Saturday, March 22, 1997

Parish minister seeks to be peacemaker

By TANYA EISERER

Staff Writer

Mild-mannered and somewhat soft-spoken Father Joe Uecker doesn't typically preach messages of hellfire and brimstone.

But a series of violent assaults and drive-by shootings among teen-agers in the Sears Park area have caused the Catholic priest to draw a line in the sand.

"We often choose the things that lead to death," said Uecker as he spoke to the faithful at St. Vincent Pallotti Sunday morning.

Uecker admonished his parishioners - teens and adults alike - to "turn in their guns, their pistols - to lay them at the foot of the cross."

"I urge you to do it now, to do it at the end of the service, but do it lest they kill anyone else."

"Die to all those things that are opposed to God," he added.

People who depend on guns for protection don't realize they are headed for destruction, Uecker said.

"I hope that people will see the stupidity of relying on guns and knives and on violence itself," he said.

Uecker and his assistant, Father David Matz, became involved in attempting to stop neighborhood violence when Hispanic community leader Billy Enriquez asked them to take part in a recent summit between two battling groups.

The priests returned to their congregations preaching a message of nonviolence, particularly at St. Vincent, where some of the youth involved in the violence attend church.

A similar message has been preached at St. Francis Catholic Church, located on the other side of town. Uecker is priest for both churhces.

Uecker and Matz fear that if the violence continues, they will end up burying one of those young people.

Nobody has turned in a gun yet, but Uecker and Matz are praying people will begin to change in their hearts.

"If I get one, I will consider it successful," Uecker said.

Matz, 34, said he wants to get the point across to parents that their actions might serve to sanction the use of weapons.

"You're not modeling Christian behavior when you place your faith in a gun for protection," he said. "You're putting security in a weapon.

"I asked them, 'Where do you put your security in your pistol ... or in Christ?

"It's no wonder to me that there's a problem with juvenile violence when you've got parents out buying the weapons.

"You're just telling your kid 'If you're afraid, it's OK to have a gun.' "

Matz said he vividly remembers delivering the homily at the funeral of Daniel Don, a teen-ager who was accidentally shot in mid-December.

And unless people heed the message, more blood will be shed, he said.

"All I know is that guns are ruling the day," Matz said in that homily. "Guns will fascinate us, but in the end, the fascinating power and beguiling control they offer won't last."

"And I'll tell you: Guns will not last. In the end their power only gives death, but life challenges us to make some choices to live like Jesus."

For Uecker, a 29-year-veteran of the priesthood, it's not the first time he's called on people to turn in their guns.

The first time was in 1982, when Uecker was in San Angelo.

"I buried five murder victims in one year, and I got tired of it," said Uecker, who moved to Abilene in 1993 from a church in Sweetwater.

"I didn't start off as any kind of a big crusader."

One Sunday in church he told his parishioners that "if they couldn't own a gun just for hunting purposes, then turn it in and I'd give it to the police."

Somehow the story spread and Uecker soon received calls from major news networks and newspapers interested in the story.

"It was just all over the place," said Uecker, a member of the Society of the Precious Blood, an organization founded upon the principles of nonviolence.

Uecker didn't seek notoriety, but his stand and his message of nonviolence brought him into the public view.

"This is totally unlike me," he said. "I'm the type of person that would just as soon stay out of the limelight."

And Uecker said the violence appeared to subside because of concerted action from police and community officials.

Moreover, about six people handed over weapons, which he turned in to the police department.

"I didn't have the funerals like I was having," Uecker said.