Religious Vocations Supplement

Chosen from among the people: New Albany pastor reflects on a life of parish ministry

Father William Ernst, pastor of St. Mary Parish in New Albany, baptizes Jackson Munk on Dec. 10 at St. Mary Church. Jackson is being held by his father, Jeffrey Munk, and watched by his mother, Elizabeth Munk, both of Carmel, Ind.

By Sean Gallagher

(Listen to the reporter read this story)

NEW ALBANY—Some priests gain a reputation as outstanding homilists, inspiring retreat masters or effective ministers to youths and young adults.

Through these special talents, they rightfully gain the attention and appreciation of the faithful.

Other priests devote decades of their lives to the ordinary duties of parish ministry, important tasks that touch the lives of countless people but that often remain unknown to the broader public.

One such priest is Father William Ernst.

A seminary classmate of Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein and ordained in 1964 in the midst of the Second Vatican Council, Father Ernst has served parishes in eight of the archdiocese’s 11 deaneries over those nearly 43 years.

For the past 17 years, he has been the pastor of St. Mary Parish in New Albany, not far from the parish where he spent several years of his childhood: St. Mary Parish in Navilleton.

From Navilleton to Saint Meinrad

His priestly vocation emerged much like other priests of his generation, through the careful observations and suggestions of a religious sister, Benedictine Sister Eugenia Reibel, who taught him at St. Mary-of-the-Knobs School in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

When the possibility that God might be calling him to the priesthood was raised to him, Father Ernst said that it hadn’t come as a total surprise. In fact, he kind of liked the idea.

“I was kind of excited when I heard that,” he said. “When I was in school, I was pretty much a daily communicant. Of course, in those days, you couldn’t eat breakfast before Communion so most of the kids didn’t go to Communion at Mass.

“I did almost every day. I’d take my breakfast along, which was usually an egg sandwich.”

After completing the eighth grade, Father Ernst entered Saint Meinrad Seminary in 1952 and continued his priestly formation there until his ordination 12 years later.

Although he persevered in his discernment, he acknowledged that there were some difficult times for him, saying that “giving up marriage and family life and children” weighed heavily on his mind for some time.

“I really didn’t decide for sure that I wanted to continue on to ordination until I was a sophomore in college,” Father Ernst said. “I was really torn.”

But through the aid of his spiritual director and his own life of prayer, he went on to ordination, freely forgoing the family life that had stood before him as a real option.

One of the family

Since then, he has filled many decades ministering to families and helping them grow in faith.

As all parish priests are expected to do, this occurred through the sacraments and in pastoral care during times of sickness and loss in the lives of families.

“To me, it’s always struck me that I’m part of their life at the really important times,” Father Ernst said. “I come into a parish, and I don’t know anybody. A mother is dying and they want me there. I walk in like I’m one of the family almost.”

This happened a few years ago in the life of Jan Daly who, at the time that she met Father Ernst, was not Catholic.

She was the widowed mother of three children that she and her late husband had adopted years earlier.

Coming to grips with her husband’s death and the challenges of single motherhood was, in her words, “a spiritual journey.”

“My spiritual path took a long time until I really just followed my heart,” she said. “Father Bill has been part of that journey. He’s a very easy person to talk to, a very good listener. He didn’t tell me what to do. He just listened.”

She eventually came into the full communion of the Church through St. Mary Parish’s Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program. Since then, her life of faith and the ministry of Father Ernst have been a source of comfort and strength.

“I actually believe that God worked through him to make all of this happen for me,” she said. “He put Father Bill in my path.”

Ministering from a canoe

Father Ernst has also ministered to families in more informal ways—by sharing meals, a night at the theater or even on canoe trips.

Thomas Rosenfeld, currently a member of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Shelby County, was active at St. Joseph Parish in Shelbyville 25 years ago when Father Ernst was its pastor.

On more than one occasion, he and other members of the parish spent Sunday afternoons canoeing with their pastor.

“Those were just fun days,” Rosenfeld said. “We’d take off after the 10 a.m. Mass and go down and float down the river and just have a lot of fun.

“He was a pretty good athlete. He was a pretty good racquetball player.”

Besides enjoying companionship with the families of his parishes, Father Ernst acknowledged that these outings served other purposes as well.

One was to let those whom he served know that, although he was a priest, he had ordinary human interests just like they did.

“Even though [a priest] is ordained by God, still he’s somewhat chosen from among the people,” Father Ernst said. “To me, that was very important, that I, as a priest, was chosen from among the people. I didn’t pop out of heaven or anything like that.”

Letting people lead

By spending time with the laity, he also helped them come to know their own spiritual gifts and ability for leadership in the parish, something that Father Ernst came to value in the laity through his participation in a Cursillo weekend in 1968.

“Leadership in spirituality [is] not just the role of the priest, the nuns and the brothers,” he said. “It [is] also the role of the laity, too. And it became very real [for me] at the Cursillo. It had a profound impact on me.”

Rosenfeld, who was active on St. Joseph Parish’s Pastoral Council and board of education when Father Ernst was pastor, saw clearly how the priest valued the leadership qualities in the members of the parish and yet remained a leader himself.

“When you’re going to give responsibility to people, you need to let them lead,” Rosenfeld said. “But if they get off track, you also have to bring them back to the center.

“He’s very good at that. He’s the type that lets you do that without telling you what to do. He’s a good leader, but a quiet leader.”

A man of prayer

Father Ernst’s quietness reflects his personality. “I’m not a great talker,” he said.

But it also might reflect his prayerfulness, a quality in him that stood out strongly for Dan Schipp, a member of St. Paul Parish in Tell City when Father Ernst was pastor there from 1985-89.

Schipp, who described him as a “man of prayer,” said that his former pastor’s value of prayer was apparent in “how he presided at liturgies and also in his preaching, talking about the importance of prayer in his own life, and his trying to be faithful to that, and how that’s not always easy, even for a priest.”

Although it may not be easy at times for him, Father Ernst said that prayer—especially the Eucharist—is an indispensable part of his life. It’s a value he traces all the way back to his days as a young student at St. Mary-of-the-Knobs School.

“I couldn’t imagine not celebrating the Eucharist, to be perfectly frank,” he said. “It’s the one thing that as a priest I couldn’t imagine being without.”

Ultimately, through his prayer and ministry in the many parish communities in which he has served, Father Ernst has been drawn closer to Christ.

Interestingly enough, he came to this realization in 1977 when he went on a pilgrimage far away to the Holy Land.

“I came to realize that I experience Christ’s presence much more in the parish community than I did in the Holy Land,” Father Ernst said.

It is no wonder then that he has been so at home ministering quietly for so long in so many parish communities. †