By Thea Jarvis

In 25 years of priesthood, Father Leo P. Herbert has tried to experience as many aspects of his vocation as have been open to him.

The native of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, who came to the U.S. after ordination in 1967, said he has “moved around a lot,” but has “always felt I was much more needed” in the states than in Ireland. That, said Father Herbert, is a matter of importance for a priest.

The youngest in a family of four sisters and a brother, a ranked junior tennis player in County Armagh, Leo Herbert decided on diocesan service in the U.S. after hearing then Atlanta vocations director, Monsignor P.J. O’Connor, speak about the needs of the church in the South on one of his periodic visits to Ireland.

After ordination at All Hallow’s College in Dublin, where he spent six years in the states. His first assignments were assistant pastorates at St. Joseph’s in Athens, St. Anthony’s in Atlanta and Holy Cross in Chamblee.

In 1971, Father Herbert became a U.S. Army chaplain and was sent to Fort Benning in Columbus.

“It was just something I wanted to try,” said the peripatetic priest.

His military career began with a chaplaincy at Fort Benning’s Officer Candidate School. Within months, he became the base’s first Catholic hospital chaplain in recent memory.

Less than two years after arriving at Benning, he exchanged Southern warmth for the chill of Alaska, a change he wasn’t quite prepared for.

Father Herbert had just bought “a spiffy wee car,” a white Javelin with black trim and opera windows, “a super looking car,” he said. His new assignment meant driving the car cross-country, shipping it to Anchorage, then driving it north to Fort Greeley, some 150 miles south of Fairbanks. The jaunty coupe required a factory-installed warmer to make it through the Alaskan winter.

Father Herbert found the state a land of rugged beauty. At Greeley, he was the only Catholic chaplain, “the first time I was in charge” of a faith community.

Though “winters were tough,” the weather meant “you were forced to mingle.” The priest formed lasting friendships.

He also learned to ski, a sport he continues to enjoy, along with golf and tennis, even if the prices can’t match the Alaskan specials -- $12 for ski boots, skis and lift tickets.

Father Herbert was transferred to Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks after a year at Greeley. After another year in Alaska, he was back in the lower 48, this time at Shilling Manor, an outpost of Fort Riley in Kansas.

The base was home to families of men away on tour, and he was made welcome.

“I loved it there,” he said. “It was an Army base, but like a parish” in its feeling of community. It also snowed there more than in Alaska, he quipped.

When the Army wanted him to transfer again after just a year at Shilling, the priest decided he had had his fill of rule book decision-making. He was also increasingly uncomfortable with the lifestyle the military afforded him and the critical need for priests back in the South.

“I was conscious of the money they were paying,” he said, and decided to leave “before I got too attached to it.”

Father Herbert re-entered archdiocesan life at St. Pius X High School, teaching religion and serving as school chaplain. After two years at Pius, he was sent to St. Bernadette’s in Cedartown, his first assignment as pastor.

Four years at St. Bernadette’s were “wonderful, happy” times, he said. “You always remember your first pastorship,” and the parish’s “very family-oriented” spirit made him feel at home.

The Hispanic population in Cedartown was just starting to grow, and the priest remembers troubling protests from the Ku Klux Klan, which claimed the newcomers were taking jobs away from local residents.

But the parish’s picturesque rural setting, its solid ecumenical relationships and light administrative load made it an ideal place for a first pastorate, a place where “I couldn’t do much damage,” Father Herbert said.

He faced a broader challenge as founding pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Church in Kennesaw, where he was assigned in 1981. The congregation spent six years in a beautifully renovated 100-year-old Methodist church before building a new sanctuary on a 12-acre tract in 1987.

At. St. Catherine’s, “everything was a first,” said Father Herbert, who always wanted to start a parish and build a church. The rapid growth of West Cobb made the priest’s dream a reality. In the nine years he spent at St. Catherine’s, the church grew from 90 to almost 2,000 families.

“(Father Herbert) had a lot to do with that,” and Louise Lopushinsky, the parish’s former office manager. “We had a great family community under him.”

Father Richard Brennan, assigned to St. Catherine’s after his ordination in 1989, said Father Herbert was a mentor for him during his early days as a priest.

“He showed me how to walk through that whole area of gray shades, how to authentically be a priest,” Father Brennan said.

The two became friends even as Father Brennan was calling his pastor “the wee northerner” because of his link to Northern Ireland. His tenacious ability to get the job done was a plus for St. Catherine’s, Father Brennan said, as was his generous spirit. “They needed somebody to call the shots and get the job done.”

For his part, St. Catherine’s, “will always have my fondest memories,” said Father Herbert, who still takes part in the parish’s annual ski trips and continues to play cards with his old bridge group.

Leaving the church that claimed so much of his time, energy and emotion was more difficult than he expected, the priest admitted, but his new pastorate at Corpus Christi in Stone Mountain posed new challenges. The parish was larger and more diverse than St. Catherine’s and had had the same pastor for 13 years.

“For the first six months to a year, it was difficult to build up people’s trust,” Father Herbert said, but “it eased. Now it’s difficult to leave. Things were developing very well.”

Gini Eagen, Corpus Christi’s pastoral care coordinator, said she has admired Father Herbert’s directness and honesty and has enjoyed his “wonderful sense of humor.”

“He cares very much about the Catholic faith,” she said, and in his short time at the parish has “felt deeply the responsibility to share that faith” through what she calls his “teaching homilies.”

This summer, Father Herbert turns over the keys of the parish to Claretian priests and heads for St. George’s Church in Newnan, “a hidden jewel” of the archdiocese, in his opinion. He celebrated his anniversary at Corpus Christi with a Mass and reception this May.

“Leo’s heart is pure gold,” said Father Brennan, homilist for the anniversary Mass. “He epitomizes the humble man before God” who always “gives everything to the community” and whose welfare is his first concern.

The best thing about his anniversary, Father Herbert said dryly, is that he became a priest at all. Early on, his father had confided to one of Father Herbert’s sisters that he doubted the lad would last six weeks in seminary.

“I’m tougher than (they) think I am,” Father Herbert smiled.