By Deacon Matthew Hecker, Ph.D.
for the Register
Msgr. Adrian Herbek, a retired priest of the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, will celebrate his 90th birthday March 13. He will also celebrate the 65th anniversary of his ordination June 5.
Herbek has given his entire life to serving the people of God in the diocese of Lincoln and would gladly do it again. His love for his faith and for the people of Nebraska runs very deep.
Herbek was born at the family farm near Deweese, south of Hastings. He was one of five children.
His father farmed with six mules on the dryland farm of 160 acres, later adding 60 acres for pasture for cattle.
“We had no electricity, no phone, but we did have running water in the house, thanks to a special windmill pump pressuring both water and air into a basement tank,” Herbek said. “Our only income was the sale of wheat, eggs, cream, fatted hogs and some steers.”
Herbek attended a country grade school a half-mile from his home. The teacher used wood for heat, pumped the water, and taught all eight students grades 1-8. He later went to Nelson High School, 15 miles away, riding the school bus. He studied vocational agriculture, played the trumpet in the marching band, took piano lessons and sang in the choir, graduating at age 17.
The Catholic faith was of primary importance to the Herbek family.
“Our family lived the faith brought over from the old country,” he said. He said his grandparents – who emigrated from Czechoslovakia, were married in 1900 and homesteaded the farm – helped build the parish church in Deweese and passed their faith to the family.
“In the evenings, after supper,” he said, “we would sit around the table and Mom would help us learn the Baltimore Catechism. We had a good CCD program on Saturday mornings taught by the Sisters from the neighboring parish in Lawrence.”
He never remembers missing Sunday Mass.
“If it snowed, we had to scoop the road, by hand, on Saturday,” he said. “If it rained, we had to put chains on the (horse-drawn wagon) tires to make it up the hill. Our family was usually the first to arrive for some function and the last to leave.”
After Mass every Sunday, he said, the family would visit Grandpa and Grandma Drudik’s house next to the church.
“All four Drudik families came,” he said. “After our visit, we went next door to the home of Grandpa and Grandma Herbek, with all their families present. Sundays were for the Lord and our families.”
It was while driving a tractor, as a junior in high school, that Herbek asked himself, “Do I want to do this for the rest of my life?” He presumed his older brother would take over the family farm.
“We had a good family life, lived simply and we lived the faith,” he said. “So I said, ‘maybe I should try going to become a priest.’”
He talked with his pastor, Father Gregory Petrus, who talked to the bishop, and then young Herbek had a meeting with Bishop Louis Kucera.
“In the fall of 1951, he sent me to Conception (Missouri) Seminary because they had special classes to study Latin,” he said. “After graduating in 1955, Bishop Kucera asked me where I wanted to study theology. I said, ‘here at Conception.’ The monks had a farm, and it reminded me of home.”
Herbek was ordained in 1959, one of nine that year, by Bishop James V. Casey at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Deweese, on the feast of the Sacred Heart.
“It was probably the biggest event to happen in the little town of Deweese,” Herbek said. “The town fathers decided to paint the local community hall in preparation for the bishop and all the guests. My whole family was involved in some way.”
Herbek’s first assignment was at St. Wenceslaus Parish in Wahoo. It was to become the first of his 50 years of serving in diocesan Catholic schools. He taught, coached and directed the marching band. He said the band was formed because Catholic students were choosing to attend the local public school as it had a marching band. Then-Father Herbek’s band went on to receive a number 1 rating, at the Harvest of Harmony competition, three years in a row.
But Herbek’s perhaps most famous exploit in Wahoo involves a school bus – purchased with stamps.
“I drove our old school bus to all the games with the team and the pep club,” Herbek explained. “My feet froze, and the windshield wipers didn’t work. We needed a new bus,” but had no money, he said.
The Safeway grocery store gave Gold Bond trading stamps for shoppers, he continued, and he asked parishioners to collect the stamps.
“The ladies of the parish asked what I wanted to use the stamps for, and I said ‘a new bus!’”
Herbek said the school asked the president of the company if the stamps could be used for this purpose, and he said yes.
“So we began a campaign,” Herbek said. “For two and a half years, we licked stamps and filled 3,000 books. Then we ordered a $6,000, 48-passenger bus, flew to Indiana and drove the bus home with a sign on it: ‘This bus bought with Gold Bond Stamps.’
“My marching band met me on the highway and escorted the new bus into Wahoo!”
After four years in Wahoo, Herbek spent the following three years at the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln, at the very time it was being constructed. His first Sunday in Lincoln was the groundbreaking ceremony.
From the Cathedral, it was on to David City in 1966, where Herbek would spend his next 43 years, first as principal of Aquinas High School and then as superintendent, including pastorates of 17 years at St. Francis Parish in Center, and 19 years at St. Mary Parish in David City. In 1991, while serving in David City, Pope John Paul II invested Herbek as a Monsignor.
In 2009, Msgr. Herbek retired and returned to Lincoln, but retirement didn’t last long. In 2010, he agreed to take an assignment at Ss. Mary and Joseph Parish in Valparaiso, where he served for a year.
In 2011, he returned to the Bonacum House and retired for a second time, and spent the next eight years filling in as a substitute, “living out of a suitcase.”
“One year,” he said, “I filled in 35 weekends.”
And in 2019, he said, “Bishop Conley asked me to fill in at St. Joseph Parish in Friend.” He stayed two years, even throughout the pandemic. That March, when the church was empty due to limitations set in place to control the spread of COVID-19, Herbek invited parishioners to visit the parking lot at 9:30 a.m. Parishioners stayed in their cars and drove by in procession as Msgr. Herbek imparted his priestly blessing for each.
“In June 2021, I retired at Bonacum for the third and last time, at age 88.”
In reflecting on his life and 65 years of priesthood, Msgr. Herbek said “I thought how blessed I have been and I say with Mary, ‘He who is mighty has done great things for me.’”
Cards may be sent to Msgr. Herbek at Bonacum House, 3301 Sheridan Blvd., Lincoln, NE 68506.
Priests of the Diocese of Lincoln will celebrate anniversaries of ordination at the Chrism Mass Monday, March 25 at 5 p.m. in the Cathedral of the Risen Christ, 3500 Sheridan Blvd., Lincoln.
