988 Centennial year for the school.
1989 Rededication of St. John the Baptist School, October 1st, 1989 and appointment of Fr. William Swichtenberg as co-pastor.
1995 Dedication of new addition, gym, pre-school, library-media center, and commons. Fr. Greg Smith was appointed co-pastor.
2000 Mortgage burning celebration. It took five years to pay off the Activity Center loan of $1,010,000.
2003 St. John the Baptist celebrates it's 150 year anniversary (sesquicentennial).
2005 Fr. John Bergstadt was appointed pastor of our parish, and Deacon Manny Torres was appointed shortly thereafter.
2006-2007 Construction of existing church and dedication on Oct 7, 2007.
2008 Convert old stone church to Youth Ministry
2009 1957 rectory razed for safety and cost-savings and new rectory was built.
2009 St. John the Baptist School becomes part of the GRACE school system.
2011 GRACE took over complete operation of St. John the Baptist School.
2013 Six years after the dedication of the new church, the parish continues to grow at 100+ families per year. The parish has been around for 160 years!
Reflections
St. Johns is a new church building (see the timeline) and is setup in the newer semicircle design, but it has a lot of the older architectural church stuff included so it appears new and old. It’s really a nice looking church.
As we walked in it was really nice to be greeted by Father John on the way in. Priests are very busy men these days and often don’t have time for those basics, but it sure was nice to get such a friendly greeting.
Deacon Manny staffed with an announcement before Mass that their Capitol Campaign had collected enough to pay off their mortgage AND pay for the new parking lot. Woohoo!
Father John is a very pronounced priest and reverently goes through Mass. The readings and Gospel were on marriage this weekend and Deacon Manny had a really GREAT homily. True and in depth, yet at a common man level that could apply to all our lives. I also noted a lack of “judgment” on those in our culture that have failed at marriage and a real sense of mercy for them. I thought it was wonderful.
At the end of Mass Father also pointed out the 62nd Anniversary that day of a couple in front. How awesome! I would also be remiss if I failed to mention the young man Joe in the pew in front of us that kept me entertained during Mass. Joe was perhaps 3 and had his miniature
John Deere tractors along to keep him occupied. He was very good during Mass.
Again, we found ourselves in the splendor and grace of God in our visit. I know each of these churches is the house of God, but seeing them for the first time really shows how spectacular they all really are. What a great trip!
Pictures
