St. Charles joins 'family' of churches to share priests

by Nathan Arneal
Published 8/7/24

North Bend’s Catholic family is getting a whole lot of new cousins.
St. Charles Borromeo is now part of what is called a “family grouping” of churches that includes most of the Catholic churches in Dodge County: St. Patrick in Fremont, St. Rose in Hooper, St. Lawrence in Scribner and St. Leo in Snyder.

Those five churches will be served by one pastor, the Rev. Walter Nolte, and two associate pastors, Rev. Bill Cremers and Rev. Joseph Sund. The three priests will rotate among the five parishes to cover all Masses.

The Rev. Walter Nolte conducts Mass at St. Patrick in Fremont. As of July 1, he is also the pastor at St. Charles in North Bend.

“The goal is every parish will see every priest,” Nolte said.
North Bend’s St. Charles has actually been a part of this family grouping for a few years, Nolte said, but the Archdiocese of Omaha gave permission for North Bend and Snyder to continue to operate under the old schedules as long as Rev. Keith Rezac was around. Rezac lived in the North Bend rectory and served St. Charles and St. Leo.

Though North Bend will no longer have a priest in residence, the parish will use the rectory for meetings or for one of the priests to stay over during inclement weather.

When Rezac retired at the end of June, Nolte officially became the pastor at St. Charles as it and St. Leo joined in sharing the three family priests.

A committee with members representing all five parishes has been meeting for a couple of years preparing a schedule that allows all five parishes to be covered by two or three priests.

“The three of us, as long as there are three, and as long as there are priests here,” Nolte said, “we’re going to make ourselves as radically available as we can be for all the parishes.”

The Mass schedule, which is set by the multi-parish committee under parameters given by the archdiocese, may still undergo some tweaks to make sure everything runs smoothly. For example, the schedule had one priest covering Masses in two different towns at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. That proved to be difficult to make, so the second Mass will likely be moved back to 10:15.

Masses at St. Charles will be held at 8:30 a.m. on Sundays, 7:30 a.m. Tuesdays and 5 p.m. Wednesdays. There will no longer be a Saturday evening Mass in North Bend, but Nolte points out that no one is “losing” a Saturday Mass, as everyone is welcome to attend Mass at another parish in the family group.

Outside the family – and closer to North Bend – Morse Bluff St. George still offers Saturday Mass at 6 p.m.

With St. Patrick being the largest church in the family group by far, Nolte said obligations in Fremont will naturally consume more time than the other churches. And with three priests for five churches, it won’t be feasible to get a priest to every church meeting or event.
However, they will still try to get out as much as they can and get to know their parishioners. Those relationships won’t be built over handshakes and 10-second conversations after Mass, Nolte said.

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