Diocesan priests assemble at BCU for annual retreat

By KENNY KEANE, Globe staff reporter
June 19, 2003

Canon law states that priests are supposed to make a retreat every year. Each priest can select his own place to go to fulfill this requirement.

For the second consecutive year, a number of priests from the Sioux City Diocese recently gathered on the campus of Briar Cliff University in Sioux City for an annual, optional retreat.

According to Father Kevin Richter, a member of the diocese's continuing formation committee for clergy, in the past years, priests have sort of been left on their own to find a place to go on retreat. So he said the committee decided there would be a real benefit in providing a retreat for the priests in the diocese.

"This is not only for their own convenience but also to continue to build the fraternity among the priests of the diocese so that they would be together on retreat," said Father Richter, pastor of St. Boniface Church in Sioux City. "Obviously, if we're going to be spiritual leaders - people who talk about prayer and people who teach about prayer and relationships with God - then it's important that we as priests also remain centered in that and take the time and the space away to center and to know God.

"That's our goal - trying to help facilitate that for our priests. We now have a partnership with Briar Cliff that every year, the second week of June, there will be a priest retreat up at Briar Cliff."

This year's retreat, which was held June 9-13, included a conference each morning at 9:30, Mass every day at 11:15 a.m. and another conference every afternoon at 4:30.

Father Dismas Bonner, a Franciscan priest from a retreat center in Ditmer, Mo., served as the director for the retreat and presenter for the two, daily conferences.

"He talked about priesthood, specifically, and the situation that the priesthood of the United States finds itself in today," said Father Michael Erpelding, administrator of St. Mary Church in both Mapleton and Oto, who attended the retreat. "One of the things that I got from that is that we have to find joy in the mystery of being priests, the mystery of creation and relationships. We also reflected upon our need to be healed because we're all hurt due to the United States' situation with the priests abusing.

"So we need to work together to heal each other, and we need to treat each other with respect. We need to listen to each other. If we're hurting, we need to be able to say that to each other and to support each other because the church has encountered somewhat of a crisis, and it is affecting some people."

Another priest who attended the retreat, Father Donald Slaven, pastor of St. Joseph Church in Salix, said he liked Father Bonner's talk about mystery and also valuing practical, good things about life today.

"He's very positive, which I liked, and he had a good sense of humor," Father Slaven said. "He was strong on priests and religious people not taking themselves too seriously, which I thought was good."

The rest of the time at the retreat, the priests were encouraged to socialize with other priests and to spend some time in prayer and for personal reflection.

"We had a lot of time to ourselves," Father Erpelding said. "Father Dismas encouraged us to be alone because in our day-to-day life we may be prevented from doing that because of the life of a priest being so busy. So he encouraged us to be alone with our God - to discern how God is working in our lives and to use this time productively."

A total of 33 priests from throughout the diocese attended the retreat, according to Father Richter, who said that the retreat appeared to be a success.

"There were a lot of positive comments from the priests about Father Dismas," he said. "I think everything went very well at Briar Cliff. The priests liked the setting up there. We're grateful for their hospitality, and I think it's a good partnership with them."