Catholic Key Article

International, national, diocesan leader laid to rest
By Kevin Kelly

Catholic Key Associate Editor

It was a first-rate funeral.

In no other way could the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph bid its earthly farewell to Msgr. Ernest J. Fiedler, known to his legion of friends as "Bud," whose career had touched the Roman Catholic Church he loved globally, nationally and locally.

Msgr. Fiedler, 82, died Dec. 28 as a group of his closest friends were praying the fifth decade of the rosary at his bedside.

"Few priests in my experience have had more varied pastoral challenges," said Bishop Emeritus Raymond J. Boland at the beginning of the Jan. 3 Mass of Christian Burial at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. "He accepted them all joyfully."

Consider:

An accomplished musician as a seminarian, 22-year-old Ernest Joseph Fiedler was the organist accompanying the St. John's Seminary Choir in a 1947 national broadcast of CBS Radio's "Church of the Air" program.

• Father Fiedler was ordained on Dec. 20, 1952, to the priesthood of the then-Diocese of Kansas City at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. He served as assistant pastor at Sacred Heart Parish in his native Springfield, Sacred Heart Parish in Kansas City, St. Mary Parish in Independence, and St. Peter Parish in Kansas City.
• In 1957, Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop John P. Cody chose the 32-year-old priest as his personal secretary. He was elevated to papal chamberlain with the title of "monsignor" in 1961, and then to "domestic prelate" in 1968.
• In 1962, Archbishop Cody, transferred that year to the Archdiocese of New Orleans, chose Msgr. Fiedler as his personal theological advisor to the Second Vatican Council. Soon after his arrival in Rome, Msgr. Fiedler was granted credentials as a "peritus," or expert, to the full council and to all the world's bishops.
• Following the Second Vatican Council, Msgr. Fiedler returned to lead Sacred Heart Parish in Warrensburg until 1969, when he was assigned to teach at the North American College in Rome.
• Upon his second return from duties in Rome, Msgr. Fiedler was assigned to lead the first diocesan Office for the Permanent Diaconate, helping to reestablish the order of permanent deacons locally following the Second Vatican Council.
• In 1973, the U.S. bishops called Msgr. Fiedler to Washington, D.C., to lead the National Office for the Permanent Diaconate. He would serve there until 1984.
• Upon his return from Washington, Msgr. Fiedler served until 1988 as pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Raytown.
• In 1988, Msgr. Fiedler was assigned to Conception Seminary College in Conception, where he served as a professor and spiritual formation director until 1994.
• In 1994, Msgr. Fiedler became rector of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, leading the cathedral through a period of spiritual and physical growth and renovation. He became rector emeritus in 2005.

In addition to those duties, Msgr. Fiedler also served the diocese as director of vocations, as director of the Propagation of Fath, as secretary to the school board, and as defender of the bond and notary of the diocesan Tribunal.

His career would put him in touch with popes, cardinals, archbishops and bishops. But he was equally drawn to the people he would never call "common" or "ordinary."

Msgr. Fiedler couldn't go to a restaurant for dinner without discovering everything he could learn about the waiter or waitress who served him, said Father Michael Clary, pastor of Our Lady of the Presentation Parish in Lee's Summit and chosen by Msgr. Fiedler to deliver the funeral homily.

Twice a month, Father Clary told the congregation, he and Father Ken Riley, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Oakview, would go to dinner with Msgr. Fiedler.

"Whoever the waiter was, he needed to know his name," Father Clary said. But it didn't end there. Msgr. Fiedler would continue to ask about the server's family, his job, his life.

"By the end of the evening, I knew more about that waiter than I could ever imagine," Father Clary said. "And if they didn't go to church, he invited them to come here."

That was Msgr. Fiedler's vision of the church - a place where everyone was special, and where everyone had gifts to offer, Father Clary said.

"He realized that the church was the people of God, and he delighted in the people of God," Father Clary said.

"That was all part of Bud and how he saw the church," Father Clary said. "He loved to see people using their gifts and he loved to see the church expressing itself in that way."

But above all else, Msgr. Fiedler loved the sacrifice of the Mass.

"For him, the source and summit of the church was here, doing what we are doing today," Father Clary said.

"I don't know anyone who prepared more for Mass than Bud," he said. "He agonized and work hard on those homilies. He delighted in coming to pray with people in the cathedral. He loved to teach, and he loved to learn."

Father Clary said that Msgr. Fiedler taught well, "by his words, but more by his life."

Even as he was dying, Msgr. Fiedler's primary concern was in setting an example of dying well, Father Clary said.

"His concern was not about death," he said. "His concern was, 'How do I do this in a way that witnesses to my belief in God and the teachings of the church.'

"In letting go, he was preparing for something far greater," Father Clary said. "In letting go, he was preparing for eternal life."

The gifts that Msgr. Fiedler drew from people were in full flower at both his vigil service on Jan. 2 and his funeral Mass.

Forty of his brother priests, and 15 permanent deacons came to the Mass of Christian Burial.

His beloved cathedral was magnificently decorated for the Christmas season, the season of the word made flesh, with a huge evergreen wreath suspended directly over Msgr. Fiedler's wooden casket.

The organist, Mercy Sister Claudette Schiratti, and the combined choirs of the cathedral, led by Mario Pearson, and Holy Family Parish in Kansas City, led by former cathedral music director John Winkels, blended voices and instruments with guest voices and musicians in music that ranged from liturgical classics to contemporary.

And the rose window on the south wall, Msgr. Fiedler's personal project during the cathedral renovation, blazed in color with the light of a low, winter sun.

"He served with distinction and so many times offered his personal support to me," Bishop Robert W. Finn said as he prepared to offer the final commendation at the end of the liturgy.

"He readily sought and saw Jesus Christ in his people," the bishop said. "As we now commend him to God's mercy, we trust in our Father, God in heaven, to grant him eternal life and peace."

In his memory, Msgr. Fiedler asked for donations for the work of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 416 W. 12th St., Kansas City, MO 64105.

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