
News
Rural life has grown on city-raised prelate
May 13, 2025
Editor’s note: This article is featured in the magazine for the Installation Mass of Archbishop Michael G. McGovern.
The new leader of the Archdiocese of Omaha lived most of his life as a city dweller, but he said ministering to rural areas in Illinois opened his eyes.
As pastor of St. Raphael the Archangel Parish in Old Mill Creek, in northeast Illinois, then later as bishop of the Diocese of Belleville in southwest Illinois, the suburban Chicago-raised priest found a much different pace.
“I learned what it was like to be behind a combine on a Sunday morning on the road and plan for 15 more minutes of driving,” Archbishop Michael G. McGovern said with a smile during his first visit to Nebraska on March 31.
At his introductory press conference in Omaha, the archbishop said that when he served in rural areas his respect grew for people who worked the land.
“When I went to the Belleville diocese, which is very rural – I mean there’s urban areas and many small towns and then a lot of farming – I learned a new appreciation, especially for farming.”
Each spring and fall he would bless a farm, an experience that helped him “learn much more than I ever knew before about agriculture” and the work it involved.
The blessings included praying the rosary and enveloped all aspects of the ag world – land, crops, machinery, seed, animals, tools and the men and women who worked to share God’s bounty. More than 100 people typically attended, including many young people.
Last fall, the blessing took place at Four Beck Dairy in Bartelso, Illinois.
“It was such an honor,” said Debbie Becker, whose husband, Stan, is the oldest living member of the fifth-generation farm about 30 miles outside Belleville. “When he arrived, he just made everybody feel so at home.”
Becker, who volunteered the farm for the blessing, said the bishop made a lasting impression on her and other attendees.
“He is very personable,” she said. “When the ceremony was over, he didn’t just get up and leave. He stayed, he walked around, he talked to everybody – it was perfect.”
In northeast Nebraska, Archbishop McGovern finds himself in familiar territory. He said he hopes to establish farm blessings here and connect with rural residents in other ways.
People throughout the archdiocese, no matter where they live, can appreciate spiritual rural-life metaphors. Here, the archbishop said, people can “continue to realize that the Gospel seeds have been planted” and “can come to fruition with grace and with prayer and with hope.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE MESSENGER, THE NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF BELLEVILLE
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