mission b y F r. D e n i s M e a d e It all began in the summer of 1942 when Fr. Alcuin Heibel, OSB, of Mount Angel Abbey, Ore. appeared upon the scene. He had a vision of improving the lot of the rural Mexican population by simultaneously promoting modern farming knowledge and general education plus evangelizing them by establishing a Benedictine monastery. Since his own abbey was involved in making a foundation in Canada, it could not take on another foundation. Hence Fr. Alcuin turned to other abbeys to help him. In May 1942, he explained his plan to our Abbot Martin Veth who answered, “Your plan is wonderful—ideal! I hope it will work and that I can have a share in the enterprise.” Newly ordained Fr. Lambert Dehner was assigned to assist Fr. Alcuin at his site, the small town of Sahuayo in the state of Michoacán. In spite of good will by the locals, this project was short-lived. Abbot Martin had resigned by the time that the team left for Mexico. Fr. Lambert recalled that the then prior, Fr. Gerard Heinz, said to him, “Abbot Martin cooked the soup because he knew he wouldn’t have to eat it.” The whole enterprise took a new turn when Fr. Lambert went to Mexico City to have some dental work done. While there he was the guest of the Etchegarray family, friends of the community whose three sons had studied at Maur Hill. There he met a friend of theirs, Emilio Lanzagorta, an international entrepreneur, who
During Abbot Cuthbert’s visit to Mexico he and KCK priests and monks toured the Teotihuacan Pyramids outside of Mexico City. Until recently clerics and religious were legally forbidden from dressing in their religious garments. From left: Fr. John Quinlan, Fr. Xavier Betzen, Abbot Cuthbert McDonald, Fr. Anthony Reilman, Fr. Lambert Dehner, Fr. Andres Saldana, Fr. William Dolan. Picture taken August 1945 10
Kansas Monks
to Mexico treasured the memories of his time as a student in the high school of St. Bernard Abbey, Cullman, Ala. He gathered a group of his friends and they proposed to Fr. Lambert that St. Benedict’s Abbey take on the administration of a school they had purchased for a trial period of three years. If it proved mutually satisfactory, the BeneFr. Lambert (above dictines would purchase the school and have a at right) had the permanent presence opportunity to visit there. Additionally, they Henry Etchegarray (at were promised a gift of left with his mother) in 300,000 pesos towards the purchase price. That sum Mexico City, leading to is roughly equivalent in the Abbey’s opportunity purchasing power of 2016 to lead the Colegio to $915,000. The evening Tepeyac. before Fr. Lambert left for Atchison to deliver the proposal, there was a meeting with the group at which “they loaded me with nice things to say.” The Abbey chapter agreed to enter the experimental period and eventually sent four priests to administer the school. The leader of the group, Fr. Anthony Reilman, principal of Maur Hill Prep School, was the first to arrive in Mexico City, March 20, 1944. Fr. Anthony was a “down home, howdy neighbor” personality and was prone to see the better side of things. Of his train trip to Mexico City, which arrived 12 hours late, he wrote, “Enjoyed the train ride all the way. It was grand.” Soon after, on May 4, Fr. Xavier Betzen arrived, accompanied by Sisters Mildred Knoebber, Anthony Payne and Chelidonia Ronnebaum of Mount St. Scholastica Monastery in Atchison. The sisters were to assume the teaching of the girls who were attending the school which was named Colegio Tepeyac. The school originally had been the elementary division of The American School, a bilingual school of high standards. When the Benedictines arrived, it had 160 pupils. By the end of their second year of operation the enrollment stood at 970 and rising. Two reasons accounted for the popularity; it was a Catholic school which taught religion and there was ample use of English in instruction. The Mexican Republic had just recently emerged from the bloody persecution of the Catholic Church that was carried on
