St. Joseph Church

St. Joseph Parish was established in the southwest town of Benkelman in 1911 when the Catholics in the area purchased an abandoned Baptist church. The Oblate Fathers served the parish for the first few years of its existence, but the first resident pastor was Fr. Bernard Haskamp, a diocesan priest who came in 1923. It was not until 1950 that the current church was built under the leadership of Fr. Frank Sherman, who had the longest tenure as pastor of the parish (9 years). A matching brick rectory was added to the property in 1960. The second longest serving pastor (8 years), Fr. Conrad Marrama, is buried in St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery just north of town. 

The parish shares its pastor with St. Joseph Church in Stratton (built also in 1950 from the same architectural plan), just 18 miles to the east. The parishes share an active Knights of Columbus Council and both have active Altar Societies as well. The number of Catholics in Benkelman has decreased significantly in recent years, even while the town's population has held steady. Young families are a rare sight in the church pews, but the parishioners are nonetheless dedicated to the work of preserving and strengthening this community of faith. There are currently just 30 registered families, with 18 students active in the Religious Education program from grades K-12 (nine of the students are from Stratton).

The pastor is the only employee of the two parishes, so generous stewardship is not just a blessing, but a necessity. Volunteering for lawn care, bookkeeping, church and rectory cleaning, music ministry, flower arrangements, Mass ministries, teaching CCD and CYO, church linen care, and sharing meats and fresh veggies with the pastor are just a few of the ordinary ways that parishioners contribute regularly to the well-being of the parish through their stewardship of time, talent and treasure.

In celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the building of the current church, our parishioners recently updated the parish hall (church basement) with new flooring, ceiling, lighting and paint, as well as some new appliances for the kitchen. An outdoor storage shed was also built to house mowers, snow blower, lawn care equipment and tools. We will hopefully be able to cap our 75th Anniversary celebration with some sprucing up of our worship space as well.

Steadily rising costs for maintenance of the church grounds and buildings, as well as the cemetery, force us to be frugal stewards of what God has provided, so we really appreciate your financial help. We will be calling upon the powerful intercession of our patron, St. Joseph the Worker, especially on May 1, his feast day, to solicit the help of the other saints and Jesus Himself to watch over and build up our parish. We trust that this heavenly oversight  will help to make our projects a success, while also providing spiritual blessings for all who assist with our efforts to keep our parish financially solvent and to provide upkeep and improvements for our church.

Please stop in and visit us if you find yourself in southwest Nebraska on Highway 34! Any material or prayerful support you can provide will be considered a real blessing to us, and we pledge to pray for our benefactors as a return gift of gratitude.

May God bless you and your loved ones!

This brief parish overview was composed by Fr. Matthew Eickhoff, Pastor of St. Joseph Parish since June of 2016

Lincoln