Getting to know the reverend Dennis Anthony Jarzombek –
Pastor of St. Thomas Catholic Church

Father Dennis was born December 27^th at the Nix Hospital in downtown San Antonio, TX; he and his family residents in the southeastern subdivisions.  By contrast, both his parents were raised on farms in Karnes County; dad from Czestochowa, TX and mom from nearby Falls City, TX.  For eleven years, Dennis was the only child though his parents desired being blessed as a larger family.  God knows when and how to bless each of us and our households; shortly before Dennis’ eleventh birthday, his brother – Keith – was born.  Dennis’ dad was employed at the Pearl Brewery for 40+ years before retiring; his mom was a housewife.  Additionally, his father did yardwork regularly for three or four neighbors and – for several years – worked weeknights from 6 – 10 PM as an ice house clerk.  With two sons to provide for, mom became an LVN working at Southeast Baptist Hospital. Can you imagine the level of devotion and sacrifice his parents were willing to make so that Dennis and Keith could obtain twelve years of Catholic education?

Father Dennis grew up in San Antonio’s Highland Hills subdivision – a post WWII neighborhood with many young families having several children.  He and his friends would ride bicycles and play games in an alley which was more like a private park.  Every Sunday – with few exceptions – his parents drove to Karnes County to visit their parents.  Frequently, Dennis’ uncles, aunts, and cousins did the same; the adults on the patio (having their discussions over a few cold beers) while “the kids” played dodgeball, baseball, football, or boardgames.  In the 3^rd grade, Dennis (who has always enjoyed traditional dances i.e.: waltzes, two-steps, polkas, country western) expanded his interests via a square dance troop, the Texas Starlites. The Starlites performed at community events – even for public parties during San Antonio’s “Fiesta Week” but the fun stopped in 1962 when US Highway 281 was being constructed.  The Jarzombek homestead was dead–centered in its path.  The Jarzombek family not only bought land, designed their custom-made home, and transplanted their pecan and fruit trees, rosebushes, and carpet grass but also had a significant hand in disassembling their former house – salvaging the oak floors and exterior bricks to move the whole structure to another quiet neighborhood.  There must have been some child-labor laws to have been violated but that was a different era and none in Fr. D’s frugal family were shy of work.  Through grade school and high school, his favorite subjects were science, English, and the fine arts; dreaded were spelling and mathematics – because often students were called to the “blackboard” to demonstrate their comprehension; Fr. D was seldom the distinguished student to be seated last.  Humility was a virtue learned early!

During all this time of a happy, secure, normal childhood, there was one “vocational seed” planted early in Dennis’ life.  While in the 2^nd grade, his paternal grandfather announced on his deathbed that “Dennis is going to be a priest.”  Grandpa’s prediction quickly got lost amidst other boyhood concerns – playing CYO baseball, tolerating piano lessons, adjusting to new neighborhoods and classmates.  The early 1960s was the era of implementing liturgical changes in the Mass; the Latin being replaced with the vernacular; the priest facing the Assembly, introducing “sung folk masses”.  Dennis admits he almost flunked out of altar-serving because of difficulties for pronouncing the prayers in Latin.  Often at the 6:00 AM weekday mass, the priest would say aloud Dennis’ prayers and the near–empty church would dauntingly echo the priest’s voice as if God himself were speaking!  Thank goodness the mass changed into English!  Among benefits of being an altar server were: (1) being pulled out of class to serve a funeral, and (2) receiving an invitation from the Archdiocese to attend an annual Summer Workshop on the campus of St. John’s Minor Seminary – which had a fantastic dug-in swimming pool.  Out of the ordinary, Fr. D served at the altar through high school and was one of the parish’s first lectors.

Dennis then enrolled at Central Catholic Marianist High School (Fall ’67 through Spring ’71).  Being an Army JROTC cadet was mandatory curriculum for the first two years.  Normal teenage development has its own set of challenges but societal issues included: the Vietnam War, riots and demonstrations, the “hippie movement”, psychedelic drugs, and tinges of “free love”.  The discipline of JROTC and allegiance to Church authority provided Dennis with safe harbors.  Ultimately, he stayed with JROTC for all four years, becoming a battalion commander with 216 cadets under his leadership.  With such aspirations, a college scholarship with the military was the expectation of family and faculty.  However, at the end of his junior year a classmate invited him to a Friday night graduation mass and banquet honoring seniors from St. John’s Minor Seminary.  San Antonio’s newly ordained auxiliary bishop – Patrick F. Flores – was to preside.  Dennis accepted and stayed on the campus through the weekend though many of the young men immediately left for summer vacation.  That Sunday, in the morning hours before the stragglers would gather for one last campus mass, Dennis found himself walking in front of Mission Concepcion and contemplating his grandfather’s prediction.  Already 1/3 of his priestly vocation would have been past him if grandpa was right.  “Perhaps I ought to at least check it out” – so that morning, he – on his own – decided to change course and apply for priestly formation through Assumption Seminary in San Antonio.  The shockwaves and expressed disappointments from parents, relatives, and teachers was not pleasant. 

In 1971, seminarians took their basic academics at area colleges; Dennis enrolled for 2 years at San Antonio College.  For every year of higher education, Dennis needed, applied for, and received educational loans; his own spending money was made from summer jobs at Richter’s Ice House and Ideal Supermarket.  After four years, Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) conferred him with a BA degree for sociology.  During the Christmas holidays of 1975, Dennis was invited to accompany two other priests and their immediate staffs to deliver a school bus purchased locally as a gift to the diocesan seminary in Guatemala City, Guatemala.  Bishop Flores sponsored the excursion with the stipulation that the seminarian observer be an “Anglo” so as to experience the life challenges and culture for the peoples south of our Texas borders.  The two–week trip was indeed an eye-opener for the profound depth and scope of challenges facing many people.  Military policing, the pockets of wealth contrasting with the prominence of Poverty, the religious devotion and difficult working conditions for a majority of the population remain unforgettable experiences.  Less than a week after returning, a severe earthquake hit Guatemala City destroying much and injuring many.  The delivered bus became a traveling hospital.

Graduate studies were pursued through Oblate College of the Southwest which culminated with a Master’s of Divinity degree.  It wasn’t the academics that troubled Dennis so much as the high turnover of men who – in Dennis’ estimation – would have made great priests.  Out of his own class – if all had remained and been ordained, he would have been among 61 other priests.  Truth is, he was the only one to be ordained.  What was everyone else seeing that he didn’t?  About November 1977, Dennis formulated a plan – not even consulting his Spiritual Director; he decided to take a leave-of-absence commencing with the Christmas break.  After all he was only “trying it out.” Within the same week, he received a letter from a young, charismatic friend who had been ordained a priest for the diocese of Lubbock 6 months before.  Fr. Jim’s letter stated:” Dennis, I see you going through a dark, difficult time and feeling sad.  This is going to sound absurd but God’s Holy Spirit is telling me to tell you to “stay the course. God has something very special for you to do.” I would have been more comfortable if a lightning bolt would have struck me!  The intrusion into my own private rationale and feelings was overwhelming.  Who is this God I was planning to serve?”  His strategy was immediately abandoned, formation continued, and in May, 1979 he was ordained by Bishop Raymond Pena on the front patio of St. Benedict’s Church.  With Fr. D’s ordination to priesthood, Assumption Seminary (and San Antonio’s Archdiocese) would have its first gap in nearly 100 years for not having a seminarian of Polish descent preparing for local priestly ministry.

So much can be highlighted in Fr. Dennis’ priestly ministry which enlivens his heart and soul but there will be plenty of time (God willing) to learn about this.  From 1979 through 1998, Fr. D has been comfortable with parochial–vicar assignments in San Antonio.  Situations presented themselves for becoming involved with: Texas Catholic Conference for Ethnic Affairs, 9–year team member of our Archdiocesan Tribunal, chaplain for USAFR – Alamo Wing, facilitator for RCIA, assistant for broadcasting the mass (radio and television) and most recently, ministering with the Deaf Community as well as rural parishes.  God’s blessings are not exhausted!  Are you ready?