Looking back at:

The Priest and the President

By Michael Barr

Father Schneider with the Johnsons at Stonewall , Texas

Father Schneider with the Johnsons at Stonewall
Photo courtesy The Gillespie County Historical Society, Fredericksburg, Texas.

The story of Father Wunibald Schneider is proof that life can hold amazing experiences for people who follow their faith and listen to their hearts.

Wunibald Willibald Schneider, born near Eichstätt, Germany on March 24, 1907, always wanted to be a priest, but his family couldn't afford to send him to college. So he became a gardener and a good one.

At age 21 he joined the Salvatorian Catholic brotherhood. He worked as a gardener in Würzburg.

Then in the 1930s the Nazis came to power in Germany. The fascists not only targeted Jews but Catholics as well. The Salvatorian superiors feared for their priests and other employees and quietly transferred them to other countries.

Wunibald Schneider spent time in England. Then WWII broke out. After the British declared war on Germany, the Salvatorians feared for the safety of Germans in England.

"I was then sent to Ireland," Father Schneider said, "where they disliked the English, but they liked me as a German. I never could figure that out."

In Ireland he got the opportunity to become a priest. He went to the seminary and then studied at the Vatican. He was ordained on April 4, 1953.

In the early 1950s the Texas archbishop went looking for priests for his German-speaking parishes in the Texas Hill Country. Father Schneider answered the call.

Father Schneider arrived in San Antonio in September 1953. In August 1954 the archbishop assigned him to St. Mary's Church in Fredericksburg.

A powerful United States Senator, who would one day become Father Schneider's friend, lived in nearby Stonewall. Senator Lyndon Johnson often entertained guests at his ranch.

The Senator did not want his Catholic guests to go to Mass alone, so he went with them, even though he was not of that faith. He got to know Father Schneider on those visits to Mass.

In November 1963, Lyndon Johnson became President of the United States. A few years later Father Schneider became the pastor at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Stonewall, across the Pedernales River from the LBJ Ranch.

Lyndon Johnson and Father Schneider enjoyed each other's company. Their friendship grew. When Johnson's daughter Luci converted to Catholicism, Father Schneider baptized her first child.

The priest and the president respected each other but didn't always see eye to eye.

One night President Johnson invited Father Schneider to the ranch for the screening of a new movie called "The Graduate." During a particular steamy scene featuring Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin and Anne Bancroft as the infamous Mrs. Robinson, Father Schneider scolded the president "for looking at such trash."

"It is you, Mr. President, who must set an example for the rest of the country."

Father Schneider always spoke his mind— to the farmer at Weinheimer's Store or to the President of the United States. LBJ admired the fearless priest.

"I like you father," LBJ told him, "because it is in your nature to tell it exactly as it is."

The president had plenty of "yes men," but he especially admired the priest who spoke truth, even when it hurt.

"Why do you think some of the people around here don't like me?" The president once asked Father Schneider.

The priest didn't hesitate. "Some of the farmers and ranchers think you've gotten up in the world a little bit."

In 1967 Father Schneider got a call from Washington. At first the call irritated the priest, at that moment in the middle of a serious pinochle game.

When he finally took the call, a White House spokesman told the father that President Johnson would soon make a trip to Germany, and it would please the president if Father Schneider would accompany him.

In Germany Father Schneider met Charles de Gaulle of France, British PM Harold Wilson and other heads of state. President Johnson introduced him as "My pastor. The priest of the LBJ Ranch."

In 1973 Father Schneider gave the invocation at LBJ's funeral at the Johnson Family Cemetery in Stonewall.

Father Schneider returned to Germany in 1977. He spent the rest of his remarkable life at a convent where 2 of his blood sisters served as nuns.