BY PRISCILLA GREEAR

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--The mission statement of the Society of Mary's Washington Province describes its commitment "to the education of youth and to the evangelization of adults, bringing hope and counsel to families and to those who are without the comfort of affection."

Marist Father Lawrence Schmuhl has surely fulfilled that call, having spent 50 years in ministry as a junior high school teacher, a vocations director, a missionary in the U.S. and abroad, a Catholic school administrator and a parish priest in Georgia and Louisiana. He is the only golden jubilarian among local priests this year.

"My attitude in life is where they put me I can do some work," said Father Schmuhl. "I've never had anything I didn't like."

At 76, Father Schmuhl said that the greatest challenge of his ministry was in his retirement and resulting free time, facing physical weakness. Yet in the Marist spirit of humility, self-denial, close union with God and neighborly love, he has now resumed joyously providing weekend help, celebrating Masses at local parishes on an assignment basis and jokes that now parishioners actually listen to his sermons because they only hear them once.

"I'm feeling I'm back in my priestly boots," he said.

Father Schmuhl has shown versatility and adaptability since his priesthood began. His first assignment was at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Minneapolis in 1947. He served from 1948-1950 as an assistant pastor at Sacred Heart Church in Atlanta and at its mission in Marietta, while also teaching English, science and religion to junior high students at the Marist School.

"I enjoyed being with the boys," he said. "I liked the fact that I had a certain amount of influence in their training for life."

He became administrator of Marist School in 1968, while the new school facility was being constructed. In other roles in the archdiocese, he served as pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Marietta from 1980 to 1985 and as associate pastor at St. Joseph's and at Our Lady of Assumption Church in Atlanta.

A native of Chicago, Father Schmuhl has found a deep sense of ease and well being while ministering in Atlanta and, with his large community of friends, considers it home. He found Louisiana parishioners to be reserved initially, but says that they also became warm and personable as he came to know them. He also developed a taste for Cajun foods like gumbo, shrimp, crawfish bisque and French bread.

In his 50 years of ministry Father Schmuhl said that his attitude toward evangelization has changed.

Originally he felt "I could convert parishioners."

After many years of ministry he finds he is "much more tolerant with almost anything that affects life--with religion, the problems people have." Now when he counsels individuals in turmoil who do not have a life of faith, he advises them, "Faith is a gift--I'm praying for you."

A measure of Father Schmuhl's openness stems from his travel to places including Singapore, Israel, Egypt, Cyprus, Japan, Korea and the Philippines, either with his parents or as a mission priest for the Air Force.

"It makes you realize there are so many different cultures. Sometimes you see customs that are very interesting," he said. "You appreciate much more customs that different persons have in various parts of the world."

He has traveled frequently in this country as well, visiting Catholic schools in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Minnesota, Illinois, Louisiana, Georgia and Washington, D.C., as vocations director of the Marists from 1950 to 1959.

He was also director of the Marist mission program from 1959 to 1968, traveling to many parishes for two-week periods giving renewal missions and preaching.

"The most spiritually invigorating was the work on the mission band. You hear confessions until you are blue in the face--long after you give your talks. (Parishioners) would feel good just to get stuff off their chests," he said.

Utilizing his business acumen, Father Schmuhl served as administrator of the Marist School where he was involved with budgeting and raising funds, building tennis courts, a stadium, an auditorium and a library and renovating the gymnasium. During this time school enrollment doubled.

In 1968 he was elected to the provincial council of the Washington Province of the Marist Fathers. Father Schmuhl also served for five years on the archdiocesan clergy personnel board reviewing priest assignments to ensure the most effective placements.

Father Schmuhl feels fortunate that he has rarely encountered struggle and doubt in his own faith life except while in seminary and says, "My life has been very much blessed."

Blending his personal and professional interests, he enjoys reading intellectually stimulating books on spirituality and psychology, which he says provide him a strong foundation for sustaining his relationship with God. He also likes to golf with fellow priests.

He has appreciated congregations' willingness to listen carefully to sermons and to volunteer within parishes. In his ministry he has enjoyed teaching classes on Catholicism to potential converts and listening to parishioners with problems and helping them to clarify situations and find solutions. He also enjoyed visiting and offering sacraments to people in nursing homes.

Father Schmuhl was raised in Chicago, the oldest child of Lawrence and Valerie Schmuhl. He has three younger sisters and two younger brothers. While he was active as a youth playing baseball and football and attending parties, he was also busy listening to homilies and thinking of entering the priesthood.

"I used to go to Mass quite often after I got into sixth grade," he recalls.

He attended a minor seminary program from September 1934 through 1940 at St. Mary's Manor in Pennsylvania. He chose to enter the Society of Mary because Marists were needed in the Archdiocese of Chicago and because he "loved the simple title."

He spent 1941 and 1942 at a novitiate in New York learning about the Marist Society and took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. He then studied theology, philosophy and Scripture at Marist College in Washington, D.C., and was ordained to the priesthood June 8, 1947.

The Society of Mary has 16 provinces worldwide, with approximately 1,700 members and nearly 115 priests in the Washington Province.

As the Marist spirit of service continues to motivate him, Father Schmuhl recently celebrated a Fourth of July Mass for the National Educational Association convention at the World Congress Center. He looks forward to celebrating a Mass of Thanksgiving at Our Lady of the Assumption Church commemorating his 50 years of priesthood in September.