RIP, Father Philip Luebbert, 71

Had strong ties to Jefferson City diocese

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Father Philip Henry Luebbert, 71 — a priest of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, who had strong ties to Maries and Miller Counties in the Jefferson City diocese — died just after midnight Oct. 17, at his home at the Little Sisters of the Poor Jeanne Jugan Center in Kansas City.

He had been serving there as chaplain since mid-2018. He was 71.

The funeral Mass was celebrated at Nativity of Mary Church in Independence, with Bishop James V. Johnston Jr. presiding and by Father Robert Stone, pastor of Nativity of Mary parish, concelebrating.

Many priests of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese and Benedictine priests of Conception Abbey in Conception and Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, were in attendance.

Benedictine Abbot Benedict Neenan of Conception Abbey preached the homily.

Fr. Luebbert was born Sept. 24, 1949 in Springfield, a son of Leo and Celia Luebbert, both of whom had grown up in what is now the Jefferson City diocese.

The Luebberts moved to Independence when he was a child.

After graduating from Nativity of Mary grade school, he attended St. John’s Minor Seminary in Kansas City. He then attended Conception Seminary College for his freshman and sophomore years before transferring to St. Benedict’s College in Atchison for his final two years.

He was in the last St. Benedict’s College class (1971) before St. Benedict’s merged with Mount St. Scholastica College in 1972 and was renamed Benedictine College.

He continued his seminary formation at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, for his first two years of theology.

“Despite my enthusiasm,” he later recalled, “things didn’t work out and I left in 1973.”

Health problems and his own uncertainty got in the way.

“But I kept my interest in the Priesthood over the next 33 years,” he later recalled.

In his 40s, he began applying to different dioceses but was turned down because of his age. In a Dec. 2013 article in Catholic Digest, he recalled his spiritual advisor, Benedictine Father Alexander Luetkemeyer — who grew up in Freeburg in this diocese — suggesting that before he gave up the search to write to the Pope.

Two weeks after mailing that letter, a very surprised Phil Luebbert received a letter from the apostolic nuncio in Washington, D.C., telling him the Pope could not help him directly, but promising to pray for him.

Pope John Paul II kept his promise and just a short time later, things started falling into place for Phil.

At age 56, he approached then-Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph to request sponsorship to Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut.

On May 29, 2010, Bishop Finn ordained him and two other men to the Priesthood in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Kansas City.

Fr. Luebbert was 60.

That August, he celebrated five Masses of Thanksgiving on consecutive days in Holy  nGuardian Angels Church in Brinktown, where his mother, the late Celia (Buechter) Luebbert, was a parishioner and where his father, the late Leo Luebbert, had served Mass and received his first sacraments as a child.

Mrs. Luebbert grew up in St. Anthony.

At ordination, Fr. Luebbert received the chalice that had belonged to his friend, Fr. Luetkemeyer.

“He was a really good friend when I was in the seminary the first time,” Fr. Luebbert stated in 2010. “Years later, he was my spiritual director. He was a very positive influence on my vocation discernment.”

Fr. Luebbert served as associate pastor of St. John LaLande parish in Blue Springs. Later, as pastor of St. Ann parish in Plattsburg and then of Sacred Heart parish in Hamilton, he also ministered with distinction to residents of the Crossroads Correctional Center, a maximum-security prison in Cameron.

Bishop Johnston appointed him resident chaplain at Little Sisters of the Poor in Kansas City two years ago.

Diagnosed with cancer, he continued ministering through treatment and until he died this October.

Mrs. Denzer associate editor of The Catholic Key, newspaper of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese.

Some of the information in this version of her article came from a 2010 article by the late Kevin Kelly and the late Father Joseph Welschmeyer.

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