Parish profile – St. Ann, Wadena

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St. Ann Parish in Wadena, MN

The parish was founded in 1886. It now has 622 households. Deacon Jerry Snyder answered the following questions.

Q: What is the most interesting facet of your church building?

A: The church steeple soars upward 118 feet, capped by a cross decorated in gold leaf. From its elevated location in the town, the cross atop the steeple is visible for miles around, reminding both travelers and residents of witness to faith in Christ.

Q: What is the most popular program or tradition at your parish?

A: Our longest-lasting organization is the Catholic Aid Society. This began nationally in 1878 and was part of St. Ann’s life by the 1890s. This, the Deutschen Roemisch-Katolischen Unterstuetungs Verein, had an anglicized name, the German Emigrant Aid Society. By the

St. Ann Parish in Wadena, MN – interior photo
St. Ann Parish in Wadena, MN – interior photo

early 1900s it was usually referred to as the St. Joseph Society. After World War II it became known as the Catholic Aid Association and more recently as Catholic United Financial. St. Joseph was widely acknowledged as patron saint of laymen, especially working laymen, and so the society was made up of Catholic laymen.

Q: What is an interesting historical fact or anecdote about your parish?

A: Well, about that steeple, and its nemesis — fire. Its predecessor came down in ashes when the whole church burned in 1895. In 1962, some boys (who on occasion visited the steeple to play with matches) were caught — before a fire occurred. On July 3, 1979, lightning struck the steeple, putting a gaping hole in it about 20 feet from the top.

 

Pastor Father Aaron Kuhn

Father Aaron Kuhn
Father Aaron Kuhn

Father Kuhn grew up all over central Minnesota because of his father’s work in the Army National Guard. They lived in Alexandria, Northeast Minneapolis, White Bear Lake, Little Falls and finally Cambridge, where he went to high school. He attended seminary in 1999 and was ordained a priest in 2007.

His first assignment (three years) was as parochial vicar to St. Mary’s Cathedral, St. Augustine Parish and Christ Church Newman Center, all in St. Cloud. In 2010, Bishop John Kinney sent him to The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., for a licentiate degree in canon law. In 2013, he was assigned as pastor of the parishes of St. Ann in Wadena and St. John the Baptist in Bluffton.

Q: What inspired you to become a priest?

A: The Lord called my heart to think about priesthood about three years after graduating high school. I would watch the priest at Mass and ponder how I might do the same things or what subjects I would preach about, if ever I had the opportunity. After several months of discernment (though at the time I did not know how to listen to the Holy Spirit very well) I took a leap of faith and made a commitment to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit in my conscience. Father Don Wagner was the diocesan vocation director then, and he helped me through the process to enter seminary. Throughout seminary, the Lord renewed within me the call to priesthood, and it fulfilled the deeper longings I had to serve the Lord.

Q: What do you enjoy most about your daily life as a priest?

A: The best part about being a priest, for me, is the daily encounter with God’s grace, especially in the sacraments. It is an honor to be allowed so close to the hearts of God’s people, to share in their joys and sufferings as they seek the Lord’s consolation and mercy. Preaching and spiritual direction are two of my favorite activities outside of the sacraments. It is a special joy to speak about Jesus to large groups and to individuals, to see how they react to his healing words.

Q: What was the theme of a favorite homily that you preached?

A: I love preaching about heaven, about Jesus’ call to prepare ourselves for divine life by learning how to conform our lives to love, to relearn how to love God and neighbor and to be in right relationship with both here on earth, so as to be ready to live that way in heaven.

The teachings of the saints are a great testimony about how difficult it is to let go of our selfishness and worldliness, so that we can understand the mystery of Christ crucified and the demands of Jesus for us to conform ourselves to his cross on earth, so that we can be united to him in love.

We can easily be fooled into thinking that “being a good person” is good enough for us as Christians, since it gets us by here on earth, when the reality is that there is no room in heaven for any hint of selfishness, self-preservation or vice of any kind.

Jesus teaches us how to love not because it will improve our lives on earth but because it is how heaven is all the time. There is no room in heaven for impatience, unkindness, anger, greed, lust, sloth, pride, etc. These must be weaned from our daily lives by God’s grace and our perseverance in faith. Reconciliation, healing, mercy, justice, love: these themes of Jesus’ teaching make sense when we imagine how perfect divine life is with him.

Author: The Visitor

The Visitor is the official newpaper for the Diocese of Saint Cloud.

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