100 blessed years

CARTHAGENA - The Rev. Fred Nietfeld as a boy routinely received one present during this time of the year since his birthday and Christmas were so close together.

"If I got a birthday present that had served for my Christmas gift, and if I got a Christmas gift that had to take the place of my birthday. The two were always in conflict," Nietfeld joked on Friday afternoon while reminiscing about his life.

Yet that was of little concern to Nietfeld, as he was grateful for any present he received while growing up on a farm near Oak Harbor, where he worked hard.
  "One of the first things that you learn to do is to pump water for the cattle, for the horses and the cows," he said. "I grew up to hate that pump on the well."

He much preferred the four-wheel wagon he received one Christmas.

"We lived in the country and I would haul things around, including our pet dog," Nietfeld recalled.

The Christmas season above all things was and is the celebration of the birth of the savior Jesus Christ.

"It's our Lord's birthday," he said.

Nietfeld, a retired diocesan priest who has called St. Charles Center home for the last several years, turned 100 on Friday. Staff threw Nietfeld a little party to celebrate the milestone, with vanilla cake topped with strawberries and ice cream on the side and balloons.

At 100, Nietfeld still possesses a keen intellect, solid memory and most striking of all, a great sense of humor. He chooses his words slowly but thoughtfully.

"The've done a nice job here with the cake and ice cream," he said. "I don't think we want to repeat another 100 years."

Nietfeld credits his longevity in part to his mother's cooking.

"She was a great chef," he said. "Of course, when the holidays came around, we never had chicken, we never had turkey, but we had a goose … and she could really make that goose stand up."

The farm boy from Oak Harbor would go on to the seminary and become a profoundly learned and scholarly priest. His first assignment was a double-appointment - Bowling Green State University and St. Aloysius Catholic Church.  

"My first appointment was at Bowling Green, Ohio. The bishop thought that I should go there, serve on campus and also in the parish at St. Aloysius," he said.

The college kids he presided over weren't different from older adults.

"Basically they had the same problems. They were human beings, two legs, two arms," he said.

Through the years he served at numerous parishes and even went overseas, according to his niece, Louise Bisrick of the Columbus area. Bistrick said Nietfeld traveled to Rome several times, spent time attempting to rebuild faith in a post-Communist Budapest, Hungary, and taught at liberal arts colleges, including Notre Dame.

He also either worked out at the gym or swam every day except for Sunday, she said.

Touching upon his priestly duties, Nietfeld said composing the weekly homily was daunting.

"It didn't come easy. I took it seriously, and that means hard work. I always had a personal library. I was always proud of my library," he said. "It took great effort. I acquired that library book by book in the course of my work."

He poured himself into each homily bit by bit in the days leading up to Sunday Mass or a wedding, seeking to meaningfully convey the message of the Gospel to those in the church.

"You always start with sacred scripture and you go on from there," Nietfeld revealed. "You try to make the selection or the passage timely. You can't just quote it, you have to, well, to put it bluntly, put it into modern language, try to help the people to understand it so that they understand or appreciate the scripture and not yourself."

The most difficult and challenging part of the priesthood for Nietfeld was guiding parishioners through the 40 days of Lent.

"You're supposed to prepare the people for Easter and that means they examine themselves and make an attempt to overcome sin and temptation so that they can celebrate Easter as a great victory, a personal victory," Nietfeld maintained.

Nietfeld was reluctant to wade too deeply into theology when pressed by the newspaper but did point out two aspects that distinguish Catholicism from other Christian denominations.

"The Eucharist (transubstantiated body and blood of Christ) is very strong medicine," he said.

Secondly, the Catholic Church has authority, rather than that of individual preachers.

"The Catholic bishop can trace his authority right back to the 12 apostles, and he doesn't have to apologize for it," Nietfeld said, before quickly adding that "I'm sure there's a lot of Protestant bishops that are sincere and have a great love for God."

For Nietfeld, the priesthood is not "a job; it is a calling and way of life." Nevertheless, he had other interests, chiefly reading and music.

"Start out with Mozart and from Mozart we go to Johann Sebastian Bach. In other words, classical music," he said.

As a child, Nietfeld said his sisters didn't think much of his piano stylings so he would try more or less to play the greats when they left the house.

"At one time I was quite a pianist, and then in the church I played organ. All the way through high school I played the organ at St. Boniface Church," he said.

He at one point considered pursuing music seriously.

"That was a battle - the ministry, the priesthood or the music. Music lost out," he said.

Once a voracious reader, Nietfeld's eyesight has diminished.

"I miss that capacity to read," he said.

A couple of years ago he handed over his cherished library to a priest in Toledo.

"I'm sure that he put it to good use," he said.

As to the current state of the world, Nietfeld said he doesn't watch much news any more yet did offer his take on the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I think it's become a political potato. I'm no authority on that. I hesitate to make comments because the medical profession and the legal profession is far superior to my knowledge and my attitude or philosophy," he said. "I'm sure some very brilliant people know what they're doing and, on the other hand, there's a bunch of people who don't know what they're doing."