Brother Joe Fisher, C.PP.S., who grew up on a farm outside of Wapakoneta, Ohio, has been our provincial treasurer for 30 years.
From the time he was in fourth or fifth grade, Brother Joe thought about a life spent in service to the Church, but priesthood never felt like a good fit for him. In the sixth grade, he became a server and then was invited to the annual server’s picnic held in those days at St. Charles Seminary (now St. Charles Center) in Carthagena, Ohio. “It was really fun!” he said. “You got to see the seminarians playing ball, fishing and swimming.” There was a vocations tent set up in the grove, and so, “kind of on a dare,” Joe filled out a card asking for more information.
That fall, on a late Saturday afternoon, “we were sowing clover in a wheat field and wouldn’t you know it, up the lane comes a car. Who gets out but Br. John Bruney,” there to talk to young Joe Fisher and his parents about the vocation of religious brother.
The rest is history. He enrolled at Brunnerdale, the Society’s high school seminary, then graduated from Saint Joseph’s College, where he earned an accounting degree. He was professed a brother in 1977 and later earned an MBA from the University of Dayton. Taking care of the Society’s funds is a ministry to him; by watching over the accounts, he’s ensuring that funds will be available to take care of the needs of his brothers in community.”
If you’re hearing a calling from God, he said, “Pay attention to it. Do a little research. Maybe talk to someone who is a religious, talk to somebody you can trust. My idea always was that it’s not my calling – I’m being called.”