September 15, 2010

Missionary priest served in Denver

By John Gleason

A Bethlehem Father who helped organize the first missionary teams from the Denver Archdiocese to Monteria, Columbia, died in his homeland last month.

Bethlehem Father Martin Weber died Aug. 8 in Switzerland.  He was 93. 

Born in Arth, Switzerland, on Jan. 2, 1917, Father Weber was ordained a priest of the Foreign Missions Society of Bethlehem in Immensee, Switzerland, on March 25, 1945.

His first assignment was teaching language studies in Cape Town, South Africa.  Other assignments included serving as assistant pastor at St. Elizabeth Church in Gwelo, and as school superintendent of Blessed Trinity School in Triashill and Silveira School in Bikita, all in Rhodesia. 

Father Weber worked as a missionary in Rhodesia throughout the 1950s before arriving in Denver to take over as superior of the Bethlehem Fathers, according to Father Thomas McCormick, a friend of Father Weber for many years.

“The order maintained their motherhouse at 17th and Holly Street in Denver,” Father McCormick said, “but many of the priests lived in the parishes they worked in.  Father Weber spent much of his time here at St. James Parish.”

Father Weber was also instrumental in organizing the first archdiocesan missionary teams that went to Columbia, according to director of priest personnel, Msgr. Bernard Schmitz. 

“He went to Columbia to find a place for the mission and discovered Monteria,” he said. “He was dedicated and a hard worker but at the same time unpretentious.”

Father Weber was known as a pleasant and humble man, the monsignor said.

“I used to call him 45 because he was so into whatever he was doing, he would walk around at a 45-degree angle,” Father McCormick said. “He was very much concerned for the missionary Church.  The influence of his 20 years in missionary work in Rhodesia just exuded from his personality and everything he did.

“He was a wonderful man,” he said, “and a wonderful priest.”

While in Colorado, Father Weber was also active in the marriage encounter ministry in the Archdiocese of Denver.  Mary Sue Ribblet, who worked closely with Father Weber, said it was a ministry with which he was very much in tune.

“He was outgoing,” she said, “a kind and loving priest who travelled all over Colorado and Wyoming to help strengthen peoples’ marriages.  Couples would come away talking about how not only their marriages, but their faith became stronger because of the Encounter weekends Father Weber led.”

In 2003 Father Weber returned to his native Switzerland to continue parish work until he returned to the care unit of the Bethlehem Mother House in 2007.

A memorial Mass will be celebrated for Father Weber at 6 p.m. Oct. 20 at Mother of God Church, 475 Logan St. in Denver.