Queen of the Holy Rosary C at h o l i c C h u r c h
Meet Retired Priest Fr. Harry Sch Staying
F
or many of us, the past year has marked one of the most tumultuous and challenging times of our age. However, Fr. Harry Schneider, a retired priest helping out here at Queen of the Holy Rosary, remembers when our nation was faced with an even more complicated period of confusion and change in the 1960s and 1970s. In the case of Fr. Harry, the wave of uncertainty that engulfed our culture during those years was the impetus for a lifelong vocation in the Church. Fr. Harry grew up on a farm south of Emporia in Olpe, Kan. He graduated from high school and went to Emporia State University during a very unique time in our country’s history. “The late 1960s and early 1970s were a very confusing time for people,” says Fr. Harry. “The Church was changing and the culture was changing. There were riots about the Vietnam War and civil rights protests were at their peak. I was a junior when Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated and traveled to a vigil that evening at the state capitol building with my friends. I remember sitting on the floor in my parents’ house watching the moon landing.”
With the world seeming to shift beneath everyone’s feet, Fr. Harry experienced a life-changing moment with our Lord. “In the midst of those scientific advancements and all the riots, one Sunday at Mass, I just had a powerful sense of God’s presence and the meaning of the Eucharist,” he says. “I had been reflecting at the time, ‘What can I do with my life in the midst of all this?’ Suddenly I had a sense of the Eucharist as being so central and how we needed to focus on Christ. I knew I needed that in my life, and began thinking about helping others with that, too.” After attending seminary in Colorado and Indiana, Fr. Harry was ordained in the Archdiocese of Kansas in 1974. He served parishes in Johnson, Wyandotte, and Shawnee counties before retiring on July 1, 2019. Fr. Harry once heard the role of a diocesan priest likened to that of a general practitioner in the medical field. Serving on the “frontlines” of the Church, the parish priest is often the first person someone turns to for help or advice. In his 45 years of active ministry, Fr. Harry greatly enjoyed being able to care for his parishioners in this way.
“I love the general parish ministry of a diocesan priest — all of it. I am asked to celebrate the funerals and weddings in families I have known for many, many years. Having ministered to families and staying in contact with them, you develop a lot of relationships and really get to know them. It’s gratifying when a kid will call you and they are now 24 and getting married, and they remember positive experiences from when they were a kid and ask if you will do their wedding.” — Fr. Harry Schneider 4
Focu
continued on page 5
