New Priests, New Liturgical Practices

Fr. Biegler remained with the Parish through the war years. Thirty-five parishioners entered the military. Two of the soldiers, Jack Haas and Eugene Heinz, died in accidents while serving. Those back home were encouraged by Fr. Biegler to sign pledge cards to receive communion each Sunday for the soldiers’ safe return. He also planted most of the trees currently on the church grounds.

In 1946 Fr. Biegler was transferred to Mineral Point, beginning another series of shorter pastorates. Father John Pritzl, the former principal of Aquinas High School in La Crosse, served from 1946 to 1952. Fr. Pritzl was very interested in the religious education program and even drove into the rural areas to personally pickup students.

Father Michael Kelnofer came in 1952. Illness forced Fr. Kelnofer to leave after just a few months. Father Peter Zic filled in as temporary administrator for a few months, until Father Peter Leketas was appointed to the parish just before the year ended.

Building a convent for the nuns was a major effort of Fr. Leketas’ tenure. The school’s enrollment had increased to 145 by 1954. This was in part because

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Frank Svetlik purchased school busses to service the public school. His private ownership of the busses made it legal to provide public bussing for religious students. Thus, country students could now attend the Lutheran or St Mary’s schools in town. The classrooms were expanding, absorbing the nuns’ living space and creating the need for a convent.

St. Mary’s convent cost $40,000. The Most Reverend John P. Tracey, Bishop of La Crosse, dedicated the building on May 15, 1955. Another $20,000 was spent remodeling the school and on church improvements.

Fr. Leketas was another popular pastor, known for his wit and understandable sermons. He was a different presence in the school, recalled former student Mary Prock. He could take a good joshing, even when her brothers would chant, "Pete Lekeet with the big (and sometimes stinky) feet."

For a short time in the fall of 1955, an assistant priest joined Fr. Leketas. Father Joseph Maciulaitus was a refugee from Lithuania.

In 1957 Fr. Leketas was transferred to St. James in Eau Claire. Father Joseph Eisenmann replaced him. Fr. Eisenmann was in poor health, and only stayed to 1961.

The Reverend Bernard Kelly followed. Fr. Kelly presided over the many liturgical changes emanating from the great Second Vatican Council of the Church. The altar was turned around and Mass was said with the priest facing the people. Lay people took a greater part in the liturgy. Eventually, the communion rail was removed. And most importantly, English (the vernacular) replaced Latin as the language of the Mass. St. Mary’s children’s choir presented the first Mass sung in English on December 1, 1964. The streams of change have continued to this day, which is why we have lay Eucharist ministers and female servers.

While these changes initially did the least to modify the physical layout, they probably had the most affecting impact of the Twentieth Century. The liturgical reform was received with every emotion from elated enthusiasm to frustrated anger.

"All the prayers in Latin, you can’t beat them for beauty," commented Harold Langreck. "You can’t beat the Latin chants the nuns used to do. It’s what you’ll hear in heaven. But we’ve got to move on. We can’t stay with the old language and the old fashions."

The change had an immediate impact on Dr. Greg Foster, then a fifth grader at St. Mary’s School and an altar server. He described what it was like:

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actions of serving Mass. The priest and servers spent

Five months after this rigorous training, Sister Joan Marie announced the servers would be changing to English prayers and new actions. They would be facing the people and utilizing a low altar where the priest would also face the people, even during consecration prayers. The congregation would now be more involved in prayers and responses.

"I must have objected too loud about having to learn the old methods in the first place," Foster reminisced. "I found myself after school copying longhand a document Sister found on giving service to the Lord and not counting the cost."

Fr. Kelly was planning to add a gym to the school and had the money set aside. The project was derailed by the death of Bishop Tracey and never came to fruition. He also promoted the blacktopping of the church parking lot, but was transferred to Sparta in June of 1966, before the project was started.

The parking lot was completed by Fr. George Nelson, who served St. Mary’s from June of 1966 until June 1970. Fr. Nelson’s accomplishments include the establishing of a school board as well as a number of improvements in the school and church.

Fr. Nelson became pastor of St. Patrick’s at Halder, and was replaced at Neillsville by Father Charles Brady on July 1, 1970. Fr. Brady, born and raised in Ireland and possessing that island’s easy-going charm, was an immediate hit with the parishioners.

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The high point of his tenure was the renovation of the church in the summer of 1972 to the appearance we recognize in 2004. The program included routine cleaning and maintenance, and a major remodeling of the sanctuary and altar platform to reflect more effectively the needs of the new Post-Vatican II liturgy. The interior was painted and decorated and carpeting installed, interior lighting was increased to accent the altar and pulpit areas. The existing altars were remodeled to provide a new tabernacle Altar of repose. A new main altar and baptistery area were provided. The Holy Family statues were placed on their ledge on the south side of the Sanctuary.

The church also acquired a new, hand carving of the crucified Christ. The work, done by noted Tyrolean sculptor Heinrich Morodor Doss, was mounted on the rear wall of the Sanctuary, where it continues to hang today. Money originally earmarked for the school gym helped pay for the updating.

The church was rededicated in a major ceremony on October 1, 1972, officiated by the Most Rev. Frederick W. Freking, Bishop of La Crosse.

The low point of Fr. Brady’s years intersected this high, the closing of the School. Peak enrollment was 180 in the mid 1960’s but had declined to 118 in 1972. But the primary reason for closing was a shortage of nuns. This was a national problem as vocations declined in the 1960’s and 70’s. In later years, two lay teachers, Protestant in some cases, were used to supplement only two SSND nun teachers. Finally, the SSND superiors stated they would withdraw completely from Neillsville and two other diocesan schools at the end of the 1972-73 school year.

The final year’s teachers were Sister Janet Kress, principal, Sister Mary Valerie, Mrs. Mary Kastern of Loyal, and Mrs. Peggy Chose of Neillsville.

There was insufficient support within the parish to invest the kind of money necessary to keep the school going, explained Vern Mayer, St. Mary’s school board president in 1972. Lay teachers cost twice what the nuns received. Costly curriculum changes to improve the sciences, arts and physical education were also needed. A proposal to run a first through fourth grade program did not find support either. There was consensus that it made no sense to operate a parochial school without nuns, or a priest, or even Catholics as teachers, he said.

"It seemed like we had no choice," he said of the closure. "The final motion was to close the school in favor of a strong CCD program," said Mayer.

A religious instructional program was not new. One had existed back at least to the Fr. Dorrenbach years for Catholic youth who did not attend the Parochial school. But the new program meant an exponential expansion.

An auction of school items was held just after the closure. The $3,000 raised was used to buy materials for Confraternity of Catholic Doctrine (CCD) program. In August, Brother Stephen Calari, CSPX, became coordinator of religious education and was put in charge of high school CCD. Barbara Kissner was hired to run the grade school program. But the program struggled. Brother Stephen left after one year, and Kissner a year later.

Fr. Brady retired in June of 1974, but not before making a phone call to secure the future of the parish.

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