Father Leo Schloemer, 77, a Cincinnati native and a World War II Navy veteran, had his vocation clarified during the war. His ship was torpedoed and he saw many of his gun crew killed. That experience brought his life into perspective and led him to discern that a church vocation was in his future. He enrolled in seminary the same year he was discharged and began what became a lifetime of reaching out to those most in need.

He was ordained in 1956 and began his home mission ministry in Ohio and Oklahoma. He received his first pastorate in Idabel, Okla., in 1969.

He holds the distinction of being the first Glenmarian to study Spanish. His study of the language in 1966 wasn’t to minister to immigrants but to minister in Colombia, South America.

He took part in what might be called a Glenmary experiment from 1969-1975 and again from 1987-1991. During those time periods, he worked in Bogota and Cali, Colombia, helping establish Catholic churches and trying to help the Colombian bishops establish a home mission society in their country similar to Glenmary.

While ministering in South America, Father Leo founded two mission parishes and worked as director of vocations for the Archdiocese of Bogota.

When he returned to the United States in the mid-1970s, he was assigned to Glenmary missions in Texas. He also established St. Mark Mission in Monticello, Ark., in the early 1980s.

In 1991 he returned to Texas as Hispanic minister as well as pastor. Glenmary returned the last of its East Texas missions to the local diocese in 1999 and Father Leo received senior member status the same year. Today, he lives and ministers in West Texas.