‘Unflappable’ pastor who shepherded major parish projects ready to retire

Note: Six priests of the Archdiocese of Baltimore will be retiring July 1. The Review profiles the six as their parishes bid them farewell. Click here to read more retirement profiles. 

If you listen to people who work at Church of the Resurrection in Ellicott City and interact with Monsignor John A. Dietzenbach, its pastor since 2009, you hear of a dedicated Catholic who is the picture of work ethic, selflessness, humility, positivity and deep love for his parish and the Holy Trinity.

You also hear about a serious man who rarely wears his monsignor’s garb, is quite comfortable being addressed as “Father John” and is blessed with a wry sense of humor that simmers beneath his surface.

“For (Monsignor Dietzenbach) to be doing this for as long as he has, it’s amazing that half of the time when you ask him a question, you don’t get a straight answer out of him right away, because he finds something funny to say,” said Stephen Lay, music ministry director at Resurrection who has worked with Monsignor Dietzenbach throughout his time there.

“Father John has been a great mentor for me as a staff member,” said Cindy Desrochers, business manager. “He has taught me how to communicate effectively, even when you disagree. He is willing to have a good, back-and-forth conversation and offer good advice. He is a calm, articulate, sincere priest – not a fluff guy. But he is funny.”

After 44 years as a priest in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, including the last 15 years at the helm at Church of the Resurrection – and the last five years also serving in a pastorate role at St. Paul’s in Old Ellicott City – Monsignor Dietzenbach is officially retiring July 1.

Monsignor Dietzenbach, 72, who originally intended to retire at 70, was determined to finish one of the major jobs of his career by guiding a huge rebuilding and renovation project at Resurrection to its completion. A Mass of Dedication May 17 officially opened the parish’s long-awaited, new church and its expanded facility on Paulskirk Drive, next to Resurrection-St. Paul School.

“I’m looking at all of the things I still have to do, just trying to get through June,” Monsignor Dietzenbach said. “The people here have been very kind to me for years. I have gotten a lot of dinner invitations (from parishioners). I don’t think I will have a very big grocery bill for June.”

Growing up on a farm in the small town of St. Lucas in northeast Iowa, with cornfields in every direction, Monsignor Dietzenbach said the idea of becoming a priest was ingrained all around him, among many other families of German lineage.

“The Catholic Church was the only church in town, so the town was about 99 percent Catholic. My parents were very involved,” he said. “Everything was geared around the church and school communities. It had a long history of producing vocations and a lot of priests. My cousin was a priest.”

After he graduated from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, Monsignor Dietzenbach had his choice of three seminaries. As he told Catholic Review in 2009, “Everyone I knew from high school was at the (seminary) in Minnesota. The one in Indiana was in the middle of a cornfield, and I’d spent my life in one. That left Baltimore.”

Ordained in 1980, he spent two years in what is now New All Saints in Liberty Heights, then five years as associate pastor of St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Highlandtown, followed by eight years as associate pastor at St. Stephen in Bradshaw. In 1994, he started a 15-year stretch as pastor at St. Peter the Apostle in Libertytown, about 12 miles from Frederick.

Ten years later in 2004, as he was preparing to become pastor at St. Ann in Hagerstown, a fire inflicted major damage to the original, 133-year-old church in Libertytown. While portions of the old church were salvaged, Monsignor Dietzenbach stayed to lead the building of a new church over the next four years. The new church was dedicated in September 2008.

“It turned out to be a very positive experience. The parish came together well. We had already renovated a hall at St. Peter’s, built a maintenance shed, bought a thrift shop and renovated it,” Monsignor Dietzenbach recalled. “You have to deal with whatever comes your way. You can’t get dejected. Hang together and work together, keep a positive spin on things. Life goes on.”

And so it went on at Resurrection, under Monsignor Dietzenbach’s leadership, while the parish saw its plans for a new church delayed for four years, first by a pair of devastating floods in Ellicott City, then by the COVID pandemic. Two years after breaking ground in 2022, Resurrection had its new house of worship.

Monsignor Dietzenbach, who is having his retirement house built near Berkeley Springs, W. Va., and is eager to spend many leisurely days outdoors – hiking, kayaking, gardening, cutting the grass, chopping firewood – said each parish he has been a part of has had similarities, yet each is unique.

“Resurrection has a group of very professional people. The youth ministry is strong, with good music programs. The parish has a strong sense of outreach regarding missions and taking care of the poor and disadvantaged,” he said, referencing several mission service trips he has taken with parishioners to San Bartolo Parish in El Salvador.

In 2013, Resurrection members helped build three houses in a neighborhood in San Salvador. In 2019, they attended the opening of the Padre Jim McGovern library at the parish, still the only library in the area. They have done more than 10 medical missions. Resurrection also sponsors occasional poor boxes and a second collection each year.

Monsignor Dietzenbach said he is looking forward to a late-July vacation with friends and a 50th-year college class reunion – the first he will have ever attended.

“We’ve been praying to Jesus to protect him. I think he’s been overwhelmed at times seeing that project through,” said Jeanne Dell’ Acqua, in her 48th year as a Resurrection parishioner.

Dell’ Acqua said she is forever grateful for the compassion Monsignor Dietzenbach showed her when she lost her husband during COVID. Dell’ Acqua recalled how the pastor immediately set about organizing the entire, safe-distance funeral. He took care of the day and time of the service, and found a music director and cantor.

“I was not involved. He just took over and organized everything,” she said. “He has shepherded us through the good times and bad times, the COVID times, the clergy scandals. He has held many meetings so people could just express their thoughts. He has been unflappable. He is just a real, people person.”

Also see

Cardinal O’Malley devotes decades to making ‘present the merciful face of God’

Father William Au, pastor of the Shrine of the Sacred Heart, is set to retire

Father Demek retires after nearly 50 years as a priest

Father Gills retires after a ministry that took him around the world and around the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Father Foley, pastor to retired priests, set to retire himself

Approaching retirement, Monsignor Barker reflects on shepherding one of the largest parishes in the Archdiocese of Baltimore

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