Three missionary priest to serve Diocese of Dodge City

By Tim Wenzl

Southwest Kansas Register

When counting its blessings this Christmas, the diocese can now add three.

Bishop Ronald M. Gilmore will soon welcome three missionary priests to the Diocese of Dodge City.

Father Floyd McKinney of the Diocese of Wichita, Father Benjamin Dande, a priest of the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales, and Father Arturo Pozo, a priest from the Archdiocese of Quito in Equador will soon be serving the faithful in southwest Kansas.

“We are grateful that Father McKinney, Father Dande and Father Pozo will soon join us in the diocese,” stated Bishop Gilmore. “Each is an experienced missionary priest and southwest Kansas is their new mission field.”

Father McKinney, currently pastor of Our Lady of Gaudalupe Parish in Newton, is no stranger to missionary work. This mission field, however, will be much closer to home than his previous missionary assignments. He served in Venezuela from 1982 to 1988 and again from 1992 to 1995. When the Most Rev. Michael O. Jackels, bishop of Wichita, asked for volunteers to help out in the Dodge City diocese, Father McKinney’s mission spirit kicked in again.

Father McKinney will reside at the rectory in Spearville and will initially assist at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe. While Father Ted Stoecklein, pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish, is away for language studies in February and March, Father McKinney will serve as parochial administrator of the Spearville parish. He was born in Parsons, and ordained May 10, 1980, by Bishop David M. Maloney at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Wichita.

Father Benjamin Dande, MSFS, a priest of the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales, has been granted permission by Provincial Superior Father Thomas Perumalil, to minister in the Diocese of Dodge City. Father Dande was scheduled to arrive in the diocese in mid-December as this issue was going to press. He will reside at St. Therese Parish in Dighton for a period of orientation with his mentor Father Warren Stecklein.

Father Dande is a priest from the Visakhapatnam Province of the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales. Members of the congregation are known as Fransalians. Father Dande was born in Chirragudur, India, and ordained Dec. 27, 2001, by Bishop Govindu Joji of Nalgonda, South India. His most recent assignment was in the parish of Our Lady of the Assumption, Sourfriere, St. Lucia, West Indies.

Father Dande’s coming to the diocese can best be attributed to divine providence. Father David Kraus, now retired in Ransom, was doing genealogical research and needed to check some sacramental records at the parish church in Burlington, Ks. The telephone conversation moved from genealogy and entries in the sacramental registers to the fact that Father Marianand Mendem, pastor of Burlington, was a Missionary of Saint Francis de Sales from India, and that his religious order was wanting to expand its presence in the United States, especially in Kansas.

Father Kraus said, “Why not Dodge?” This was intriguing because Father Jim Dieker’s mother is a parishioner in Burlington and when Father Jim would visit his mother, he would often visit with Father Marianand.

Father Marianand made a trip to Dodge to visit with Bishop Gilmore. Father Marianand was very impressed with the pastoral needs of the diocese and that Bishop Gilmore had visited India and was familiar with Indian life and culture. Father Mendem recommended to his provincial that an additional priest be sent to Kansas and specifically to the Dodge City diocese. After some consultation between the Provincial and Bishop Gilmore, an agreement was struck. Father Dande is the third Missionary of Saint Francis de Sales in Kansas. The other two, Father Marianand and Father Joseph, serve in the Archdiocese of Kansas City.

Father Arturo Pozo, a priest of the Archdiocese of Quito, Equador, has been granted permission by Archbishop Raul Vela Chirbboga to minister in the diocese. Father Pozo will be arriving in January, and will be in residence at St. Anthony Parish in Liberal. Father Pozo will undergo a period of orientation with his mentor Father Tony Judge, CSsR. He was born in the Arenillas Province of Gold, Machala, Equador, and ordained by Archbishop (now Cardinal) Antonio Gonzales Zumarraga of Quito Oct. 3, 1987.

Father Pozo was introduced to Bishop Gilmore by Bishop Edward J. Slattery of Tulsa, who saw in him many gifts. His experience in catechetics, catechist formation and development of lay leadership are gifts that can be utilized in the Diocese of Dodge City.

Additional information on these priests will appear in future issues of the Register.