You'll find Harding County
in northeastern New Mexico.
It's here that
our story begins.
Over the plateaus and canyons
near the village of Mosquero,
the sound of an
airplane can be heard,
a single-motor ship, flying low.
To many of the people here this
plane, the Spirit of Saint Josef,
has a special significance.
It's the plane that
brings their priest,
the Reverend Fred Stadtmuller.
This is the story of 2 days, he'd call
them 2 ordinary days, in his life.
For 6 years, Father Stadtmuller
has been piloting his own plane.
Today he's on his way
to Gallegos to conduct
a funeral service for a ranch hand.
Two men wait for him at the tiny
field he uses for an airstrip there.
Although his 11 mission churches
are spread out over a 4,000
square miles area, the Padre
can overcome the handicap of
distance by flying from his main
parish, Saint Josef's in Mosquero,
to wherever his duties take him.
Later, Father Stadtmuller officiates
at solemn services for the deceased.
Friends from nearby
ranches join the family
as the simple wooden coffin
is carried to the tiny
graveyard alongside the mission church.
To the main parish in Mosquero,
Father Stadtmuller returns in his
plane in the late afternoon,
to conduct evening devotions.
Most of his parishioners are
Spanish-Americans, the majority of
them small farmers or ranchers... and
he's been their priest now for 8 years.
Next morning as he's eating
breakfast in the parish house,
a young girl from the village
comes to see the Padre.
She brings a very special
and difficult problem.
The wise and friendly counsel of the
priest is always available to his flock,
and he listens attentively
as the girl tells her story.
"Her playmate Pedro is a bully.
He teases her, fights with her,
is cruel to her. Won't
Father talk to him?"
The Padre says that he will, at once.
And his questioning soon discloses that
the girl is right: Pedro's conduct in
the matter leaves something to be desired.
An amicable settlement, even though Pedro
soon drops the arm around the shoulder.
At any event, peace seems
momentarily restored.
When his work and studies permit, Father
Stadtmuller turns to his chief hobby,
his birds. He raises canaries, occasionally
sells them to members of his parish.
He's also a crack shot, likes
to hunt deer and other game.
Much of his spare time is spent
keeping his plane in constant readiness.
He borrowed 2,000 dollars from a friend to buy
it, and it served him and his neighbours well.
He's grown accustomed to
emergency messages like this:
a sick baby, a telephone call,
a mother's plea for help.
The Padre talks to the young
mother: husband away on business,
baby's sick, getting
worse, no doctor nearby.
Please hurry Father!
She's at an isolated
ranch 50 miles away.
He can get there in
less than an hour.
While the mother comforts the ailing
baby, the priest heads for the ranch.
He'll have to land in a nearby
field, but he's used to that.
He flies 12,000 miles a year, has
more than 1,200 hours in the log.
the mother sees the Spirit of
Saint Josef bank over the house.
prepares to take off with his precious cargo.
His destination is Tucumcari,
where an ambulance is waiting
at the airport to rush
the child to a hospital.
This is the end of the journey:
the airport at Tucumcari.
The ambulance is waiting. The
hospital is only minutes away.
There's no brass band here,
no cheering crowds,
no newspaper men clamouring for a
headline. Just an ambulance driver,
an anxious mother, a sick
baby and their priest.
In the hospital the baby will be treated
and nursed back to health. And that, really,
is the only reward ever asked by the
Spirit of Saint Josef's flying Padre.