Walking with God in the great outdoors

A version of this story originally appeared in the January 2026 edition of The True Voice magazine. Copies of the magazine can be found at parishes across the archdiocese.

The beauty of God’s creation is not lost on Father Dave Korth.

An avid hunter, Father Korth often finds himself reflecting on his surroundings as he patiently sits in a deer stand.

“It becomes a wonderful way for me to just be still, to recognize the beauty of God’s creation that’s all around me,” he said.

“If there’s a hard frost the night before and you get a little breeze come up, you just suddenly have this shower of leaves that dance their way down to the earth. It’s stunningly beautiful.”

The silence of the woods also brings peace and time for prayer.

“It’s a time to just be quiet and still and hear God talking to me so I can discern more clearly, carefully, where God is calling me and how God is calling me,” said Father Korth, pastor of Sacred Heart and St. Benedict the Moor parishes in Omaha and president of the CUES School System.

At first glance, a priest might seem out of place hunting pheasant or quail in a Nebraska field, but that’s not the case for Father Korth.

“Some people say ‘As a priest, how can you be a hunter?’ For me, it’s not about killing, it’s about having respect for creation,” said Father Korth, who grew up hunting in Randolph.

He started deer hunting when he was pastor in the Nebraska towns of Duncan and Silver Creek. He now mostly archery hunts deer and turkey, a skill he learned in 2003 from an Omaha Tribe member when he was pastor of St. Augustine Indian Mission in Winnebago.

“To be more united with that creature, I will field dress it, bone it out and then I take it to a processor,” Father Korth said.

Father Scott Hastings blesses hunters at St. Joseph Church in Springfield in November 2025. AARON ZAVITS

Hunters also have a responsibility to not let a harvest go to waste.

Pope Francis’ May 2015 encyclical, “Laudato Si’,” discusses the relationship between man and earth and the importance of care for creation.

“Human beings are part of creation but so is all of our environment — animals, plant life — that is all part of God’s creation,” Father Korth said. “We’re called to care for
all of it.”

“I would hope people that take their faith seriously would bring their faith into something like hunting as well.”

Killing an animal for the sake of killing is frowned upon by the Church, said Father Carl Zoucha, associate pastor of St. Gerald Parish in Ralston. He grew up in
Columbus hunting with his family and now hunts pheasant and quail once or twice a year.

He noted that in harvesting game — be it for food or skins or “even feathers of ducks and geese — there is admiration and care for creation (and it) aligns with
our discipleship.”

Neil Pfeifer, a parishioner of Sacred Heart Parish in Norfolk and member of the Knights of Columbus, refers to his hunting experiences — especially with his three sons — as marveling at “the handiwork of God.”

“I don’t know how many times I’ve said, ‘Who can ever deny the thought that there is a God? Who else could have created stuff like this?’”

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