BRANDON PASTOR, FATHER JOYCE, HONORED BY FRIENDS AND FAMILY ON 40TH
ANNIVERSARY
By Randal Hunhoff
Brandon – When Father
Jim Joyce was sent to Risen Savior Catholic Church in Brandon in 1986, he must
have been confounded by the new surroundings.
Risen Savior is a new church, built in 1981, and usually where Father
Joyce is sent, a building follows close behind.
Last Sunday,
Father Joyce celebrated his 40th anniversary in the priesthood; he
was ordained by Bishop William O. Brady on March 13, 1948. Rise Savior parishioners celebrated with
Father Joyce and members of his family, including a brother and sister who
traveled from California to be with him.
Bishop Paul Dudley of the Sioux Falls Diocese and retired Bishop Lambert
Hoch also attended.
Father Joyce, a
Redfield native, has been instrumental in supervising several major building
projects completed in the Sioux Falls Diocese in the last three decades.
He worked closely
with architect Howard Perez when O’Gorman High School was built in 1960-61 and
helped design the school.
In the fall of
1964, when Roncalli High School was built, he was there, and remained as
superintendent of the school until 1967 and the first class graduated.
And when Holy
Spirit Parish in Mitchell built a new church in 1976, he was the pastor who led
them in the project during the money-tight years of the mid-70’s.
He now serves on
the Diocesan building commission, and will help with planning of the new parish
in Sioux Falls.
But it is teaching
that Father Joyce recalls most fondly.
He taught science and math at Sacred Heart Junior High in Aberdeen,
medical ethics at the McKennan Nursing School, religion at O’Gorman, sociology
at Heelan, and many subjects while teaching 13 year[s] at Holy Spirit Grade
School in Mitchell.
Father Joyce
attended St. Bernard’s Seminary in Sioux Falls for two years, and graduated
from St. Paul’s Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1948, with majors in
English, Latin, history and religion. He
earned an M.A. in Educational Administration from St Thomas College in St. Paul
in 1958. He credits Father George
MacConnach[i]e, the parish priest in Redfield when he was growing up, with
instilling in him an early interest in the priesthood.
Father Joyce is
not thinking of retirement and said he is happy to work at whatever job the
Bishop gives him. Anyway, as Father
Howard Carroll told him in the reception line: “The first 40 years are the
hardest, it’s all downhill from here.”
Father Joyce’s
first assignment was as an assistant pastor to Father Thomas Flood at
Vermillion in 1948. He was also in charge of the Newman Club at the University.
In 1949, he
transferred to Sacred Heart Parish in Aberdeen, where he stayed for six years,
and was chaplain at the Newman Club at Northern State.
He was secretary
to Bishop Brady and then Bishop Lambert Hoch from 1955-57, while also serving
as chaplain to McKennan Hospital and teaching at the nursing school there.
From 1958-61, he
helped build O’Gorman High School and taught there, and also served as chaplain
to the state penitentiary, “one of the most fascinating assignments I’ve had,”
he says. He also taught for a year at
Heelan in Sioux City.
He was pastor of
Millette, near Aberdeen, serving two missions in Chelsea and Athol, at the same
time helping to plan Roncalli High School.
He was superintendent of the school for three years, 1964-67.
He served as
pastor at St. Agatha’s in Howard for a year, and then spent 13 years at Holyl
Spirit Parish in Mitchell, as pastor, teaching and planning a new church.
In 1980 he was
sent to St. Wilfred Parish in Woonsocket where he stayed four years. He spent part of a year at St. Nicholas
Parish in Tea, and then became Chancellor of the Diocese from 1984-87.
He is currently
serving as pastor at Risen Savior parish in Brandon.
