By Tom Hintgen

Otter Tail County Correspondent

A retired priest, Father Tim Wenzel, who once served Catholic parishes in Otter Tail County and nearby Wilkin County, returns now and then as a guest priest for services in Pelican Rapids, Elizabeth and Fergus Falls. Those three parishes are part of what’s today known as the Pelican Valley Area Catholic Community.

Father Tim, now 84 years old, looks back on a ministry that today holds a special place in his heart. It’s a ministry with Hispanic migrant workers and their children. In fact, parts of his home near Little Falls are decorated with symbols from that culture.

It was in 1971 when Father Tim was assigned to St. Joseph’s Church in Foxhome, in the western part of the St. Cloud Diocese in Wilkin County. He also helped out at Our Lady of Victory Church 12 miles to the east in Fergus Falls.

Hispanic migrant workers came to the Red River Valley to hoe sugar beets. Most of them were Catholic. But for Father Tim, it was not just celebrating Mass. He offered the children an education by organizing schools, first in Kent and later in Breckenridge. The state later took over school operations.

“The children of migrant workers really had no place to go during the day and sometimes they had to be at the edge of the field,” Father Tim recalls. “This way we had a nice school for them. Besides providing an opportunity for learning, the children were also given good meals at the school.”

The kids learned reading, writing, arithmetic and more. It became a large endeavor and a bus service was needed for the children. Father Tim oversaw it all.

“I really enjoyed working with the Hispanic people, who were very appreciative,” he said. “Our Foxhome parish showed an interest in them,” he said. “The migrant workers were away from home and felt like strangers.”

Father Tim, members of the Foxhome parish and others in nearby communities followed the Christian belief, “We should welcome the strangers and look out for them,” Father Tim said. “Later, that’s what Pope Francis also emphasized by helping people on the margins, so they don’t feel left out.”

In the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 25, Verse 35, the last judgment scene, Jesus says, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

During his final year at Foxhome, in 1975-76, Father Tim started a ministry in Pelican Rapids, including Mass in Spanish. Many Hispanic people in the Pelican Rapids area worked at the turkey plant and the Spanish Mass continues to this very day.

Father Tim’s vocational duties later took him to St. Mary’s in Little Falls, Our Lady of Victory in Fergus Falls, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud as executive director, pastor of St. Paul’s in Sauk Centre, Sacred Heart in Staples, St. Anthony’s in St. Cloud, Immaculate Conception in Rice and Annunciation in Mayhew Lake. 

He retired in 2011, now residing in the Randall and Little Falls area.