Pallbearers (clockwise from left) Eddie Essenpreis, Zach Bair, Jaydon Wyms, Jeff Bair and John Schomaker carry the body of Fr. Gene Neff to a hearse following the Feb. 27 Funeral Mass at St. Augustine of Canterbury in Belleville. Fr. Neff, a 53-year priest in the diocese and the director of the Ministry to Sick & Aged, was interred at Green Mount Cemetery (David Wilhelm photo).
By David Wilhelm
Messenger Editor
As director of the Ministry to Sick & Aged, Fr. Eugene “Gene” Neff was devoted to spending quality time with people in the final chapters of their lives.
Fr. Neff also was keenly aware of the important deeds of other priests. A few days before his Feb. 20 death at the age of 81, he made a request to Deacon Jack Benware, who offered the eulogy at the Funeral Mass for Fr. Neff on Feb. 27 at St. Augustine of Canterbury in Belleville.
“‘Don’t make it too long. These guys (fellow priests) have too much to do besides listen to you ramble on about me,’” was what Deacon Benware said Fr. Neff told him.
There was, however, plenty to say about Fr. Neff, who headed MSA since June 12, 1974, when he was appointed to the position by former Diocese of Belleville Bishop Albert Zurowest.
The role couldn’t have suited anyone more than Fr. Neff, who as a young boy witnessed the compassion his parents showed to people whose good health and youth were far in their past.
Fr. Neff consistently stressed how important it was for him, and others, to “walk the talk.” While it might be easy to acknowledge the need for the sick and aged to be ministered to, filling that void was what counted. It’s what Jesus was all about.
It was fitting, then, that Fr. Neff selected Matthew 25: 31-46 as the Gospel to be read at the funeral.
“It calls the people to walk the talk,” Deacon Benware said. “That’s why he chose this scripture. He chose this reading because it was the way he tried to live his life.”
Fr. Neff once said: “This a ministry of presence. What was Jesus’ ministry about? Being present for the people of his time. If people just need to talk, you talk. If I’m able to meet their need, I will. … Did Jesus turn people (away) when he went home? No, he didn’t do that. If I’m supposed to be following his example, I better walk the talk.”
It wasn’t lip service. Fr. Neff’s longtime assistant director, Connie Barre, said Fr. Neff was authentic.
“He was very unassuming; he didn’t want any accolades,” Barre said. “This is who he was, and that was how he presented himself. He was the real thing — always very compassionate.
“He was a good listener. People gravitated to him because they knew they wouldn’t be judged. He would take them where they were: ‘Let’s move on’ and ‘How can I help?’ He was there for the people.”
Fr. Neff grew up in the Catholic Church, and Barre agreed that his parents, Eugene Sr. and Dorothy, made a profound impact.
They paved the way for Fr. Neff to attend St. Henry Seminary in Belleville and St. John Seminary in Little Rock, Ark., where he earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy.
He was ordained into the priesthood June 5, 1971, at the Cathedral of St. Peter.
“I think the love of the sick and the aging started well before (then),” Barre said. “I’m sure it was from his mom and dad — his grade-school years. He loved being with the elders and listening to their stories. He loved hearing about where they were, where they came from and what they did.
“They were all about church. He was right there and tagged along with them. He did all the things they did. He worked with his dad at Cathedral (his dad was the custodian). They were side by side, so he knew church very well. The vocation came easily, I’m sure, because that was where his life was — centered around the Church and his family.”
Fr. Neff has this to say about it during a June 2024 interview with The Messenger:
“I used to go with my mom, who was the power of attorney for her aunt — my great aunt — who was living out the final years of her life in Monroe County Nursing Home,” he said. “Mom would always take me along with her, and I would go in and visit. She would get to the car (afterwards), and she would say, ‘It hurts so bad to go in there.’ But I saw the compassion in my mom.
“My dad was right there, too. My dad came from a family of nine and my mom from a family of four. We would always go see our grandparents. They were important. They were the center of family life.”
In recent years, Fr. Neff regularly celebrated Mass with residents at Keystone Place at Richland Creek, an independent living, assisted living and memory care center in O’Fallon. Fr. Neff had recently moved into in the facility and remained active with fellow residents. He applied ashes as recently as Ash Wednesday on Feb. 18, two days before he died.
“He did Sacrament of Anointing the week before,” Barre said. “He continued. He couldn’t get out and about to the other places, but he continued his ministry right to the very end.”
Fr. Neff was a regular at hospitals. Barre estimated that he visited more than 10,000 people last year at just the two Memorial Hospitals in Belleville and Shiloh.
“That’s not counting all the long-term (facilities),” Barre said. “We were able to do God’s work and try to help God’s kingdom.”
Fr. Godfrey Mullen, OSB, administrator of the Diocese of Belleville, knew Fr. Neff for many years and described him as a “compassionate priest who perfected the art of noticing the needs of others, especially the sick and the elderly.”
“For over 50 years, he was the leader of attending to those who were sick — perhaps the very people Jesus spoke of when he recalled the ‘least of his brothers and sisters,’” Fr. Godfrey said. “His tender soul was a wellspring of grace for so many who longed for the mercy of God. In addition to all this, he was funny, realistic and kind. Along with hundreds and hundreds of others, I will certainly miss him.”
One of Fr. Neff’s favorite events was the annual Catholic Ministry to Sick & Aged Picnic at the Catholic War Veterans Post 370, south of Belleville. It was the pastoral side of MSA that enabled Fr. Neff to interact with the people who, on that day, were able to leave their daily surroundings for much-needed fellowship with Fr. Neff and others.
Attendees felt cherished and treasured, not overlooked or cast aside.
“He did that for over 40 years,” Barre said. “The Catholic War Vets have always been an important part of his ministry.”
Fr. Neff and Joe Hubbard were longtime friends and contemporaries who had similar approaches for helping the needy. Hubbard, who died Sept. 10, 2025, at age 82, founded Catholic Urban Programs in 1973 after joining the St. Vincent de Paul Society in 1961. He also was the director of Catholic Cemetery Association for the diocese.
Fr. Neff appreciated Hubbard and recognized him as a man who “walked the talk,” a phrase Fr. Neff adopted early in his vocation and frequently used in his ministry.
Mike Kish, a member of Ministry to Sick & Aged’s advisory board since the early 1990s, gave the second eulogy at the Funeral Mass.
“How many doors did Fr. Gene Neff knock on as chaplain of Memorial Hospital and sacramental minister to eight area nursing homes, along with his pastoral parish visits?” Kish said. “We don’t keep these kinds of numbers, but our God knows.
“In my nursing-home ministry, I have run into many hurting hearts — souls asking for a priest and needing the spiritual healing of the Holy Eucharist. How many souls were knocking on Heaven’s door as Fr. Gene helped bring them home to the Father?”
Kish described Fr. Neff as a “noticer,” and he looked upon him as a sort of “Biblical Moses.”
“Moses noticed the bush wasn’t being consumed. God spoke,” Kish said. “Fr. Gene noticed our sick and aging folks in the diocese. God spoke to Fr. Gene, and Fr. Gene started the Ministry to Sick & Aged. Nothing in life just happens. We are all called to notice.”
Mary Aimerito met Fr. Neff about 45 years ago when she was a nurse at Four Fountains in Belleville.
After Fr. Neff’s death, Aimerito sent a hand-written note to the Ministry to Sick & Aged.
“His organization, his mission, was so important to him,” she wrote. “When I called him back on Dec. 29, he filled me in on his health, but also the fact that when something happens to him, the ministry would be in good hands.
“All of us (at Four Fountains) thought highly of him. Along the way of helping my elderly relatives, float trips, marrying me off, well, he was one great friend.”
In Fr. Neff’s final weeks, Kish said he was aware that he was dying, and he expressed concern about the future of the Ministry to Sick & Aged. But Kish said Fr. Neff was uplifted when Fr. Godfrey assured him the mission that began five decades ago would continue.
“God has a plan,” Barre said of MSA’s future. “I don’t know what it is, but we’ll figure it out. We’ll continue to do His work in Fr. Gene’s memory. We’ll do our best. It’s all we can do.”