Mission to Mexico

by Fr. Denis Meade

to Mexico

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 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 Benedictines would purchase the school and have a permanent presence there. Additionally, they were promised a gift of 300,000 pesos towards the purchase price. That sum is roughly equivalent in purchasing power of 2016 to $915,000. The evening 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

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 Fr. Lambert (above at right) had the opportunity to visit Henry Etchegarray (at left with his mother) in Mexico City, leading to the Abbey’s opportunity to lead the Colegio Tepeyac.

Marked with the c sign of Faithf

in the 1920s and 1930s. Soon the sisters’ division for girls spun off to become Colegio Guadalupe for girls and the sisters made their permanent foundation of Monasterio San Benito.

The abbey contingent grew to four monks when Fathers Lambert Dehner and Alfred Koestner joined the staff. Fr. Clarus Graves of St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville Minn. joined the group as well as a Mexican diocesan priest, Fr. Andrés Saldaña, who was their good friend and co-worker during the Abbey monks’ time at Colegio Tepeyac. Although new to the language and the culture, they were readily accepted by the families of their students. Each year the enrollment grew. Because of his skills as a football coach, Fr. Lambert Dehner was recruited by a local university, the Politécnico, to be their coach of North American football (shown above.) In his first season he turned around their record and they became national champions. “El Padre Lamberto” became a nationally known hero. He stayed on after the other monks returned to Atchison for seven more years. In his final season of 1953 their games were attracting more than 70,000 spectators.

Although the monks were successful at their task, economically things began to take a downward turn after about a year and a half. The originally promised donation of 300,000 pesos was cancelled and other financial considerations not in their interests emerged. As a result, on June 5, 1946 the Abbey chapter voted not to purchase Colegio Tepeyac at the sum of $146,000, roughly equivalent to $2,136,000 in 2016. Six months later, in December 1946, St. John’s Abbey purchased the school and made a monastic foundation. Both the school and the monastic foundation flourished. Abadia del Tepeyac is now a completely Mexican community and the school, renamed Centro Escolar del Lago, ranks in the highest tier of private schools within the greater Mexico City area.

Although their final year at Tepeyac was fraught with disappointments, Fr. Anthony continued to be his positive self. He closed his final letter home to Abbot Cuthbert writing, “it has been a great year!”

The Abbey’s presence in Mexico ended in 1953 with the definitive return of the last monk of our community stationed there. Practically all of Fr. Bertrand Easterday’s priestly life was spent at Maur Hill from 1929 to 1945. He was an instructor of mathematics and history. In his later years there he was eminently successful as a football coach and his teams had two undefeated seasons. In 1945 he was selected to be part of the team that administered Colegio Tepeyac for a short time in the 1940s.

At a banquet the night before he left for his new post, Fr. Bertrand offered the following advice to his players. His words are engraved on a plaque inside the lobby of the gym at Maur Hill: “I love you all as I have loved every boy who has passed through the doors of Maur Hill. Play the game as a Catholic gentleman would play it. It is not winning the game but how you play the game that counts. It is no disgrace to lose a ball game, but it is a disgrace not to live and play a clean and pure life.”

He died suddenly 30 days after his arrival in Mexico City. The students mourned the loss of Fr. Bertrand in the 1945 school yearbook: “We dedicate this Maurite to the Late Fr. Bertrand Easterday, OSB, who spent his life spreading love and affection among the students these past 17 years.”

He was loved and is sorely missed. Leo Easterday was born in Salina, Kan., and came to St. Benedict’s in 1917. He entered the novitiate of the Abbey in 1923 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1928. He spent many of his years teaching and coaching at Maur Hill. He was a successful mentor, coach, and teacher, and was highly respected for his humor and friendliness.

father bertrand easterday 1899-1945