Trio’s journey takes them to Mass at every parish in diocese
By Dick Pavelski,
This is a story about companionship with God and friends.
I am a parishioner at Wichita’s St. Francis of Assisi Parish and have known Marc Kessinger and Dave McCall – both parishioners at Wichita’s St. Catherine of Siena Parish – for more than 35 years, mainly because our families went to the same church and our kids attended the same school.
I became Catholic shortly before getting married, and the same is true of Marc. Meanwhile, everyone in Dave’s family was Catholic except for him, but he nevertheless participated in school and church functions and attended Mass on Sundays and holy days.
In 2018, Marc and I invited Dave to attend Rite of Christian Initiation classes at St. Catherine under the leadership of Fr. Dan Spexarth, who Dave knew. We went together and enjoyed the weekly classes. Dave converted and for the next three years we continued attending RCIA to keep learning more about our faith.
For Christmas 2019, Dave’s kids gave him a St. Joseph pilgrimage present that involved visiting all of our diocese’s churches of which St. Joseph is the patron.
A couple of years later, in 2022, Marc retired. Both of these events inspired us to attend Mass at every parish in the Diocese of Wichita.
We were amazed to learn there were 90 parishes, starting at the Missouri and Oklahoma borders (Baxter Springs) to Bushton, stretching across 25 counties and 279 miles.
We developed maps and spreadsheets to keep track of where and when we planned to go and where we had been. We were now the Three Amigos on a journey to appreciate our diocese. First we visited the parish at which we attended RCIA, St Catherine of Siena. In Wichita we were able to participate in Masses that were celebrated in Vietnamese, Spanish, and Greek (at least, we think it was Greek).
Going to church on McConnell Air Force base, (which is not a parish within the Diocese of Wichita) took special permission and an escort. Attending weekday masses in Wichita tended to be fairly easy. Leaving the Wichita city limits required more planning. And on this trip of friends, Google was also sort of a friend, as were the “parishes” menu on the diocesan website and Masstimes.org. We searched online for church bulletins and called the churches to confirm Mass times and make sure the pastor would be in town for weekday Mass.
Parish visits became progressively more stimulating the further from Wichita we went.
We were always welcomed with open arms by gracious parishioners and priests. We learned it was not unusual for a single priest to serve as pastor for three or four smaller churches. Our post-Mass routine included a group photo with the priest and his parishioners, and then finding a restaurant for at which we could reflect on our experience over breakfast or dinner.
Parishioners and/or priests often joined us. More than once, the priest brought us to the other churches within his parish for the sake of obtaining another group picture.
One challenge dealt with attending Mass in the eastern part of the diocese, where travel times from Wichita could stretch to three-and-a-half hours. We planned to attend one parish’s Saturday vigil Mass, spend the night on the road, and then hit two parishes’ Masses.
Once again, we met some awesome parishioners and priests. One priest grew up in the same neighborhood as Marc and wrestled with my son’s father-in-law.
During our journey, we met:
• Parents of our parish priest;
• Previous co-workers;
• Historians of their parishes and the diocese;
• Priests who had married or baptized our children and grandchildren; and
• Priests who went to school with our kids.
We also attended Mass in the Diocese of Wichita’s oldest parish, St Francis de Hieronymo in the town of St Paul.
Completing our mission took three years, but we came away feeling blessed for our Catholic faith, priests, parishioners, and 139 years of leadership from the Catholic Diocese of Wichita.
Dick Pavelski is a parishioner of St. Francis of Assisi in Wichita.