On New Year’s Eve, 1996, it was announced that the 20-month wait for a new bishop in the Bismarck Diocese was over. The auxiliary bishop of St. Louis, Bishop Paul A. Zipfel, at the age of 61, would be our sixth bishop.
Father John Guthrie, current pastor of St. Pius in New Salem, met him in January when he came up for a press conference before the Feb. 20 installment. “Bishop Zipfel was surprised by the appointment since he had been getting rumors that he was going to be bishop of Jefferson City,” Fr. Guthrie said. “He had spent his entire life in St. Louis. Imagine being named as bishop to a place you’ve never been. He said, ‘Yeah, it turned out to be just a few miles north on the Missouri River.’ I think he got the better of the deal though. He fell in love with Bismarck.”
It was surprising for many people since this was our first bishop from outside the Province of the Archdiocese of St. Paul, which includes the states of North and South Dakota and Minnesota. “He left everything behind,” Fr. Guthrie said, “pulled away from the place he lived his whole life, and he did it with joy.”
Father Guthrie had served on Bishop John Kinney’s Presbyterial Council (advisors) and was asked to stay on. He would also be appointed director of continuing education for clergy, and when Fr. Thomas Kramer retired, he became vicar general of the diocese and rector of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit.
“He was a very personable guy,” Fr. Guthrie said. “When he was coming into a school and met with the kids, he’d do magic tricks, so it was not just the bishop coming in. But, Bishop Zipfel did not want to be known just for that. He used magic to break down barriers and then have a conversation about the Lord.” One time, Father Guthrie said the bishop brought all his big props and put on a very impressive magic show for the priests in Medora for their fall conference.
“People were his favorite thing,” Fr. Guthrie said. “His love was being with people and being a pastor. He was a truly good shepherd. Something he had talked about that exemplified who he was, was having our head in heaven, feet on the earth and heart on the cross—that was the way that he lived his life.”
Father Guthrie explained that Bishop Zipfel was extremely interested in the liturgy and very good at it. As a priest, he had served several years at Holy Cross Parish in St. Louis as associate pastor to Msgr. Hellriegel who was a pioneer in liturgical movement, stressing the Mass as the center of parish life. “Bishop Zipfel always emphasized the careful way the liturgy should be celebrated—prayerfully and with simple dignity,” Fr. Guthrie said. “When he came here, it was the first time I heard anyone sing the Eucharistic Prayer. It was so awesome. It was not a performance; he was a humble man. He was praying it and he had the talent to do this.”
Father Guthrie remembers the bishop as an excellent homilist and good administrator. “Being a bishop is not an easy job,” he said. “There’s a lot of pain dealing with situations, some of which are difficult, but he would handle things beautifully. He liked being a bishop I think, but I think he would have been just as happy being just a pastor. He loved celebrating Mass and being with people; that was really life-giving to him.”
Father Guthrie noted that Bishop Zipfel also loved his priests. “One time he gave me a call out of the blue and told me he just wondered how things were going,” he said. “At that time, I was in Williston and it meant a lot that he would take a few minutes to ask how I was doing. When he came to visit for confirmation, he always had time to sit down and talk with me. These are very busy men, but it’s nice to have that time.”
Since it is at the parish level that most people encounter their faith, Bishop Zipfel was very interested in the vitality of parish life, Fr. Guthrie said. “He worked to develop criteria with some of the priests and wrote a document for the priests and parishes. He told us to look at our parish and ask ourselves some questions—not as a judgment but to discern what the next step for growth was for our parish.”
Although Bishop Zipfel was a good administrator, Fr. Guthrie recalled him saying, “I don’t want on my tombstone: He was a good administrator.”
“He was not diminishing the importance of administration,” Fr. Guthrie explained, “but was saying that being a priest involves not just running a business, but is about caring for people.”
One of Fr. Guthrie’s favorite memories was when he was a pastor at St. Joseph’s in Williston and would bring the six-grade confirmation students down for the Chrism Mass. The bishop always readily agreed to meet with the students before they returned home. “He’d give a tour of the chancery—nothing complicated—but, he took the time to do it. The kids would always have a million questions for him. He had a lot to do that day, but he’d take time for the sixth graders.
“He always said yes,” Fr. Guthrie said. “He was a generous man. We have been blessed.”