Father James A. Fischer, CM

1916 - 2005

 Father James Fischer was born in St. Louis, Missouri on October 15, 1916. He entered the Congregation of the Mission in 1936 and was ordained a priest in 1943. Except for nine years as Provincial and seven years (very recently) as a part-time campus minister, Fr. Fischer spent his entire apostolic life as a seminary professor teaching Sacred Scripture. He died on November 25, 2005 after a long bout with cancer. At his funeral, his successor in the office of Provincial, Father James Swift, CM, shared a thoughtful eulogy. The following are excerpts from those reflections. 

Jim Fischer was the Provincial who led [what was then known as] the Western Province through the dramatic changes following Vatican II, through the social turbulence of the 1960s in America, and through the critical international Vincentian assemblies which led to our new Constitutions. They say that while you do not get to choose the period in which you live, you do get to choose how to live in that period. Jim understood he had been called to leadership at a critical juncture in history, and he intentionally and knowingly chose how to lead.

Jim was one of the key movers and shakers of the famous and long-running 1968 General Assembly in Rome. It was at that assembly that he took on the style of governance and role of authority not just at the local or Province level, but at the level of the Superior General himself. It was Jim who, at the request of the assembly, first wrote and then visited in person the Superior General, the saintly Father James Slattery, CM, telling him that the era of Superior Generals ruling until death like St. Vincent was over, that terms needed to be placed, that his style of leadership would not fit what most were hoping would come out of the assembly and that he should resign. And Fr. Slattery did.

I tell these stories, now a part of our history, because of the man and priest and Vincentian Jim Fischer was. He did not choose to be a leader, but once appointed he led with all his heart and soul and mind and strength and convictions. And, of course, long after he had resigned as Provincial, he continued to lead by the force of his personality and convictions. He wrote at the time of his resigning, “We need a new man and new ideas…I have pioneered many changes in this Province; [resigning] is one of my ‘better ideas’ ... I think I would be more useful to this Province as a constructive critic than as a leader.”

And so he was for another 34 years. I am his fifth successor, and I know that each one of us who succeeded him has said at one time or another in our administrations, “Jim may not be Provincial anymore, but don’t tell him. He thinks he’s still running the show.”

Agree with him or disagree with him, you had to admire the man for knowing his mind and standing up for what he believed in. I’d say rest in peace, Jim, but I can’t imagine you doing such. So, instead, I say take that energy, take those convictions, and intercede for us poor sons of Vincent of the Midwest Province.