June 24, 2019 – West Bend, WI – Rev. Howard Haase introduced himself over the weekend to the congregation at Holy Angels Parish in West Bend. Haase has joined Holy Angels as Rev. Pat Heppe has been assigned to the parishes in the Catholic community in Waukesha.
There are four parishes in the Catholic community of Waukesha including St. Joseph, St. William, St. Mary and St. John Neumann.
Rev. Haase introduced himself in a piece in Sunday’s bulletin.
The Lord continues to remind me of who is exactly in charge of my life and I need to humbly accept the fact that it isn’t me. I thought I was done with “starting at a new parish” and it was going to be a simple matter of serving out the rest of my years as a priest (36 now) until I was eligible to retire.If nothing else I continue to bring humor to the Divine Ones life! We all tend to plan, and God continues to smile; we are so blest God is patient with us. I suspect Fr. Pat is feeling much the same way.Well, who am I?My name is Howard G. Haase (I generally go by Fr. Howard and the G. stands for the patron saint of expectant mothers). I was raised on a dairy farm in Dodge County just North of a little town called Clyman (the center of the universe in case you were wondering and the home of Aunt Nellie’s Canning Factory) with my four siblings, I am the middle child of the five of us. The farm was our entire world as it was for many of my extended family who also had dairy farms.I attended Clyman Grade School (80 students), then St. Francis de Sales Seminary High School (approx. 400 students), St. Francis de Sales College Seminary (approx. 100 students) and finally St. Francis de Sales Seminary (fewer than 100) finishing with a Master of Divinity Degree.While in school I have had various jobs: dairy farming, kitchen worker, night watchman, plastic injection line worker, Asst. Camp Director, P.R. Person, wait staff for restaurant and a variety of other tasks. This August it will be 50 years when I entered the seminary at the ripe old age of 14.After taking some time away from the seminary I was ordained in 1983. Most of my ministry has been in parish work, though some of my time has been in vocation work and college seminary formation work. I have enjoyed it all but I have to say my heart lies in working with the folks of the parishes.I am a “parish priest” and that is where I find the greatest joy. At times folks have asked if I tend to be liberal or conservative, I don’t like labels because I usually find them to be used as excuses for not listening to another’s opinion. I am an individual who is trying to be the best disciple of Jesus I can be, hopefully just like the rest of us. I am not a John Paul II priest nor a Benedict, nor a Francis priest, I am a priest who preaches the Gospel of Jesus the Christ to the best of my ability and I work hard to make sure I do that well.Sometimes you will like what I say and sometimes not so much –as long as I have preached the Gospel, I have done my job. The better I do that the more it will help all of us to grow in faith and be faithful disciples.Well that is a little about me. You will come to know more about me as time goes on and I have no doubts I will come to know many of you. I am a firm believer that seminaries teach us how to be theologians, however, it is the people of the parishes that teach us how to be good priest\pastors.And so “one more time” I have an opportunity to say hello to a new community and build upon all those who have been part of the Holy Angel’s Community.We begin!Blessings, -Fr. Howard
