Fr. Joe Corel — 25 years of surrendering to, cooperating with God

These revered pastors encouraged the laity to work with them. Laypeople were empowered to do what the Church needed them to do and put their gifts and energy to the best use for all of God’s people.”

Father Joseph Corel, jubilarian

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Father Joseph Corel’s road to the Priesthood could be summed up with a lesser-known phrase in the Serenity Prayer.

“Trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your divine will.”

“‘Your will, not my will, be done’ — that has been with me throughout my whole Priesthood,” he said, echoing Jesus’s surrender to the Father the night before his crucifixion.

“The more I realized that it was really God’s will that I was surrendering to, the more I fell in love with the Priesthood,” Fr. Corel explained. “And the more I studied and prayed, and the more I accepted that calling, the more peace and joy it brought me.”

Fr. Corel, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish of Pettis County, has been a priest for 25 years.

In that time, he has served in a variety of parish and diocesan roles, including as an associate pastor and pastor, prison chaplain, diocesan vocations director, interim director of Catholic schools, vicar general, and vicar for prison ministry.

“I’ve met a lot of incredible people in each of the unique experiences that I’ve had,” said Fr. Corel.

Surrender

A son of Mary and the late Jim Corel, Joseph was born and raised near Chicago, attending elementary and high school in Earlville, Illinois.

The Priesthood had been in the back of his mind since childhood, but he kept turning away from it.

An English teacher at Earlville High School helped convince him that he would make a good educator.

The future priest went to Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Mo. to study secondary education.

“I found out I was pretty good at recognizing problems with why kids can’t learn,” he recalled. “Once you can identify those problems, it’s easier to teach them.”

He switched to special education and learned to teach first- through 12th-graders with various types of intellectual, developmental and/behavioral disabilities, as well as regular education for first- through eighth-graders.

“Then, God took the next logical step and said, ‘Why not educate ALL people in the Catholic faith?’” Fr. Corel recalled.

He surrendered and applied to be a seminarian for this diocese after graduating from Culver-Stockton.

He studied pre-theology for two years at Conception Seminary College in northwestern Missouri, followed by four years of theology at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis.

One of the requirements there was an eight-week summer program related to social justice.

Recognizing that at that time, nine of Missouri’s 21 prisons were located in this diocese, he contacted Criminal Justice Ministry of the St. Louis archdiocese.

Sister Elaine Aubuchon and Sister Carleen Reck, both School Sisters of Notre Dame, helped him experience the intricacies of prison ministry.

“After going into prisons in Pacific, Potosi and Farmington and spending many hours at the city jail and the county jail, I felt called to explore more of prison ministry after I was ordained, if that was what the bishop wanted me to do,” he said.

Everyday conversation

Fr. Corel spent two summers as a parish intern at St. Anthony Parish in Camdenton.

There, he marveled at how Father James Fuemmeler, now deceased, ministered to and evangelized the people all around him.

“I thought it was the most fascinating thing I had ever witnessed, and I witnessed it a lot,” said Fr. Corel. “He brought the message of Christ’s hope and love into every discussion. The catechesis just flowed so naturally from the ordinary conversation and then after a few minutes of catechesis, he just as naturally brought it back to ordinary-life conversation.”

Fr. Corel also watched how Fr. Fuemmeler listened to parishioners, drew them into leadership roles and helped them live out their Baptismal call to holiness.

Bishop Emeritus John R. Gaydos, who led this diocese from 1997-2018, ordained Fr. Corel a transitional deacon in 1999 in St. Anthony Church.

He continued his seminary formation in St. Louis while assisting as a deacon at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Columbia on weekends.

Monsignor Michael Flanagan, the pastor, showed him what it looks like to make the faith challenging and relevant in intellectual conversations with people in a university city.

Fr. Corel also occasionally went with Deacon David Ritter, now deceased, to minister in the Moberly Correctional Center in Moberly.

Deacon Ritter invited him to take part in a Cursillo Weekend.

“I had never heard a lot about ‘this is how Jesus has been moving in my life’ from the perspective of a layperson until that weekend,” said Fr. Corel.

“That was the most important thing I saw on that weekend — how God was working in those men’s lives and how they were recognizing it,” he said.

Fr. Corel later served for 10 years as diocesan spiritual director for the Cursillo movement.

He remains convinced that Cursillo is the Church’s most effective tool for evangelization.

“If you want to hear what Christ is doing in a lot of other people’s lives so you can recognize what he’s doing in your life and then help others see what Christ is doing in their lives, make a Cursillo weekend,” he said.

Watch and learn

On June 3, 2000, in the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Jefferson City, Bishop Gaydos ordained Fr. Corel to the Holy Priesthood.

“For me, it was joy, peace, happiness,” Fr. Corel recalled. “It was a celebration of being able to do more and be more of what God had been calling me to become since Baptism — a priest for Jesus Christ and his Church.”

He was assigned to serve as associate pastor of St. Peter Parish in Jefferson City. Monsignor Donald Lammers PA was the pastor.

“I found him to be one of the most positive men I have ever met in my life,” said Fr. Corel. “His positivity and energy and love for people was contagious, and I saw that in him and wanted to imitate it.”

Fr. Corel later became associate pastor of Cathedral of St. Joseph Parish in Jefferson City, where Father Frederick Elskamp was pastor.

“He showed me how important it is to never stop learning,” said Fr. Corel. “I watched him listen to CDs while he jogged. He was using them to learn Spanish, with an eye toward adapting and being better for the people he was serving.”

Fr. Corel noted that all of these pastors were showing him how to put what’s now referred to as co-responsibility into practice.

“These revered pastors encouraged the laity to work with them,” he said. “Laypeople were empowered to do what the Church needed them to do and put their gifts and energy to the best use for all of God’s people.”

Start to rebuild

In March of 2002, the scandals of the abuse of children by some priests and the shameful cover-up by some bishops was raised in the national consciousness.

Priests and laypeople alike felt deep sadness and betrayal.

“I remember thinking, ‘I’m done with this,’” said Fr. Corel.

“And then,” he stated, “just as quickly, a Holy Spirit prayer from deep within me convicted me of Peter’s words, ‘Lord, you have the words of everlasting life. To whom else shall we go?’ … ‘Even if we lose everything, I’m sure someone will give me some bread and wine, and we will consecrate it, celebrate the Eucharist and start to rebuild.’”

While offering a weekday Mass in St. Peter Church that day, he turned to wash his hands, saying the prescribed words, “Lord, wash away my iniquity. Lord, cleanse me of my sins.”

Overcome with emotion at what everyone in the parish and the whole Church was experiencing, he paused for several minutes before continuing.

“Ever since then, I’ve been deliberately trying to live in a manner that can rebuild trust and hope and joy in the Priesthood and the Sacraments, realizing that all of us are in need of God’s mercy and redemption,” he said.

Several flocks

Fr. Corel became a pastor for the first time in 2004.

He was sent to lead Immaculate Conception Parish in Loose Creek and St. Louis of France Parish in Bonnots Mill, while continuing as Catholic chaplain of the old Missouri State Penitentiary (MSP) and then of the new Jefferson City Correctional Center (JCCC).

“I learned time-management and how to adjust,” he said. “Rely on the laity to do what the laity are capable of doing. Give your expectations well. Help them see what needs to be done and how it needs to be done, and then let them do it.”

In cooperation with the parishioners, he oversaw Immaculate Conception School opening up a kindergarten, and St. Louis of France Parish renovating its church.

He got to offer the final Mass in the old MSP and the first Mass in JCCC.

He also helped summon a sufficient battalion of volunteers to keep the Intensive Therapeutic Community (ITC) — which helps many JCCC residents overcome addictions and criminal thinking — from closing, as well as a program helping prison residents earn their GED.

“Fr. Everywhere”

Bishop Gaydos in 2006 appointed him diocesan vocations director — a position he would hold for nine years.

“During that time, I did everything I could to be ‘Father Everywhere,’” the priest recalled. “I went wherever people needed me to be to help them create a culture of vocation discernment.”

He offered Mass and preached at different parishes every weekend, teaching people how to establish vocation committees, recognize people’s God-given gifts and call forth future seminarians, priests, deacons and religious brothers and sisters.

He worked with volunteers to strengthen Sixth Grade Vocation Day and establish Catholic summer camps for people in high school.

“All of that co-responsibility really paid off and became an anchor for what we were doing,” he said. “We called on the people of every parish to assist.”

He enjoyed working with the men who were drawn to give serious thought to Priesthood.

Some became priests, some did not.

In every case, “it was such a privilege to be able to walk with these men in such a spiritual way,” he said. “I am humbled by the trust and respect they had for me in that role.”

“In this together”

Near the end of his time as vocations director, Fr. Corel served for two years as interim diocesan director of Catholic schools, with Sister Kathleen Wegman SSND, who was chancellor, serving as assistant director.

They both also provided ongoing formation for newly ordained priests and for missionary priests from other countries.

He credited the competent and dedicated people who assisted him in parishes and in the Chancery for helping him weather those interesting times.

Bishop Gaydos appointed him vicar general on July 1, 2015. In that role, he functioned as second in command to the bishop, serving administratively and liturgically in the bishop’s place when the bishop was sick or away.

“The staff I was around made that an enjoyable assignment in the midst of the multitude of issues that we addressed during our time together,” Fr. Corel stated.

In addition, “Bishop Gaydos was fun to be around, with his wisdom and willingness to share stories about what it means to be a priest, what it means to be of service.”

Fr. Corel also returned to parish ministry for the first time in nearly a decade — as pastor of St. Andrew Parish in Holts Summit.

“I was in love with being a pastor again,” he stated. “I hadn’t done it in a long time, and it’s always been my passion.”

Three to one

When Archbishop Shawn McKnight succeeded Bishop Gaydos as head of the diocese, he appointed Fr. Corel to serve as vicar for prison ministry while continuing as pastor in Holts Summit.

Fr. Corel spent the first year working with volunteers to set up a network of support for people who volunteer in prisons, along with prison employees.

In 2019, Archbishop Mc­Knight assigned Fr. Corel and Fr. Veit to serve as pastors in solidum of the former St. Patrick and Sacred Heart parishes in Sedalia and the former St. John the Evangelist Parish in Bahner, which were all about to become St. Vincent de Paul Parish of Pettis County.

Working together with the combined authority of a pastor, they would be the first diocesan priests to lead parishes in Sedalia in many years.

“Nonstop action here!” Fr. Corel said of his current assignment. “Hopefully, helping the people grow in love with Christ and his Church.”

Despite the challenges any parish faces these days, it is an exciting and endearing place to minister.

“The people are incredibly dedicated to their school,” he said. “We have a growing Hispanic community who are in love with their Church. The Hispanic and Anglo communities are working more and more together, and three formerly separate parishes are becoming more and more unified each year.”

“Keep saying ‘yes!’”

Twenty-five years in, Fr. Corel is more grateful than ever for the Priesthood, the love of the people of this diocese “and to the Lord for giving me such a great opportunity to interact with as many I have.”

He asked for prayers for everyone to have the courage to say “yes” to God’s plan, and for God’s will to be done in the lives of everyone who cooperates with him.

“And for strengthening of all vocations,” Fr. Corel continued. “For us all to live out our vocation with purity of heart and trueness of intention.”

If Fr. Corel could go back a quarter-century and say just one thing to his about-to-be-ordained self, it would be: “Keep saying “yes!” The Lord will get you through it all — the good times and the bad.”