52 Faces: A practical priest — a beloved father

Posted Jun 20, 2023 9:14 AM

By William Smith

 At 56 years old, Rev. Marty Goetz — a Catholic fixture in Des Moines County for the past 11 years — is heading out on a new adventure. 

After June 28, Goetz will be the new pastor at Sacred Heart Parish in Newton. He was reassigned by the Catholic Diocese and is excited to meet his new parishioners. But it will be difficult for Goetz to move his heart out of Burlington and West Burlington. He has been serving the area for the past 11 years, and it has become home. 

“I’ve spent over a third of my priesthood here in Burlington,” Goetz said. “This is the longest assignment I’ve ever had.” 

It will be a tough move. Goetz has been fighting breast cancer for two years, and it has metastasized through his body. At this point, the cancer has reached stage 4 and is in his bones. He will continue medical treatment at his new assignment, including cancer medications that cost $30,000 monthly, paid by insurance. 

“I don’t know if I’m worth $30,000 a month,” the ever-jovial Goetz said with a laugh. 

Goetz will be the first to tell you that his job is to lift others up, no matter his struggles. But that relationship with his parishioners and fellow priests is reciprocal — they lift Goetz up.

 “I am not alone. They (the parishioners) do the same for me when I’m hurting. And I’m able to share joy and life with them. It’s pretty special,” he said. 

For the past four years, Goetz has had to endure a litany of hardships. His father died in 2019. Then COVID-19 turned the world upside down. In 2021, he was diagnosed with cancer. A few months after that, his mother died.

 “Through all of that, God is good. He’s good because I’ve seen so many people, people I didn’t even know, have reached out to me and lifted me up in prayer. And this year, some days are easier than others. But you know, God is good. And that’s what’s important,” Goetz said. 

Aside from his jovial, slightly mischievous bent, Goetz has long been known as a practical priest. A man of God unafraid to face reality. That is why he takes comfort in Psalms in the Bible.

 “I know all about decay in my bones,” he said.

 Priest, fireman,  or a sports writer.

 Goetz knew he wanted to be a priest from a young age. 

But it wasn’t God that attracted him to the priesthood. It was a man of God — the late Rev. Martin Diamond — who inspired Goetz to earn the clerical collar. Goetz, who grew up in Keokuk, is named after Rev. Diamond, the pastor of St. Peter’s (now the Church of All Saints) in Keokuk when Goetz was a child. “When I was little, I wanted to be just like him,” Goetz said. “I spent a lot of time at the church. I would do pretend Mass on my dining room table.” 

Goetz is pastor of SS John and Paul in Burlington, SS Mary and Patrick in West Burlington, and St. Mary in Dodgeville, and led the consolidation between the two parishes six years ago. 

He can quote scripture with the best of them and loves talking sports, turning the mechanics of golf and baseball into metaphors better describing God’s message. When Goetz doesn’t have his collar on, it’s impossible to know you’re talking to a priest. 

Though Goetz dreamed of becoming a priest as a child, his priorities changed in high school. “Other things grabbed my attention. Sports, girls, girls, girls, sports, girls,” he said with a laugh. “When people asked me what I wanted to do, I said I want to either be a fireman or a sportswriter.”

 Goetz fulfilled the latter ambition by working for The Daily Gate City newspaper for two years, but something was missing from his life. “There was this little nudge at the back of my mind that said priesthood, priesthood,’” Goetz said. 

Finding God twice. 

Goetz followed that nudge, and it changed the course of his life. A St. Ambrose University graduate (he also spent a year at Southeastern Community College in Keokuk), Goetz entered the Mundelein Seminary at St. Mary of the Lake, Ill., which gave him a chance to explore if he was a man who wanted to spread God’s word. 

“You don’t go to seminary to be a priest. You go to see if God is calling you to the priesthood,” he said. 

Goetz was ordained to the priesthood on May 29, 1992, at the Church of All Saints in Keokuk, and used the Rev. Diamond’s chalice during the ordination mass. Goetz still has that chalice and treasures it to this day. “I still remember that day as if it were yesterday. It was a beautiful day,” he said. 

Goetz became the Parochial Vicar for St. Patrick’s in Iowa City after that, then moved on to Davenport and Clinton before taking a two-year absence from the priesthood from March 1999 to April 2001. It was a hard time for Goetz, but an illuminating one. 

Once again, Goetz found himself searching for God. “I got lost. I did what I thought I did best, and I ran away,” he said. “I couldn’t believe Jesus could love somebody like me.” 

Goetz sold running shoes and later insurance for GEICO, and was named salesman of the month in October 2000. But it wasn’t his calling. 

“I finally got the courage to write a letter to Bishop (William) Franklin that said, ‘During the past few weeks, I’ve been discovering a call back to the priesthood,’” he said. “I remember being so nervous mailing that letter.” 

Goetz heard back from Bishop Franklin the next day. He was welcomed back into the fold with open arms. The incident helped him understand others who left the church and found their way back to God. 

“I ran away, but I had a home to come back to,” he said. “I was able to truly realize what was most important, and that was God in my life and family and friends who didn’t give up on me. It makes me a better priest today.” 

Coming to Burlington.

 The now-closed Keokuk Cardinal Stritch High School and Burlington Notre Dame Catholic Schools once were fierce rivals, and Goetz never imagined he one day would work for the “enemy.”  

But when he arrived in Burlington 11 years ago after serving at churches in Keota, Sigourney, Keswick, Richmond, Riverside, and Wellman (he also was vocation director at the Diocese of Davenport for five years), he found only friends. 

“It’s nice being close to home,” he said. “These last 11 years have been a blessing.” 

Goetz discovered he wanted to work with schools during his many assignments, leading him to Notre Dame and Burlington’s Catholic community.  

“People ask me if I had it to do all over again, would I? And the answer is yes. I hope and pray that when my time comes they will look at me, look at my priesthood, and say, ‘He was so happy being a priest. He couldn’t understand why everyone would not want to share that same joy,’ ” Goetz said.