By: By Tom Dermody

Two priests with a combined 89 years of service to the Diocese of Peoria have been granted senior status by Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, effective June 16.

Both Father John Horton and Father Kenneth Marchulones turned 70 this year.

Father Horton has been pastor of Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Mahomet since 1995. He will be honored during a combined parish picnic and farewell party at the parish at noon on Sunday, June 6.

Father Marchulones has been pastor of St. Monica’s Parish in East Peoria since 1984. The parish is planning a dinner in his honor after the 10:30 a.m. Mass on Sunday, June 13. Reservations are required and may be obtained through the parish, (309) 694-2061.

The Catholic Post spoke with both priests this week about their vocations and future plans.

FATHER HORTON
One question posed by his parish pastor when Father Horton was in high school would set his life’s course: “Did you ever think about going to seminary?”

While he used to “play Mass” as a boy growing up on Chicago’s south side, was a frequent altar server, and worked at his parish as a janitorial assistant while attending Mendel Catholic High School, Father Horton admits he had “no clue” at the time about his career.

“I was in limbo,” Father Horton recalls. “Being not very aggressive, I thought something would fall in my lap.”

That something turned out to be the Holy Spirit, who guided his path to the priesthood and Peoria.

Chicago at the time had plentiful vocations, so his pastor — familiar with priests of the Diocese of Peoria — suggested a meeting with diocesan officials in Peoria. After that “things fell into place,” said Father Horton.
He attended St. Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa, and completed his studies for the priesthood at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. Father Horton was ordained by Bishop John B. Franz on May 22, 1966.

His 44 years of priesthood have been spent in parish ministry — most of it, ironically for a boy raised in the city, in small towns.

After periods as parochial vicar at Immaculate Conception Parish, Streator, St. Mary’s Parish, Lincoln, and St. Patrick’s Parish, in Ottawa, Father Horton was named pastor of St. Patrick’s Parish, Havana, and Immaculate Conception, Manito, in 1977. He would serve those faith communities for the next 18 years.

“I loved it there,” he recalls of the “laid back, outdoorsy-oriented” communities.

He soon learned that in a small town people “care for and support each other.”

“If I blew my nose people would start calling to ask ‘Do you have a cold?'” he said with a chuckle.

During his time in Havana, plans were made for the construction of new parish hall. A house near the church had to be torn down, and Father Horton and his father were among those lending a hand and a sledgehammer.

The $200,000 construction project was “a pretty tough row to hoe” for the small parish and the volunteer labor helped. Soon after its completion, a “gracious parishioner” passed away and left the parish a farm. “Thank you, God!” is Father Horton’s response to this day.

A larger building project — the planning and construction of a new church — would await Father Horton when he was named pastor in Mahomet in 1995. Again, he credited parishioners who “saved money with sweat equity” in all phases of the project. One of his favorite places to pray and meditate is a memorial garden that parishioners designed outside the former church, which is now the parish center.

While difficult at times, Father Horton said the priesthood is also rewarding. He takes comfort in “knowing I’ve been there for people maybe at the hardest times in their lives, and sharing that with them.”
Father Horton has bought a modest home in Bloomington and will happily “pinch hit” for parishes in need “as long as my health holds out.”

And he’ll give thanks for the graces of his priesthood and that life-changing invitation from his pastor more than five decades ago.

“If he hadn’t said something, I don’t know what I’d be doing now,” he said.

FATHER MARCHULONES
After 45 years of school and parish leadership, Father Marchulones admits he is going to have to “learn how to be retired.”

“It will be a big change to get used to,” he said.

The former principal of Schlarman High School in Danville, Marquette High School in Ottawa, and Bergan High School in Peoria shifted to parish work in 1984 when he was assigned to be pastor of St. Monica’s Parish in East Peoria.

It would be his final assignment.

“It’s the only place I’ve ever been pastor,” said Father Marchulones. “It’s a great community. The people are active.”

He credited two “super” permanent deacons who were serving St. Monica’s — Deacons Ron Rager and Bill Frye — for “helping me transition from a principal to a pastor.” Also, his school background taught him “not to be afraid of surrounding myself with good, competent people,” which he found at St. Monica’s.

Born in Peoria, Father Marchulones attended St. Boniface Grade School and Spalding Institute. After one year at St. Bede College, his preparations for the priesthood were completed at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minn.

While in St. Paul, he had the opportunity to become involved in a master’s program in education at St. Thomas College. That training would shape the first 18 years of his priesthood.

Following ordination on May 23, 1965, Father Marcholones briefly served as parochial vicar at St. Mary’s Parish in Westville. In 1965, he was named to St. Joseph’s Parish in Danville with duties on the faculty of Schlarman High School. He would become its principal the following year.

While administrative duties would fill his days there and later at Marquette (1974-1979) and (Bergan (1979-1984), Father Marchulones recalls the joy of teaching, especially Latin.

“That was the ‘happy hour’ of my day,” he recalled of his Latin classes. Students would come into that class knowing little or nothing of the subject, and “they’d leave knowing a lot.”

Father Marchulones said he has enjoyed both school and parish work, though he called them “different.”

“When I was young I thought young people were interesting and challenging,” he mused to The Catholic Post. “Now I think older people are interesting and challenging,” though he adds that his favorite role as a parish priest has been presiding at baptisms.

Father Marchulones said he has found priesthood is “a commitment you have to keep making.” He recalled being asked by Msgr. Cecil at his first assignment in Westville when he decided to be a priest.

“I said ‘Which time?'” he recalled. “It takes a lot of decisions on the way to ordination, and afterward.”

Father Marchulones will enjoy letting go of administrative decisions in his retirement years. He will live in Peoria, where his mother still resides, and hopes to do some travelling.