Jurgens was assigned as assistant pastor at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Cleveland at the end of 1954. Jurgens left Cleveland in 1956 and began studying sacred music at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music and eccesiastical history at Gregorian University, both in Rome, Italy. He studied Gregorian chant at the Pontifical Institute, and earned a doctorate in ecclesiastical history from Gregorian. Jurgens returned to Cleveland in April 1959, and was named assistant pastor at Blessed Sacrament Church on Fulton Road. Less than two months later, he was assigned to the faculty of St. Mary's Seminary where he was professor of patrology. He was given an additional assignment teaching at Borromeo Seminary in Wickliffe in 1961. He was appointed instructor of chant at both seminaries in 1965. Jurgens was appointed Diocesan Director of Sacred Music in April 1961 after Rev. John H. Archibald of Holy Family Church in Stow, Ohio, resigned due to the press of duties in his parish. He served as director until 1968. Jurgens was also appointed to the Diocesan Liturgical Commission in August 1962, and was named the first chairman of the Diocesan Commission on Sacred Music in May 1964. Bishop Clarence Issenmann made Jurgens his secretary in 1974. In 1977, Bishop James Hickey appointed Jurgens Diocesean Research Historian, and tasked him with writing a detailed history of the diocese. The first volume in this work, A History of the Diocese of Cleveland: The Prehistory of the Diocese to Its Establishment in 1847, was published in 1980. Jurgens had written a draft of a second volume by 1982, but it was never finished. Jurgens fell ill with cancer in December 1981, and died from complications of cancer and diabetes at Holy Family Cancer Center in Parma, Ohio, on September 1, 1982. Jurgens was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Brook Park, Ohio.
Works
Theological and historical texts
Jurgens translated a number of theological and musical works during his lifetime, and wrote books about early church theologians as well as the liturgy. Among these are:
The three-volume Faith of the Early Fathers is now considered a standard patrological work. Catholic writer Karl Keating says it ranks with Joseph Tixeront's History of Dogmas and Johannes QuastenPatrology as a fundamental collection of patrological works, the "premier work of its kind" and "prime reading for the apologist". Jurgens and Tixeront cover the same years, more so than Quasten. Jurgens' work is more inclusive and contains works from a greater variety of authors. Reviewing The Faith of the Early Fathers, scholar Herbert T. Mayer applauded the work's inclusiveness, the inclusion of canons and decrees, the length of excerpts, Jurgens' doctrinal analysis, and the index. He called it "a good history of the Christian church" suitable for seminaries.
Musical works
Jurgens was considered a composer and musician of some skill. He composed a number of musical works and published collections of existing works. These include:
