Name: Vogelsang, Clifford
Born: 04/13/1937
Place Indanapolis, Indiana
Ordained: 05/03/1963
Place Ordained: St. Meinrad Archabbey, Indiana
Years of Service: 1963-2007 (Sacramental Assistance at St. Andrew, 2009-2012)
Died: 05/07/2026
Place Died: Indianapolis, Indiana (Marquette Manor)
Burial Info: Our Lady of Peace Cemetery, Indianapolis
Notes:
[From The Criterion – 8 May 2026]
Father Clifford Vogelsang had ‘pastoral spirit’ in leading parishes
By Sean Gallagher
Father Clifford Vogelsang, a retired priest of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, died on May 7 at the Marquette Manor retirement community in Indianapolis. He was 89.
The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on May 14 at St. Luke the Evangelist Church in Indianapolis. Archbishop Charles C. Thompson was the principal celebrant of the liturgy. Retired Father James Bonke was the homilist. Burial will follow at a later date in the priests’ garden at Our Lady of Peace Cemetery in Indianapolis.
After being ordained a priest in 1963, Father Vogelsang served for six years on the faculty of the Latin School of Indianapolis, the archdiocese’s former high school seminary. From 1969 until his retirement in 2007, he led parishes across central and southern Indiana.
In a 2013 interview with The Criterion on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his ordination, Father Vogelsang reflected on the challenges of being ordained just before the start of the Second Vatican Council.
In the years that followed, he said it was his lifelong love of learning and his knowledge of history in particular that helped him navigate the often choppy waters of life in the Church during the challenges of implementing the reforms of the council.
“I can see pretty well how things have come about and have a fairly good idea of how things are going,” Father Vogelsang said at the time. “Having that sense of history has been a big aid to me. I’ve been able to keep things in perspective without running off in one extreme or another.”
Msgr. Joseph Schaedel first came to know Father Vogelsang as a high school student when the priest was in residence at Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Beech Grove, where Msgr. Schaedel was a member at the time.
He described Father Vogelsang as “a scholar and a gentleman.”
“He was very well read and appreciated good art and good music,” said Msgr. Schaedel, who retired in 2025.
“I think that’s an example to all of us priests, to be cultured gentlemen.
“And he was always devoted to his ministry as a priest, taking great joy in celebrating the sacraments. He was a good homilist as well.”
Father Bonke spoke about how Father Vogelsang applied his intellect to the challenges of parish leadership in the wake of Vatican II, helping him to create an effective “pastoral spirit” in leading faith communities.
This happened especially, Father Bonke said, when Father Vogelsang served as pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Jeffersonville from 1993 until his retirement 14 years later in 2007.
“He found that he could really bring life to that community,” Father Bonke said. “His experience in Jeffersonville affirmed himself as a priest and a pastor with gifts to offer the community. He liked Jeffersonville and enjoyed his time there. He thought that he made a real contribution to the Church there.”
As intelligent as his friend was, Father Bonke said that it didn’t separate him from those whom he served.
“A priest can’t use his intellect to be superior in any sense of the term. And Cliff was never that,” Father Bonke said.
In the nearly 20 years following his retirement, Father Vogelsang continued to assist sacramentally in many parishes across the archdiocese.
In his 2013 interview, Father Vogelsang noted how busy he kept himself in his priestly life and ministry.
“I think sacramentally I probably do more work now than I did as a pastor,” he said.
Msgr. Schaedel said that his dedication to ministry after retirement showed Father Vogelsang’s “firm commitment to the Church and his joy in celebrating the sacraments.”
“He could have just packed up and moved to some warm climate,” Msgr. Schaedel said. “But he remained in Indianapolis and celebrated the sacraments as often as he could.”
That service continued after he moved to Marquette Manor about 10 years ago, where he served the pastoral needs of its residents until just weeks before his death.
“He was kind of the unofficial chaplain there,” Msgr. Schaedel said. “And it gave great comfort to the people there, those especially who were chronically or seriously ill, to know that there was a priest in residence who would come and give them the anointing of the sick. He was faithful and as active as he could be until the very end.”
Clifford Ralph Vogelsang, Jr., was born on April 13, 1937, in Indianapolis to the late Clifford and Kathryn (Kalb) Vogelsang. Baptized at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral Parish, he grew up as a member of St. Joan of Arc Parish, both parishes being in Indianapolis.
After graduating from St. Joan of Arc School, Father Vogelsang became an archdiocesan seminarian, receiving priestly formation at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology from 1951-63, where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a master of divinity degree.
Father Vogelsang was ordained a priest on May 5, 1963, at the Archabbey Church of Our Lady of Einsiedeln in St. Meinrad by Archbishop Paul C. Schulte.
That same year, he ministered as associate pastor first at Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish in Indianapolis and then at Our Lady of the Greenwood Parish in Greenwood while also serving as an instructor at the Latin School of Indianapolis.
Father Vogelsang remained on the faculty of the Latin School until 1969. During that time, he also ministered as associate pastor of Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Beech Grove from 1964-69 and assisted as an instructor at the former Our Lady of Grace Academy, also in Beech Grove.
He first experience in parish leadership happened when he led St. Agnes Parish in Nashville as its administrator from 1969-72.
Father Vogelsang then led the former St. Andrew Parish in Richmond (now part of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish) from 1972-83.
He next served as pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Indianapolis from 1984-93.
Beginning in 1993, Father Vogelsang led St. Augustine Parish in Jeffersonville for 14 years. During that time, he also served as dean of the New Albany Deanery from 2000-07.
After retiring in 2007, he served as a part-time sacramental minister at St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in Indianapolis from 2009-12. †
The Criterion – August 9, 2013 in celebration of Fr. Vogelsang’s 50th Anniversary
Love of history helped priest through 50 years of ministry
By Sean Gallagher
From an early age, retired Father Clifford Vogelsang has nurtured a love of history.
“I think the first book I read was a child’s biography of Abraham Lincoln,” said Father Vogelsang, 76.
But in the 50 years that he has lived and ministered as a priest, Father Vogelsang has more than just studied history—he’s been a part of it.
He was ordained a priest on May 5, 1963—just months after the conclusion of the first session of the Second Vatican Council.
In his first years as a priest, Father Vogelsang witnessed up close the years—at times exciting and at times tumultuous—during and immediately after the council.
His love and knowledge of history, he said, helped him navigate through those often stormy years.
“I can see pretty well how things have come about and have a fairly good idea of how things are going,” Father Vogelsang said. “Having that sense of history has been a big aid to me. I’ve been able to keep things in perspective without running off in one extreme or another.”
He grew up in the 1940s at St. Joan of Arc Parish in Indianapolis and said that its pastor at the time, Msgr. Clement Bosler, and associate pastor, Father William Morley, helped open his heart and mind to a priestly vocation. So did his parents.
“They didn’t push it, but they encouraged it,” Father Vogelsang said.
He entered Saint Meinrad Seminary in St. Meinrad in 1951 as a high school freshman. In the years leading up to Vatican II after Blessed John XXIII called for it in 1958, Father Vogelsang said that the seminary’s rector, Benedictine Father Theodore Heck, helped prepare him and his fellow seminarians for the historic council.
“I think Father Theodore did a good job in keeping us informed,” Father Vogelsang said. “I think he was very open to things. He didn’t agree with some things, but he was open. He listened. And I think he was a rather holy man.”
For the first nine years after his ordination, Father Vogelsang was a history instructor at the former Latin School in Indianapolis, a high school seminary operated by the archdiocese from 1955-78.
Father Rick Ginther, pastor of St. Patrick Parish and St. Margaret Mary Parish, both in Terre Haute, was one of Father Vogelsang’s students at the Latin School. He said that Father Vogelsang “set me on fire for history.”
“By opening up history in a way that I could truly appreciate it, he began to open up for me a full appreciation of the priesthood, of the life of the Church, the history of the Church,” Father Ginther said, “and how important knowing where we have been is to understanding where we are and therefore to know where we can go.”
This love of history has helped Father Ginther in practical ways in leading the various parishes where he has ministered.
“One of the first things that I do going into a parish is listen [and] learn,” Father Ginther said. “I want to know the history of the place, of the people. I listen to their life stories.”
Father Ginther also appreciates how Father Vogelsang did groundbreaking work in the 1970s and early 1980s in the three parishes that now make up the Richmond Catholic Community by helping them to combine their grade schools and other educational programs.
“I saw that it could work and that’s because Cliff helped make it work,” Father Ginther said. “And that comes over here to the Terre Haute Deanery with what we’re doing with our deanery plan and the fact that I have two parishes.”
Father Vogelsang said that the efforts he helped lead to combine the educational ministries of the Richmond parishes “laid the foundation” for the highly integrated manner in which the three faith communities today live out their entire mission.
While he helped pave the way for changes in parish structures decades before they became commonplace, Father Vogelsang looks back with appreciation on the ministry he did one-on-one with individual parishioners in the various faith communities where he has been assigned.
“You can see God’s grace at work in people and see people move along [closer to God],” he said. “You can also see people rejecting God’s grace. And that’s not so happy.
“It makes one grateful for the grace that God has given us.”
Ann Northam is grateful for the 14 years that she ministered with Father Vogelsang at St. Augustine Parish in Jeffersonville.
“Father Cliff had a very quiet and humble way. He was very intelligent and up on things,” said Northam, who still serves as St. Augustine’s director of religious education. “You never knew, because of his quiet, gentlemanly manner, that he could be so much fun. He had a dry sense of humor. Things would seem very serious and then all of a sudden, he’d throw in a zinger.”
One particular memory of Father Vogelsang, though, still brings tears of gratitude to Northam’s eyes.
“When my mother-in-law died, I found her. It was on the feast of the Assumption,” she said. “Right after Mass, Father came. He stayed with us.” She paused and added with emotion, “It was like you knew Christ was there.”
Although ministering as a seminary instructor and in parish ministry across the archdiocese has been life-giving for Father Vogelsang, when he looks back over his 50 years as a priest, he simply said, “I’m a survivor.”
“I think, for my generation, that’s a big thing,” Father Vogelsang said. “So many of the men ordained in my period left. That was very discouraging at times. And, in the long run, it added to the workload.”
When he retired in 2007, Father Vogelsang willingly took up part of that workload by frequently assisting in various parishes by celebrating Mass and hearing confession.
“I think sacramentally I probably do more work now than I did as a pastor,” he said.
When asked why he wanted to continue to keep up a busy schedule in retirement, Father Vogelsang replied, “I think it’s better to wear out than to rust out.”
He credits his own stubbornness as part of the reason why he remained a priest when so many others left ordained ministry.
“Honestly, I think that [stubbornness] helped me,” Father Vogelsang said. “I just wasn’t going to go down that path. And I feel that once you make a commitment, you keep to it.”
Despite the difficulties of the first years of his life and ministry as a priest, he sees good years ahead when considering the archdiocese’s seminarians.
“I think the future is great,” Father Vogelsang said. “I think the college seminary is a big step forward. I think they’re doing a good job. I just think that we’re on the right track.”
He looked to history when considering what words of encouragement he might share with men who are considering following in his footsteps as a priest.
“Take the long view,” Father Vogelsang said. “In general, the things we fear the worst don’t happen or they don’t happen the way we think they will. And, in general, things turn out better than we think they will. Take the long view. Don’t let one incident discourage you.”
More about Father Clifford Vogelsang
Age: 76 (2012)
Parents: The late Clifford R. and Katherine (Kald) Vogelsang
Childhood parish: St. Joan of Arc in Indianapolis
Current residence: Indianapolis
Seminary: Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad
Ordained: May 5, 1963
Favorite Bible passages: Elijah hearing God in a tiny whispering sound (1 Kgs 19:11-13); Jesus calming a storm on the Sea of Galilee (Lk 8:22-25)
Favorite saint: St. John Vianney
Favorite hobby: Collecting art
Favorite authors: Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh