- Feb 5, 2002
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FRANKLIN COUNTY, Ind. (OSV News) — Carl Bohman trains young people in his rural southeastern Indiana parish how to assist at Mass as altar servers, much like adult volunteers do in parishes across the Indianapolis Archdiocese.
But Bohman doesn’t just instruct them. He serves at Mass alongside them — and in the process shows them his deep love for the Eucharist, hopefully planting seeds of faith-filled devotion in them at the same time.
“He’s just another server,” said Andrew Ruf, 13, a new altar server at St. Peter Parish in Franklin County. “But he’s wiser. He’s been doing it longer.”
A lot longer — 70 years longer.
Bohman, 78, started serving when he was 8 and growing up in the early 1950s as a member of the former St. John the Evangelist Parish in Enochsburg, now a campus of St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Decatur County.
Married for 56 years to his equally devoted Catholic wife, Lois, and the father of five, grandfather of 17 and a new great-grandfather, Bohman knows he’s in the home stretch of life and hopes in the time he has left to put the church in his small corner of the world on firm footing for the future.
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“I tell these kids that I’m the past,” he said about the altar servers he trains. “Their parents are the present. They’re the future — of the Church, of the community, of the country.”
To help them grow in their love of the faith, Bohman leans on positive reinforcement.
“I compliment them every time they serve,” Bohman said after a recent weekday Mass at St. Peter at which he served with three young parishioners. “That’s what a teacher does. I’m trying to be a teacher here so they carry on (after me). They’re the future.”
Continued below.
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But Bohman doesn’t just instruct them. He serves at Mass alongside them — and in the process shows them his deep love for the Eucharist, hopefully planting seeds of faith-filled devotion in them at the same time.
“He’s just another server,” said Andrew Ruf, 13, a new altar server at St. Peter Parish in Franklin County. “But he’s wiser. He’s been doing it longer.”
A lot longer — 70 years longer.
Bohman, 78, started serving when he was 8 and growing up in the early 1950s as a member of the former St. John the Evangelist Parish in Enochsburg, now a campus of St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Decatur County.
Married for 56 years to his equally devoted Catholic wife, Lois, and the father of five, grandfather of 17 and a new great-grandfather, Bohman knows he’s in the home stretch of life and hopes in the time he has left to put the church in his small corner of the world on firm footing for the future.
Like what you're reading? Sign up to receive our daily email!
“I tell these kids that I’m the past,” he said about the altar servers he trains. “Their parents are the present. They’re the future — of the Church, of the community, of the country.”
To help them grow in their love of the faith, Bohman leans on positive reinforcement.
“I compliment them every time they serve,” Bohman said after a recent weekday Mass at St. Peter at which he served with three young parishioners. “That’s what a teacher does. I’m trying to be a teacher here so they carry on (after me). They’re the future.”
Continued below.
78-year-old altar server passes on love of the Eucharist to the younger generation
Carl Bohman trains young people in his rural southeastern Indiana parish how to assist at Mass as altar servers, much like adult volunteers do in parishes across the Indianapolis Archdiocese.But Bohman doesn't just instruct them. He serves at Mass alongside them -- and in the process shows them...
www.oursundayvisitor.com
