Fr. Charles J. Duster

Fr. Charles J. Duster

Columban Father

September 15, 1934 ~ March 7, 2017

Age  82 years

Missionary priest based near Omaha dies at 82

     OMAHA — The Rev. Charles Joseph Duster, a Catholic missionary priest with assignments in Japan and Fiji Islands and most recently Omaha, died Tuesday (March 7, 2017) at Hillcrest Health & Rehabilitation Center in Bellevue after a two-week illness. He was 82.

Known as Father Charlie to his colleagues and Father Chuck to his family, he  was an ordained priest of Missionary Society of St. Columban. He lived at the Columban House at St. Columbans in Bellevue and worked in development and planned giving for the international missionary organization.

Father Duster was born Sept., 15, 1934, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where his parents, Charles and Cleo Duster, ran a supermarket. He attended Regis University in Denver and Marquette University in Milwaukee before entering St. Columban’s Major Seminary in Milton, Mass. He was ordained Dec. 21, 1961, and celebrated his first Solemn High Mass in Cedar Rapids 10 days later.

Founded in 1918, the Missionary Society of St. Columban is  is an organization of priests, nuns and lay missionaries in 15 countries, heeding the gospel call to “serve all nations.’’ The patron of the missionary society is St. Columban, the sixth-century Irish monk who suffered persecution to create monasteries in what is today France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.

“Father Duster’s warm and outgoing personality, many talents, and deep commitment to his vocation as a Columban missionary priest, drew many people to God in the various places where he ministered,’’ said the Rev. Timothy Mulroy, regional director of the Columban Fathers. “Wherever he was sent, his ability to recognize and celebrate the good in the world around him made him a truly joyful messenger of the Gospel.”

Father Duster spent his first assignment in Japan as a regional bursar for the society and later as associate pastor  in the Diocese of Osaka. From 1969 to 1972, he was Columban vocation director for the Midwest Region of the U.S. based near Omaha and later served a year in the Archdiocese of St. Paul as chaplain at Hennepin County General Hospital in Minneapolis accompanied by studies in clinical pastoral care.

In 1974, he began working in the Fiji Islands, where served for seven years as a parish priest. He later was appointed vicar general of the Archdiocese of Suva, a position he held for four years.

Beginning in September 1986, he spent eight years in Rome, where he received a doctorate in canon law summa cum laude at the Angelicum University and served as rector of the Collegio San Columbano.

After working briefly at the marriage tribunal in the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, to gain matrimonial law experience, he returned to Fiji in 1994 to teach canon law at the Pacific Regional Seminary and serve as the coordinator of the Lay Mission Program. He also served as associate pastor at at Holy Family Parish in Labasa from 2003 to 2005.

Complications from heart disease returned him to the United States in 2005, but he remained active in the work of the society. He served in Mission Promotions and Vocations in Chicago from 2005 to 2011 and as house superior from 2008 to  2011.

He returned to Bellevue in 2011 and for the last six years has worked in the missionary society’s office in Planned Giving and Development and as house superior of the Bellevue community.
“While the Lord gives me the energy I want to do what I can,’’ he said in a recent interview.

He is survived by an older brother, William C. Duster (Audrey) of Littleton, CO., a sister , Katie Enns of Fort Pierce, Fla.; and 11 nieces and nephews and their families.

Visitation is 4 to 6 p.m. Monday at St. Mary Catholic Church in Bellevue, followed by Mass at 6 p.m.

Visitation in Cedar Rapids is 1 to 2 p.m., Tuesday at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 2 p.m.  Burial is in Mount Calvary Cemetery in Cedar Rapids.

Memorials to Missionary Society of St. Columban, P. O. Box 10,  St. Columbans, NE  68056

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