Iowa to celebrate '79 visit

On Oct. 4, 1979, Pope John Paul II made a historic visit to Iowa’s St. Patrick Catholic Church in Irish Settlement, near Cumming, and Living History Farms in Urbandale.

The visit came about after Joe Hays, a farmer from Truro, Iowa, invited the pope to visit “rural America, the heartland and breadbasket of our nation.”

The result was the first papal visit west of the Mississippi River and the largest gathering of people Iowa had ever seen.

Thirty years later, Iowans and the Diocese of Des Moines still remember the pope’s visit and the homily he gave to thousands of people of all faiths.

“We have a very active member, Mary Nelson, who is immediate past president of the Board of Directors at Living History Farms,” said the Rev. Richard E. Pates, bishop of the Des Moines Diocese. “She asked, ‘Bishop, what are we going to do?’ I was so new at the time, it didn’t register with me at first.”

After lengthy discussions with Living History Farms and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, it was decided a two-day event would commemorate the historic visit, as well as the pontiff’s message of land stewardship.

The celebration is planned for Friday and Saturday, Oct. 2 and 3.

Friday, the event will open with more than 750 seventh- and eighth-grade Catholic students learning how the production, preparation and preservation of food have changed over the past three centuries. A tour through Living History Farms will help students learn how to live out the pope’s message of being good stewards of the land.

There will be a nonperishable food drive to go along with the theme of the day. All donations will be given to Catholic Charities’ St. Mary Family Center, a food and clothing pantry.

At 5 p.m., the events will continue with an interfaith ecumenical service, also at Living History Farms, followed by the opening session of the “What God has Given and Human Hands have Made” symposium at Dowling Catholic High School.

Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Pope Benedict XVI’s representative at the United Nations, will serve as the keynote speaker.

Saturday morning, the symposium continues at Dowling with sessions on Catholic social justice and agriculture, and opportunities and challenges in food and agriculture today. After lunch, Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns, a former U.S. secretary of agriculture, will give the keynote speech.

“The symposium is an opportunity to reflect in some depth on an issue that is critical to both Iowa and the rest of the world,” Pates said. “Particularly for Iowa, where we have the richest soil in the world, this event can be a model, and impetus, for future change.”