Deacon Nicholas Elliott, co-coordinator of Rural Life Ministry for the Archdiocese of Dubuque, previews the third annual Rural Life Mass at the Lichty Family Farm near Waterloo, where Archbishop Thomas Zinkula will bless the seeds, crops, and animals. He explains why rural ministry looks different from city parish life, and how the archdiocese partners with Catholic Charities to bring mental health and financial resources to farmers and their families. Deacon Nicholas also shares how host farms are chosen — and what Catholics in town can do to support rural neighbors they'll never work a field beside.
Deacon Nicholas Elliott, co-coordinator of Rural Life Ministry for the Archdiocese of Dubuque, joins Bo Bonner to preview the archdiocese's third annual Rural Life Mass and to explain what rural ministry actually involves.
The details: Friday, September 18, Mass at 10:30 a.m., Lichty Family Farm, 8110 Ansborough Ave, Waterloo, Iowa. A recognition and awards program and a free-will lunch follow. Archbishop Thomas Zinkula — a farm boy himself — will celebrate the Mass and offer blessings over the seeds, the crops, and the animals. The Mass happens rain or shine, with a canopy added as a last-minute contingency for the forecast.
Deacon Nicholas describes how the ministry works to integrate faith and rural life in a setting where distance itself is a challenge: more personal outreach, more direct invitation, and a partnership with Catholic Charities that brings mental health support, along with connections to financial resources, out to farmers, grain haulers, and the families who keep Iowa running. He traces his own call to a clergy retreat at a Wisconsin monastery hosted by Catholic Rural Life, which sent him home determined to help reinvigorate the ministry across the archdiocese.
He also explains how the Mass moves around the archdiocese each year, and how a committee reviews three to five candidate farms — looking at layout, parking, and space for the luncheon and recognition program. This year's hosts, John and Kayla Lichty, run a traditional multi-century farm with grain, livestock, dryers, bins, machinery, and pasture; John's mother Pat also lives on the farm.
Asked what Catholics in town can do for rural neighbors, Deacon Nicholas points to simple interaction and solidarity — showing up around planting, harvest, and feast days, praying for farm families, and acknowledging the real hurt in agriculture with the dignity it deserves.
Find news and updates under the Catholic Social Teaching tab on the archdiocesan website at dbqarch.org/rural-life, or check the Archdiocese of Dubuque Facebook page.
Heard on the Catholic Morning Show, weekdays at 7 a.m. Central on Iowa Catholic Radio. More at IowaCatholicRadio.com.
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