By Shannon Fiecke, Staff Writer

He's a great conversationalist, a ferocious reader, a lover of music, an excellent cook and a gifted leader trained in the sciences and theology. As one of his parishioners says, “Father Bill” could have done anything with his life. But he chose to serve God. And he chose to come to Shakopee.

Born into a working-class Catholic family in Marshfield, Wis., the Rev. William Stolzman started his adult career as a high school science and math teacher.

He had studied physical meteorology at the University of Wisconsin, where he observed one of the earliest satellites being built. He was interested in upper atmospheric research, but started teaching because, as he says with a laugh, he had to earn money.

After a religious calling, Stolzman would decide to become a Jesuit priest, and he spent 20 years teaching, pastoring or studying while he was assigned to the Lakota in South Dakota, before coming to Shakopee.

On Sunday, after 37 years of priesthood, Stolzman celebrated his final Mass at St. Mark’s Catholic Church. His last day as head pastor was Monday, exactly 20 years after he first joined St. Mark’s as associate pastor.

Stolzman’s leaving will be felt beyond St. Mark’s. The 70-year-old priest was known to the entire Catholic community, having helped bring the new Catholic school to fruition and now serving as its lead pastor. And he will be remembered by the rest of Shakopee for his work in restoring a great landmark.

PATH TO SHAKOPEE
Those outside his church may not know much of Stolzman’s life before Shakopee.

Stolzman taught one year in a public school, and another two at a Native American school. Before moving to Minnesota, he worked on reservations in South Dakota for two decades, writing a foundational book on the relationship between Christianity and Indian spiritualism.

After ministering to the Lakota people, Stolzman came to the Twin Cities to write about significant religious dialogs he had led.

While in Minneapolis, Stolzman became interested in an opening at St. Stephen’s Parish, a multi-cultural congregation. He requested a leave from his order to pursue the position, but the job ultimately went to another man. However, as he points out with a mischievous grin, the permission letter was “carte blanch,” meaning he could serve anywhere in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

He landed instead at St. Mark's, whose senior pastor at the time, the Rev. Robert Hanzel, shared a missionary background.
Stolzman also fit in well with the parishioners: “They’re my sort of people. I really identify with their values and cultures.”

Stolzman remembers someone asking him two months after he arrived as associate pastor, whether he was beginning to feel at home.

“I paused and reflected, and said, ‘You know, I felt at home here the first week I was here,’ ” Stolzman recalls. “That has not changed.”

He eventually left the Jesuit order to become an archdiocesan priest.

Just as Stolzman once felt it was time to conclude his post on the reservation, he feels now is right time to leave Shakopee.

“My work was finished [there], just like I know my work is finished here,” he said. “The Lord has something new for me to do.”

PLENTY TO DO
A common thread through Stolzman’s life — both in his experience as a missionary to the Lakota and in Shakopee — has been his ability to bring people together.

In fact, one of the first things he did when he came to St. Mark's was join the Shakopee Ministerial Association, which at the time, he recalls, was a fledgling organization.

During his second year here, he proposed a community Thanksgiving service in a step toward strengthening relations among the town’s churches.

Eighteen years later, the annual event is going strong, with 15 music groups and 10 ministers participating last fall, he said.
Furthering collaboration within the Catholic community was a bigger goal, and a harder one.

When Stolzman arrived, the Catholic schools were consolidated, but more so in name, than in spirit.

“The consolidation was limping when I got here. It was something that was pretty much on paper that we simply did to maintain the school,” he said.

He worked to reverse this perspective, so churches shared a united vision in educating children, instead of just uniting to save money.
Catholic education itself was struggling and dealing with falling enrollment — around 350 children at the time, he recalls.

Especially due to the guidance of former principal Diane Lee, the school improved, Stolzman said, reaching the point where facilities were bursting at the seams and it appeared obvious a new school was needed.

But getting three parishes to agree on the next step was a huge undertaking and required a lot of preparation, he said.

The issue was controversial at first, recalls Candace Lano, a former school board member who has also served in various leadership roles at St. Mark’s, with many people feeling the current buildings had served them and their children just fine.

Stolzman listened and understood these arguments, she said, but thoughtfully stressed the importance of meeting the future needs of Catholic education.

“He’s truly a visionary,” she said. “He started with a fairly small base of support. He wouldn’t leave any stone unturned. He wouldn’t stop until he felt the Catholic needs were going to be met.”

By the time churches moved forward to build a school on a large tract of land south of Highway 169, there was “tons of support” from the community, she said.

Stolzman dubs the $13 million project a miracle. Today (five years after the school opened), he points out there is only $600,000 in debt left.

“The theme was, ‘the spirit is building in Shakopee,’ and it certainly has,” he said.

Parishioners say Stolzman hasn’t shied away from tackling huge issues, such as a massive restoration project at St. Mark’s, and he's always called for open dialog to determine appropriate actions, not moving forward until consensus is reached.

He could make the tough decisions that needed to be made, said church member Rich Nead, and ask that all possible paths be considered and that everyone be heard so the “best way” could be found.

“He’s always a big one for having public meetings,” Lano said. “He’ll go the extra nine yards for everyone’s voice to be heard.”

Stolzman said he believed in transparency and running whatever ideas or suggestions he received through the congregation and church leaders so they could be vetted.

He used a process he calls “trial balloons” to build consensus.

“If you get an idea that might be helpful, you raise the balloon, everyone takes pot shots at it, sometimes it will fly and often it gets shot down,” he said. “When people feel they have had their say and they have been heard, then they feel comfortable and can claim [the end product] really as their own.”

Consensus would especially be needed for the church’s restoration project.

The exterior was badly deteriorated and the interior still suffered from an earlier restoration. (In a former “minimalist period,” the interior had been repainted multiple shades of gray, disguising the beautiful Gothic architecture and disheartening church members.) When the parish’s 150th anniversary was approaching, Stolzman thought it would be a good time to upgrade.

The restoration project would require a lot of faith. It was expensive and not without controversy.

“He really took that restoration to heart because he felt it was our [generation’s] responsibility,” Lano said.

An example of Stolzman’s belief in open decision-making is the way he handled a parish leader’s suggestion that interior pillars, which weren’t structurally necessary, be removed so congregates could view the altar better.

As a lover of historical architecture, Stolzman personally preferred retaining the pillars, but he still recommended the idea be presented to the congregation for consideration.

“If you want to hear a bomb, the place practically exploded [when the idea was announced],” he recalls. “The opinions went back and forth.”

Ultimately, the church voted to retain the pillars.

Through the major steps the church has taken, Lano said Stolzman has been a model of prayer and faith, which has influenced her own life.

“He repeatedly says, ‘We put this into God’s hands,’ ” reminding parishioners if they have faith, it can happen, she said. “And darn it, if he isn’t always right.”

The congregation's faith was tested when a fire nearly destroyed the church just as the interior restoration was reaching completion in August 2005.

The experience was so stressful, Stolzman suffered a heart attack three months afterward.

The historic building was very important to him because he believes it “concretizes the faith, hope and love of the people in the congregation.”

Some would say, “ ‘Remember, Father, it’s just a building,’ ” he said.

He would respond: “ ‘No, the Bible isn’t just a book, it has real substance and contact that unites men with God. That’s what this church is. The church is a physical expression of the union of God and his people.’ ”

RECONCILING FORCE
After shepherding Shakopee's largest Catholic church, overseeing a massive restoration project and being the canonical administrator of the Catholic community's education system, Stolzman is looking forward to some “me” time.

While retirement may be considered as the conclusion of one’s career, Stolzman is really just beginning another chapter as he resumes a book project that will bring his lifelong passions and studies full circle.

Stolzman believes God has given him a talent for “reconciling opposites,” used throughout his priesthood and which ultimately will tie his secular and religious vocations together.

During his time as a Jesuit missionary, he initiated discussions between Lakota and Catholic religious leaders, which culminated in his authorship of “The Pipe and Christ” and an accompanying book that explores how to harmoniously fit traditional Indian spirituality with Christianity.

Stolzman describes the relationship as a “hand and glove,” with native spirituality exploring the horizontal relationship between people and nature, and Christianity as the vertical relationship, between man and Jesus Christ. (He specifically notes the word “and,” not “or,” in the title.)

He used his talent to pull Shakopee’s Catholics together, which was necessary to build a collaborative educational spirit and find consensus on building and operating a new school, as well as to move St. Mark’s renovation forward.

It was important to Stolzman that the Catholic churches see themselves as a family of believers and work together, while still retaining individuality.

Particularly in this last decade, parishioners say Stolzman has been the bulwark of that Catholic community, as priests in sister parishes have come and gone.

“He was the rock and the foundation,” Nead said. “He definitely had to have some big shoulders with what the community went through.”

Stolzman has been able to stay much longer than a priest is typically stationed at a church, because he first came as an associate pastor and wasn’t the official minister when he took on the duties of senior pastor. He was also granted a short extension to finish out his time in Shakopee due to his age.

Stolzman, who holds a master’s degree in physics, is now embarking on another reconciliation attempt, intertwining the fields of studies he loves — science and religion — as he works on a project that has been in his heart for nearly forever.

“It’s something that’s been nagging at me from the time I was a kid,” he said.” “I just know I have to write this book.’ ”

The title will be, “The Evolution of Our World from God.” It will explore how to reconcile opposites in terms of the physical and the metaphysical, the material and the spiritual and the world of science and the world of theology, he said. The conclusion will be these different planes can be connected in a harmonious way, while each retains its identity, in a process he’s dubbed “logical evolution.”

Like his earlier project, Stolzman plans to actually have two books: One focused on theory and the second on putting it into practice. He already did some work while on sabbatical, but expects to spend five years on the project.

\Stolzman plans to write while living at the Byrne Retired Priests Residence at the University of St. Thomas.

SAYING GOODBYE
Giving a proper goodbye to Stolzman was important to St. Mark’s, which formed committees to assist him with the pastoral transition and to plan his retirement celebrations, which included a sold-out dinner last Thursday and receptions after each Mass last weekend.

Stolzman has been the pastor for as long as many parishioners can remember, but they realize how fortunate they were to have him, as they rave about his intelligence, also noting his humor and just how personable he is.

Barb Trowbridge remembers when her husband was joining the church, Stolzman cooked a fabulous Italian dinner for the adult religion class.

It was always fun to talk to him, Trowbridge said. No matter what topic one brought up, he knew something about it.

“He’s going to be missed,” she said.

Stolzman says the same about his parishioners: “The people were so wonderful, supportive and generous.”

Stolzman said he truly feels it was right to have been at St. Mark's.

“The Lord has used all of my talents, and the church has had some real needs that I’ve been able to fulfill,” he said. “I myself feel totally fulfilled by all the people and the activities that are here. It’s been a mutual adoration society.”

Shannon Fiecke can be reached at (952) 345-6679 or sfiecke@swpub.com.

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In his 20 years at St. Mark’s, Father Bill has performed:
Baptisms: 426

(First:
Joshua Lee Dellwo, Aug. 21, 1988)
Weddings: 214

(First:
Curtis Lee Ware to Lynn Marie Mach, Feb.18, 1989)
Funerals: 453

(First:
Eleanora Lenzmeier, July 14, 1988)

In his 20 years at St.
Mark’s, Father Bill has:
Baptisms: 426

(First:
Joshua Lee Dellwo, Aug. 21, 1988)
Weddings: 214

(First:
Curtis Lee Ware to Lynn Marie Mach, Feb.18, 1989)
Funerals: 453

(First:
Eleanora Lenzmeier, July 14, 1988)

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Here are just a
few of the highlights during Father
Bill's 37 years in the priesthood:

• 1971: serves
  Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in
  South Dakota

• 1988: associate pastor at St. Mark’s

• 1994: pastor
  at St. Mark’s

• 1999,
  exterior of St. Mark's church restored

• 2003: creation of new Shakopee Area Catholic Education
  Center

• 2004: Hispanic community is welcomed with weekly Mass in Spanish

• 2005: interior restoration of church begins

• 2007:
  restoration completed after the fire