Father Schlautman served rural, urban parishes throughout archdiocese

Father Wayne Schlautman, a Howells native whose nearly 54 years of priesthood included pastoral assignments in rural and urban parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Omaha, died April 14. He was 79.

Visitation will be at 9 a.m. April 22 with a funeral Mass following at 10 a.m. at Christ the King Church in Omaha. Interment will be at Calvary Cemetery.

Father Schlautman attended Howells High School and began priestly studies at the former St. John Vianney Seminary (now Mount Michael Benedictine School) near Elkhorn. He continued at Conception Seminary High School and College in Conception, Missouri, and completed his theology studies at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was ordained by Archbishop Gerald T. Bergan in Omaha in 1965.

During his priesthood, he served as associate pastor at St. Isidore Parish in Columbus, and St. Robert Bellarmine, the former St. Richard, and Ss. Peter and Paul parishes, all in Omaha, and St. Patrick Parish in Fremont.

He served as pastor of the former Ss. Phillip and James Parish in St. James, Sacred Heart Parish in Wynot, St. John the Baptist Parish in Petersburg, St. Peter Parish in Clarks, St. Peter Parish in Fullerton, St. Jane Frances de Chantal Parish in Randolph and St. Joseph Parish in Atkinson.

His last assignment before retiring in 2007 was as senior associate pastor at Christ the King Parish in Omaha. While in residence there, he lived and worked with Father Daniel Andrews, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Norfolk, who began his priesthood at Christ the King in 2001.  

“He was just a good priest and a gentle soul,” Father Andrews said. “He liked to visit with people and he was really well read, a very bright mind, and he loved being a priest.”

During his retirement, Father Schlautman lived at the St. John Vianney Residence, an independent living community for retired priests in Omaha.