'I’ve always left part of my heart': Fr. David Polich Celebrates 50 Years

by Benjamin Shane Evans | June 30, 2026

When contemplating how he would commemorate the 50-year anniversary of his ordination, Fr. David Polich asked his peers what they had done to mark the occasion.

Some had large receptions after special Masses. One priest offered an open invitation to past parishioners to come to his house for him to cook for them throughout the year.

“Great idea,” Fr. Polich said. “But I don’t cook.”

Another priest from the Archdiocese of Dubuque decided to visit all the parishes where he served.

“And I said, ‘I like that idea,’” he said. “So, I started doing that in January.”

50 Years of Service

Fr. Polich’s commemoration tour would take him across the Diocese of Des Moines to visit the various parishes in which he served.

Fr. Polich was ordained on June 25, 1976, at St. John’s Church, after formation at Loras College and University of Notre Dame. He still has a copy of the homily from his Mass of Thanksgiving, which was held on June 26, 1975, at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Urbandale.  

“I don’t know if I ever did any better than that first time around,” Fr. Polich said. “But a lot of it was about how it’s not about us as priests at all. We’re one of many of God’s people and we’re in this together. It’s about God’s people and about the call.”

After his ordination, Fr. Polich began his priesthood by serving three years at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on the east side of Des Moines. He then moved to St. Anthony’s in Des Moines, where he served for six years.

Because of his desire to experience the wider diocese, he wrote to the Bishop requesting to serve in rural communities, including Maloy, Mount Ayr, and Leon, where he served briefly as part of the Leon Team Ministry for the south-central Catholic community.

“I love the smaller communities,” Fr. Polich said. “It’s just a whole different dynamic. You get to know people much more. You see them where we are, not just on Sundays.”

In fall 1997, at age 47, Fr. Polich completed a sabbatical program at the University of Notre Dame, reconnecting with mentors, refreshing spiritually and intellectually, and drawing on prior South Bend ties from his formation years. As he contemplated what to do post-sabbatical, he was prompted to consider Spanish ministry, as there was an acute need for Spanish-speaking clergy.

Fr. Polich agreed, and after a two-year period that included covering Osceola and Grand River during a pastor’s sabbatical, as well as service in Milo, Rosemont, and Carlisle, Fr. Polich began his intensive Spanish study. Beginning in January 2000, he attended Maryknoll Language Institute in Cochabamba, Bolivia, for approximately six months.

“I learned a lot,” Fr. Polich said. “More than I expected.”

Learning Spanish enabled him to serve parishes in the diocese with significant or rapidly growing Hispanic populations for the next 19 years. In 2000, Fr. Polich was assigned to Visitation Parish, now Our Lady of the Americas, which drew large Spanish-speaking congregations.

After about three years, the diocese began to place more Spanish-speaking pastors where Hispanic communities lived, which lead to Fr. Polich’s move to Perry’s St. Patrick Catholic Church where he spent 10 years.

In Perry, Fr. Polich played a key role in ensuring the historical preservation of St. Patrick’s and served on the historic commission committee that lead the efforts to add Perry’s downtown district to the National Register of Historic Places.

Susan Leslie, a St. Patrick’s parishioner, said that Fr. Polich asked her to spearhead the effort to add the church to the National Register. What began as “just a few forms” became a long-term effort, which culminated in presenting the case for the addition of the church to the Register to the state board of historic places in downtown Des Moines.  

“I’m sitting there with these professional historians and people who do that for a living, as they are getting up and giving their presentations,” Leslie said. “I just got up and said, ‘Well, I’m a retired fourth grade teacher. I kind of got roped into this by my priest.’ I told them what I knew and what I had done.”

And, as a result, St. Patrick’s was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

As part of that work, Fr. Polich worked with various faith and community leaders. Former chairman of Perry’s historical commission Larry Vodenik said that Fr. Polich was “fantastic” at building relationships, especially “for somebody who wasn’t from Perry.”

“He had no connections to Perry, but he was extremely interested,” Vodenik said. “He was one of our most avid supporters of everything we did. Anything we did, I knew that he was going to be there, and he would be supporting us in any way he could.”

However, after 10 years at St. Patrick’s in Perry, it was time to move on.

“After a certain point, I think if you stick around, you start smelling like dead fish, you really do,” Fr. Polich said. “You just kind of go stale.”

Vodenik said that the community was sad to see him go because of his close ties and deep involvement in the community.  

“He was just good for our community,” Vodenik said. “He just took it under his wing and ran with it.”

Fr. Polich returned to Osceola, Grand River, and Mount Ayr to serve.

While in Osceola’s St. Bernard Catholic Church, parishioner Delores Edgington said that Fr. Polich was always there for the community if they needed help.

Before Edgington’s husband died, she recalled Fr. Polich visiting him in the hospital and visiting her whenever she reached out to him.

“He was witnessing how Jesus might have been to us,” Edgington said. “To not to think of yourself so much but to think of others.”

Edgington said that she felt “very blessed” to have Fr. Polich in her life.

“He’s such a quiet person and gentle,” Edgington said. “He gives you a lot of faith. He shares his faith with you. He’s just a neat guy.” 

Though Fr. Polich said that he “was not dumb enough to answer the question of [his] favorite parishes” to say that he had a favorite parish, he did mention that over his six years in Osceola, Grand River, and Mount Ayr, he underwent five surgeries, including multiple ankle procedures, and received a kidney transplant from his sister early in his second year.

“They did take better care of me, by necessity, than anywhere else I’ve been,” he said.

But each parish in which he served had a part of him.

“[Priests] go into an assignment knowing that we won’t be there forever,” Fr. Polich said. “But we need to give all that we can when we are there, almost as if we will be there indefinitely even though we know we won’t. I’ve told people too at times that when I do leave, I don’t leave easily even when it’s my decision to move. And I’ve always left part of my heart in the parishes where I’ve been.”

Ministry Continues in Retirement

In retirement, Fr. Polich continues his advocacy for social justice and peace ministries throughout the diocese.

“The importance of the Church focusing on issues of social justice is something that I’ve always carried with me,” Fr. Polich said.

Throughout his tenure, he has helped found and sustain peace and social justice efforts. Fr. Polich joined a peace and justice committee after his ordination and helped establish the Catholic Peace Ministry office in 1981 under Bishop Dingman. After the closure of the ministry office in 1991, Fr. Polich continued his support of the Circle of Peace Makers.

Fr. Polich continues to support organizations like the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

“The two issues right now that are the burning issues in my mind: The wars in the Middle East and the Ukraine issues,” Fr. Polich said. “Without a doubt.”

Additionally, Fr. Polich has a passion for baseball, particularly for the history of Black baseball, which includes the history of the segregated “Negro Leagues” and the dissolution of the Color Line in the sport. 

As Fr. Polich continues in his retirement, he had a simple message to everyone who has been with him through the last 50 years.

“Thank you,” Fr. Polich said. “People have certainly been good to me.”