Faith in the fields
Diego Soto (right) and his friend Reggie Shannon ride out to round up cattle for a fellow rancher in Carbon. (NTC/Juan Guajardo)
Although Fort Worth, Arlington, Wichita Falls, Denton, and other densely populated cities contribute heavily to the Diocese of Fort Worth’s dynamic, it’s important to remember the diocese’s 92 parishes span 28 counties, many of which remain largely rural and rich in agriculture.In those counties and parishes, our shared Catholic faith plays out a bit differently from urban life and is perhaps a bit more in tune with God’s creation.
Diego Soto is a third-generation rancher and a member of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Parish in Cisco.
“It’s hard work, but I always want to be out there in nature,” Soto said. “In our family, we see God in everything. Whether that’s going for a walk at our ranch, working, or whatever. I think you learn to appreciate how everything, even bad things, have a purpose. You come to learn more, understanding and accepting God’s will and nature. That’s the biggest thing.”
God’s work
Having grown up in Los Angeles, dairy farmer David De Jong of St. Mary Parish in Dublin has experienced both the urban and rural lifestyles. De Jong’s parents immigrated from the Netherlands as newlyweds in 1957, both having hailed from farming families. De Jong said his father sold the family store in LA in 1980 to raise milking cows in Southern California. Following college, De Jong said he found his way to Texas and hasn’t looked back since.
De Jong spoke of observing hawks, deer, and the world surrounding while on his tractor.
“I don’t know if every farmer is as observant as the next, but I think most really appreciate God’s work and design, both of nature and the seasons and how things go,” De Jong said.
Successful agricultural endeavors require as much, De Jong said.
“Farmers are the eternal optimists,” he explained. “We couldn’t do what we do if we weren’t. If you don’t have faith that it’s going to rain, that the seasons will change, and things will get better, you couldn’t psychologically stay in this business. You’ve got to weather the storms, and without faith that’s very difficult.”
Faith is the backbone of the farmer, the family, and the parish.
“I think every parish, regardless of size, has its own characteristics,” De Jong said, describing rural vs. urban parish life. “I can’t say every rural parish is close knit, but I can say St. Mary’s is. We have fellowship after Mass, and I’d say probably 50 percent of attendees stick around to visit and don’t just run to their cars. Some of my best friends socially are church friends.”
Fellow St. Mary’s parishioners, the Volleman family raise cattle and bottle their own milk featuring their trademark cow with a pink nose on the bottle.
Andrew Volleman joked that his father, Frank Volleman, kept him and three brothers “very busy” growing up, something he much appreciates now.
“Having an agricultural background helps, I think, with Catholic faith,” Volleman said. “The ultimate test of faith is putting a seed in the ground and hoping it grows, right? So we learned early on that we have to rely heavily on God in all we do.
“My parents moved here from Luxembourg 30 years ago and started with almost nothing. We got to see, growing up, how faith was always at the forefront of their everyday lives. Got to see their devout Catholic faith and their true connection to God through that.”
Volleman spoke of his love of the close-knit nature of his parish and community.
“Everyone knows each other in some form or fashion,” Volleman said. “As far as being in agriculture, it lets you see faith firsthand. There’s no sign of faith like having to pray to God that we get rain.”
Volleman, who sits on the parish council for St. Mary and the finance council for the three-parish cluster, spoke of challenges rural parishes face from lack of resources, limited funding, and other hurdles, but also of their importance.
“The small parishes of the diocese are still growing and really need support,” Volleman said. “The parishioners here are generally really firm in their Catholic beliefs.”
Vocation to cultivate
Many, when they hear the word vocation, think of priests, deacons, and sisters. However, answering God’s call also includes exercising one’s talents in order to best serve and build God’s kingdom.
Pope Francis, noting that “There is no humanity without the cultivation of the land,” spoke of the vocation of those who work in agriculture during a Jan. 31, 2015, speech to Italian farmers.
“The labor of those who cultivate the Earth, generously dedicating time and energy to it, appears to be a genuine vocation,” Pope Francis said. “It deserves to be recognized and appropriately appreciated.”
Several farmers and ranchers throughout the diocese expressed similar sentiments.
Hazel Kajs, a parishioner at Holy Family of Nazareth Church in Vernon, said she and her husband Johnny approach agriculture as a vocation. This is because the desire to work the land is both in the blood and inextricably tied to faith, Kajs said.
“If you’re a farmer, you better have faith because you’re going to do a lot of praying,” Kajs said. “Praying about, ‘When will the drought end and the rain come?’ Praying that tornadoes and bad weather go around you.”
As to the call of agriculture, Kajs said her husband was born and grew up on the land they later farmed. Johnny left the farm after high school to work 15 years at National Cash Register Company but later returned to the farm.
“We had five children and went from weekly paychecks and insurance benefits to life on a farm,” Kajs said. “It was kind of scary, a leap of faith. When you farm you don’t know what kind of paycheck you’re going to have or what conditions you’re going to face.”
The couple, now retired, raise alfalfa hay, cotton, wheat, and at one point raised cattle.
It’s a mix of challenges and benefits, Kajs said of rural life.
“Farming, it really teaches children a good work ethic, because everybody has to work,” Kajs said. “It gives you a real strong work ethic if you’re raised on a farm because you know what real work is.”
Farming, Kajs said, bolsters faith in God and wonder of His creation.
Kajs said. “You know how much that rain is going to mean or how much damage that hailstorm can do. It’s hard to be a farmer and not have faith, and it takes a lot of faith to keep going and know that God’s going to provide one way or another, and you’re going to make it through this.”
Strength and faith that translates into rural parish life where multiple parishes often share one priest, with strong participation from the laity.
“That and living in a small community really emboldens parishioners to stand up, knowing that it depends on us to get a lot of things done,” Kajs said.
Kajs and her husband remain active in parish life through volunteering for various ministries.
“To me it just gives a warm feeling to know I’ve helped out and had opportunities to share life with [fellow parishioners],” Kajs said.
Kajs spoke too of the joys of a small-town community and getting to know fellow parishioners on a deeper basis than may be the case at the diocese’s larger urban parishes.
Church is home
For Anna Mae McKnight of St. Joseph Parish in Crowell, Mass lends a homey feel of community interaction.
“Ours is a smaller mission parish with Mass only once a week,” McKnight said. “Everyone pretty much sits in the same place every week, almost like assigned seating, and we have our little nests. People leave kids’ toys, Bibles, extra rosaries, and prayer cards in the pews.”
McKnight appreciates the small town after living in a Fort Worth suburb.
“It is different I think,” said McKnight. “We had lived in the Metroplex for 18 years and attended [St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Keller]. We enjoyed that parish, but the area was big city, big bureaucracy. It’s definitely a different feel from having moved from home to there and now back again.”
McKnight, like many in rural parishes, grew up farming and continues to do so, as did her father and mother before her.
“My dad grew up farming and ranching but ended up in Austin after college,” McKnight said. “He decided he didn’t like city life and bought property near here in 1978. So I grew up farming cotton and wheat.”
Farming, McKnight added, brings home the need of and reliance on God.
“Being on the farm, you have to give it to God,” McKnight said. “He controls the weather, conditions, the everything. All those things your day and profession depend on.”
“Certainly, when you look at the parables, we understand that firsthand maybe more so than others,” McKnight said. “We get what it means to plant the wheat, grow the wheat, harvest the wheat, and the work and efforts involved.”
Fruit of the Earth
The Moraths, parishioners at Sacred Heart Church in Wichita Falls, are also a farming family.
Jimmy and Becky Morath bought a farm 43 years ago, cultivating orchards initially and later other crops.
Becky Morath joked that before getting married she sometimes mowed her parents’ lawn, and her husband-to-be helped with his parents’ garden.
“I think we were young and dumb,” Becky Morath said with a laugh. “But it grew.”
Morath said she sees rural life and agriculture as a vocation.
“It’s a lot of time and a lot of work when we could be doing a lot of other things that make a lot more money,” Morath said. “But, it’s a good lifestyle. My kids grew up working and learned good work ethics. I think that taught them responsibility and good life lessons not only to help their family but to be good stewards to the Church. Now my 17 grandkids help me at the farm and the farmers market, so it’s good for them, too.”
Morath said, “I feel like I’ve been put here by God for this purpose,” and she often sees that purpose at work at the farmers market, where she sells produce twice a week. Her close relationships with her regular customers are her “outreach ministry,” and if produce doesn’t sell, she donates it to a food bank.
“You have to donate because God has given you all this,” she said, gesturing to a huge field of okra. “If I grow it, somebody needs to eat it.”
Morath’s son and his wife, Jacob and Lauren Morath, own and operate The King’s Good Vineyard & Berry Farm.
“It’s a you-pick berry farm — pick your own strawberries, blackberries, blueberries,” Lauren said. “We have a vineyard where we grow grapes, too, and people can come out and pick them. ... We have a little cafe on our property too that’s open seasonally.”
Lauren said she sees clear connections between farming and faith.
“Through being able to grow your own food, you have a better appreciation of God’s creation I think,” Lauren said.
She continued, “Not to mention the benefit of just living out in the country, being closer to nature. Seeing the beautiful sunsets, watching the plants grow gives me a better appreciation of all that God has created and how all that works together. Sort of a big picture appreciation of it all.”
Jacob added farming is an exercise in trusting God. He said, “In other realms, you can feel like you have more control. But in farming, it’s maybe more visible that you don’t.”
Pray and work
Deacon Jim Novak of Sacred Heart Parish in Seymour farms the land he grew up on. He and his son grow wheat and other crops and run a small cattle business. Novak also coordinates the parish garden at Sacred Heart.
“We’re trying to get more families to pitch in and help with that,” Dcn. Novak said. “We’ve had seminarians help out in the past. That was their summer duty: pray and work.”
It’s a calling, Dcn. Novak said of farming and ranching.
“You have to commit yourself to it because it’s a vocation,” Dcn. Novak said. “God created nature and Jesus told many parables about the seed, the wheat, and the need to prune and take care of things.”
While farming requires much hard work, it also provides time for quiet contemplation.
“I can’t tell you how many Rosaries I’ve prayed in the tractor,” Dcn. Novak said. “It has a radio, but I usually cut it off for time for prayers and just thinking. A lot of times too, though, I’ll listen to the Bible and ‘Catechism in a Year’ podcasts.”
Depending on God
Father Kyle Walterscheid of Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in Wichita Falls grew up on a farm in Muenster.
Fr. Walterscheid commented on Pope Francis’ characterization of agriculture as a vocation.
“I don’t know his specific quote,” Fr. Walterscheid said. “But I’d say farmers, ranchers — they’re very in tune with nature, and God speaks to us through nature.”
Farming requires toughness and endurance, Fr. Walterscheid said, just as the priesthood requires the same, albeit more on an emotional, spiritual, and psychological level.
Both, he said, teach dependence on God for what He provides and how to deal with what comes and what doesn’t come.
“I think growing up on a farm is a great way of raising a family,” Fr. Walterscheid said. “There’s a lot of breadth in farming. I think city life just has a different dimension. Because, at least where I grew up, us boys were outside the house at 7:15 a.m. And didn’t really get to go in the house until later that night. There’s something about being out in nature, and I think it’s a really healthy thing. I think that leads to a very natural way of becoming close to God and very close to your Church.”