Fr. Dan Viertel

Parish: St. Mark, Redgranite

Birth Date: July 28

Parish Assignment as of July 1, 2010:

St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Manitowoc

Parish Address: 601 N 8th Street, Manitowoc, WI  54220-3919

E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Fr. Dan Viertel and Fr. Jose Castaneda were ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Ricken at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 5, at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Green Bay. He had been ordained to the diaconate by Bishop David Ricken on May 16, 2009.

Read the story about Fr. Viertel in The Compass

What are some of the things you enjoy doing?
Most recently kayaking, as well as, bicycling, reading, journaling, and spending time with God in nature.

Please describe your family.
We're just a “Joe Average” family... WOW! Sounds like a good name for a blog!
My three siblings and I are an eclectic, dysfunctional, bunch of married, remarried people who will do anything for each other. Every time I affectionately think of them I recall the movie “Forest Gump,” and smile. Gathered together, we are like a box of chocolates -- some hard, some soft, some creamy, some fruity, some dark, some just plain nuts ... God’s wonderfully perfect “Whitman’s Sampler” box. My mom? You can’t miss her; she is that special white chocolate piece that sits in the middle, the place of honor in the box. My father joined the “Great Chocolatier” my first year in the seminary… he was the ribbon that God used to hold the box together; now we rely on each other. It’s cozy in that box.

How has seminary helped you grow in your faith and your vocation?
My years at seminary have taught me about the significance of structure and discipline. It is a structure and a discipline that comes from a maturing faith, witnessed through the faith of those I see as my brothers in Christ, as mentors, professors, staff who have committed their time, their talents, and their love of Christ to my growth, to my learning, and to my maturity as a leader in the community and as pastor. The discipline of faith that is witnessed to by all of the staff at the seminary offers me encouragement; courage; and support. It offers me relationships. These are relationships that help me glimpse the greatest relationship of all time, my relationship with God, which brought me to the holy place of St. Meinrad. These relationships with professors, staff, and fellow students have encouraged me in many ways. For me, the men and women of this institution have encouraged me to stay even when the world and life wanted to get in the way. Such a structure of discipleship can not be created by bringing just any group of individuals together. It grows from the shared sense of faithfulness to the Gospel. It also grows out of the lived out faithfulness to that Gospel that I have seen witnessed in the classrooms and in the offices. Such discipleship comes from a shared sense of mission. What a gift I have been given to witness this lived out discipleship.

What do you like about the Diocese of Green Bay?
After having spent this summer as deacon at St. Paul in Combined Locks and as a summer intern at Nativity of Our Lord in Green Bay several years ago, and having done vocation talks at St. Leonard in Laona and St. Norbert in Long Lake, and being connected with St. Mark in Redgranite and Sacred Heart of Jesus in Poy Sippi, it is the people. I love the people. People have been wonderful to me. The most enjoyable thing for me is being able to get out there and enjoy the people, everybody loves to be loved and I'm not any different. They have a deep faith tradition that I feel blessed to be able to minister to.
Northeast Wisconsin’s valuing of families, quality of life, and integrity help make its people be a cut above those in other parts of the country, no offense to the many places I’ve traveled. God has certainly blessed the people here. As for the claims of frozen tundra in Northeastern Wisconsin, well, maybe it’s another kind of climate that makes it stand out -- a climate of honesty. There’s a community-minded energy present.
Of course it could also be the wooded forests, the peacefulness and serenity, the small towns where ya know everyone and it’s normal to wave and say “Hi,” the blue-green color of the bay, the smell of wood stoves in the winter, and the fact that the only interference between you and the stars is a cloudy night. We in northeast Wisconsin are blessed.

Who are some of your favorite saints?
St. Thomas the Apostle -- “The believer” -- Feast Day: July 3. “My Lord and my God.” From a few verses in the Gospel of John, St. Thomas the Apostle emerges as one of the most vivid characters in the New Testament. When Jesus announces his desire to proceed toward Jerusalem, it is Thomas who issues the bold challenge, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Later at the Last Supper Thomas asks, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Which evokes the response, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”
St. Thomas More -- Statesmen and Politicians -- Feast day: June 22. “…my conscience belongs to me alone.” He was beheaded in 1535 when he refused to sign the Act of Supremacy that declared King Henry VIII Supreme Head of the Church of England. Attempting to make his way up the scaffold he addressed his guard, “I pray you, master Lieutenant, see me safe up, and as for my coming down, let me shift for myself.” Before laying his head on the executioner’s block he remarked, “I die in and for the faith of the Holy Catholic Church. Pray for me in this world, and I shall pray for you in that world.” “I die as the kings true servant, but God’s first.” A man of conviction and conscience.
St. Denis -- Patron Saint of Headaches -- Feast day: October 9. In 258, during the persecution of Emperor Decius, Denis, the first bishop of Paris, was imprisoned, tortured, and beheaded. Denis’ headless body is said to have carried his own severed head away from his own execution. In any case, his body was dumped into the River Seine, but his followers pulled it out. You have to love the story!