A tale of two dioceses: from Lincoln to Saginaw - Lincoln, Nebraska, and Saginaw, Michigan - Cover Story

Commonweal, June 6, 1997 by Charles R. Morris

The Reverend Joseph Nemec (a Czech name, pronounced "Nemetz") is slender, with a boyish face, and at thirty-nine is young to be a pastor even in Lincoln. His church, Saint Teresa's, is in a strongly Catholic, middle-class section of the capital. Like many of Lincoln's priests, Nemec was raised on a farm, one of nine children in a staunchly Catholic family. Elementary school was in a one-room country schoolhouse, but all of the children attended a tuitioned Catholic high school. Nemec is a musician, like his father, and he went to the University of Nebraska as a music major. "I had never thought of being a priest," he said. "I wanted to get married, have a large family, and teach music." But he became involved with the Newman Center at the university and was recruited for the seminary from there.

Nemec insisted that he is orthodox, not conservative. "In Lincoln," he said, "we follow the pope. A whole string of popes have said that artificial birth control is seriously sinful, so that's what we tell people. We don't preach on it every week, because that could get counterproductive, but we do preach it consistently. Missing Mass is sinful, so that's what we tell people. The church teaches that there are mortal sins, and you go to Hell for them, so that's what we teach. It's all in the Catechism. Lincoln isn't inventing anything. We just teach the official doctrines." Saint Teresa's has three Masses a day, and the children in parochial school go every morning. There are confessions six days a week, with a full schedule on Saturdays. The tuition in the school is only $100 a year, and almost all Catholic children are enrolled.

We talked about recruitment, and problems in the seminaries, and I was struck that Nemec shared many of the same views as much more liberal priests I had interviewed across the country. "If you don't know what you're about, if it's simply 'Come one, come all,' then you're naturally going to have problems," Nemec said. But Lincoln has a clear idea of the men it is looking for: "Men who love the church, who are submissive and obedient, who are true servants of the Lord, who want to bring people to Jesus, who have a sense of the sacred." He continued, "The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the greatest prayer on,earth, it is the re-enactment of Calvary. And, yes, we expose and adore the Blessed Sacrament here." (Blessed Sacrament devotions have fallen into desuetude in many parishes.)

The "submissive and obedient" in the list of priestly virtues caught my attention, for Nemec is a very self-confident young man, with not a trace of eyes-cast-down monkishness. I asked about the lay role in the parish, and, in light of his very youthful appearance, about his relationship with his parishioners. "I'm their father," he said. I said, "You're thirty-nine and look even younger and you're their father?" He was not at all abashed. "Yes, I'm their father. That's what a pastor is." And he went on, "We're very participative here, but, as in any good Catholic family, parents love their children and still control them. They need to be told what's right and wrong with the love and care of a father." Nemec's "submissive and obedient" attitude, that is, flowed in a clear, straight line. Children honor and obey their parents. Parents honor and obey their pastor. Pastors honor and obey their bishop. And bishops honor and obey the pope, who speaks for Jesus Christ.