During Father Jeff Fasching’s 10th year as a priest, he took a voluntary leave of absence from the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, to serve as a Workforce Development Specialist and Case Manager for the State of Missouri. Concurrent to his work in that role, which included conducting job fairs and helping to match employers with prospective employees, Father Fasching also earned a Master of Business Administration from Fulton, Missouri’s William Woods University. In 2007, Jeff Fasching returned to his priestly duties, this time in the Diocese of Springfield and Cape Girardeau, Missouri. He continued to work for the State of Missouri during his first year with the diocese.

Prior to entering the priesthood, Jeff Fasching was recruited to play football for Emporia State University as a quarterback in 1983. He left ESU in 1985 to take a job as a Warehouse Coordinator and returned to school in 1991, this time at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, where he studied philosophy and captained the men’s basketball team. He earned his BA in 1993 and entered Pontifical College Josephinum, earning his Master of Divinity in 1997. Fr. Fasching was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in 1997.

Appointed by the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese to celebrate Mass in the Extraordinary Form (the Latin Mass), Jeff Fasching acts as spiritual father to the diocese’s vibrant Latin Mass community, and he is the only priest within the diocese to celebrate both the Extraordinary and the Ordinary Mass on a regular basis. Rev. Fasching assisted in the first Latin Confirmation and performed the first wedding Mass in Latin at Springfield’s Saint Agnes Cathedral since the Second Vatican Council, which first permitted the use of languages other than Latin for the Mass. Rev. Fasching also remains on call as Chaplain for five area hospitals, which he visits daily to counsel and pray with patients.