Chapter Eight
MONSIGNOR ALPHONSE J.SCHLADWEILER
(1955-1957)

Alphonse J. Schladweiler was born on July 18, 1902, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the third child of Mathias Schladweiler and Gertrude Schneider, both descendants of German immigrants from the area of Trier and the Eifel region of Germany. After a brief stay in Milwaukee, the family migrated to South Dakota and eventually to Madison, Minnesota, where Alphonse attended the Catholic school. He studied at the Franciscan minor seminary in Teutopolis, Illinois, and at the Saint Paul Seminary. He was ordained by Archbishop Dowling on June 9, 1929, at the seminary, and he celebrated his first solemn Mass at St. Michael's Church in Madison, Minnesota, on June 13, 1929. His first assignment was to the Church of the Nativity in Saint Paul, and later he served in Holy Trinity Church in New Ulm, which later in his life would be his cathedral. He was pastor at Montevideo, Morgan and North Mankato before being sent to Saint Agnes on December 5, 1955, after the unexpected resignation of Father Gruden. He was made a domestic prelate with the title of Monsignor in July 1957, and on November 24, 1957, he was appointed the first bishop of the newly founded Diocese of New Ulm. He established the operation of the diocese and labored in western Minnesota until his retirement in 1976. He continues to be a frequent visitor at Saint Agnes, often celebrating Pontifical High Mass for the great feasts.

Father Alphonse J. Schladweiler, pastor of Holy Rosary Church in North Mankato, was appointed pastor of Saint Agnes on December 6, 1955, by Archbishop Murray, to succeed Father Gruden who resigned on November 29, for reasons of ill health. Although his tenure was short, less than three years, it was a period of great activity and publicity for the parish. On June 10, 1956, Saint Agnes had the largest delegation of all the parishes of the archdiocese participating in the annual Holy Name Societies rally at the State Fair Grounds. The summer months were filled with music in Frogtown as the Saint Agnes Band played an outside concert each week on the parking lot under the direction of Frank Asenbrenner. The schools were prospering with 927 enrolled in the grade school and a capacity student body of 500 boys and girls from many different parishes in the high school for the opening of the academic year of 1956-57.

Archbishop Murray died in October 1956 and Archbishop William O. Brady became the new Archbishop of Saint Paul. On May 19, 1957, he ordered the recitation at each Mass in all the parish churches of a prayer he composed for the increase of religious vocations, a practice that still continues at Saint Agnes and a prayer that God has answered many times with the large number of young men from the parish who have become priests. On October 13, 1957, Archbishop Brady presided at a ceremony at the Saint Paul Cathedral in which twenty-eight priests of the archdiocese, including Father Schladweiler, were elevated to the honor of domestic prelates of the Holy Father with the title "Monsignor." It was a great honor for Saint Agnes, but only the first, because within the year, its pastor would be named a bishop.

Father Schladweiler was always interested in music and enjoyed singing. One of the first things he undertook to do at Saint Agnes was to replace the old pipe organ which had been bought forty-five years before from the Garrick Theater on Fifth and St. Peter Streets. With the help of Father Richard J. Schuler of the College of Saint Thomas, a Wicks pipe organ of fourteen ranks was selected and installed in 1957. The two went to Saint Louis, Missouri, on September 27 and made the arrangements. The dedicatory recital was played by Father Schuler on the new instrument on Sunday afternoon, December 15. During November, the electrification of the church bells was completed and a system of ringing of the three bells was established automatically. The long ropes to the belfry disappeared. Other improvements that Monsignor Schladweiler accomplished were the installation of a new stained glass window over the main entrance, necessary because the new pipe organ made the window visible from within the church, and a new baptismal font of Brescia aurora marble dedicated to the memory of Alfred C. Schwab.
 
The morning hours of December 4, 1957, brought exciting news to the people of the archdiocese and especially Saint Agnes parish. The Holy See had established a new diocese in western Minnesota with New Ulm as the see city. The pastor of Saint Agnes, Monsignor Schladweiler, was appointed to be the first bishop of the new bishopric, and Holy Trinity Church would be his cathedral. Where he had once been an assistant, he would now be bishop. This was the second time that the Holy Spirit had taken a pastor from Saint Agnes to be a bishop in one of the suffragan dioceses of the state. Bishop Trobec, the founding pastor, had been made Bishop of Saint Cloud in 1897. Saint Agnes was greatly honored with such a distinction being given its pastor, and the joy of the people, the Sisters and the priests was great in spite of the fact that they regreted that he would no longer be in their midst. The consecration ceremonies were on January 29, 1958, at the Saint Paul Cathedral, and the installation at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New Ulm took place the next day. The parish presented the new bishop with a beautiful crosier, the shepherd's staff, which is solemnly given to the new bishop as part of the ceremony of taking over the new diocese. Through an oversight, it was forgotten at Saint Agnes, and after a frantic telephone call it was taken to Flying Cloud Airport near Shakopee and flown to New Ulm, arriving just in time. The gift of the Saint Agnes people came to be known as the "flying crosier." On February 5, a farewell program was arranged at Saint Agnes and the Bishop returned to Saint Paul for the festive event.

Bishop Schladweiler was the second pastor of Saint Agnes to become a bishop, and that summons to found the Diocese of New Ulm cut short his stay at Saint Agnes. In a brief two years the parishioners had only begun to know their pastor before he left for New Ulm. In fact, he has become a much more familiar figure at Saint Agnes since his retirement from the governing of his diocese than he was during his short tenure as pastor. His frequent visits have endeared him to the great numbers who wait to greet him after Masses that he celebrates or receptions that he attends. A very gentle and mild man, his great love of people characterized his whole priesthood, his years as bishop, and his retirement. The family unit and its activity remained the center of life for him, and he worked always to demonstrate its importance in Christian living. A biography of the bishop was written by Father Richard M. Hogan and published on the occasion of his golden jubilee of ordination. It is entitled A Minnesota Shepherd.

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