Former Lutheran pastor recalls his road to priesthood

Father Larry Heimsoth, now retired, was ordained July 9, 1999, in Temple, Texas

Published: February 14, 2015

By Alesia Schaefer
Rogers Correspondent

Alesia Schaefer

Father Larry Heimsoth (pictured with his wife Beverly) retired to northwest Arkansas in 2013. He often celebrates Mass in area parishes.

Alesia Schaefer

Father Larry Heimsoth (pictured with his wife Beverly) retired to northwest Arkansas in 2013. He often celebrates Mass in area parishes.

FAYETTEVILLE — For Father Larry Heimsoth, a raised eyebrow or two is nothing new.

The former Lutheran minister who married and then became a Catholic priest at 50 years old realizes his faith story is somewhat a page-turner and he is accustomed to mixed reactions when sharing his story for the first time.

His path to the priesthood, although unconventional, has always had signs along the journey guiding him in the direction of his Catholic vocation.

Although born into a strict Lutheran household, the seeds of Catholicism were planted when he attended the seminary at Concordia University in St. Louis in 1967. Even then, he said, students were challenged every morning to “get up and justify why we were not united with Rome.” Yet as a young seminarian, he said he felt there was a deeper calling for greater unity in the Church.

After completion of seminary, Heimsoth was assigned to Belton, Texas.

“I felt I had a naïve view of how to preach the life of the Gospel,” he said of his early days. But it was in these years that he also met a nursing student who began attending his church and joined a charismatic prayer group with him.

“He gave me insights that were very helpful in my prayer life,” Beverly said of their early courtship.

After receiving permission from the elders of the church and the Lutheran bishop, the couple married in July 1973 and he adopted her three children from a former marriage.

A young Irish priest who came to town a year later shared meals with Heimsoth and his wife and he said he felt the gentle nudging again to consider the Catholic faith.

“At the time, though, I knew I would have to negotiate every relationship I had to make this kind of move,” Father Heimsoth said about the quiet call he was feeling in his heart. “I felt it would compromise so many relationships, including a brother who was also a Lutheran pastor.”

All this time, Heimsoth continued his work with ministerial alliances and learned about other faiths. Then in 1985, the Lutheran and Catholic churches came to an agreement in dialogue on “Justification by Grace.” For Heimsoth, some stumbling blocks to the faith were understanding papal infallibility, saints and not agreeing on some basic Gospels. But the more he read and learned, the deeper his understanding of the Church became for him.

The Lord continued to whisper the call and in 1989 after Heimsoth suffered his first heart attack he felt the yearning to leave again.

But it was in Ponca City, Okla., where a Catholic couple approached him at his church and asked if they could attend there because their parish priest was not tolerant of the charismatic movement, that he witnessed the grace and power of the rosary.

“They asked if they could form a rosary prayer group in this Lutheran church,” he said. “I agreed and I saw firsthand the answered prayers happening in our church.”

Finally in 1995, amid some controversial teachings in the Lutheran church, Heimsoth resolved he would heed the call.

He contacted a priest in Austin and began meeting with the bishop and undergoing instruction. He began a chaplain ministry and then worked as a youth minister and distributed meals to make money as he awaited the green light to be ordained.

After being given the blessing of the pope, St. John Paul II, Heimsoth became Father Heimsoth on July 9, 1999, in St. Luke Church in Temple, Texas.

Following his ordination, Father Heimsoth said the years from 1999-2002 were some of the happiest days of his life, concelebrating Mass with St. John Paul II being a highlight.

But September 2005 proved to be his most trying ordeal yet. While preaching a homily at a Sunday morning Mass, Father Heimsoth collapsed on the altar of a severe heart attack. Surviving five blockages and surgery can only be attributed to the intercession of the man who had influenced him through these many years, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, or St. John Paul II, his wife Beverly said.

After a brief stint in Boston in the chaplain program, he came back to Temple and after a heart fibrillation, Father Heimsoth took early retirement and moved to northwest Arkansas to be closer to his three children and eight grandchildren. He often celebrates Mass at area parishes when priests are on vacation.

“Of course, being married allows Father Larry to speak about the married life ‘from the inside’ and allows him to connect with parishioners in a way that I cannot,” said Father John Antony, a former pastor at St. Joseph Church in Fayetteville. “When you hear Father Larry speak, it becomes immediately clear he not only speaks from his head but also from his heart. He is a very loving and caring man.”

“Catholics have been given the spiritual gasoline of sacramental power to drive the auto of their faith life,” Father Heimsoth said. “But some never read the manual (Bible) enough to get out of the garage. We need to read, heed, trust and obey the Word of God.”