There were several potential stops on Joseph Gifford’s career path to his most recent stop at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in New Prague. He pondered several paths along the way – nursing and singing opera are just a few of the options he considered.
As the new associate pastor assigned to St. Wenceslaus earlier this month, the Rev. Joseph Gifford will minister to parishioners at St. John the Evangelist in Union Hill, St. Scholastica in Heidelberg as well as St. Wenceslaus. He’ll also teach in the elementary school.
Fr. Gifford had heard he was being considered for transfer from St. Peter Claver earlier this spring. He didn’t know where he might be headed. He previously met Fr. Eugene Theisen and received a crash course on St. Wenceslaus from a friend at a parish in Le Sueur. So far, he’s been able to work out a schedule that fits Fr. Theisen’s willingness to say morning Mass. He enjoys saying the evening Mass.
“I’m not a morning person,” Fr. Gifford said.
He enjoys teaching through his sermons and considers his style a quiet conversation.
He comes to New Prague from St. Peter Claver, a traditionally Black parish in St. Paul. Before the assignment in St. Paul, Fr. Gifford was assigned to All Saints Catholic Church and School in Lakeville. He notes the strong identity St. Peter and St. Wenceslaus both enjoy. Both parishes have a strong ethnic background that makes it enjoyable to get to know people, he said.
“The broad range of experience in life and ministry develops a wisdom of heart that can be applied to many and varied situations,” said the Rev. Eugene Theisen, the senior pastor at St. Wenceslaus.
Having grown up in Ham Lake, Minn., the 31-year-old priest is well-versed in the art of learning, having graduated from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan. where he studied music, theology and philosophy. He had been accepted to study...
To see more on this story pick up the August 31, 2023 print edition of The New Prague Times.
Motorcycles, fantasy football and kick boxing St. Wenceslaus’s new priest is anything but ordinary
