Diocesan priests, Bishop Balke to celebrate special Jubilees
By DIANE SCHLINDWEIN
Managing Editor
On Wednesday, May 3, priests from around the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois will gather at Villa Maria Catholic Life Center on Lake Springfield for a day of celebration. That day they will hear from Bishop Mark Bartosic, an auxiliary bishop from the Archdiocese of Chicago. Additionally, they will take part in Evening Prayer, a social hour, and a dinner, after which Bishop Thomas John Paprocki and the priests will honor priests who are celebrating Jubilees this year. Those men include Bishop Victor Balke, Msgr. David Peters, and Father John Sohm, who are celebrating 65 years; Father Kevin Sullivan who is celebrating 60 years; and Father Tom Meyer, who is celebrating his silver jubilee this year.
Bishop Victor H. Balke
65 Years
Bishop Victor Balke is celebrating 65 years as a priest this spring. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois on May 24, 1958, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception by Bishop William A. O’Connor.
A native of Meppen, then-Father Balke’s first assignment was associate pastor of Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, and chaplain of St. Joseph’s Home in Springfield. He was procurator of the diocesan seminary at Lake Springfield from 1964 to 1970, and then rector of the seminary from 1970 to 1976.
He was appointed sixth Bishop of Crookston on July 3, 1976, by Pope Paul VI and ordained and installed on Sept. 2, 1976. During his tenure, Bishop Balke specifically encouraged evangelization. He reorganized the central administration of the diocese, implemented the 1983 Code of Canon Law and codified diocesan policies, encouraged renovation and building improvements in parishes, established an improved retirement program for elderly clergy, and established a benefit program for all clergy and laity employed by the Church in the Crookston Diocese. His motto was: Bless the Lord my soul.
He has returned to the Springfield Diocese many times over the years to visit relatives and friends, attend Jubilee events, and to ordain priests after Bishop McNicholas died unexpectedly shortly before the ordination of priests, and again in 2009 when the Springfield Diocese was in-between bishops.
Bishop Balke, who has been forever thankful for the gift of the priesthood, retired in 2007 but continued to celebrate Masses as needed for many years. Now at age 91, he resides at Sacred Heart rectory in East Grand Forks, Minn. He said he won’t be able to travel to Springfield for the Jubilee celebration but hopes everyone who is there “has a wonderful time.”
“As a priest, I enjoyed my years in Springfield,” he said. “My years as a bishop were wonderful and I especially enjoyed the liturgies of the Church. I’ve been retired since 2007 and that has been good, too. From beginning to end I’ve my enjoyed my journey with the priesthood.”
Msgr. David Peters
65 Years
Decatur native Msgr. David Peters will celebrate his 65 years as a priest on May 24, the same day he turns 91. He was ordained by Bishop William A. O’Connor in 1958 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. There were eight priests ordained that day and six of those men had graduated from St. Teresa High School. Four were in his class and one had graduated a few years ahead of him.
Then-Father Peters spent his first four years as a priest at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Springfield. His years at Blessed Sacrament came at a time when there were five priests at the parish. “I remember one day when we had nine baptisms at one time,” he says.
He went on to be an assistant at St. Patrick Parish in Alton and then an assistant chaplain and chaplain at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield. He was then co-administrator at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Effingham for four years. As a pastor, he served at St. Michael Parish in Staunton, St. Bernard Parish in Wood River, and St. James Parish in St. Jacob before moving to St. Paul Parish in Highland in 1987. He spent 20 years as pastor at St. Paul and retired in 2007. “My first (period of) assignment was for six years, but then I stayed on. I felt at home in Highland,” he says. In retirement, he remained active, happily helping out at St. Paul, where he is pastor emeritus.
He came out of retirement for a short time in 2011 to act as parochial administrator of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Effingham and Annunciation Parish in Shumway. He also has served as a delegate for senior priests. He was given the papal honor Chaplain to His Holiness (Monsignor) on Dec. 18, 2015.
After living in Highland for more than half his priesthood, he recently moved to an independent living retirement home so that he could be closer to his family members who still reside in Decatur. He says he is now settling in a new community. He is grateful for his many decades in Highland and adds that he also considers his fellow priests his “priest family.”
Father John Sohm
65 Years
Father John Sohm, another Decatur native, was also ordained on May 24, 1958, by Bishop William A. O’Connor at Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
Father Sohm’s first assignment was as an assistant at St. Joseph Parish in Granite City. He went on to serve as an assistant at several places: St. Agnes Parish, Springfield; St. Raymond Parish, Raymond; and St. Patrick Parish, Alton.
In 1970 Father Sohm was named parochial administrator and then pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Shelbyville and at St. Columcille Parish in Sullivan. He served at St. Columcille for over four decades, where he had his home right across the street from his church. He also served for decades in Shelbyville, and at St. Isidore Parish in Bethany for many years. For shorter periods of time, he was a pastor at Holy Family Parish in Mount Sterling and Sacred Heart Parish in Dalton City. He was well appreciated in those parishes where he gave so many years of priestly life to shepherd his people. Additionally, he was a chaplain at a state prison.
Father Sohm has enjoyed periodically getting together with his many classmates and as time went on, was mindful of those men who passed away. A few years back, he expressed that he has always given thanks for the Lord’s goodness. “His love is everlasting,” he said. “It is expressed in the people of the parishes, where we (priests) have served.”
At 91, Father Sohm lives in a retirement community in Sullivan and is pastor emeritus of St. Columcille Parish.
Father Kevin Sullivan
60 Years
Father Kevin Sullivan grew up on a family farm and spent his formative years as an altar server and organist at Sacred Heart of Mary Parish in New Berlin. There, his boyhood pastor, Father Charles Fanning, suggested that young Kevin should become a priest. “One morning, after Mass, I told him that I had been accepted at Notre Dame University,” he said. “To my surprise, he turned away and said, ‘Kevin, you belong in the seminary.’
“Some years later Mom and Dad told me that Father had come out to the farm to tell them, ‘Kevin needs to go to the seminary.’ My parents assured him that nothing would make them happier, but I was only 17. If God wanted me to be a priest, Notre Dame would be a good place to find out.”
Then, at Notre Dame, yet another person suggested the priesthood. “One day I walked across campus with Father Dan O’Neil, CSC, the Holy Cross vocation director. He asked, ‘Kevin, I know you love Notre Dame, but have you ever thought about the seminary?’ With God’s grace, I entered the seminary, assured that Notre Dame would welcome me back.”
He attended the diocesan Latin School in New Berlin and went on to St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein. He was ordained May 25, 1963, by Bishop William A. O’Connor at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield. He served as assistant pastor at St. James Parish in Decatur, Sacred Heart Parish in Granite City, and Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield. While serving as the director of the Office for Religious Education, he served on the National Religious Education board, the Confraternity of Christine Doctrine, and the Society of the Propagation of the Faith. As director of the Office of the Missions, he was involved with the Holy Childhood Association and was appointed to the National Mission Board. He was also pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes in Decatur and later spent a year at St. Aloysius in Springfield. His final assignment was pastor of Our Lady Queen of Peace in Bethalto.
Father Sullivan was moved to senior priest status in 2003 and resides in Phoenix, Ariz. “I serve as volunteer chaplain of the St. Vincent de Paul Homeless Shelter, and Hospice of the Valley calls me to bring sacraments of the sick to Catholic patients,” he said. He also entertains people by playing “piano oldies” and sometimes conducts funeral services. He enjoys playing bridge and golf, and spending time with his priest friends.
Father Sullivan thinks this Year of the Eucharist is “an apt time to renew our faith in the Risen Lord, alive and well, welcoming us to God’s table.”
“No priest could ever be more thankful to God and enjoy the priesthood more than myself,” he concluded. “Wherever the assignments, every parish is filled with faith-filled Catholics who love and want to support their priests.”
Father Thomas Meyer
25 Years
Father Thomas Meyer was ordained to the priesthood on June 5, 1998, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and is celebrating his Silver Jubilee as a priest of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.
A graduate of Quincy Notre Dame High School, he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Missouri at Rolla. It was while he was in college and attending Masses at St. Patrick Church in Rolla that he began to realize his vocation to the priesthood. He spoke with Father Mike Kuse, who was vocation director for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, and soon after college graduation entered Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis.
Father Meyer’s first assignments as a priest were as parochial vicar at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Effingham from 1998 to 2002, and then at Our Saviour Parish in Jacksonville from 2002 to 2004. He then served as pastor of St. Mary Parish in Edwardsville from 2004 to 2010, before returning to Jacksonville for 10 years, as pastor of Our Saviour. While in Jacksonville he was chaplain at MacMurray and Illinois colleges as well as at the Jacksonville State Correctional Facility. He was dean of the Jacksonville Deanery from 2014 to 2020. In 2015 he was also named pastor of several smaller parishes: St. Alexius in Beardstown, St. Fidelis in Arenzville, and St. Luke in Virginia. Since 2020 he has been pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Quincy.
Now that he’s been a priest for 25 years, Father Meyer said, “It is nice to be arriving at a new milestone.” He says his involvement in developing the newest Catholic high school in the diocese was one highlight of his priesthood. “I feel very privileged that I was one of the founding members of Father McGivney Catholic High School in Glen Carbon,” he said. “I am very proud of the work our board completed to bring that vision to fruition.”
Being a priest is at once extremely fulfilling and sometimes stressful, Father Meyer admits. “Throughout my 25 years, I have enjoyed a variety of different types of ministry, including Spanish ministry, ministry in a prison, and ministry at the colleges,” he said. “It can be life-giving, but also potentially exhausting if you do not take time for the other important needs in your life.”
He is most grateful that his current assignment in Quincy keeps him closer to his parents. “I am very blessed to have an assignment where I am able to watch over my parents, Joe and Marilyn Meyer,” he said. “They are able to attend Mass with me every Saturday night. This has been a wonderful blessing.”