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Diocesan priest serves parishes in Nevada in retirement

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
(Email Katie)

LOGANDALE, Nev. – A man of nature, a retired priest of the Diocese of Sioux City, is taking in new scenery.

Father Verne Stapenhorst began serving two parishes in Nevada in December 2008. He works with Father Bob Puhlman, who is the pastor at St. John the Evangelist Church in Logandale and La Virgen de Guadalupe Church in Bunkerville, Nev.

Getting to Nevada
When Father Stapenhorst was finished helping at St. Patrick Parish in Estherville around Thanksgiving, he called an editor at the Sunday Visitor and asked if there was work for a retired priest.

“Before I got finished with the conversation, he said that on his desk there were two parishes, Bunkerville and Logandale, in need,” said Father Stapenhorst. The editor gave the priest the number to call.

Father Stapenhorst talked to the secretary for the two parishes and received information. A short time later, Father Puhlman called and said he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Originally, Father Stapenhorst was going to try things for a month but has been there since. When he arrived, he helped with Advent and Our Lady of Guadalupe activities in the parishes.

“Father Puhlman and I got along very well,” said the priest. “He is from the big city and I am a farm boy. Father was fascinated with my simpler lifestyle.”

Ministry in Nevada
Father Stapenhorst lives in the rectory at St. John’s Church in Logandale, which is located in southern Nevada.

It is in the valley between the mountains. On his birthday, May 17, the priest noted that the temperature was 108 degrees but the “real heat is coming in July and August when it is 125 degrees.”

He celebrates Masses and helps with sacramental ministry to the 200 families – 80 percent Hispanic – who belong to St. John’s.

“It is a wonderful parish. I am certainly enjoying the simple faith of the Spanish people,” said the priest. “Their faith has enriched my priesthood in my sunset years.”

In Bunkerville, Masses are celebrated in a former Mormon Tabernacle. Father Stapenhorst also helps with Masses and sacramental ministry at this parish of about 900 families. He celebrates the 4 p.m. Mass each Saturday.

“I can’t speak their language. I accept and eat Mexican food. I don’t have a strong singing voice to sing with them. But we both have the language of love,” said Father Stapenhorst. “That’s how we get along together. We give each other our hearts.”

He said that his main function is to help Father Puhlman with counseling, confessions and praying the Mass.

Sunrise Liturgy
One of the highlights of Father Stapenhorst’s time in Nevada, so far, was being able to celebrate the sunrise liturgy on Easter Sunday in the Valley of the Fire State Park. The Mass began at 6 a.m. with more than 300 people in attendance.

“It was a beautiful morning. The sun reached the altar during the consecration,” said the priest. “I served in many beautiful churches in Iowa – Ruthven, Humboldt, West Bend and Fort Dodge – but I was never in the church that God built. God helped me with my homily. It was a spiritual experience I will never forget.”

In his homily, he talked about the resurrection and how light conquers darkness.

“It was a reality for me. For the first time, I witnessed how the light, as the sun was coming over the mountains, penetrated and conquered the darkness,” he said.

During the Mass, Father Stapenhorst placed the Book of Gospels on a large sage since the altar wasn’t big enough.

“We needed no incense,” he said. “The natural perfume of the sage and cactus filled our senses. God’s natural church was filled with the beauty of the desert’s spring flowers arranged in such a way that only Mother Nature could provide. With such beautiful surroundings all were filled with the glory of the resurrection.”