PERRYSBURG — Retirement is not an easy concept for Father Herb Weber, but he has learned to give thanks while living the best of both worlds from the ministries he’s worked.

Weber retired June 30 pastor of Saint John XXIII Catholic Community after 48 years in the church. While he spent more years working at Saint John than at any other location, there have been many other ministries.

The first thing one recognizes is the comfort he imparts — always with an easy smile.

“Life is rich and I’m one of those people who has always been happy with what I do,” Weber said. “As much as I love this parish — and I truly do — it was the right time that there be different leadership to take it to the next level.”

Weber feels that he has made accomplishments as both a priest and a pastor, but the retirement is something else.

“Reaching retirement itself is not an accomplishment. You spend your whole life working so you can get to another level. For me, it’s a continuum. So I’ve learned to say ‘thank you,’” Weber said. “One of the accomplishments is that I feel I have used the time and talent God gave me. There’s a scripture passage that has all but haunted me. It says ‘From those to whom more is given, more is expected.’ (Luke 12:48) So I need to use what God gave me.”

He points out that there are variations on the verse, depending on the translation.

“For me, success is when I can use the talent and use the skills,” Weber said. “The question of when to retire has been major, and for me it was not about age. I’m 75.”

He’s always grappled with his homilies.

“The most challenging thing is the weekly preaching. It was probably the think I most invested myself in and always took it to heart. I noticed over the years how people are really spiritually hungry, but they are hungry for something of substance that they can also relate to.

“We’re talking about making sense out of life and I always think of preaching as the second part of a conversation,” Weber said. “The first part is that I need to listen to people to know what is going on in their lives, what’s haunting them, what’s helping them, what they are hoping for and afraid of. Then I try to give a response based on the scriptures.”

He was ordained in 1974 and the church held a celebration for him on the 40th anniversary in 2014. Weber knew he wanted to be a priest in seventh grade.

“My story is not a story of a great conversion, or where I found Christ. I grew up in a religious home. It was always attractive to me. It was a natural thing. I can recall, as a kid, that I wanted to do it. To me, the big question was not whether or not to be a priest. It was to work in a parish, or to be a missionary in a foreign country. I debated that, off and on, for years,” Weber said.

He became a parish priest, but it turns out that he found the best of both worlds. Weber also did mission work in 57 countries.

During his 11 years at St. Peter’s Parish and School in Mansfield, Weber also did prison ministry.

The prison that comes up in conversation is the Ohio State Reformatory, which was featured in the Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman film “Shawshank Redemption.” However, that one closed in 1990 and then was used for the film. Weber moved to town in 1994 and continued through 2005.

“It was gratifying, but intense,” Weber said. “I did accompany one man to his execution.”

It was in 2007. He described Glen Benner II as having had no religion when he went in. He also saw two inmates exonerated.

Prior to that, he was pastor of St. Thomas More in Bowling Green, working primarily with the university community.

The various types of missionary work will continue in his retirement.

“I travel a lot and I like to travel to out-of-the-way places. I don’t usually go where tourists go. I may do some of that, but I go beyond that,” Weber said.

He’s been to Papua, New Guinea, which was the most out-of-the way, all of the Central American countries and many countries in Africa.

Olancho, Honduras, was the hardest to get to, because of the lack of infrastructure. They had to drive through rivers. He compared it to the old West.

“I was most moved by Uganda, when I was in Africa. The people of Uganda are really incredible. Very solid people, who had to work in the face of adversity,” Weber said.

He was impressed by their survival from their president, dictator Idi Amin.

Weber also sponsors a child in Ecuador, which he has also visited.

Locally, one of the most exciting things he did was starting St. John XXIII.

On July 1, 2005, there was no property, just a cell phone and a laptop on a card table.

He spent two months visiting people, going from house to house, planning and finding a place to meet, eventually holding their first mass on Aug. 21, 2005. They then met for three years at Perrysburg High School.

The facilities have steadily grown. The COVID-19 pandemic affected attendance, but Weber said weekly in-person attendance is almost back up to where it was before the shutdown.

St. John XXIII Catholic Community was the first new parish in the diocese since 1978. Started with a handful of families, now there are more than 1,000, with several thousand members.

Weber is well educated, and a writer. A Bowling Green State University graduate, with his bachelor’s degree in education, he also has three master’s degrees, including his master’s of divinity from St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana; religious studies from Indiana University Bloomington and social work from Loyola University, Chicago.

Mayor Tom Mackin presented a proclamation, making June 30 as Reverend Herbert F. Weber Day.