MERRILLVILLE – Newly ordained Father Jacob McDaniel has no doubt received many gifts since his ordination Mass on June 6, but none more precious than the chalice and paten presented to him on June 27 by the Abraham Lincoln Assembly of the Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus.
The presentation was made in honor of Edmund Karwatka, a longtime member of the Abraham Lincoln Assembly and Good Shepherd Council 10811 Knights of Columbus with Our Lady of Consolation parish, where Father McDaniel concelebrated Mass with pastor Father Peter Muha.
James Premeske, who served with Karwatka in Council 10811, said Karwatka, who died on Dec. 9, 2018, was the first vocations director of the council and strongly supported local seminarians. He explained that the chalice is engraved with Karwatka’s name while Father McDaniel’s name is inscribed on the paten.
According to Premeske, it is tradition for the Knights to present a chalice to a new priest in honor of a deceased member. In recent years, with fewer priests being ordained, the memorial options were expanded, with the family able to choose a donation to the bishop’s burse or various other programs.
“It’s great to be able to be present for the Knights of Columbus today, and I am thankful for this gift from the Karwatka family and the Knights and to be able to pray for Ed for the duration of my priesthood,” said Father McDaniel. “It’s a beautiful tradition.”
The presentation was made during the Mass, just prior to the Offertory, by Virgil Pop, faithful navigator of the Abraham Lincoln Assembly of Fourth Degree Knights. A parishioner at St. James the Less in Highland, Pop recalled Karwatka as a very active Knight for many years and said it is fitting “that this priest, Father McDaniel, will keep (Karwatka’s) memory alive forever through this chalice and paten.”
As the Mass continued, Father McDaniel blessed the new chalice with a prayer quickly found by Father Muha. “With the joy of God, we place on this altar this paten and chalice,” said the new priest, who began his first assignment as associate pastor on July 1 at St. Michael the Archangel in Schererville.
Father McDaniel said he learned that Karwatka “was one of the guys who really pushed for support for our seminarians, and they provided me with financial support for the past four years, which I really appreciate. I can honestly say that without the Knights’ support I do not know if I’d be standing here today (as a priest)."
Father McDaniel said the chalice and paten in Karwatka’s memory give him the opportunity to be united with him and pray for him.
Dan Karwatka, the eldest son of Ed and the late Maryann Karwatka’s four children, said his father became a Knight on July 1, 1955, “when he was 19, living in Chicago,” became a member of the Bishop Hillinger Class of Fourth Degree Knights on Feb. 23, 1958, and remained active for 63 years.
“I remember him taking (our family) to the Knights’ spaghetti dinners and taking ‘squires’ – young men who were being recruited as Knights – to golf outings and ballgames. He loved mentoring the younger Knights,” Dan Karwatka said.
Ed Karwatka, explained his son, was a valued inspector for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for many years, moving back to Indiana from Hannibal, Missouri, later in his career to monitor levee projects in Highland and inspect deep tunnels that were sealed off after flooding in downtown Chicago buildings. “He had a wealth of knowledge, and after he retired, the corps asked him to come back as a contractor,” Dan Karwatka added.
Dan Karwatka, whose siblings are Paul, Michaelene and Joyce Karwatka, said his father’s siblings, which include brother Richard Karwatka, and sisters Arlene Gaways, Judith Mitchell, Monica Drezweicki and the late Joan Pierce, had earlier donated a chalice to a priest in central Indiana.