'More rewarding than I imagined': Kearney's Father Joe Hannappel celebrates 40 years as a priest (2024)

KEARNEY — “More difficult than I thought, and more rewarding than I imagined.”

That’s how the Rev. Joe Hannappel, pastor at St. James Catholic Church, reflects on his 40 years as a Roman Catholic priest.

“I am a very wealthy man, not materially, but in relationships. This is a privileged place and space,” he said.

Hannappel, who has been at St. James for 15 years, will be honored after Sunday’s 10:30 a.m. Mass with a parish-wide potluck lunch.

He remains humble. On the 25th anniversary of his priesthood, he asked someone to wash his feet. He signs his weekly “Fishing at St. James” column in the church bulletin, “I am Joseph, your brother,” from Genesis 45:4.

After 40 years of prayers, weekend and daily Masses, funerals, baptisms, parish council meetings, church construction projects, youth group events and more, he feels blessed.

He said his calling has been “more fulfilling” than he expected.

“You are invited into people’s lives in the best and worst times of their lives. It is indescribable. What I know 40 years later is to trust in the Paschal Mystery even more,” he said.

Sensing a call

He was born Sept. 24, 1958, the third of six children born to Wallace and Phyllis Hannappel, who lived on a farm near Clarks. When he was 5 years old, the family moved to Cozad.

After graduating from Cozad High School in 1976, Hannappel came to Kearney State College on a full-tuition scholarship. He took general studies, but no subject excited him.

Slowly, he realized he was being pulled to some kind of ministry and teaching. He recalled how his parents and friends in Cozad had encouraged him to consider the priesthood, so after a year, he transferred to Conception Seminary College in Missouri.

“When I began studying theology and scripture, I knew I was called to some form of ministry and teaching,” he said. “My seminary years were a long process of formation and decision making about whether I was called to be ordained into a celibate priesthood.”

Complicating his decision was a serious girlfriend and a desire to be married and have children. “I finally chose what I thought God was calling me to do, given my gifts and talents,” he said.

“I had received so much love in my life, and I wanted to find a way to ‘love back’ and continue Jesus’ ministry in this world.”

He graduated summa cum laude from Conception Seminary College in 1980 and earned a master of divinity degree from the University of St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois, in 1984.

On June 8, 1984, he was ordained by Bishop Lawrence McNamara at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Grand Island.

‘I was made for this’

“It was clear at the beginning that I was made for this,” he said.

During seminary, Hannappel worked with a youth drug and alcohol program. He was also chaplain in training at a clinical pastoral education program at a 1,000-bed hospital in Chicago.

“I learned as much in three months there as I did in three years at seminary. I learned how to live, to die, to rise again. The Paschal Mystery,” he said, again mentioning a central tenet of Catholicism regarding the passion, death, resurrection and glorification of Jesus.

He served parishes in Lexington, Sidney, North Platte, Hershey, Chappell, Oshkosh, Lodgepole, Lisco, Spalding, Greeley and Erickson for the first 25 years.

Funerals had a profound impact on him. “I had never before walked so closely with people who had survived intense trauma and difficulty, but I have found there is a mystery to health and wellness and death and healing,” he said.

While a priest does not feel every family’s personal grief, “I share it in a way that helps people move through it with faith and hope,” he said.

His fifth-grade confirmation sponsor — “the most fun guy in the church” — died three years later in a grain elevator accident. “I watched the community grieve and find a way through the grief,” he said.

“You learn from the death experience. I’ve learned that you have to leave behind the string of empty tombs. I sign letters, ‘Rise well and often.’ I didn’t understand that experience as deeply before I became a priest,” he said.

Arriving at St. James

Hannappel came to St. James after serving three small parishes, three churches that were closed and consolidated, and 15 buildings. St. James had one church and one school (Kearney Catholic High School) on the same property, but three times as many people in that single building.

He quickly realized that St. James was a “great wealth of time, talent and treasure and I needed to get on board and do my part,” he said.

“It’s a challenge to prioritize my time and energy, but I’m not nearly as busy as parents are, especially a single parent. You can only do so much,” he said.

He has learned to remain calm when chaos erupts, “Grace and peace can come out of those things. God was as present to Jesus on the cross as He was to when Jesus rose from the dead,” he said.

Ukraine and Palestine

Hannappel, 65, loves to travel. In his office are icons from Ukraine and Russia, a camel made from olive wood from the Holy Land and dozens of other prized souvenirs from overseas.

In 1996, during a five-month sabbatical, he went on a three-week study of icons in Ukraine and Russia.

Later he joined 25 Christians of various denominations at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute near Bethlehem in the Palestinian West Bank. They studied Christianity, Judaism and Islam and toured the Holy Land.

“It was an intense educational and spiritual experience because I always wanted to study the Bible in the Land of the Bible,” he said.

He lived with Palestinian Christians on the West Bank and came to understand the plight of the Palestinian people. “They are not listened to or respected as a people who struggle to keep their land and care for their families,” he said.

Because of close friends from Bethlehem, his two cats have Arabic names, Hafiz and Habibi.

Hannappel celebrates Mass once a month in Spanish, and holds weddings, funerals and quinceanera in Spanish throughout the year. His messages in the weekly church bulletin are printed in both English and Spanish.

He took Spanish in college and studied it in Mexico for a month in 1998, but had no chance to use it until he came to Kearney. “Parishioners are patient with me as I learn to speak and listen better in conversations,” he said.

The Rev. Dominic Phan comes from Hastings once a month to lead a Mass in Vietnamese.

“I appreciate the richness in culture and spirituality that recent immigrants bring to our parish,” he said. “It speaks of the need for family bonds and community reconciliation, and the value of generous love that is welcoming, forgiving and healing.”

30 days of silence

In the summer of 2022, Hannappel went on a 30-day silent retreat at the Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

He was up at 4 a.m. to watch the sunrise over the Atlantic. He wrote in his journal. He never tired of solitude. He often thought of Jesus spending 40 days in the desert.

Some days, he retreated into the art room and created a clay piece reflecting the gospels of Luke and Matthew. One piece is the cross, another a crib. It appears simple, but that is deceptive.

As he shows it to a visitor, Hannappel shifts pieces, moving them around. That single creation tells the Christian story, from the birth of Jesus in the manger to the Resurrection.

“Jesus came so we, too, would rise from the dead,” he said.

The retreat, he said, gave him “clarity.” “Being away gave me rest, let things settle out. It is kind of like a mountain stream after a rainstorm. At first, ponds are murky and muddy, but in a few days, the dirt settles to the bottom and the water becomes clear again.”

Warm words

Father Art Faesser served as assistant priest at St. James from 2014-19. He retired five years ago but steps in to assist Hannappel as needed.

“Father Joe’s gift to St. James is his tireless heart and soul investment in the lives of those he serves. All are equally respected and cared for, and that inclusive approach has grown the diversity of those who make up St. James Parish,” he said.