Native son reflects upon 50 years as Oblate priest

By RENEE WEBB
Content and Design Coordinator

With his 50^th anniversary of religious life just around the corner, Father Louis Studer, OMI, recently reflected on his journey to the priesthood and the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

This native son of the Diocese of Sioux City presently serves as president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas, and was the provincial of the U.S. Province Missionary Oblates.

Off to Missouri 
It was during junior high school, when he not only decided that he wanted to pursue religious life but was urging his parents to allow him to attend a seminary high school in Carthage, Missouri run by the Oblates that was more than seven hours from the family farm near Wesley.

“An Oblate vocation director came to our school both in seventh and eighth grade,” said Father Studer, who had attended St. Joseph Grade School in Wesley. “I invited him (the vocations director) to come to my parents’ house that evening for dinner and then he signed me up to go to the high school seminary.”

Looking back, he realizes he didn’t know the difference between a diocesan or a religious order priest. The diocesan priest who served at the parish, Father Bill Phillips, was well-liked and respected but he thinks what swayed him to the religious order was that the Oblate priest spoke to them directly about vocations.

“I really didn’t know what I was doing, but it all worked out,” he said with a laugh, noting that the Holy Spirit must have been at work.
Father Studer elevates the Eucharist at the Immaculate Conception Chapel at the Oblate School of Theology.
Father Studer stressed the fact that his parents were very supportive of his desire to become a priest but he acknowledged they were a little divided about sending him off to Missouri.
His dad wanted him to go to Bishop Garrigan High School in Algona for high school and later he could go to college seminary. His mother was okay with him going to Carthage because she had spoken with the Franciscans Sister of Milwaukee serving at St. Joseph’s and they thought the seminary high school might be the best choice since he already knew he wanted to be a priest.

It wasn’t long after starting school in Carthage when he got very homesick. He wrote home and told his mom he made the wrong decision. He no longer wanted to become a priest, which Father Studer said was all out of homesickness.

“I got a letter back just a couple of days later. She wrote what was happening in the family and the latest news. At the end of the letter she wrote, ‘You promised dad and me you would stay until Christmas and we are going to keep you to that. Love, Mom.’ I was so angry, but it was the best thing she could have done,” said Father Studer, who remembered that the “Love, Mom” was a bit of a kicker.
By Christmas he had made friends and was doing well. The rest is history.

Drawn to vocation
Father Studer pointed out he was drawn to become a priest – whether Oblate or diocesan – because he wanted to give his life meaning.

Devotion to the faith was something that had been instilled in him by his parents.

“My parents were very good Catholics. We never missed Mass and sometimes went to daily Mass,” he said. Plus, they were active in the parish and the Catholic organizations.
The Catholic school education, example of Father Phillips and other parish priests, added another layer to the solid foundation.
Page 1 article announcing Father Studer's ordination in the June 17, 1976 edition of The Globe.“At first, I certainly entered with a lot of fervor and enthusiasm – I would say thanks to the example of Father Phillips,” the priest said, but he acknowledged he still didn’t know for certain this was definitely God’s path for him.

Going to seminary in the 1960s and 70s, he said part of the discernment even included being encouraged to date.

“Some guys got quite serious with a gal and they dropped out. But for me, it was really solidified the fact that I see that side of life and I also see the other side – the seminary – and I choice the seminary,” said Father Studer.

As a member of a religious order, the year-long period of the novitiate studying the charism, history and mission of the Oblates was very beneficial to him.
“I had an excellent spiritual director who helped to guide me and encourage me – let me be free to make decisions. It helped me decide the positives and negatives of leaving the seminary,” said the Oblate. “That was a real blessing for me. Of course you have spiritual direction all the years of seminary, but that was a pivotal year for me in coming to the firm decision to become a priest."


Father Studer at commencementAs part of the process of belonging to a religious community, he professed temporary vows in 1972 and perpetual vows in 1975, committing to poverty, chastity, obedience and perseverance for the rest of his life.

Father Studer was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Frank Greteman in his home parish at St. Joseph Church in Wesley – which is now part of Divine Mercy Parish of Kossuth County and West Bend – on June 19, 1976.

“Bishop Greteman was very gracious to ordain me because he knew I wouldn’t be doing ministry for the diocese. We’ve never had Oblates in the diocese, but we do have Oblates from the Sioux City Diocese, mainly the Carroll area,” he said.

Oblates
In time he learned more about the Oblates and he liked that they had missions all over the world and that they live in community.

“We are missionaries mainly to the poor, although also to the spiritual poor and materially poor,” he said. “We are in many, many places of the world.”

Father Studer pointed out that the Oblates, headquartered in Rome, have 3,500 priests and brothers in about 70 countries throughout the world. In the United States, there are 210 priests and brothers with missions in the central U.S. from northern Minnesota to southern Texas, Oakland, California on the West Coast and Washington, D.C. on the East Coast.

“There are all kinds of different opportunities. We are in parishes, shrines, retreat houses – so the diversity of ministries and the fact that we are all over the world and that we live in community were probably the most important factors,' he explained.

Father Studer’s assignments have all been in the United States, with his first assignment at a parish in McCook, Nebraska. From there he spent several years in vocations work and training of seminarians and then served as director of the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville while directing a funding raising ministry of the U.S. Oblates. Next he served at a retreat center in Buffalo, Minnesota before being appointed a six-year term as vicar-provincial and for six years provincial of the U.S. Oblates.

The graduate school where he now serves as president offers master’s and doctoral degrees in theology.

At 76, Father Studer said he is not ready to retire but at some point he may seek less responsibility.

Leadership
“Because I was in leadership, I had the opportunity to visit a lot of our missions,” he explained. The U.S. province had special missions they supported financially and by offering Oblates in Tijuana, Mexico; Zambia, Africa and Turkmenistan. “As provincial, I had responsibility for those three missions and also had the opportunity to visit many other places that we have in the world as well.”

While not ordained to the episcopate, Father Studer mentioned that the work of a provincial has some parallels to a bishop as they are responsible for the Oblate priests/brothers and the missions.

“We take responsibility for whatever missions – deciding whether to take or new ones or leave other ones,” he explained.

He acknowledged that being in leadership can be very fulfilling such as in cases where priests may need consoling or guidance, but he pointed out it can also be very difficult.
“A good many bishops and provincials would tell you, the buck stops with me,” said Father Studer, and decisions can be difficult because they are so important. Having to readjust assignments because one Oblate may not have been the best fit for a mission or having to leave missions have been among tough decisions.

Because the Oblates are committed to serving the poor, they have left missions because the church is now flourishing there or have moved to more of a middle-class status.  

“That can be very difficult, the people want us to stay. We sometimes have to give a parish back to a bishop and move onto a place that is more in tune with our charism,” said Father Studer. “And sometimes you feel like you are not getting a whole lot of support, even your own Oblates can disagree with you.”

Looking back on 50 years
The priesthood is something Father Studer would definitely choose again.

“The world has really changed a lot in those 50 years,” he said. “For me more than ever in our very secular western society, I think we need priests to bring people the sacraments, to listen to them, to give meaning to their lives in whatever vocation they choose, to pray with them and teach them about Jesus.”
Father Studer celebrated his 40th anniversary at his home parish in Wesley in this Lumen file photo.While he is happy he made the choice to become a priest 50 years again, Father Studer said it’s all the more important today.

Part of his upcoming celebration to mark his anniversary will include a visit to Iowa and the family farm where he was raised. His brother Dave lives there and the family gathers there each summer.

“Very significant for me in choosing priesthood was growing up in Wesley, small town where everyone knew everyone. Mass was central to their lives. My folks were very involved in the church and we had great pastors,” said Father Studer. “I had very good examples and I know that’s why I am a priest.”

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