Sedalia native Fr. Youngkamp, 86, ministered for years in Japan

He was a great priest. He was always good to people.”

Columban Father Frank Carroll

Pettis County native Columban Father Vincent J. “Vinnie” Youngkamp, 86 — a missionary priest with a heart for the people of Japan, his family and his friends — died on April 4 in Providence, Rhode Island.

A Memorial Mass was celebrated on April 9 at the Columban Fathers Chapel in Bristol, Rhode Island.

The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on April 11 in St. Thomas More Church in Kansas City.

Burial was in Crown Hill/Calvary Cemetery in Sedalia.

Fr. Youngkamp, the first from the Jefferson City diocese to be ordained a priest of the Foreign Mission Society of St. Columban, spent most of his Priesthood ministering in Japan.

“He was a great priest. He was always good to people,” recalled Columban Father Frank Carroll, a seminary classmate who served with Fr. Youngkamp in Japan for many years.

“If someone knocked on the door and said they needed a place to stay, he’d find a room for them,” said Fr. Carroll. “People without work — he’d sometimes put them up for a couple of months at a time, no trouble at all.”

Fr. Youngkamp was born on April 9, 1932, in Smithton, one of seven children of the late Joseph and Margaret (Judge) Youngkamp. They were members of St. Patrick parish in Sedalia.

His father died when Vincent was 10.

Fr. Youngkamp studied in local public schools and then at St. John Minor Seminary in Kansas City before joining the Columban Fathers in 1953.

He later studied at the Columban seminaries in Bristol, Rhode Island; Navan, Ireland; and Milton, Massachusetts.

On Dec. 19, 1959, in the society’s major seminary chapel in Milton, Bishop Harold Henry, vicar apostolic of Kwangju, Korea, ordained him and four other seminarians to the Holy Priesthood.

The Columbans (www.columbans.ie) are a society of missionaries, including priests and lay people, founded in 1918 to minister to people of various cultures as a way of witnessing to the universal love of God.

They are currently active in Australia, Chile, China, Fiji, Ireland, Japan, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Their purpose is “to proclaim and witness to the Good News in Jesus Christ of the full Christian liberation and reconciliation of all peoples.”

Fr. Youngkamp celebrated his First Solemn Mass on Jan. 3, 1960, in St. Patrick Church in Sedalia.

He continued his theological and language studies for several months and then spent some time with his family in Sedalia before heading to Japan with 15 fellow missionaries that autumn.

He humbly served the Lord as a missionary priest throughout Japan for over 45 years, working in many ministries, including parishes, schools and the Columban leadership.

Toward the end of his time in Japan, he served as the prefect of a Catholic high school founded by the Marist Fathers.

He cherished working with families and children of all ages, as well as prisoners, migrants and marginalized workers. He truly was a “good and faithful servant for God’s people.”

While he was ministering to young people in Kumamoto, he and his students gained some notoriety by planning a fundraiser for Ai-Nojiko-Undo, a charity-in-action movement.

They wrote to a handful of movie stars, popular singers and celebrity athletes in the United States, many of whom sent autographed memorabilia to be sold at auction.

He stated in a 1979 article in the Columban Fathers magazine that the youth-in-action movement had become active in many areas of Japan.

“He also works with and older group of Christians and non-Christians who gather to do small neighborly tasks, and in the summer he teaches religion to younger children,” the magazine stated.

He returned to Missouri several times for respite and to visit family and serve in local parishes.

He celebrated his silver priestly jubilee with a Mass in St. Patrick Church in Sedalia in 1985.

He once wrote of the difficult work of helping facilitate a session in a Kumamoto prison on “shokuzai kyouiku” — “whereby the inmate is brought to realize the wrong of his misdemeanor and affirm his resolution not to repeat the offense.”

He spoke to a group of six men who were in the later part of their prison sentences for murder.

He guided them in recalling their crime in all of its detail.

“Following the lead of the chaplain, one by one, the sufferings and consequences of the crime for everyone immediately or remotely involved, were recalled and reflected upon,” he wrote in an article published in the June 2011 issue of The Far East magazine.

He found it to be a painful assignment.

“Time went slowly,” he wrote. “In a way, it was a bit like a long and exhaustive examen of conscience before receiving the sacrament of reconciliation.”

The men moved from reflecting on the moment of fear, pain and death of the murdered victim, on to the burden of guilt, loneliness and loss of self-respect the criminal himself had to live with, and then on again to the pain and humiliation of all the other members of the convicted man’s family.

The priest could hear the muffled sobbing as each man spoke.

“Although probably not a part of the usual method,” he recalled, “I also spoke about the sacrament of forgiveness and the faith we Christians have in the infinite love and mercy of God Who forgives any sin, when we turn to God seeking pardon.”

Fr. Carroll noted that Fr. Youngkamp was a talented singer and musician who loved the music of the country that welcomed him.

“He could play guitar and sing country and western,” said Fr. Carroll. “But what amazed me, he learned Japanese songs as well or better than some of the Japanese people.”

Most people could sing two or three verses, someone with strong lungs could sing four or five.

“Vinnie could go for five or six!” said Fr. Carroll. “A real benefit to that was, if you’d go someplace with him and have a beer, he’d get to singing and we’d never get stuck with the bill.”

Fr. Youngkamp moved back to the United States in November 2006, serving parishes in and around central Missouri until his full retirement in May of 2013.

He was a resident of the Columban Fathers Retirement Home in Bristol until his death.

Surviving are two sisters, Dorothy Rosenberger of Kansas City, Patricia Kane of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and 21 nieces and nephews.

Preceding him in death were three sisters, Mary Margaret Weber, Josephine Hudson, Imogene Murphy, and a brother, John Youngkamp, as well as six brothers-in-law.

Fr. Carroll said he’s praying for God to help him “maybe be a little bit more like Fr. Vinnie.”

“Because he was a great priest and a very good friend of mine.”

Memorial contributions may be made to: The Columban Fathers, P.O. Box 10, St. Columbans, NE 68056.