Northern Ozaukee County ‘always had Father Jim’

Father Jim Ernster, whose calling to the priesthood blossomed in the trenches of World War II when a metal-covered prayer book he carried in his vest pocket stopped a piece of shrapnel, saving his life, never served as a parish priest in Ozaukee County.

But when Ernster retired in 1995 after 40 years as a parish priest, he returned to his hometown of Lake Church and became the area’s defacto spiritual advisor.

He was in high demand, even before the priest shortage, performing baptisms, weddings and funerals and celebrating Masses whenever needed.

But mostly, he was there whenever anyone needed an ear to listen, a shoulder to lean on or a helping hand.

Now the area is without its steadying hand. Ernster died Sunday, March 6, at Lincoln Village in Port Washington, where he had lived for the last seven months. He was 96.

“He leaves a legacy of helping others, helping people enduring tough problems get on with their lives,” his nephew Jim Hubing said. “It’s very rare for someone to live this long and serve as long as he did. He was absolutely dedicated to his faith and his religion. It never waivered.”

Kevin Wester said Ernster’s death marks the end of an era for the Lake Church area.

St. Mary’s Church had been without a resident priest since 2007, he said, “but they always had Father Jim. He really cared for those people in northern Ozaukee County.”

Ernster, he said, “really understood what a priest should be. He was one of the people.”

Ernster loved the people of northern Ozaukee County, and they loved him back, Wester noted.

“He was down to earth,” Wester said. “More important than being Father Jim, for him it was about being Jim Ernster. There were no airs about him. People felt so positive and connected to him.”

Ernster, he said, was highly critical of wrongs he saw, even those in the church.

“He was very outspoken about stuff he felt was wrong,” Wester said. “He was not a party-line priest. He would speak out against things he felt weren’t fair to people.” 

  He was an independent man and priest, and was energetic and interesting throughout his life.

Father Patrick Heppe, then vicar for clergy in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, told Ozaukee Press in 2020 that Ernster is the quintessential example of an active retired priest who enjoyed the support of his peers.

“He is an inspiration to younger priests who can see there is life after retirement for priests. Whether they’re older or younger, there is a role for them.”

Ernster found perhaps his greatest role in Lake Church, where his family’s roots go back to 1847 when his great-grandfather John Ernster emigrated from Luxembourg and settled in the community. 

Ernster was born on the farmstead on Sept. 12, 1925, one of nine children of Jacob and Lucy Klas Ernster.

As a child he attended St. Mary’s School in Lake Church, where Father Joseph Keller would often tell him he was praying that the youngster would become a priest.

That, his nephew said, stirred his calling to the priesthood.

Ernster graduated from Port Washington High School in 1943, and on his 18th birthday enlisted in the U.S. Army. He received a temporary deferment until February 1944 because his mother died, and when his father bade him goodbye at the Port Washington train depot, he said, “Be a good soldier.”

It was the last time he saw his father, who died three months later. Ernster, who was in basic training, was allowed to go home for the funeral and when he returned was assigned to a new infantry group. 

The members of the group he had previously been assigned to all lost their lives in battle.

“My dad really saved my life,” Ernster told Ozaukee Press in 2004.

Then, in the winter of 1944, Ernster, a private first class, was with about 190 soldiers in Company L of the 63rd Army infantry in northern France, surrounded by the enemy.

“We were running around in olive drab overcoats and were easy targets in the snow. The Germans were in white parkas,” he told Ozaukee Press. 

He was in a foxhole when he felt a slap on his chest and asked the soldier next to him why he hit him. The man said he hadn’t, and when Ernster touched his chest the metal cover of his prayer book was hot. It had been hit by shrapnel from an American 155 Howitzer shell.

It was then that Ernster promised God he would become a priest if he lived — and he did.

After the war, Ernster received a bachelor of science degree in business from Marquette University before entering St. Francis Seminary in St. Francis.

“He wanted to be sure (of his calling),” his nephew said of Ernster’s decision to go to college first.

Ernster was ordained a priest at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee on May 14, 1955, and celebrated his first Mass at St. Mary’s Church in Lake Church on May 15, 1955.

Wester said Ernster told him one of the biggest challenges he faced was his first assignment as assistant pastor at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Milwaukee from 1955 to 1965. 

It was a Polish parish where some of the Masses were said in Polish, and Ernster struggled to fit in.

“It was such a different culture,” Wester said. “It was a really hard start for him as a Luxembourger to go to this hard core Polish parish.”

Ernster served in a number of parishes in southeastern Wisconsin, eventually settling in as pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Kansasville from 1972 to 1995, when he retired.

He settled in a house he built on the Ernster family homestead in Lake Church in 1994.

He was home, and it was a good fit for him, Wester said.

“He was 100 feet from where his childhood home was,” he said. “He was so proud of being from Lake Church and Belgium.”

At that time, there were plenty of priests around, but Ernster was embraced by the community so Father Neil Zinthefer, then pastor of St. Rose Church in Fredonia, added a Mass for Ernster because he wanted him involved in the parish.

And as the priest shortage became acute, Ernster became more in demand.

“He knew everyone,” his nephew said, adding that was due in part to the years Ernster spent helping Hubing’s parents run Belgium’s grocery store.

Ernster, he said, was more than a priest and had interests that went beyond the church.

“He loved the home he built and his gardens,” Hubing said, adding he also loved reading and established a substantial library. “He was interested in everything. He enjoyed spending time with people. He had a lot of close friends.

“He had a way of helping the person he was talking to feel important. He was an outstanding listener, and in these times we’re in, it’s important to know someone really listens to you and cares.”

Ernster walked through Harrington Beach State Park, which was across from his home, virtually every day, chatting with people when their paths crossed, Wester said, noting he established good friends during those walks.

Ernster continued to minister to people until his death. After he moved to Lincoln Village senior living in Port Washington last summer, he regularly celebrated Mass there.

“He was such a presence here,” Kamini Cotton, executive director of Lincoln Village, said. “He was someone who brought such comfort just by being here. He had such a wonderful aura, people were just drawn to him. Having him here was so impactful to our community — it was a blessing.

“The staff found him to be someone who inspired them everyday. Our role was to serve him, but he served us as well. That just shows what a selfless man he was.”