Congratulations to Fr. Rick Friebel, C.PP.S., who this year is celebrating the 40th anniversary of his ordination.
Fr. Friebel, 67, a native of Shelby, Ohio, entered the Society in 1965 and was ordained on June 22, 1978. He has been involved in parish ministry and education ministry during his years as a priest.
After his ordination, Fr. Friebel was named dean of students at Brunnerdale, the Missionaries’ former high school seminary near Canton, Ohio. He was assigned to Precious Blood Church in Fort Wayne in 1981.
In 1986, Fr. Friebel became chaplain of Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting, Ind. He was the chaplain, theology instructor as well as head of the theology department at the college and later served as its dean of students.
Fr. Friebel returned to parish ministry in 1989 at St. Andrew Church in Orlando. His parish ministry in the years that followed included Our Lady of Good Counsel in Cleveland; St. Andrew Church in Orland, St. Ann in Haines City, Fla.; Precious Blood and Holy Trinity in Dayton; and Our Lady of Guadalupe in Montezuma, Ohio.
Fr. Friebel now serves as parochial vicar at Sts. Peter and Paul in Ottawa, Ohio; St. John the Baptist in Glandorf, Ohio; St. Michael in Kalida, Ohio; and St. John the Baptist in Continental, Ohio.
Fr. Friebel’s anniversary, along with the milestone anniversaries of 12 other Missionaries of the Precious Blood of the Cincinnati Province, signifying hundreds of years of ministerial service to God’s people, will be celebrated in a special liturgy on July 2 at St. Charles Center.
Fr. Friebel will be celebrating also his anniversary at Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Ottawa, Ohio on July 22, at 11:30 am Mass followed by a reception given by the people he served at the parishes in Putnam County at the K of C in Ottawa, Ohio. There will also be an anniversary celebration in Cleveland, Ohio at Mary Queen of Peace (Our Lady of Good Counsel) July 29 at 11:00 Mass followed by a reception at the parish.
“The lives of these C.PP.S. priests and brothers are an example of faithfulness and commitment for all of us,” said Fr. Larry Hemmelgarn, C.PP.S., provincial director of the Cincinnati Province of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. “We thank God for their lives of service, which have brought so much good to so many.”
The Missionaries of the Precious Blood is a religious society of priests, brothers and lay associates founded in 1815 by St. Gaspar del Bufalo. Society members work as missionaries in parishes in the U.S. and abroad, in education and in a wide range of apostolates, promoting the cause of God’s reconciliation worldwide by proclaiming the Word.