Father John ZEITLER is the Catholic pastor for Ringgold County. He began his service with the county while living in Leon. Since August of 1986, he has been living in the parish house in Maloy. Before coming to southern Iowa, he did a three-year stint with the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, working out of Des Moines. In that job he traveled extensively in the United States trying to understand the problems of agriculture and working on national legislation. He also went to Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and to Poland to work with their farm organizations.

"My years at the Rural Life Conference strengthened three convictions:

"1) Farm families worldwide share many of the same problems - being driven off the land by state or corporate agribusiness.

"2) We have a moral obligation to provide food and fiber by methods that will enhance our land, our health, and our communities. The use of industrial agriculture with its heavy use of oil, capital, and chemicals is over.

"3) The only lasting way to effect change is at the grassroots. Monsignor Luigi LUGUTTI said, 'A lot of little people, in a lot of little places, doing a lot of little things, make the great changes in the world.' In the years that God and the bishop leave me in the county, I intend to follow these conviction."

Father ZEITLER was born and raised in a coal town of western Pennsylvania where he attended public schools before beginning his studies for the priesthood. He graduated from St. Bonaventure University and was ordained in 1968. While serving a church in Sharon, Pennsylvania, he earned a master's degree in social work and community organizing from the University of Pittsburgh. In 1973 he transfered to the Diocese of Southwest Iowa and spent four years at Holy Trinity Parish in Des Moines. He then volunteered for the Glenmary Home Missioners and served rural churches in Georgia and Kentucky for three years.

In the cool quiet of a Maloy morning you can often see Father with his beagle, Midge, and his single-shot 410 working the nearby fields and timber. None of the game has much to fear!

Father John ZEITLER, on loan to Glenmary from the Diocese of Des Moines, IA, was assigned administrator during Father Bob CAMERON's pastoral study and renewal. Father John's gift of outreach to the underprivileged inspired all. Glenmary is of the Saint Francis of Assisi Parish in Blairsville, Georgia.

Father John ZEITLER from Des Moines, Iowa, offered his services as pastor from April of 1979 to May, 1981, Holy Trinity Catholic Church of Owensboro, Kentucky.

The Daily Reporter
Spencer, Iowa
Wednesday, November 14, 1984

AMES, IA -- Friday will mark the start of Farm-City Week in Iowa this year, according to Vivan JENNINGS, associate director of Iowa State University Cooperative Extension Service and University Extension.

JENNINGS said Farm-City Week is an international observance aimed at promoting better understanding between farm and city residents. In Iowa, the week's activities will include local celebrations, guest speakers, nutrition and health information dissemination and agricultural commodity promotion.

The week will run from Nov. 16-22.

JENNINGS and Ned MILLER of Ned's Feed and Grain Co. of Marengo are the co-chairmen of the Iowa Farm-City Week committee.

Other Committee members include Wayne MESSERLY of the Iowa Department of Agriculture; Darryl JAHN of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation; Jerry PARSON, 4-H and youth leader for the ISU extension service; Dean CLINGERMAN of New Providence, representing the Iowa-Nebraska Kiwanis; Rev. John ZEITLER of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference; and Herb PLAMBECK, Des Moines agricultural consultant and a pioneer leader in state and national Farm-City activities.

SOURCES:
Maloy Centennial Book, p. 26
Saint Francis of Assisi Parish records, Blairsville GA
The Daily Reporter, November 14, 1984
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Owensboro, Kentucky p. 107. Turner Publishing Co. 1994.

Transcriptions by Sharon R. Becker, April of 2010