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| Auxiliary Bishop Jerome J. Hastrich presents a mission cross for service to the Latin American Mission Program to Beverly Rolfsmeyer in 1967. (Catholic Herald file photo) |
Thirteenth in a series on the 75th anniversary of the Diocese of Madison
As a priest and bishop, Bishop Jerome J. Hastrich will be remembered especially for his service to the poor and minorities.
He was asked in an interview for the Catholic Herald Citizen when he first became interested in helping the poor and minority groups. The native of Milwaukee answered, “About 1929 when I was in high school.” He added that it was during the Depression and his own family was poor.
Before he entered the seminary, he taught religion to the poor at Holy Cross summer school in Milwaukee and taught Sunday school at St. Benedict the Moor and St. Gabriel Parishes.
He was educated at Marquette University and St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee. He was ordained as a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee on February 9, 1941.
Became a priest of Diocese of Madison
He came to Madison to serve at St. Bernard Parish in 1943. When the new Diocese of Madison was created in 1946, he was incardinated into the diocese.
He was asked to work in the chancery of the diocese as a secretary to Bishop William P. O’Connor on August 6, 1946, and also served as notary of the matrimonial court and diocesan CCD director.
He was appointed chancellor of the Diocese of Madison in 1952, vicar general in 1953, domestic prelate in 1954, and protonotary apostolic in 1960.
His brother, Fr. George M. Hastrich (later Msgr.), was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Madison in 1950.
Love for the poor and minorities continues
Because of his love for the poor, Bishop Hastrich worked to support minority populations in need. He established Blessed Martin House in Madison, which was a center to improve cooperation and understanding among different races and people. He established a similar center in Beloit.
He also worked with migrant workers in the diocese. He helped establish Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission in Endeavor and Queen of Americas Mission in Cambria, where Masses for migrant workers were held.
In 1964, he established the Latin American Mission Program (LAMP) to support the poor in other countries. A large group of volunteers from the Diocese of Madison went to work in the border state missions between Texas and Mexico each summer.
“I believe strongly in the missions,” he said. “A diocese is blessed that shares what it has with others.”
Named bishop
In 1963, Pope Paul VI named Bishop Hastrich Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Madison. He attended the second, third, and fourth sessions of the Second Vatican Council. He was appointed rector of St. Raphael Cathedral in Madison in 1967.
On August 25, 1969, Bishop Hastrich was appointed Bishop of the culturally diverse Diocese of Gallup, N.M. In his new assignment, Bishop Hastrich was to be the spiritual leader of the poorest diocese in the United States. The Diocese of Gallup comprises over 55,000 square miles in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico and is composed almost entirely of the Navajo Indian Reservation.
Bishop Hastrich said at that time that the Catholic Indians were converted by Franciscans as early as the 1500s and 1600s. “I’m going to very holy ground,” he said, explaining that almost one dozen Franciscan priests were martyred in the area.
“The Church was pretty well-founded there after the blood was spilled,” he noted. “Now there are about 63,000 Catholics in the area.”
When he went to Gallup, the diocese was still primarily served by Franciscans. There were only 11 diocesan priests and 57 Religious order priests. The diocese consisted of 34 parishes and 35 missions.
More recent statistics show that the diocese has 58,000 Catholics, 28 diocesan priests, 18 Religious Order priests, 53 parishes, 13 schools, and five social centers.
Bishop Hastrich established a seminary in 1980 for Navajo and Hispanic boys and served in New Mexico until his retirement in 1990.
Following a battle with cancer, Bishop Hastrich died on May 12, 1995. At his memorial Mass at St. Raphael Cathedral in Madison, Madison’s Auxiliary Bishop George O. Wirz praised Bishop Hastrich as a man on a mission. “He crowded 200 years in his 80-year life span,” said Bishop Wirz.
Sources: Building Our Future in Faith: Commemorative History of the Catholic Diocese of Madison (1996); archives of the Catholic Herald newspaper; Catholic-Hierarchy.org and Diocese of Gallup, N.M.
Mary C. Uhler served on the staff of the Catholic Herald-Diocese of Madison for almost 47 years, the last 34 years as editor. She retired in July of 2020.