Celebrating Dad - Fr. Ric Schneider, OFM
The Schneider family on the occasion of Otto and Anna's 25th wedding anniversary in 1941. Top row L-R: Victor (Fr. Bernardin, OFM) Marcella, Jeannette, Otto, Anna, Cecilia, Dorothy, Bertrand (Fr. Chris, OFM), Bottom row L-R: Kenneth, Norbert, Raymond (Fr. Ric, OFM), Donald, Robert (Fr. Aquinas, OFM)
“Our Dad got homing pigeons
for us and we used to race them.”
~
Fr. Ric Schneider, OFM, today.
The Schneider family grew up in Louisville, KY, “Our Dad got homing pigeons for us and we used to race them,” at one time, Fr. Ric says, “We had 70 or 80 birds.”Each summer their parents would plan “mystery trips” for the family. The number of kids who went (there were 11 of them) depended upon the number they could fit in the car. “It was always by turn,” Ric says. “Not everybody got to go.”
Dad also took along a couple of pigeons. When he pulled over for the night on the first leg of the trip. “He would put a note[with their location] on the leg band of the pigeon and send it home.” Ric remembers how eagerly the kids in Louisville waited for news from the road. “We’d be sitting in the back yard, waiting for that bird to come in.” When the pigeon arrived with its note, “We’d get a map and see where Dad had gone that day.”
For the kids who couldn’t go, it was a lesson in geography – and a way to make them feel included.
Fr. Ric Schneider, OFM, is pastor of St. Mary's Parish in Bloomington, Illinois
Of the eleven children, four became Franciscan priests. Can you match them to the photo above? In the photo below they are meeting Pope John Paul II.
Pope John Paul II meets the four Schneider brothers, all Franciscan priests: Aquinas, Bernardin, Ric, and Chris.
Posted in: Missions, News, Prayer, Saint Francis, Senior Friars
