October 1, 1940

Monsignor J. A. Pompeney

Msgr. Joseph Pompeney was born on May 5, 1862 in Canton, OH. After attending grade and high school in Louisville, OH, he studied at: St. Louis College and St. Joseph College in Cleveland, OH; Canisius College in Buffalo, NY; Innsbruck University in Austria; and the Gregorian, the Pontifical College, St. Thomas Academy, and Minerva in Rome. He received the following degrees: a Ph.D., a S.T.D., and a J.C.D. He was ordained in Innsbruck for the Leavenworth Diocese and was assigned by Bishop Fink first to Edgerton and then to Pittsburg. After the re-division of the dioceses of Kansas in 1897 he became a member of the clergy in the Diocese of Wichita and served in the following towns: Hutchison, Frontenac, and Pittsburg. His final assignment was to St. Mary’s Parish, Newton, on February 24, 1928. Msgr. Pompeney was a noted speaker and was widely known for his lectures on the encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII. He held three offices in the diocesan curia but prided himself in making converts. He used to say, “Our success in making converts to the Church will be multiplied if ever we substitute the vernacular for Latin in our liturgy.” (The Advance Register, Oct. 4, 1940) Msgr. Pompeney died at Bethel Hospital in Newton on October 1, 1940 and was buried from St. Mary’s Parish, Newton, on October 5, 1940.