Bill Pifher is in a bit of a quandary.
Ohio State or Notre Dame?
The new priest at St. Peter Catholic Church, Archbold, and of Our Lady of Mercy, Fayette, has ties to both Ohio and the University of Notre Dame.
He is a Mansfield native but his family moved quite a bit as his father climbed the ladder of success in the insurance industry.
During his first-throughsixth grade years, he lived in South Bend, Ind.
Of course, South Bend is also the home of the University of Notre Dame. Pifher said the two are essentially synonymous, so he “kind of had the Fighting Irish imprinted on me a bit as part of the culture there.”
He later returned to the University of Norte Dame, where he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees, eventually being ordained as a priest in 1994.
And yet, being a native Buckeye, he has a loyalty to Ohio.
This year, the Ohio State Buckeyes play the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday, Sept. 3– opening day for both teams.
“As I’ve told the people, I have not definitively declared who I will be siding with, but I will before the game,” he said.
He has suggested St. Peter Catholic Church promote a tailgate event in the parking lot before the game.
“That could be a lot of fun, because even though I’m not anti-Ohio State, and friendly to all things Ohio, (by declaring ND allegiance) I would certainly use it as an opportunity to harass the Ohio State base, because I like to give people a hard time,” he said.
Holy Cross Fathers
Starting as a freshman at Notre Dame in 1985, he discovered there was a seminary program offered for college students “that seemed tailor-fit for me.”
As a seminarian there, he was a member of the Holy Cross Fathers.
Pifher explained the Holy Cross Fathers originated in France after that country’s revolution. The French Revolution started in 1789 and lasted about 10 1/2 years.
Edward Sorin, a French priest of the Holy Cross Fathers, and five lay brothers were sent on a missionary journey to the United States. In 1842, they founded a tiny school on a piece of property given to them by the local bishop.
When they surveyed the property during the deep cold of winter, they were taken by the beauty of the frozen lakes covered with snow, Pifher said.
The frozen lakes “became an image of the Immaculate Mother of God, Mary most holy, and so they entrusted this new project to Her care and protection, giving it her name,” he said.
That school would become the University of Notre Dame Du Lac, or Our Lady of the Lake.
“In my first year on (the Notre Dame) campus in 1985, I lived in the original small building constructed by Father Sorin’s group. It was built with the yellow bricks that they made from the mud they scooped from the lake in 1842,” Pifher said.
Parish Life
The organization had parishes and missionary work available, but some members spend the rest of their careers on the Notre Dame campus.
“I did not envision myself having Notre Dame– the university ministry– as my major assignment. I was more interested, in the long run, in parish life.
“And that’s what I’ve basically done for the last 28 years as a priest, spanning from New York City to California, and now, Ohio, for the last 22 years.”
As a Holy Cross father, he spent a year in Brooklyn, N.Y., and two years in the Oakland, Calif. area.
“It was a great experience, but from there I made a decision to leave Holy Cross Fathers and join the Diocese of Toledo.”
Toledo Diocese
Pifher has had a number of assignments within the Toledo Diocese.
Prior to coming to Archbold and Fayette, he was part of a one-year parish reconfiguration study.
He initially wasn’t keen on the idea, but in the end he was glad he did, for two reasons.
“First, Toledo wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and second, had I not been in that year of transition I would not be here in Archbold. And I’m so very glad to be here.”
His welcome at Archbold has been “phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal,” he said.
Is the priesthood a hard life?
“I don’t think of my life as hard, really. In fact, I would downright say that I’m embarrassed in some ways by how easy my life is.
“When people say to me, ‘Father, I know that you’re busy,’ I’m saying to myself, ‘I didn’t wake up with five kids to get out of bed this morning.’
“I’m talking about, especially, people that are parents. I like to see myself in service of them. I’m freer to do those things that support them.
“I would say I’m in deep admiration of parents today.”
Paid, Directed
One of Pifher’s adventures was as an actor in the 1993 film “Rudy.”
It’s a story about a young man whose goal in life was to play football for Notre Dame.
He said he was not a movie “extra.” He went through wardrobe, and he received direction from the directors.
What part of the film was he in?
“I always answer, ‘the most important part.’”
His total time on screen?
Eight seconds.–David Pugh
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