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Father John Long welcomed at St. John’s

By Kelsie Hoitomt

GLENWOOD CITY – St. John’s Catholic Church has recently welcomed Father John Long into the parish as of November 28, 2012.

Father Long comes to Glenwood City from the Gilman/Sheldon/Lublin/Jump River parish where he was pastor for seven years.

This parish is located by Father Long’s home town of Medford, WI where he was born and raised along side his seven siblings.

Being from Medford, Father Long is one of very few who are actual native sons of the Diocese of Superior.

Father Long said he grew up in a Catholic household and attended church regularly, but it was a certain church retreat in high school that really sparked his interest in entering the seminary.

After graduating from Medford High, Father Long attended the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio for three and a half years where he earned a double major in Philosophy and History and had two minors as well.

He then moved back to Wisconsin and went into the parish in Ladysmith for a short while. Then he entered into a major seminary at Notre Dame, but left there after a year and went back home and took some time to himself.

In the fall of 1986, Father Long then entered back into the seminary in St. Paul where he earned his Masters in Divinity and was ordained into the priesthood in 1989.

He was then named as an associate in November of 1989 at St. John’s in Rice Lake, but was there only for a short time before moving to Rhinelander to be an associate there.

Father Long stayed in Rhinelander for two years, but then moved on to the Bruce/Weyerhaeuser/Strickland parish where he became pastor. At this time, Father Long was the youngest pastor in the state of Wisconsin.

Father Long stayed there as pastor for six years until he asked to moved closer to home due to his father’s illness at the time so he was placed in a parish near the town of Chelsea.

Father Long then went on sabbatical for eight months around 2005 and after his leave he moved into the Gilman area parish.

Outside of the church, Father Long shared that he enjoys riding motorcycle, kayaking, fishing and gardening. He likes planting apple and cherry trees and looks to add those things to the current space behind St. John’s.