(Wisconsin Historical Society photo)
Twelfth in a series on the 75th anniversary of the Diocese of Madison
Fr. Jim McEnery was ordained to the priesthood on May 14, 1953, along with classmates August Buenzli and Tom Massion, by Bishop William P. O’Connor.
Holy Redeemer Church in Madison was used since St. Raphael Cathedral was undergoing its first renovation.
Father Jim still remembers most of his 68 years as a priest, and at age 94, he is the oldest living priest ordained in the diocese.
Trained by the Benedictines
In an interview, Father Jim looked back on his years in the diocese, often with his characteristic sense of humor.
A native of Chicago, he decided to see if he somehow had a vocation to the priesthood. Following the advice of a high school instructor, a Servite, Father Jim went to the Benedictine Conception Abbey in Missouri. After two years of college, the rector of the seminary “advised” him to get connected with a diocese.
The Servite suggested he call the Diocese of Madison. Bishop O’Connor himself answered the phone and invited him to come and talk about it. The visit lasted just 10 minutes, with the bishop accepting Father Jim to study for the Diocese of Madison.
When asked what Bishop O’Connor was like, Father Jim mentioned how the bishop loved to visit and talk, sometimes to strangers on the street. For the most part, the bishop was most congenial. “He was a lot like my grandfather,” said Father Jim.
Starting out as a priest
His bio sheet lists the dates Father Jim served in parishes around the diocese, but as he said, they are “bloodless” and don’t tell the back story.
For example, his dad was a Chicago fireman, and every year the son of a fireman was asked to offer Mass at the Memorial Day Mass for Firemen at Resurrection Parish on Chicago’s west side.
This was a huge event, and Father Jim, newly ordained, was invited to celebrate the Mass.
He asked Bishop O’Connor if he could have that first weekend off, and the bishop graciously complied. “Oh, yes indeed. What an honor. Report to your parish at Dodgeville on Monday instead.”
However, no one thought to mention this to Fr. John Doran, the pastor of St. Joseph Parish at Dodgeville. When Father Jim arrived, the first words he heard were, “Where have you been?” “He was just carrying on. Sort of,” said Father Jim.
Father Doran was really glad to see him, because later that week, some of the Doran family drove to California. Father Jim offered the two Sunday Masses, and alone in the rectory, the doorbell rang and there stood a priest. “I’m Fr. Larry Clark. I’m down at Holy Rosary in Darlington. Let’s go have something to eat.” “What a welcome visitor,” remembered Father Jim.
Building rapport
Father Jim noted that the new diocese had been carved out of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee (seven counties) and the Diocese of La Crosse (four counties). Some of the older priests had difficulty with this, having been cut off from their roots.
But the younger priests had something special going: the yearly homiletic training week at Queen of Apostles Seminary in Madison. The Eli Lilly Company sponsored this program for 10 years to promote better preaching. “I don’t think this improved our preaching much, but the bonding, the friendship, the being part of the group — well talk about rapport,” said Father Jim.
“Priests need priests, and this program fostered as great a spirit as any other diocese enjoyed. And we had great preachers, like Frs. Eddie Bier and Gil Carlton, as students in the program. True, we also endured redundant classes on how to fill out those exciting marriage papers, but compared to the rewards, it all was truly a blessing for our diocese.”
Serving in parishes
When looking at Father Jim’s bio, one notices that he served at quite a few parishes, both as an assistant and a couple of times as administrator, due to the death of those pastors. Because of deaths, strokes, and heart attacks, some assignments were quite brief, a matter of months.
After just 15 months at Dodgeville, Bishop O’Connor called Father Jim up and told him he would be going to St. John the Evangelist Parish in Spring Green with Fr. Joe Flad, since Father Joe was very ill and there was talk of the trustees having seized the parish books.
The first day at the new parish, the two trustees appeared at the door and asked Father Jim to please take the parish books off their hands. The problem was solved.
Father Jim was a hero in the bishop’s eyes. “You’re my trouble shooter,” the bishop told him.
By the end of December, Father Flad had died, and in February, Fr. Aloysius Fellenz was named the new pastor.
Next Father Jim was assigned to St. Joseph Parish in Baraboo, with Msgr. Francis Xavier Gray as pastor. He had had a stroke, and suffered a second stroke while visiting Ireland, never to return as active pastor.
Father Jim went to Muscoda to help Fr. Charles Serges at St. John the Baptist Parish. At that time, St. John’s had both a grade school and high school, all in a two-story frame building on the corner where the present rectory stands. Five School Sisters of St. Francis operated the school.
Father Jim taught religion, Latin, and algebra. “There was no lunchroom, no indoor toilets, and yet these folks displayed the greatest spirit of commitment a parish ever had,” said Father Jim.
Next came St. William Parish in Janesville. Father Jim was promised that this assignment would last just one year. So the next year, starting in June of 1957, Father Jim spent the next four “wonderful years” in Shullsburg with Fr. Jake Mlsna, his favorite pastor.
After his shortest (three months) assignment at Holy Redeemer Parish in Madison, Father Jim’s first pastorate was at Immaculate Conception Parish in Blanchardville, with St. Michael Parish at Yellowstone as the mission parish. He served there from 1962 to 1966. At this time, all the changes in the liturgy were coming that grew out of the Second Vatican Council. He remembers the crew carrying out the Communion rail just as the Lutherans across the street were carrying in their new one.
Father Jim was happy as Tennyson’s pastor of St. Andrew and administrator of St. Andrew-St. Thomas School. He renovated the church while there. He expected an even longer stay when the assignment was cut short. The new Bishop Cletus F. O’Donnell called and said, “I want you at St. Paul’s in Madison” on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
Msgr. Henry McMurrough, Fr. Roger Nilles, and Father Jim all checked in at St. Paul’s to work with Fr. Joe Brown. “The bishop’s reasoning was that the students there were our future leaders and should be offered adequate service from their Church,” said Father Jim.
“The whole experience at St. Paul’s was exciting, to say the least, including protests and explosions. But at the same time, many priests were leaving, so four priests at the Catholic Center seemed like a luxury.”
So he was put back into parish work: 31 years as pastor at St. Mary Parish in Milton and Newman chaplain at Milton College until it closed.
Father Jim calls those years in Milton the “golden years” of his priesthood. “The town and parish were growing. The parishioners were anxious to serve on something new: Parish councils. The church building was more than doubled in capacity to handle the growth.”
Everywhere he served, Father Jim was impressed by the people in the parishes. “People everywhere are heroic and go the extra mile. They are just great!”
After retirement
After his retirement in 1999, Father Jim helped out for 11 years at St. Peter Parish in Madison with Fr. Roger Nilles, and retired a second time when Father Nilles retired.
Meanwhile, Father Jim has done substitute teaching at both parochial and public grade schools, preached all over the country for Food for the Poor, helped feed the people in Haiti, and built houses in Guatemala.
Father Jim now splits his time between Madison and Stuart, Fla. He helps out some at the parishes in each place, but has been cutting back lately.
A recent highlight was celebrating Mass with Pope Francis in 2018 along with his seminary classmate, Fr. Richard Kuhn of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, as they observed their 65th year of ordination. They were invited to celebrate Mass in the chapel of Domus Sanctae Marthae and visit with the Holy Father afterwards.
Mary C. Uhler served on the staff of the Catholic Herald-Diocese of Madison for almost 47 years, the last 34 years as editor. She retired in July of 2020.