Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, March 8, 2001
H®ws
The Southern Cross, Page 3
Monsignor Herman J. Deimel: pride of Fitzgerald and the Savannah Diocese
F ather Herman J. Deimel
emerged from a unique place
at a unique time in the history of
the Diocese of Savannah. Bom
in 1900 in Fitzgerald, Georgia,
a community founded in the
waning years of the nineteenth
century as a starting-over place
for transplanted Union veterans
Rita H. of the Civil War, Herman
DeLorme Deimel exemplified the strength
of the early Catholic presence in
the town. Named for its founder, newspaper editor
P. H. Fitzgerald, the fledgling Ben Hill County set
tlement offered a new start for drought-defeated
midwestem farmers and eventually evolved into an
amazing scenario in which former Union soldiers
and ex-Confederates alike pulled together to make
a go of things.
Herman, the son of Mr. and Mrs. August Deimel,
attended the public school that had been estab
lished in Fitzgerald in 1896 to educate a student
body hailing from 38 states and two territories. He
continued his education at Loretto Academy in
Atlanta and later entered Minor Seminary at Saint
Meinrad, Indiana. Studies at Saint Joseph’s
Seminary in Dunwoodie, New York, and at the
Sulpician Seminary in Washington, D.C., rounded
out Herman Deimel’s education. On May 17,
1928, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Michael
J. Keyes of Savannah at the Cathedral of Saint
John the Baptist in the presence of his parents,
family and friends. The following Sunday, the
newly-ordained priest said his first Mass in his
hometown church, Saint William’s, Fitzgerald.
Bishop Emmet M. Walsh of Charleston, who had
once served the Catholic flock at Fitzgerald, was
on hand at Father Deimel’s first Mass and gave the
Sunday’s ceremony and it now has what no other
mission in the state can claim: a son of the parish
is a priest.”
Launched in his priestly career, young Father
Deimel took on a typical first assignment: the posi
tion of assistant pastor at the Cathedral and later at
Blessed Sacrament Church in Savannah. His career
would later range much further afield as he
became administrator of the mission at
Willacoochee (1929-1933), assistant pastor of
Saint Anthony Church, Atlanta (1933-1935), chap
lain at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta (1935-
1939), and pastor of Saint John Church, Valdosta
(1939-1943). His assignments continued to be
diverse as he was appointed temporary pastor at
Saint Peter Church, LaGrange (1943), pastor at
Holy Family, Columbus (1943-1961) and at Saint
Anne’s, Columbus (1961-1966).
While stationed at Columbus, Father Deimel
helped establish Saint Francis Hospital and aided
in the founding of Saint Anne’s Church and Pacelli
High School. His last assignment was at Saint
Patrick’s Church in Augusta (1966-1968). Having
been given the title of monsignor, Herman Deimel
retired in 1968 to Fitzgerald, the hometown he had
departed from so many years before.
Monsignor Herman J. Deimel, “the first priest in
Georgia to come from a mission church,” enjoyed
a well-earned retirement in Fitzgerald. Fifty-seven
years after his ordination, he died in that uniquely
diverse and progressive community on November
9, 1985, survived by a brother, two sisters and sev
eral nieces and nephews.
Rita H. DeLorme is a volunteer in the
Diocesan Archives.
Monsignor Herman J. Deimel
homily. Assisting at the solemn high Mass were
Father Deimel’s cousin, Father George Sebastian
of Indianapolis, Indiana, as well as Fathers Joseph
Smith and Thomas A. Brennan. A choir assembled
and trained by Mrs. Robert McCormack of Albany
traveled close to a hundred miles to sing at the
service. Fitzgerald had no resident pastor; it was
cared for from Albany by Father Leo M. Keenan
and his assistant, Father Brennan. It was noted in
The Bulletin's description of Father Deimel’s first
Mass that “the little congregation, largely of Ger
man extraction, is, despite its size, one of the most
zealous in the state. It has a substantial stone
church, recently improved in anticipation of
Father Raphael Toner, S.T., dies;
was pastor of Immaculate Conception, Dublin, for 21 years
Father Raphael Toner, S.T. (left) was present in Dublin on
December 8, 1997, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, as
Bishop J. Kevin Boland dedicated the Immaculate Conception
Parish Hall in his honor. Father Toner served as pastor for
Immaculate Conception for 23 years, from 1962 until 1985.
F ather. Raphael Toner, a Missiona
ry Servant of the Most Holy Tri
nity and the former pastor of Imma
culate Conception Parish, Dublin,
died of respiratory failure on March
1, in Philadelphia, Mississippi.
Father Toner was pastor in Dublin
from July 1962 through July 1985.
He was known as a gifted preacher, a
caring pastor and an able administra
tor.
Father Raphael’s brother, Father
Francis Xavier Toner, also a Missio
nary Servant of the Most Holy
Trinity, died in 1991.
Bom in Philadelphia, Pennsyl
vania, in 1913, Father Raphael Toner
was ordained to the priesthood in
Washington, D.C., in December
1941.
Besides his 23 years in Dublin,
Father Toner’s missionary career,
spanning 60 years, took him to
California where he served Mexican
migrant workers, to a Yaqui Indian
parish in Tucson, Arizona, and to the
Choctaw Indian Parish in Tucker,
Mississippi, where he was pastor
from 1944 to 1963 and to where he
returned in 1996, in active retire
ment, until his death.
Bishop J. Kevin Boland dedicated
“Father Toner Hall” at Immaculate
Conception Parish in his honor on
December 8, 1997.
After a wake at Holy Rosary
Church, Tucker, on Sunday, March 4,
and a funeral Mass on Monday,
March 5, Father Toner’s remains
were sent to Holy Trinity, Alabama,
where a Vigil Service was held on
Tuesday, March 6. There, on Wed
nesday, March 7, after a Mass of
Christian Burial, he was interred in
the cemetery of his religious order,
the Missionary Servants of the Most
Holy Trinity, in the presence of
Bishop Boland.
Savannah Deanery
Lenten Penance Services
Cathedral, Sunday, April 8,
2:00 p.m.
Blessed Sacrament, Wednesday,
March 28, 7:00 p.m.
Our Lady of Lourdes, Thursday,
March 15, 7:00 p.m.
Resurrection of Our Lord,
Monday,
April 2, 8:00 p.m.
St. Anne, Monday, April 2,
7:30 p.m.
St. Boniface, Wednesday, March
14, 7:00 p.m.
St. Frances Cabrini, Tuesday,
March 27,
7:30 p.m.
St. James, Wednesday, April 4,
7:30 p.m.
St. Peter the Apostle, Thursday,
April 5, 7:00 p.m.