A priest who stood against hate in Waterloo
Catholic priest marks 50 years of ministry; stood up to anti-gay hate group in 2005
A former pastor of mine recently celebrated his 50th anniversary of ordination as a Catholic priest.
The priest, the Rev. Dennis Juhl, known simply as “Father Denny,” now retired, is a pretty unassuming guy. He’d rather be in street clothes than dressed in black and wearing a Roman collar. He could be seen outside church watering plants before service time. He is a dog lover and has had Masses where kids can bring their pets for a blessing. He talks in a soft, gentle voice that could hardly be called bombastic.
There’s more under that mild exterior that meets the eye. He’s a religious scholar, taught at Loras College in Dubuque and mentored many priests. His homilies put theology in a simple context that his parishioners understand and remember. He’s fought his way through a host of health issues.
He's done everything a priest in good standing does over his career. He’s baptized babies, presided at weddings and funerals and taught religion. He served at parishes throughout northeast Iowa and retired in 2016 as pastor at St. Ludmila’s Catholic Church in Cedar Rapids
And in one part of his career not too often told, he stood against hate at his doorstep.
One of his finest moments -- out of many, public and private, serving his parishioners – came in early April, 2005 when he was pastor at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Waterloo, of which I was and still am a member.
He stood up to members of the Westboro Baptist Church from Kansas, who picketed Blessed Sacrament and five other local churches the weekend of a benefit memorial concert following the murder of a gay Waterloo man, Jason Gage, organized by his sister to raise funds for a memorial scholarship in his name. Blessed Sacrament and other faith communities were identified and targeted by the Westboro group as open and welcoming congregations.
“They either come right out and say it’s okay to be gay, or they carry the big lie that God loves everyone” contrary to Scripture, Westboro spokesperson Shirley Phelps-Roper told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier in announcing the pickets.
Our pastor responded, and didn’t back down.
“All people are welcome,” he told the Courier. “All people are loved. As we understand it, the Gospel message is one of tolerance and acceptance and support of families, and what will happen outside our church is just something we don’t understand has anything to do with God’s message.”
I drove my mom, then 82, to Mass that Saturday night. Mom was still perfectly capable of driving herself but there was no way in heaven or hell I was going to let her go by herself that evening. She was a devout and undeterred Catholic.
We drove past the picketers, who were standing in the street at the church parking lot entrance with signs like "God Hates F*gs" and "The Pope (John Paul II, who had just died) Is In Hell." They waved the signs and yelled at us, but didn’t impede access to the church parking lot. Nonetheless a gauntlet of picketers was not a normal trip to church and a bit more to contend with than simply arriving on time and finding a good parking spot.
Father Denny responded to it all with firmness and humor.
He had parishioners sing "All Are Welcome In this Place" at the top of their lungs for the opening hymn – loud enough for the picketers out on the street to hear.
He eased some of the tension by adding, "There's one sign out there I especially want you not to pay attention to. That's the one that says, 'Your Pastor Is Lying.' "
It gave everyone a much-needed laugh.
Father Denny, as a precaution, also made sure a couple of our parishioners who were Waterloo police captains were present, in plainclothes, in keeping with the verse from Matthew: "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”
His stance did not go unnoticed in the community at large.
“He is one religious leader who has openly welcomed diversity in his church and the community,” one letter to the editor in the Courier said. “Father Denny Juhl should be an example for all of us to critically look at ourselves first and then decide if we need to cast stones at others just because they are different.”
But he drew strength from his parishioners. When he left Blessed Sacrament for St. Ludmila’s in 2011, he told the Courier their Mass attendance that weekend in 2005, “when they had to walk through this idiocy to come here,” was one of the most poignant moments of his time in the parish.
The Southern Poverty Law Center in Montogomery, Ala. and the Anti-Defamation League in New York have respectively identfied the Westboro Baptist organization as “artuably the most obnoxious and rabid” and “one of the most reviled” hate groups in America. Westboro followers also have attempted locally and elsewhere to picket funerals of fallen soldiers.
The Westboro Baptist folks have been active again in demonstrations at the Nebraska state capitol in support of anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ legislation. Their reputation should provide sufficient reminder that all people of good will, including Catholics and the Catholic leadership within the United States, must consider very carefully who they may be aligning themselves with, what they want to stand for and the tone they want to take as such matters are debated.
Among the photos and other memorabilia at Father Denny’s recent retirement celebration was a placard which said, in white letters on a field of green, “Hatred is not a family value.”
The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative
I am a Catholic and Father Juhl’s work and the work of so many others like him is the main reason I am still Catholic. The Catholic Church does social justice very well. I hope that remains the case in spite of all of the other judgment that is coming out from the bishops these days.