Kansas Monks Summer 2008

Summer 2008

A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF ST. BENEDICT’S ABBEY

Kansas Monks

Summer 2008 VOLUME 3 No. 2

‘We are pilgrims on a journey, hundred fifty years of joy’ -Pilgrim Song

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Table of Contents 4

Blessed Journey

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Father Gilbert goes peacefully

11

How you give

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Inferno can’t burn true church

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Banner students

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A Place of Springs

Images from the Sesquicentennial Pilgrimage Oldest monk in Abbey history dies at 101

Photo by Dan Madden

*from the editor*

Abbey fundraising explained Parish loses building but not identity

Benedictine College students help monks conclude celebration

The St. Benedict’s Abbey Buick Century after an encounter with “the soup” of Doniphan’s Monument Road.

Into the Wild

Search for monument a lesson in humility

By Dan Madden

Monks celebrate new beginning in old Admittedly, I set out for the Doniphan old town of Doniphan unsure

of where it was and even less sure of where I would find the

Artist’s celebration of women aviators on monument. But that hardly

display in Abbey gallery seemed a problem. In the long history of men who fail to ask 20 Love me true directions, finding a monu Family cherishes moments with daughter, ment in a little burgh a few

sister miles from Atchison didn’t

* Winner of the 2008 National Right to Life Award seem so difficult to me.

at the Catholic Media Convention, 2003 Benedictine The monks of the Abbey

College Alumna Kara Hansen. were planning to celebrate Mass the following Saturday Cover photo: Brother Joseph Ryan (left) and Abbot at the site of the monument, Barnabas Senecal sing vespers at St. Michael’s Ab- which marked the spot where, bey in Metten, Germany, during the Sesquicentennial in 1857, Fathers Peter Henry Lemke, Augustine Wirth and Pilgrimage.

Photo by Rich Dickason Casimir Seitz first established monastic life in Kansas. It would be a quiet, intimate ending to the year-long sesquicentennial celebration of Publisher: Abbot Barnabas Senecal, O.S.B., bsenecal@kansasmonks.org St. Benedict’s Abbey. I wantEditor: ed to know where the spot Dan Madden, dmadden@kansasmonks.org was in advance so I wouldn’t Graphic Design: get lost on Saturday and so I Sophia Harrison, sharrison@kansasmonks.org could give accurate directions Contributing Writers: to a newspaper reporter who Abbot Barnabas Senecal, Prior James Albers, Brother John Peto, Brother had agreed to cover the event.

Gregory Dulmes, Abbot Owen Purcell, Father Michael Santa, Kara Hansen The founding trio of monks Photography: Abbot Barnabas Senecal, Prior James Albers, Father Donald Redmond, Br. had trudged through wilder Jeremy Heppler, Br. Joseph Ryan, Rich Dickason, John Henningson, Burt terrain, but perhaps if they Johnson, Angela Boqin, Dan Madden, Sophia Harrison had been lulled into overconKansas Monks magazine is published quarterly by the Office of Development, fidence by a Buick they might 1020 N. 2nd Street, Atchison, KS 66002. For a free subscription: 913.360.7897, have bumbled haplessly into or development@kansasmonks.org. trouble like I did. Or perhaps

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Give her wings to fly

I simply am no Lemke, Wirth or Seitz.

I had some general idea where I was going as I left the dry, clean comfort of St. Benedict’s Abbey. I drove down River Road, bridged Independence Creek, then crossed the levee. I turned left at a gravel road and drove straight on to historic Doniphan.

I soaked up a sense of ghostly mystery. If not for the cruel randomness of nature, this place might have become “The Cincinnati of the West,” as its boosters once declared.

Instead the residents of this former roaring river town woke up one morning to find flood waters had retreated and the fickle Missouri River had moved several miles away.

I braked at the edge of what remained, a smattering of homes, an abandoned school house, a closed up Catholic Church and, somewhere, a monument.

This was going to be easy.

Crossing directly in front of me was the aptly named “Monument Road.”

I turned right for no apparent reason. The further I drove down the winding road, the deeper the ruts got. I saw a Continued on page 29

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Pilgrims celebrate Abbey’s heritage

Travelers grateful for stories shared, paths walked, days ended with good food The pilgrimage to Bavarian and Austrian monasteries was the first pilgrimage announced by the monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey. The typical statement by our pilgrims on the final day was, “You monks need to have a pilgrimage like this at least every other year.”

And after these folks returned to their homes, we heard from others, “If you would announce this same itinerary for next year, it would be filled in a short time.”

So, we ponder on that. We are most grateful that this trip went so well. We had anounced it in our issues of Kansas Monks, and the reservations began to pour in from Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arizona, California, Washington, Illinois, New York and North Carolina. We had other folks who wanted to go but Travel Tyme of St. Louis, who organized the trip, had to limit the group to forty-six. Twenty-five of the travelers were graduates of Atchison colleges, many from the classes of 1958 to 1964.

Many pilgrims took photographs along the way. These pictures quickly remind us of the monasteries and cathedrals where we celebrated daily Mass, the grand castles and palaces that speak of a royal heritage, the beautiful Bavarian countryside and the memorable Danube River, its banks lined with tiered vineyards.

More important than the photographs were the intangibles we felt and which we now treasure. We became a group who moved about easily with one another, sharing stories, listening to guides, choosing our own paths on afternoon walks, always glad to end the day with good food.

We watched as Miles accompanied his wife Marilyn at all times. We knew that Marilyn was blind, and the constant, graceful companionship of the two of them was much admired and created a sense of concern for one another that was precious. “Might we each be a Miles to one another on this pilgrimage and in the days ahead,” someone said.

One pilgrim commented that the Atchison folks on the pilgrimage “are like an extension of the monastery itself.”

A fine compliment. The same could be said of the entire group, truly.

We were so warmly welcomed in each of the Benedictine monasteries we visited. They were Ottobeuron (founded in 765), Ettal (founded in 1330), Saint Peter’s in Salzburg (founded in 696), St. Michael’s in Metten (founded in 776), Melk in Austria (founded in 1089), and Gottweig in Austria, “the Monte Cassino of Austria,” (founded in 1094).

Marc Rottinghaus and I visited the monastery of St. Boniface in Munich one eve-

From the Abbot

ning to present to the community a copy of A Warrior in God’s Service, the memoirs of Father Henry Lemke, translated from the German by Marc and published in 2008 by St. Benedict’s Abbey. The memoirs were originally published in German in 1972 by a monk of St. Boniface Abbey.

Similiarly, we presented Abbot Wolfgang Hagl of St. Michael’s in Metten a copy of the Lemke book. It had been Henry Lemke, as a diocesan priest, who encouraged the monks of Metten to go to the United States in 1846 to establish Benedictine houses to train German-speaking priests for parochial work there. We also gave him a St. Benedict’s Abbey jacket.

Members of our group wrote verses to the Pilgrim Song and led the singing of this song to Abbot Wolfgang and the monks of Metten: We are pilgrims on a journey, hundred fifty years of joy.

Meeting friends both new and

old, thanking God for all our days.

Thank you, Arthur, for your stories, thank you all as we give glory. Thank you, John, the grand arranger, thanks to God who made us all.

Metten monks came to the States, founding monasteries new, We were third among the many, prayer and work and service done.

Let us follow dear St. Benedict, give our thanks to Kansas monks, Barnabas and James and Joseph, with us through these several days.

We are pilgrims on a journey, hundred fifty years of joy.

May the memory of this sharing, warm our hearts and make us one.

Thank you, Abbot Wolfgang Hagl, hosting us so hospitably, Alleluia, Alleluia, sing to God our gratitude.

(Note: Arthur Pahl was our German guide; John Lang was the Travel Tyme agent, organizer of the trip.)

Abbot Barnabas Senecal, OSB See photos of pilgrimage on the next page 3

Kansas Monks

Summer 2008

A Blessed

‘May the memory of this sharing warm

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Journey

our hearts and make us one’

Photographs from April Sesquicentennial Pilgrimage by: Abbot Barnabas Senecal, Prior James Albers, Br. Joseph Ryan, Rich Dickason, John Henningson, and Bert Johnson

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Abbey Notes

Brother Dominic Cason worked in late April and early May helping to fire a wood kiln at the University of Kansas. This firing combined the work of Benedictine and KU students. Others who helped with the firing: Professor Glenda Taylor, chair of the Art Department at Washburn; Professor David Vertacnik, head of the Ceramics Department at KU; Larry Peters, former director of the Alice Sabatini Gallery in Topeka; Scott Ledbetter, art instructor at Desoto High School and classmate of Brother Dominic at KU; and Tim Mispagel, a 1994 BC graduate now teaching at Desoto.

Sister Marie Louise of the Mount community has done for us!

Abbot Barnabas Senecal participated May 5 in the blessing of the chapel and living areas of Santa Marta, the new retirement residence in Olathe.

Father Hugh Keefer is steadily recovering from his broken kneecap. He is doing his work in the Abbey business office and participating in regular community life.

Father Meinrad Miller attended the Kansas State Knights of Columbus convention May 2-5, in Hays, Kan.

Nicholas (Brother Philip) Padley decided to end his novitiate with us, returning to his home April 21.

Abbot Owen Purcell is working with Sister Marie Louise Krenner, O.S.B., as she is preparing to retire as our archivist on June 30. Abbot Owen will take over this work for our community. We deeply appreciate the work

Wallison Olivera Silva (novice in Brazil) discontinued his novitiate in late April.

Congratulations to Father Daniel McCarthy who has completed and turned in his doctoral thesis and will defend it publicly at the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy, Sant’Anselmo, Rome, on June 23. Abbot Owen Purcell will join him to represent the Abbey community. Father Daniel has developed a theology of presiding in the liturgical assembly, derived from his historical and textual study of the use of the presidential chair in the Roman Rite since the seventh century.

Father Bruce Swift attended the episcopal ordination of the Most Reverend James Vann Johnston, Jr., D.D.,

J.C.L., on the Solemnity of the Annunciation, March 31.

Bishop Johnston is the sixth bishop of the Diocese of Springfield–Cape Girardeau.

On April 2, Father William Thompson celebrated his 90th birthday.

The Abbey Facilities Committee has met twice in recent weeks with Treanor Architects to study possibilities for repair of the Abbey roof and replacement of the Abbey windows. Funds for these two projects are the focus of the present capital campaign of St. Benedict’s Abbey.

Sandy Fitzmaurice, a 33-year veteran employee of Benedictine College, began work for St. Benedict’s Abbey in the Development Office, April 1. We welcome Sandy as she joins Dan Madden, Vickie Mills and Sophia Harrison in this important public relations work. Father Ignatius Smith and Father Meinrad Miller also work part-time in this office.

Monks attended a concert of French Masterpieces in the Abbey Church, Sunday, April 6 at 3 pm. The Cantique de Jean Racine by Faure and Requiem by Durufle were performed by the combined

chorales of Benedictine College and the University of St. Mary, Leavenworth, supported by the Benedictine College–Atchison Community Orchestra.

Jim Stalder retired as the custodian of the Abbey, on April 30. He was in our employee for sixteen years. He joined the monks for the noon meal on his retirement day, and was presented with a gift certificate. Jim Luce, an employee of Chartwell in our Abbey kitchen for 15 years, has taken the custodial job for the Abbey.

St. Benedict’s Abbey will enter into a contract with Praesidium, Inc., of Arlington Tex., seeking accreditation as an institute which protects minors. An on-site visit is scheduled for Aug. 11-13.

Prior James Albers, Father Marion Charboneau, Brother Dominic Cason and Brother Leven Harton were on the same team in the May 2 Bob Goalby Maur Hill Mount Academy Golf Open at Sunflower Hills. They were awarded recognition for the team having the highest score.

Approximately 180 golfers gathered for this 27th annual Continued on page 28

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‘Amen, Holy Father, Amen!’

Seminarians share encounter with Pope Benedict XVI Editor’s Note: Brothers Gregory Dulmes and Jeremy Heppler, monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey in seminary studies at St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Penn., attended a Papal rally April 19 during Pope Benedict XVI’s U.S. visit earlier this year. Brother Gregory wrote the following account of the experience.

By Br. Gregory Dulmes

O

Photo by Br. Jeremy Heppler

n Thursday, April 18, more than fifty-four seminarians and fellow travelers boarded a charter bus for New York to attend a rally with Pope Benedict XVI. On the way, in addition to watching a movie, enjoying some sack lunches, and praying the Liturgy of the Hours, we prayed an “international rosary.” For each decade of the rosary, we prayed the first half of each prayer in a different language, and responded in English. We prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries in Portuguese, Spanish, English, Latin, and Vietnamese. I was privileged to lead the fourth mystery, the Carrying of the Cross–in English, of course. But the highlight was Mr. Thang Pham, a Vietnamese immigrant studying for the Archdiocese of Atlanta: he didn’t just pray the last mystery in Vietnamese, he chanted it. The beauty of the melody, the gentleness of his voice, and the exotic nature of the language moved me.

After an overnight stay in Nanuet, N.Y., we arrived the next morning at St. Joseph Seminary, which was expecting some 25,000 people for the rally.

When we arrived at the

seminary, we entered through the “Seminarian and Talent” entrance. I preferred to think that both terms applied to me.

The level of security surprised me—lower than I expected.

Months earlier we had all submitted exact information on a government-issued identification card. The ticket we later received had a number on it.

We were told that this ticket number would be checked against a list at the gate. But no such checking took place.

We did, however, have to pass through a metal detector.

Once inside, each of us was given an orange bag containing among other items a program, holy cards, vocational materials, either a white or a gold towel, and meal tickets.

When we arrived at the rally site we realized how huge the event was going to be.

Already thousands of people were already milling around or sitting on blankets, watching the afternoon entertainment.

Seminarians received red tickets, which granted us access to what I called the “seminarian mosh pit.” (a mosh pit is the packed and frenzied mass of humanity before the stage at a hardrock concert) Hundreds of seminarians crammed together shoulder to shoulder. As you can imagine, with our black habits and cassocks on and little airflow, that mass of bodies heated up.

I was glad I had two bottles of water to get me through.

In fact, the crew periodically tossed bottles of water to the dehydrated seminarians, many of whom had been there for four or five hours. Happily, I bumped into Benedictine Brother Macario Martinez of

Conception Abbey in Missouri. He had traveled over 20 hours to be there, and like me was sweating it out under his habit.

A NYPD helicopter had been circling the area all day.

At around 4:15 p.m. I knew the Pope was on his way, because suddenly about five more helicopters appeared in the sky. Another giveaway was the gradual appearance of numerous bishops around the stage area. I saw my own bishop, Archbishop Joseph Naumann.

At around 4:30, the Pope arrived. The two big screens on the stage abruptly cut to a live feed at the seminary entrance. A motorcade pulled up, and out of the last limousine stepped our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. Even

though he may not have heard us, 25,000 voices shouted out in excitement. First, though, the Pope entered the seminary chapel, where he blessed disabled children, sat and listened to a choir performance, received gifts from the children and then gave a short address. After about a half hour, he left the chapel, every hand trying to touch him as he left.

The big screens lost track of him for several minutes.

Then an excited roar erupted from the back of the crowd.

We craned our necks to see what was going on. Then we saw it: along the edge of the crowd, the Popemobile slowly trundled its way to the stage!

A few minutes later, Pope Benedict walked out on the Continued on page 31 7

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Photo by Sophia Harrison

Father Gilbert–altar boy to first abbot–dies at 101

Father Gilbert Wolters, O.S.B., Ph.D., the oldest monk in St. Benedict’s Abbey history, died early Sunday morning, June 1, at the age of 101.

Father Gilbert, whose death came just over a month after the Abbey had concluded its 150th anniversary celebration, was a living bridge between the community’s first 50 years and its most recent. He was the last monk to have known all eight abbots; indeed, he served Mass for the Abbey’s first abbot, Innocent Wolf.

On the Thursday before he died, the eve of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, Father Gilbert was anointed by Abbot Barnabas Senecal, OSB. His brother monks kept prayerful watch with him around the clock from the time of his anointing. This July 2 would have been the 80th anniversary of his reception of the habit of a Benedictine monk. He had been a priest for 74 years.

A native of Atchison, he lived his entire life here. A selfproclaimed “river rat” who as a child swam in the Missouri 8

River, Father Gilbert never lost his love for the water and was still swimming laps three times a week at the Atchison YMCA after his 100th birthday.

He was born April 2, 1907, the son of the late Theodore and Nellie (Vandeloo) Wolters. After graduating from St. Benedict’s High School in 1926, he began studies at St. Benedict’s College. Following his sophomore year of college, he completed his novitiate. He was the last living monk of St. Benedict’s to do so at St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Penn.

Father Gilbert made his first profession of monastic vows July 2, 1929. He graduated from St. Benedict’s College in 1931 and then attended the St. Benedict’s Abbey School of Theology in Atchison. He was ordained a priest May 26, 1934.

Father Gilbert received a doctorate in sociology from the Catholic University of America in 1938 writing a dissertation on A SocioEconomic Analysis of Four

Rural Parishes in Nemaha County Kansas. He also did studies in sociology at Harvard University, and St. Xavier’s, Antogonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. His studies at Catholic University prepared him as a marriage counselor, work which he would do for nine summers in the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit.

At St. Benedict’s College, and later Benedictine College, Father Gilbert served as a residential hall director and was Chairman of the Sociology Department for 34 years (1938-1972).

During that same time, he also served as Athletic Director of the college (1944-1945), and for six years as the Academic Dean during the post World War II years (1945-1951).

In the early 1970s, Father Gilbert was Assistant Dean of the College, and directed the freshman program. In addition he helped initiate studies in gerontology in the Sociology Department.

Following retirement from the college in 1977, Father Gilbert served as chaplain of the Benedictine Sisters in Glendora, Calif. He later served in parish ministry at St. Patrick parish, Atchison County; St. Joseph, Wathena; and SS. Peter and Paul, Falls City, Neb. He is survived by the monastic community of St. Benedict’s Abbey, and many cousins, nieces and nephews.

Memorial contributions are suggested to: St. Benedict’s Abbey 1020 North 2nd Street Atchison, KS 66002

Summer 2008

Photo by Dan Madden

Kansas Monks

Father Gilbert, front, apppeared in this photograph for a vocation advertisement last year with Brother Leven Harton (left) and Abbot Barnabas Senecal.

Reminiscing on a historic monk

Man of Atchison, man of faith, man of influence Editor’s Note: The following is the homily delivered by Abbot Barnabas Senecal at the Mass of Christian Burial for Father Gilbert Wolters on June 4.

One tendency in life is to think of this day or tomorrow as though it were not passing, as though things now are as they always will be. And for most folks in Atchison, that thought of today as never changing always had Father Gilbert as part of the picture.

He was kind of eternal, always with us, reaching back into our history as well as always being a part of tomorrow.

Father Gilbert lived a long life. He didn’t like getting older. He didn’t like having his car keys taken away from him...two years ago! He didn’t like that he could no longer swim every day. But one doesn’t define him by what he didn’t like.

He liked people. He liked teaching. He liked being a

monk and a priest. He liked to advise couples on how to solve problems in their marriages. He liked writing a bit about his life, and he kept notebooks filled with daily notations. These he converted into a book called Reminiscences.

He is so much a part of Atchison. He grew up in a house built in 1860 by the tracks and the river. He knew a simple life in a large family.

His grandfather lived with the family.

He refers to St. Benedict’s Abbey and St. Benedict’s College as the “center of my life.” He lived to be the oldest member of our monastic community, ever. He went to Catholic University to earn a doctorate in sociology and then taught that subject for 37 years.

He lived and taught as a man of family. He was so comfortable in life, as a monk, as a teacher, as a guide to oth-

ers, as a man content with reality around him. He grew up seeing his mother nurse the youngest of his family.

He grew up with the sound of trains running close to his home. He grew up swimming in the Missouri River.

He could be strong willed, and could be a man of influence. Yet, he was also known as a man who appreciated goodness, whether that was something done for him personally or something done for another.

He was a man of faith.

Even his doctoral studies involved taking a detailed look at the lives of German immigrant families in four Nemaha County parishes. He believed in a loving Father who cared deeply for his children. He preached of a Son of the Father who took human flesh, lived a family life, taught what he knew to be the truth, and suffered death at the hands of those who rejected him.

He did not let sociology become the sole guide of Christian living. He believed in a teaching and loving church in which the Spirit enlivened the minds and hearts of good willed people and moved them forward in parish and monastic family life. Doing studies and developing theories about human communities was a legitimate exercise, but it did not displace the church. He taught the encyclicals of the Catholic church and believed they were very valuable in shaping the human community, for example.

There are many photographs of Father Gilbert.

Many picture him as a man of happiness, a man of character, someone you would like to engage in conversation. The cover of the Summer 2007 issue of Kansas Monks, showed the 100-year old in a blue sweater. “One Hundred Years and Still Afloat.” Our Development Office staff has a habit of judging even very good photos for future cover stories as “It’s still not a Father Gilbert.” That picture captured the face of a man who had been swimming since his youth, who had enjoyed each of his many years, and who looked confidently into his future. And there is a look of playfulness, a look of a man who had just told the Benedictine College President how he could improve the college swimming pool.

Father Gilbert had ideas on how people could improve their lives and their surroundings. Dr. Stefan Sarre, a cardiologist in El Paso, Tex., wrote to Father Gilbert.

“I was very happy to see the story in Kansas Monks, because now I can express long overdue thanks to you.

In 1950 I arrived at St. BeneContinued on page 28 9

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Journey Forward Campaign Naming Opportunities The following features of Phase I of the Living Journey capital campaign are available as naming opportunities for benefactors. The suggested gift is provided with a description of the project. Listed in italic print after some naming opportunities are the names of donors who have already contributed the amount and requested that particular opportunity.

Abbey Church Elevator $100,000 Part of the Abbey Church narthex expansion, this elevator provides full and easy access to the church’s main level and crypt.

Abbey Church Entrance Ramp $75,000 The stone ramp with iron rails fulfills Benedictine hospitality by providing access to all who wish to enter the Abbey’s house of prayer.

(Retirement Research Foundation in memory of William J. Gentle) Crypt Art Gallery $150,000 The crypt level of the tower altar area in the Abbey Church is a secure art exhibit for Abbey artwork and the work of visiting artists.

Art Gallery Endowment $250,000 The monks hope to establish a perpetual art gallery endowment to provide for the purchase of religious artwork and funding for visiting exhibits.

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Abbey Narthex Gathering Space $250,000 The main component of the Hospitality Project, this major addition to the Abbey Church provides a more spacious gathering area and more accessible restrooms in the narthex of the Abbey Church.

(Dan Brosnahan in memory of Bishop Matthias Schmidt) Abbey Crypt Gathering Space $150,000 Also part of the Abbey Church addition, this area provides more gathering space and additional accessible restrooms on the Abbey Church’s crypt level, just below the Narthex addition.

Abbey Church Interior Side-Mounted Lift $50,000 This self-operated lift will give complete access to people wishing to enter the sanctuary and the monastic choir sections of the Abbey Church, which were previously accessed only by a series of steps.

(Retirement Research Foundation in memory of William J. Gentle) Abbey Church Interior Two-Step Ramps $15,000 These ramps allow wheelchair passage from the choir section to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and to the sacristy.

Abbey Dedication Crosses (12) $1000 each Twelve wall-mounted crosses/candle holders in nave of the Abbey Church will com-

memorate the dedication of the church upon the 150th anniversary of St. Benedict’s Abbey.

(Robert Sharp in honor of Abbot Brendan Downey and Father James Downey; Patrick Dyer; Donald F. Aaron Sr. in honor of Father Leo Aaron; Gina Dyer Osborn; Jim King in honor of Sister Helen Buening, Father Anselm Llewellyn and Father Terence Sullivan; John and Mary House in honor of Father Gilbert Wolters; Rita Coupe in honor of The Coupe-Sullivan Family; Joseph Geist in honor of Fr. Columban Clinch; James and Pat Asher, James and Maureen Asher, John and Jeannie Asher, Martin and Aggie Asher, Mary Asher, Robert Asher, Dave and Elizabeth Gruenbacher in honor of the Asher family; Lucy Walker in honor of Leo and Anna Schmidt; Vincent and Eleanor Kohake, Seneca, Kan; Stephen and Amy Minnis Benedictine College classes of 1982 and 1984) Guest House Lounges (3) $20,000 each These three rooms are used daily by monks to welcome guests and provide spiritual direction to retreatants, visitors, and Benedictine College students.

(Don and Julie Strathman in memory of their son Keith Strathman; Norman and Shirley Youngberg) Guest House porter apartment $50,000 This is home to a monk who lives near the entrance to the guest house in order to provide a ready welcome to guests. It has been expanded, carpeted and painted.

Gift Shop $25, 000 A gift shop has been built in the guest house reception area to provide religious items with an emphasis on Benedictine books and gifts.

Guest House Ramp and Accessible Entrance $50,000 A stone ramp with iron rails and a larger, more accessible entryway welcomes guests who seek information or accommodation from the monks.

(Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica) Guest House Lobby and information center $100,000 An expanded lobby, with switchboard and reception area, better serves Abbey and Benedictine College guests.

South Guest House Entrance $25,000 A new, wider doorway and large window offers a view of the Missouri River valley beyond the Abbey overlook.

Monastery Bell system $5,000 A new electronic system of bells calls monks to the guest house to meet visitors. The melodic bells are less disruptive to the cloister than a voice intercom system.

Naming Opportunities for Vestments & Other Articles for Worship in our 150th Anniversary Year Six Brass Candlesticks for Use at Altar $7,500 (Designed by the late Dennis McCarthy) Skip McCarthy in Memory of Dennis McCarthy Continued on page 27

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With gratitude and careful stewardship An explanation of fund raising at St. Benedict’s Abbey Dear Friends,

Photo by Dan Madden

The monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey pray daily in gratitude for the friends and benefactors who have helped kindle the fire of service that has burned at St. Benedict’s Abbey for the past 150 years.

We at St. Benedict’s Abbey have always asked you, our friends, for both prayerful and financial support to help us on our way as we continue to live out our monastic life of prayer, and also to serve as pastors, educators, chaplains, and spiritual

directors. However, recently we have extended our request further as we have reached out for additional support for our capital campaign. As we enter the final stretch of this campaign I want to share with you exactly how we operate our fund-raising efforts. We have been and will be contacting many of you in person, by telephone or by mail about our capital campaign, “The Journey Forward.” St.

Benedict’s Abbey, however, like any household, still must maintain its day-to-day operations. We must feed our family members, care for our elderly, educate our young, and pay our bills. Therefore, our regular fund-raising efforts continue for what we call our Annual Fund.

Capital Campaign We have always been a community that relied on good financial planning to handle the approximate $250,000 in maintenance, construction and renovation needed for our facilities each year. But as we reached our 150th anniversary, we recognized that as a community that prided itself on Benedictine hospitality we could no longer ignore the fact that our Church—our spiritual center—was not accessible to all people, not even to all of our monks. That needed to be rectified. The cost: approximately $2 million.

We also had to acknowledge that our historic monastery was shielded from the elements by a deteriorating roof and windows that were not only in bad shape, but were not energy efficient.

Thus, our combined Benedictine values of hospitality and good stewardship of resources prompted us to enter into our community’s second capital campaign in its history. Thanks to many generous people, we have raised $2.5 million toward our $4 million goal. We need to raise a little over $1.5 million to replace

our roof and windows. There is a special pledge card that is used to designate gifts to the capital campaign.

needs of the monks. These two ongoing appeals are entirely separate and distinct from the capital campaign.

Annual Fund

Please allow me to stress that the capital campaign and the annual fund are of equal importance and that every gift to St. Benedict’s Abbey is greatly appreciated. All of you, our friends and benefactors, are in the daily prayers of our community.

St. Benedict’s Abbey mails out two appeal letters a year.

A Lenten Appeal goes out on Ash Wednesday. It is a spiritual message from the Abbot, but also an appeal for assistance. The second appeal, the Abbot’s Appeal, is sent out in late fall, closer to Christ- Sincerely in St. Benedict, mas. It normally focuses on a specific need of the Abbey.

Both of these appeals include Abbot Barnabas Senecal, O.S.B. a pledge card which invites you, the donor, to designate your gift for the general operating needs of the Abbey or for a restricted purpose, such as education or retirement 11

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True meaning of ‘church’ rises from ashes of St. Ann fire Faith, prayer, community survive inferno’s sorrowful aftermath

By Dan Madden

A

Photo by Dan Madden

All that remained from the fire were four walls and the landmark bell tower, which was unable to be saved.

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Submitted photo

s dawn extinguished night on Monday, April 21, Effingham, Kan., was a parched community.

In the dark hours of morning the small Kansas town’s entire water supply had been futilely emptied into the roaring flames engulfing St. Ann Catholic Church. Tears were likewise in short supply as hundreds of people gathered in the heat of the burning 111-year-old landmark.

There were simply none left to shed.

Gene Hegarty, a St. Ann parishioner of 75 years, arrived at the church not long after the firefighters and watched its incineration as emotions threatened to overwhelm him.

“At a time like that you remember the funerals, the weddings, my own first Communion, the baptisms of my children, so many memories,” he said. “It felt like it was all going away. I know it’s only a building, but it was like I

Investigators are still unsure of the cause of the fire that destroyed St. Ann Church.

was losing a member of the family. I cried; my wife cried; there were hundreds of people crowded around and there were many tears shed.”

Abbot Barnabas Senecal, and Prior James Albers, of St. Benedict’s Abbey, and their fellow monk, Father Gerard Senecal, pastor of St. Benedict’s and Sacred Heart parishes in Atchison, arrived to support Benedictine Father Ben Tremmel and his St. Ann parishioners. As did parishioners from St. Louis parish in Good Intent and St. Joseph parish in Atchison.

Prior James, who arrived at the scene of the fire at 5 a.m., returned later that evening for a parish prayer service that was attended by more than 400 people.

St. Ann parishioners were also comforted by members of surrounding Protestant congregations who arrived

on the scene and later joined them for the prayer service.

Larry and Beverly Bouyer, he the pastor of Easton United Methodist Church and she of Nortonville and Cummings United Methodist Churches, arrived at 5:15 a.m. and Larry would participate in the prayer service. When Pastor Jeff Cochran of Effingham Union Church finished his duties as a firefighter, he also participated in the prayer service. Pastors and members of Lancaster, Camp Creek and Muscotah United Methodist Churches also attended the prayer service.

A bouquet of flowers arrived at the parish hall from an Episcopal congregation in Topeka that had lost its church to a fire three years before and had been offered the use of a Jewish synagogue in which to worship while it rebuilt.

“Our thoughts and prayers

are with you at this difficult time,” the card reads, “Your friends at St. David’s Church, Topeka, Kansas.”

“Whatever adjectives we have in front of our names around here we’re still family in Christ,” Pastor Cochran said.

Monday evening, in a packed parish hall, as the church still smoldered next door, Catholics and Protestants waited for Father Ben’s words of comfort.

“We just have to keep reminding one another that people are the church and that had not burned,” he said.

Without exception, Father Ben’s parishioners took his message to heart. They find comfort in the bonds of their parish community. They note the teamwork that pulls together their popular annual

Summer 2008 the son’s lifeless body, now indistinguishable and sootcovered. Candlesticks, Stations of the Cross, vestments, statues of St. Ann and her daughter, the Virgin: all cremated symbols.

Symbols hold great power in the Catholic faith. Even fire.

From the front porch of Joe and Mary Wessel’s home, the steeple of St. Ann Church looked unscathed. But they know better. A few nights before, it was silhouetted against a ball of fire. In the days since, Mary has given into the repeated urge to go by the church and gaze upon the destruction, not so much to feed her sadness, but rather to remind herself that it’s all real.

Joe and Mary were keepers of fire for their parish. It was Joe who climbed up a step ladder and made sure that

Photo by Dan Madden

parish picnic; they boast about their choir; commend the work of the ladies in the Altar Society. They know that their parish will survive and thrive.

But right now, as they look up at the steeple, charred and still towering over the town; as they gaze upon pale, scalded brick exposed to the elements, or look away from ash several feet deep, where worshippers used to sit in smoothly worn pews, the senses achingly connect to memory and it hurts something awful.

“We have older members of this parish whose dads helped build the Church,” Father Ben notes. “They were baptized in it, married in it, and they expected to be buried from it. It was their spiritual home.”

The aroma of old polished woodwork and a century of incense has been replaced by the stench of wet ash.

The great 15-foot crucifix in the church’s apse, the heavy, metal baptismal font, and, oh,

Kansas Monks

Father Ben, pastor of St. Ann and a monk of St. Benedict’s Abbey, points out the destruction of a recently renovated sacristy.

those glorious stained-glass windows, those most of all, leave a void. Gone. Pulverized, melted, black as sin in a holy place. In one corner of the church a grotesque slab of melted white plaster teeters, all that remains of what was an elegant Pieta that graced the back of the church, the mother’s grieving face and

Walt and Eileen Wohletz were planning to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary in St. Ann Church in August.

“We were going to have a Mass and a dinner with our family gathered around us,” Walt said. “That’s kind of changed now. But that’s not half as bad as the girl who was

Photo by Dan Madden

Joe and Mary Wessel were keepers of symbolic fire in their parish. Now they mourn what fire has taken away.

“The linens, the chalices, the vestments, these are all part of our faith,” Mary said.

“I’m a Eucharistic minister and when I used to open that tabernacle and distribute Communion I felt like a different person; it was a strong feeling.”

She said she’ll miss the tabernacle, which was square and topped by what looked like white marble.”

“It’s like a part of me is gone,” she said. “It hurts real deep.”

But as deep as the pain is, the roots of the parish are even deeper, Joe said. “Generations.”

He said it was remarkable how many people from other faiths showed up for the prayer service. That, he said, only boosted his already strong faith in the parish community.

“We’re real strong,” he said. “We’re one big family.”

the church’s sanctuary lamp was lit–a flame symbolic of the presence of Christ among the faithful. And Mary always made sure that a small candle was burning at the foot of the statue of the Virgin Mary.

Now the couple, married for 52 years, mourns the loss inflicted by a different kind of fire.

going to get married here on May 3rd.”

Walt has lived on the same farm north of Effingham his whole life. “I was baptized here, confirmed here, had my first communion here, went to school here, I was an altar boy here,” he said. “I served many weddings and many a funeral.

There’s a big sadness in my heart.”

Eileen is scurrying about in the parish hall. She is the parish music director and feels the loss of the church’s “lovely organ,” and all of the parish’s songbooks and sheet music. Fortunately, she says, she had kept her own personal copies of much of the music at her home, and is busy photocopying them so that the parish will have music for upcoming Masses.

“Books and books of music, all the books in the pews, lots of music I had purchased through the years—cabinets full of music,” she says. “All gone; I can’t believe it.”

Eileen said that first it will be the songbooks and the organ that will be missed, but tomorrow it will be something else.

“We don’t even realize our loss yet,” she said.

Walt agreed. “Little things Continued on page 30 13

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Sesquicentennial lesson: Through sacrifice faith will bear fruit Editors Note: St. Benedict’s Abbey hosted the last public celebration of the Sesquicentennial year April 20. The Mass featured a procession of Benedictine College student groups bearing banners and other symbols of their participation in campus life. Along with photographs from that day, included on the following pages is the homily delivered

by Prior James Albers, a 1994 Benedictine College graduate.

Left to right, Kate Buchanan, Desirae Jansen, and Rachel Ruhl of the Daughters of the King, were among the representatives of more than 20 student organizations who participated in the procession.

their hearts must have been troubled with the epic charge they had been given in establishing monastic life here in Kansas. Jesus tells us this morning, “You have faith in God; have faith also in me.”

And so they set out heroically to meet their charge.

Photos by Dan Madden

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.”

– Jesus’ opening words this morning from our gospel.

As we close out this year of celebration – the 150th of our foundation as a monastic community in Northeast Kansas, we come back to the source and summit of our faith: the Eucharist, where we began over 150 years ago on April 27, 1857.

When our band of monks – Fr. Henry Lemke, Fr. Augustine Wirth and Fr. Casimir Seitz – arrived in Doniphan, just a few miles north of here,

Elizabeth Lanciotti, a member of the choir, comprised of monks and students, looks on during Mass. A banner from the student Hunger Coalition is displayed along the far wall.

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Father Casimir, newly ordained, the first priest ordained in the territory of Kansas, constructed a simple altar out of four fence posts and two planks so that he could celebrate his first Mass; he set out to inaugurate his monastic, priestly life here in Kansas with his faith in Christ and the Eucharist.

Our readings this morning focus us directly and indirectly on this same faith in Christ and the priesthood. In the classical theology of the Church, affirmed again at Vatican II, we know that every baptized person is a priest; we are a holy nation, a people set apart. The ministerial priesthood received at ordination has its own individual character, but each of us by way of our baptism is a priest. So the question comes to us, who’s a priest, and in this common priesthood what are we called to do?

A priest is a mediator between God and human beings; one who offers sacrifices of praise to God and thereby bridges divinity and humanity.

Following that idea, a priest is just that, a bridge-builder, a pontifex. Pope Benedict, of course, is the pontifex maximus. His visit to our country this week, his celebration of the Mass today at Yankee Stadium is an outpouring of his responsibility as the ultimate bridge-builder in our Catholic faith. Rooted in the example of Christ and the Vicar of Christ, Pope Benedict, we who are baptized are bridgebuilders between divinity and humanity.

Taking a look at the Old Testament we have a rich background for understanding priesthood in this context.

Aaron was the most prominent and founding father of the long line of temple priests.

These priests would, on be-

Summer 2008 half of Israel, offer sacrifice to Yahweh as peace offerings, or thank offerings, or signs of atonement.

Though not a temple priest, but a rabbi, Jesus’ life was very much centered on the temple, he knew the life of the temple.

We hear in the gospels that he often went up to Jerusalem to participate in the rituals of the temple, and we hear too how he proclaimed divine judgment on the temple: “I will tear down this place, and in three days rebuild it.”Jesus, as we know, was referring to the temple of his own body.

So Jesus is saying that his own person, his very body would now be the place where God is properly praised, that he personally would be the new temple, he personally would be the new priesthood.

He interpreted his death on the cross precisely as a high priestly act; this ultimate temple sacrifice would reconcile divinity and humanity.

On the night before he died he took bread and he said, “This is my body, which will be given up for you.” Jesus, using temple language, sacrificial language, offers himself up in atonement for our sins; “My body will become a sacrifice.” And then, taking the cup of wine he said, “This

Kansas Monks is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven.” Jesus is saying, “In my own sacrifice, in my own dying, I will be the temple.”

In our readings today, then, at the very end of the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke says, “Even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.” Luke is recounting the many people turning toward Christ in the early Church, including the numerous temple priests.

In Jesus, these priests were acknowledging that they saw precisely the fulfillment of who they were. Overcoming their pride, they saw in him not their enemy, but one who brought their work of sacrifice to fulfillment. Priests of the Church even to this day participate in that wonderful relationship.

In a similar manner, men and women religious to this day offer their lives as a sacrifice and prayer. Here, in this place, for these many years, nearly 300 men have offered their lives to God as monks of this abbey; lives that became, have been and are a sacrifice for God’s Church.

Matt Eshnauer, left, an unidentified student (carrying banner), and Eric Stone proceed into the church representing the Benedictine College Knights of Columbus Council.

Clipboard in hand, Brother Leven gathered and qued the jumble of student groups moments before their formal procession into the church.

Then in our second reading from the Letter of Peter we hear, “Come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but chosen and precious in the eyes of God. And like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.” Peter is saying to us to see Jesus as this new temple. Though rejected, Jesus is the living stone chosen by God to be the cornerstone of his new temple, the place of perfect praise. Then as baptized, we are called to participate in that temple.

We participate in the temple not as individuals – we are not here as individuals; I am not hear as Prior James worshipping God, the monks are not here as individuals offering praise, each of you is not here as yourself, focused in on your individual relationship with Christ – that’s not the Eucharist, that’s not our shared faith. We are here as the Body of Christ, living stones that make up this Body, and our acts of worship here today, in

this Eucharist, must show our sharing in this Body.

Through this shared act of worship we must become so configured to Christ that our lives become that sacrifice, that act of praise, and thus we become mediators between divinity and humanity for those around us. The message then is that our participation as a living stone in the structure of the temple – the Body of Christ – will help build up that temple.

Key in this is understanding that our participation in building up the temple comes only from our listening to God, participating in his life, and living out what he asks of us. And here comes the pitch: How well do we listen to God? Do we understand what he is asking of us, or have we placed our own desires and wants ahead of his?

It is easy to say what I want in life, how I think I can best accomplish what I want, even Continued on page 27 15

Photos by Dan Madden

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A Place of Springs Monks return to where seeds of community were planted; sesquicentennial ends with intimate, outdoor Mass

Continued on next page 17

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By Dan Madden

T

he ruts in the roads still held water from the previous day’s rain as a small caravan of monks from St. Benedict’s Abbey drove the gravel road from Atchison through the Missouri River floodplain to Doniphan April 26.

Abbot Barnabas Senecal carried with him a brief homily and the text of Psalm 84: Happy are those who trust in you Lord God of Hosts, As they go through the Bitter Valley, They make it a place of springs, The autumn rain covers it with blessings, They will see the God of gods in Zion.

The monks arrived at Doniphan, a quiet gathering of homes and abandoned buildings that once was a roaring river town until the river slithered away in the night.

Climbing a hill and following a path through a stand of evergreens, the monks found a clearing distinguished by a monument of mortared stone.

Inscribed on the monument were the words: “St. John the Baptist Church, July 1856, Founded By Henry Lemcke (sic), O.S.B., Origin of St. Benedict’s Abbey U.I.O.G.D.” There the monks erected a crude altar constructed from four hand-hewn fence posts and three old boards. Built

by Abbey handyman Jim Carter and Brother Anthony

Abbot Barnabas Senecal celebrates Mass on a rustic altar, a replica of the one used at the first Mass of Father Casimir Seitz.

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Left to right, Brother Peter Karasz, Brother Joseph Ryan and Father Bruce Swift prepare for Mass in the clearing where monastic life began in Kansas.

Vorwerk, it was a replica of an altar built by Father Casimir Seitz, the youngest of the three founding monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey. A homesick Father Casimir, the first man ordained to the priesthood in the Kansas Territory, celebrated his first Mass on that makeshift altar a few days after he and his companions, Father Peter Henry Lemke and Father Augustine Wirth had arrived from Leavenworth.

Following the Mass, Father Casimir treated himself to a breakfast of bacon and black coffee and decided that he felt better than at any time since his arrival in Kansas.

On that same spot, where monastic life in Kansas had begun, the monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey concluded their year-long sesquicentennial celebration in a simple outdoor Mass.

“Psalm 84 evokes some of the real sentiments of the earliest Kansas monks,” Abbot Barnabas said in his homily. “There was bitterness with shortages of money and manpower, with frustrations that the abbot of St. Vincent showed favor to the Minnesota foundation and not to Kansas, with longing for the homeland. But, the monks adjusted, made it a place of springs. Soon blessings came.

They walked miles, ever growing in strength.”

A week before their outdoor Mass, Abbot Barnabas and the monks had hosted a grand sesquicentennial celebration, a last hurrah! Representatives of the many student organizations on the Benedictine College campus had marched in procession into the Abbey Church to reverberant surges of organ music. Pews were packed to capacity.

But a year of celebrations ended in the same manner as Father Casmir’s first mass, with a spring breeze, birdsong and an open Kansas sky.

Recalling the result of the first two weeks of labor in Doniphan, Father Augustine wrote: “The creditors were satisfied, and the constables kept off our necks. The windows were fitted with glass, the church received a floor, bedsteads and a table arrived from St. Joseph, the sacks we had brought along were filled with prairie grass and shavings. With six bricks we built a fireplace for cooking, praised God’s providence for his children, gave a toast to monastic poverty, and hoped for better times.”

In this spirit, Abbot Barnabas said, Augustine, 29, and Continued on page 31

Summer 2008

Photo by Dan Madden

Kansas Monks

Artist Judi Geer Kellas discusses one of her unfinished works featuring Crystal Cole, the first woman inducted into the Tuskegee Airmen.

Celebration of women aviators will display in Abbey gallery

By Dan Madden

W

cept to feed her habit, which was planes.”

Kellas remembers painting a black and white photo of Earhart in a flight suit. She decided for no particular reason to paint the suit yellow. Later, she was told that the suit Earhart was wearing in the pho-

Continued on page 26

Courtesy of Judy Geer Kellas

hen artist Judi Geer Kellas first encountered Amelia Earhart in the pages of history her heart was filled.

It quite overflowed when she followed her newfound passion and learned of the pioneering aviator’s many sisters in flight. On Nov. 2, 1929, 26 women met and chartered an international organization of women pilots known as the Ninety-Nines, a group that thrives to this day.

The Ninety-Nines are sponsoring a display of Kellas’ “Celebration of Flight: Women in Aviation” series in the St. Benedict’s Abbey Gallery that began June 20 and will end July 19 at the conclusion of the Amelia Earhart Festival. Display hours will be Monday through Friday

from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, noon to 4:30 p.m.

Asked in 2000 to direct and juror an art show in Atchison on the 100th anniversary of Amelia Earhart’s birth, Kellas agreed, but admits it was just another job, and Earhart was just another person from history.

“I didn’t know any more about her than the average person,” she says.

But as she began to pour over historical accounts of the famous aviator in preparation for the gig, her eyes were opened to a new hero, and though she didn’t know it yet, a new artistic passion.

“Amelia was amazing,” she recalls. “There was so much more to her than the publicity.

She cared about people. Her mantra was, ‘Never give up.’

She was not into money ex-

tograph was actually yellow, a favorite color of the pilot, and the color of the women’s suffrage movement.

It wasn’t long before Kellas was exchanging phone calls and letters with members of the Ninety-Nines. Her artistic juices flowing, she began asking permission to paint their portraits into her work.

Kellas’ mixed media work is a series of collages that feature one or more often several heroines from the history of aviation. Earhart is of course the subject in several pieces, but so also is Olive Ann Beech, the first lady of aviation, cofounder of Beech Aircraft Corporation; Louise Thaden, who set a women’s endurance record for staying aloft 22 hours and set a light airplane speed record of 109.58 miles per hour in 1936; Baroness Raymonde de Laroche, the first woman to earn a pilot’s licences; Bessie Coleman, the world’s first licensed black aviator; Fay Gillis Wells, the pilot and journalist who died in 2002 at age 94 with only one regret—never having the chance to be an astronaut; and Patty Wagstaff, the stunning beauty who has dominated the world of aerobatics. One

Geer Kellas’ work: “Daughter of Atchison, Sister of All of Us”

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Summer 2008

All Photos courtesy of Angela Boquin, owner of Bella Photography, in conjunction with”Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep” (www. nilmdts.org)

Kansas Monks

John Paul, John, Jennifer and Jacob Schmidt admire baby Gianna, dressed in a baptismal gown made just for her by John’s mother.

“We were in awe of how beautiful she was,” said Jennifer.

Love me true

Pregnancy becomes a celebration of family, an act of faith

By Kara Hansen Courtesy of The Leaven Archdiocese of Kansas CIty in Kansas

T

wenty weeks into their third pregnancy, John and Jennifer Schmidt were on top of the world.

They’d just told their two young sons—Jacob, 5, and John Paul, 2—that there was a new baby on the way.

Now, all four of them were crowded into the examining room, waiting for the sonogram to show whether the baby was a boy or a girl.

Suddenly, it didn’t matter.

20

The perinatologist first grew very quiet, then looked almost frantic.

“All he told us was that something was very wrong,” said Jennifer.

The Schmidts’ baby had a condition called bilateral renal agenesis. She would not develop a kidney. If she survived labor and delivery, the obstetrician said, she would die within a few hours.

“I remember thinking this was just a nightmare and I’m going to wake up from this,” said Jennifer. “It just can’t be real.” But the news was grimmer still. John and Jennifer

were warned that babies with this condition often go full term because they have all they need while in utero.

Could Jennifer face carrying the child to full term, knowing her birth meant certain death? More than half of couples in their situation choose to have an abortion, the Schmidts were told. Or they could choose to induce delivery early. Neither, the Schmidts decided, was an option they could consider.

The power of prayer Numb and confused, the

couple called on Benedictine Father Brendan Rolling of St. Benedict’s Abbey for advice.

A family friend from Jennifer’s time as a residence hall director at Benedictine College in Atchison, Father Brendan couldn’t help but hurt for the couple.

“I was shocked when they told me,” he said. “It was very painful to hear there was not much the doctors could do.”

But the parents made it clear that the options they had been given were not options for them. With the help of Father Brendan, they decided what they would do instead: pray.

Summer 2008 Almost immediately, John and Jennifer sent out an e-mail to nearly everyone they knew.

“We sent out a prayer request first asking for a medical miracle,” said Jennifer, “and if that was not God’s will for us, asking for the strength to carry the cross of infant loss with grateful hearts.

“We needed prayer to just be able to emotionally and spiritually survive this, and at first we were just so numb. We were completely at the mercy of others’ goodness.” It didn’t take long for help to arrive.

Just a few days after the sonogram—and shortly after their prayer requests had gone out—John and Jennifer began to notice the grace of those prayers working in their lives.

“John and I just had this sense of peace that can¹t be explained,” said Jennifer. “We knew there was a very difficult road ahead of us, but we knew—somehow—we would be able to do this.” The couple also gave their baby girl a name: Gianna, after St. Gianna Beretta Molla, a Catholic doctor who heroically risked her life for her child during her pregnancy.

Kansas Monks many.” The couple also sought contact with other families who had experienced infant loss. People told the Schmidts about Patti Lewis, director of Alexandra’s House, a perinatal hospice program in Kansas City, Mo. Lewis offers support to expectant couples experiencing a prenatal diagnosis.

From the moment the Schmidts and Lewis met, the couple knew they had found a rock of support.

“She really gave us hope that regardless of what happened, we could face this cross with grace,” said Jennifer.

During her time working with the Schmidt family, Lewis says she was moved by the dignity with which the family both carried their burden and enjoyed their short time with their daughter.

“John and Jennifer and their kids are like a Catholic family handbook with hands and feet,” said Lewis. “They

Fr. Brendan Rolling

of course wanted healing for their daughter, but they trusted and were at peace with God’s will, whatever it was. They made sure Gianna had dignity in her short life.”

Celebrating Gianna’s life As the weeks passed, Jennifer felt Gianna moving constantly. Knowing their time with Gianna would be limited to the pregnancy, the couple

began seeking out ways to treasure their time with her and celebrate her life while she was still in utero.

“We really wanted to bring Gianna to places that were special to our family,” explained John.

For the Schmidts, that included everything from a family Christmas trip to Crown Center in Kansas City, Mo., to a small chapel with special significance to the family.

Friends of the Schmidts organized a prayer service—which John and Jennifer consider to be the highlight of their pregnancy—at St. Joseph Chapel, located in the basement of St. Benedict’s Abbey.

“It was completely overwhelming. We were expecting five or 10 of our friends, and instead, the chapel was filled with friends and family praying for Gianna,” said John.

Continued on next page

Moving forward Besides their family and close friends, the Schmidts sought support particularly from their faith community at Prince of Peace in Olathe and at Benedictine. Even relative strangers were in contact with John and Jennifer, due to the wide circulation of their email prayer requests.

“We were e-mailed constantly by people we didn’t know. There were amazing people all over the world who let us know they were praying for us—from cloistered nuns to prison inmates,” said John. “It was very humbling to be lifted up in prayer by so

Baby Gianna rests peacefully, rosary in hand.

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Summer 2008

Kansas Monks They also did the normal, everyday things that families do. John, Jennifer, and their young sons talked to Gianna constantly. Jacob and John Paul liked to kiss and pat their mother’s stomach.

In fact, during this—the

John and Jennifer each called to talk,” said Father Brendan.

“Each in their own way described this overwhelming feeling of helplessness and suffering, ending in prayer where they would just ask God for help. And through that

welcome our baby and have her time on earth be completely filled with joy and happiness,” said Jennifer.

Mercifully, Gianna was born alive. After baptism by Father Brendan, and held gently by her father, she opened

said it’s normal for a mother to hold her baby right after delivery.

“What struck me most was that John was the one to hold Gianna right away,” said Lewis. “He just knelt down with her in his arms while their boys just kissed and loved on her, with Jennifer smiling and looking on.

“It was almost like Jennifer knew she had the time to hold Gianna all throughout her pregnancy, and now it was time for John and the boys.”

Forty-five minutes after she was born, Gianna Marie Schmidt peacefully drifted off to sleep and her breathing slowed to an eventual stop.

Her time on earth was over.

Healing

most difficult time in their lives—said John and Jennifer, the mood around their house was peaceful, almost serene.

“A part of us didn’t want this pregnancy to end,” said John. “We were very aware that we had a little saint living with us, and we knew she wouldn’t be with us long.”

But that didn’t mean putting the family’s life on hold in order to grieve.

“It was heartbreaking,” said Jennifer, “but we tried to keep a healthy perspective.

That included normalcy in our everyday lives, as well as humor and allowing ourselves to fully grieve.” That grieving required as much spiritual as emotional support.

“What really touched me was that at different times, 22

prayer, each of them described this sense of God comforting them and letting them know things would be OK.”

A child is born John and Jennifer had been forewarned that Jennifer’s labor could be much more difficult than her first two, due to a lack of amniotic fluid commonly associated with Gianna’s condition. Plus, there was a real possibility that Gianna would be stillborn.

With the first contractions of Jennifer’s labor, the Schmidts were keenly aware that this was both a beginning and end. They prayed fervently for just a little time with their baby.

“We wanted so much to

her eyes to the sight of her big brothers coming into the room to admire and make over her.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of our boys,” said John. “They just showered Gianna with kisses, and John Paul kept trying to tickle her. The pure, unconditional love they gave her just blew me away.” Just as amazing to John and Jennifer was the sense of pride they felt in their new daughter.

“I had been scared to see Gianna,” said Jennifer, “knowing she would die. But all that was gone when she was born.

She was so beautiful.

“We were sad to be losing her, but John and I were both in awe. She was gorgeous!”

Lewis, who was in the delivery room with the family,

They say time heals all.

The Schmidts will tell you otherwise: It was the grace of God and the kindness of others that brought them peace.

“I think this story really shows what a Catholic, prolife family can do in the world with their witness to Jesus,” said Father Brendan. “Our world is so afraid of suffering and bad news, we often want to run from it. But what I saw was Christ transforming their lives and the lives of people around them.”

Though Gianna’s life didn’t end the way the Schmidt family wanted, they take consolation in knowing she is in heaven—and that she was loved during her time on earth.

“We never in our lives had to surrender our lives and will to God so much. But Gianna forced us to do that,” said John. “We had to pray with grace and dignity, even through the rough moments, and embrace her life and our time with her.

Continued on page 25

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c

f

Marked with the sign of Faith

Thomas Hartman 1910-1996 Abbot Thomas Hartman knew that to be elected the abbot of a monastery was a great honor and privilege. It is not an easy job, though being an abbot has many rewards.

Many of the abbots of the community have faced difficult circumstances; Abbot Innocent comes to mind as he labored for over 40 years to save the struggling community and college. Abbot Martin Veth oversaw the expansion of the campus to the river bluff, changing the nature of the glorified high school into the modern St. Benedict’s College. He spearheaded the building of the new abbey and the attempt to firm up and regularize the monastic observance.

The challenges that Abbot Thomas faced spanned parts of two eras: pre-Vatican Council II and post-Vatican Council II. The one era was a “business as usual” sort of time. There were challenges in the expanding college, dropping the long-time favorite sport, football. The other era was one of changes not only in the renewal of the religious life but also in the life of the very church itself. The role of laypersons in the Church expanded prompting a lay advisory board for the college and a lay dean.

But perhaps most painful of

Editor’s Note: Abbot

Owen Purcell is at work compiling a necrology of St. Benedict’s Abbey, a volume of brief profiles on each of the deceased members of the Abbey from its founding to

all was the departure of members in the community. Loved confreres and potential leaders asked for dispensations, theological and liturgical differences surfaced, modes of dress varied, the liturgical language changed from Latin to English, and still there were more sensitive areas. Amid all this Abbot Thomas suffered and yet was unfailingly kind to all who felt the need to go elsewhere.

He shepherded two renewal committees and many subcommittees through examination of every aspect of the daily monastic life. His was not an easy abbacy! He found it hard to dope out what exactly some in the community wanted.

Abbot Thomas was born in Wathena, Kan., and graduated from St. Benedict’s High School, Atchison, and from St. Benedict’s College in 1932.

He had made first profession in 1932, then attended the Abbey School of Theology, being ordained in 1936. After ordination he earned a masters in mathematics from the University of Iowa in 1937 and began a career of teaching math full time at St. Benedict’s College until 1959. At the College Abbot Thomas was dorm prefect at St. Joseph Hall and athletic director. He was at the gym each day and was a terrific

handball player. His partners were some clerics, and, often, Father Francis Broderick.

Abbot Thomas amid all the other matters demanding his attention was fully involved in the affairs of the College, and was the chancellor both of St. Benedict’s College and Maur Hill School.

He visited the mission in Brazil once a year.

After he resigned as abbot in 1973 he became pastor at

the present. This document offers a thorough, poignant and often entertaining look into the history of the Abbey, one monk at a time. In order to provide our readers with some insight into the lives

of the men who have made the history of St. Benedict’s, Kansas Monks will publish one or more of these profiles in each issue. If you have an anecdote about the monks you read about in these pro-

St. Charles, Troy, and a parttime teacher at Maur Hill. He returned to the Abbey in 1984 after symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease began to appear.

He was a conscientious father to his monks, suffered the departure of some, but treated them with kindness and respect. Abbot Thomas was truly a giant among giants.

files or about any other deceased monks, Abbot Owen would enjoy hearing from you. You may contact him by telephone: (913) 360-7817, or more easily by e-mail: ojposb@yahoo.com.

23

Summer 2008

Kansas Monks

Let silence disturb your noisy world Stillness offers inner strength, majesty of nature This word at times in our noisy world can be disturbing. We are so used to noise around us and when there isn’t any, we fill the void with television, radio or CDs. The other day an oblate took me to lunch and when I got into the car I could not believe the noise coming from the CD player. I wondered how a person can think with such noise.

I have a couple of favorite places where I enjoy something more than the usual silence of the monastery. I am an early riser and spend time in the small chapel used for the sick. I love nothing better

than sitting by an open window, even on the coldest days, and enjoy the crisp silence around me.

The presence of God not only in the Blessed Sacrament but in the stillness of the early morning hours gives me inner strength to face whatever the day may bring. I try to spend at least an hour and a quarter or more in prayer, much of it silent. Even the sounds of spring, such as birds chirping, do not disturb the silence.

The other place where I enjoy silence is sitting on the benches in our cemetery in an overlook above the majestic Missouri River. How blessed

July Celebration A hidden feeder in flowered lattice, a hummingbird almost unseen, perched, surely nourished, on Minnesota abbey grounds.

Friends gathered with monks on a summer day, celebrating one-hundred fifty years of common life, nourished near woods and lakes.

The hummingbird, on the other hand, is hidden, eats quickly with rapid beat in its body, in its wings, ready to fly away if disturbed.

We live like the hummingbird, midst the beauty of nature, kind of hidden within self, thinking, pondering, even rejoicing.

We live like the picnic person, sitting, visiting, rejoicing in being seen, willing to share closeness with another, sensing what heaven must be like.

24

Text and photo by Abbot Barnabas Senecal

We are nurtured in the shade, protected from too much sun, relishing memory, greeting friends, not eager to move away.

Brother John Peto Director of Oblates

we are to live high on the bluffs. The stillness here is a different kind, as the majesty of nature spreads forth during all of the seasons of the year.

Wrapped up in a coat during the winter brings a crisp sense of silence and wonder and now, in spring and early summer, with new life spring-

ing up everywhere, a feeling of the Resurrection is so present. The dead has come to life once more. Even those branches so ruined by the great ice storm of last year bravely are bringing forth new life.

The silence is often disturbed by a car on the river road or machinery now preparing the new turf for the college football stadium, but even these sounds do not really break the silence and awe. Nor do the young voices of college students rushing by.

I know that with these places of silence I am able to face the time that lies ahead. It is my belief that part of the oblate life is enjoying the great silence which brings with it that great Benedictine value of peace.

Summer 2008

Kansas Monks

Coach Don Tabor: A hero with humility

By Father Michael Santa

Love

Continued from page 22 “This was such a hard experience that we could have easily missed out on it becoming a beautiful, life-changing event.”

Countless people reached out to grieve and celebrate with the family, help around the house, and provide meals during the pregnancy. Families from Jacob’s kindergarten class at Prince of Peace School created a rose garden in honor of Gianna.

“We will forever be

touched by the kindness others have shown us. It helped us be able to survive day to day,” said Jennifer.

Little sister saint Jacob and John Paul, too, help their parents through the hard parts, sometimes quite unintentionally. It’s difficult to resist the boundless energy— and equally boundless faith— of the two little boys.

“When John Paul sees pictures of Gianna, he says, ‘That’s my baby Gianna.’ He talks about her and wants to

Photo courtesy of Mary Jane Tabor

D

on Tabor and I were originally football enemies in 1946-1947 football seasons. I was an end for the Immaculata Raiders; Don was a back for the Maur Hill Junior Ravens. Immaculata, which had just resumed football after WWII, was fearful of Maur Hill but would’ve liked to beat the Ravens who were very confident, even cocky. But the Junior Ravens crushed us on a cold day at Amelia Earhart stadium in 1946. Maur Hill also crushed Immaculata on a sunny day at Veteran’s park in Leavenworth in 1947. Don played well in both games.

My old gridiron rival died of cancer March 19.

Strangely, I do not remember Don as a football player later at St. Benedict’s College, but I do remember him well as a basketball player.

The Ravens lost 11 games in 1949, but on page 49 of the 1950 Raven Yearbook, under the heading BENEDICT’S BRATS, there is a picture of

reserve guards Don Tabor and Lou Oldani. When the varsity was doing badly, Coach Bill Walsh would put in Don and Lou to electrify the crowd with their speed and quickness, accompanied by occasional high jinks. This helped me realize that Don had both showmanship and a sense of humor.

In the 1960s, St. Benedict’s dropped football. I was working fulltime at a Catholic high school and I noticed we had 10 former St. Benedict’s College football players on staff. Where would such persons come from in the future?

Enraged, I wrote a letter to the president of Benedictine College. He took my letter seriously; he came and visited me. His explanation was not sufficient. When I joined the Abbey in 1984 I noticed that football was back and that in the late 1990s the sport pretty much saved the college from going down the tubes.

I learned also that Don Tabor was a highly successful football coach at Bishop Leblond High School in St.

Don Tabor, right, with his son Matt and wife Mary Jane.

Joseph. He also had sons enrolled at Benedictine. One of them, Chris, was a very fine quarterback at Benedictine.

He went on to be head coach at Culver-Stockton College and a highly regarded backfield coach at Western Michigan University. He now has moved on to the Chicago Bears as backfield coach. He should improve the Bears’ horrible passing. Chris is one of my few former students who appears when I type his name into Google. He is a small guy but has a powerful will to win, no doubt inherited from his parents Don and Mary Jane.

Everyone in the area was amazed when in 1984 Don’s relationship with Bishop

Leblond was severed. But he moved to Benton High School in St. Joseph. I always thought this was good move since his teams at Benton were immediately successful. Not only that, I observed Benedictine College student teachers at Benton and had a chance to visit with Don and see his excellent classroom demeanor. I suppose, because of his dedication to family and students, some would refer to Don as “saint.” I suspect Don would have laughed at that. I hope, however, he would have been more accepting of the name “hero,” someone we should all imitate in our attempts to seek success in our lives.

remember what she looked and felt like,” said John.

Jacob, on the other hand, shares his birthday with Gianna: March 5. But it is a happy, not a sad, occasion—and not because he has forgotten his little sister, said Jennifer. “He tells people, ‘My little sister is a saint in heaven—pretty cool, huh?’”

Still, one of the most healing experiences for John and Jennifer has been sharing their story. Though it started as a simple prayer request, the couple has continued to be very open about their experi-

ence with Gianna in the hope that it will help other families who experience infant loss.

“I think sometimes people don’t know what to say or do, so they don¹t say anything,” said Jennifer. “And I think had we heard of a family with a situation like ours before, I probably would have said, ‘Oh those poor people, how incredibly sad for them.’ And I would not have known what to do or say.

“What most people don’t realize is that despite the pain, we feel incredibly blessed to have been Gianna’s parents.”

25

Summer 2008

Kansas Monks

Photos by Dan Madden

Abbey After Hours

St. Benedict’s Abbey, for the first time, hosted the Atchison Chamber of Commerce After Business Hours event April 3. Clockwise from the left, 1) Brother Anthony Vorwerk chats with Kathleen McKelvy; 2) Rich Dickason, CEO of Exchange Bank, visits with Cecilia Carpinelli; 3) Abbot Barnabas Senecal and Linda Henry catch up; 4) Benedictine College President Steve Minnisvisits with Courtney Marshall; 5) The monks laid out a hearty spread for the Atchison business community.

Artist

Continued from page 19

26

Courtesy of Judy Geet Kellas

of Kellas’ unfinished pieces is of Chrystal Cole, a young black aviator from Wichita, who recently became the first woman inducted into the Tuskegee Airmen. These are just a handful of the women famous and not, who appear in Kellas’ work.

Peggy Long, a member of the Ninety-Nines , says Kellas’ work is worth spending some time with. “There is so much to see in each piece,” she says. “I love studying each piece and seeing what I can find.”

Long says Ninety-Nines appreciate Kellas’ art and often buy her work.

“There are very few people out there, other than the Ninety-Nines , who seem to appreciate the role of women in aviation,” Long notes. However,

she encourages newcomers to the topic to take in the show.

“Not only is Judi’s work attractive and enjoyable to look at, but there is so much energy in it,” she explains.

Pointing to Kellas’ portraits of Wagstaff, the flamboyant aerobatic champion, Long says Kellas captures her beauty and the transcendent vivacity her celebrity exudes.

“If you’ve ever seen Patty

perform,” Long says, “there’s so much energy, and she’s always got a huge grin on her face as if she’s having the time of her life.”

The energy on Kellas’ canvases is evident in her voice and in her broad smile as she discusses her art and the women she has chosen to portray.

“I want to tell the world about the remarkable women who have been involved in

aviation from about 1910 until current times,” Kellas says.

“I want to tell everyone about their audacity and their tenacity and their courage and their bravery.”

For more information on the work of Judy Geer Kellas or the women in flight featured in her work, see her Web site:www.geerkellas.com

Summer 2008

Kansas Monks

Naming

Continued from page 10 Cope, Stole, Humeral Veil $2,500 (For Benediction & Other Eucharistic Events) Cope, Stole, Humeral Veil $2,000 (For Benediction & Other Eucharistic Events) Two Altar Covers for

Banners

Continued from page 15 how I think I can best evangelize. But God doesn’t always call us to the place where we will accomplish the most, or the place where we think we will be must fulfilled; no, he calls us to where he wants us to make that priestly sacrifice. For some, that might be in the priesthood or religious life, maybe here in Atchison.

superiors and a spirit of independence and adventure. Father Henry accepted Bishop Miege’s invitation to serve in Kansas. He claimed homestead land, and experienced the struggles of the Civil War. To Be Seed, also available for $15, is a collection of tributes to and historical stories about Bishop Matthias Schmidt, one of three initial monks who volunteered for missionary work in the Abbey’s foundation in Brazil.

Father Matthias went on to become a bishop, beloved in the Diocese of Jataí and then for 20 years in Ruy BarAbbot Barnabas Senecal, O.S.B. St. Benedict’s Abbey, Atchison, Kansas

Liturgical Events (1 Set) $2,000 Four Sets Available Chasuble & Stole for Presider at Mass $1,000 16 Sets Available Dalmatic & Stole for Deacon at Liturgical Events $1,000 Eight Sets Available For others, it might be in the life of marriage; whatever and wherever, it will be a call of sacrifice.

The heart of Catholicism 150 years ago was not here in Doniphan and Atchison, yet God called three monks to be ministers of Christ’s Word and his Eucharist; he calls us still today. Listen to God. What is he calling us to? If we don’t live our Christen faith, if we don’t speak it, if we don’t allow it’s power to

Henry Lemke, O.S.B.

Two historical books on two remarkable monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey have been published by the abbey and are now available for purchase.

A Warrior in God’s Service, a memoir of Father Henry Lemke, the adventurous missionary priest who was the first Benedictine monk in Kansas, is available for $15.

Father Henry, who ventured west from Pennsylvania, with a wagon train, and whose pioneer spirit led to the founding of St. Benedict’s Abbey, wrote his own story of heroism and endurance, of troubles with

St. Benedict’s Abbey celebrates its 150th anniversary of its founding in Kansas. Our date of foundation is April 27, 1857, the day that Father Augustine Wirth, O.S.B., and Father Casimir Seitz, O.S.B., arrived in Doniphan and began community life there. A year later they came to Atchison.

Father Henry Lemke had preceded these two monks to Kansas, and was asked by Bishop John Baptiste Miege to be a pastor in Doniphan.

He left Pennsylvania “on his own,” without delegation by Abbot Boniface Wimmer of his home community, St. Vincent in Latrobe.

We honor Father Henry as a pioneer Benedictine. A native of northern Germany, a Lutheran minister become Catholic, he encouraged monks from the monastery of St. Michael in Metten, Bavaria, to come to the United States where he had already come to work with German Catholic immigrants in Pennsylvania.

He came to Kansas with that pioneering spirit. His life here was hard, brief and rewarding. His spirit was the same as that of his abbot, a spirit of building up the Catholic Church in the United States by helping Germans to maintain a sense of community in their work and their prayer.

Our monks knew there was a German edition of Father Lemke’s memoirs. We sought and gained permission from the monks of St. Boniface in Munich to produce and publish a translation in English of the text and the notes as a sesquicentennial project.

AWarrior

In God’s Service The Memoirs of Peter Henry Lemke 1796-1882

To Be Seed

Abbey publishes two new books on courageous confreres

A Warrior in God’s Service

The Warrior and the Bishop

“In peace, he lies down, Soon. he slept.

Awakes because the Lord sustained him..” da Silva Commentary and EditingMaria Bastos Translation to English German Edition Marc Rottinghaus Ruy Barbosa, BA Willibald Mathaesar. O.S.B.

Deborah Sudbeck

To Be Seed

The memory and witness of

Bishop Matthias Schmidt Benedictine Monk and Bishop of the Diocese of Ruy Barbosa, Bahia.

Compiled by Luciano Bernardi, OFM Conv.

Diocese of Ruy Barbosa 1992

Translated by Duane Roy, OSB Saint Benedict’s Abbey Atchison, KS 2002

bosa, an impoverished area of North Central Brazil.

By the time he died of a heart attack in May of 1992, at the age of 61, he had become beloved by the people of the region for his courageous work on their behalf for peace and justice.

He wrote his message of love and service in the

hearts of thousands, and they in turn wrote this book of tribute to his memory.

Four Stoles for Concelebrants at Mass (1 Set) $1,000 20 Sets Available

Development Ofiice: 913-360-7897 or by email at development@kansasmonks. org. Gifts can be mailed to:

Five Albs for Concelebrants at Mass (1 Set) $1,000 Eight Sets Available

radiate through us, if we are not willing to sacrifice our lives for the gospel, then who will we bring to Christ. And if we don’t listen, truly listen, setting aside our desires, our ideals, our wants so that we are truly able to do the will of God, then what fruit will we bear?

We celebrate today the harvest of Father Henry, Father Augustine and Father Casimir, and the many Kansas Monks after them who planted their

To place an order contact the Office of Development at, development@kansasmonks.org or by telephone at 913-360-7897.

St. Benedict’s Abbey 1020 N. 2nd St. Atchison, KS 66002

lives in this rich Kansas soil.

From that harvest we are the bridge-builders, we are the mediators bringing the message and power of Christ to the world. Christ has chosen you for his purposes, listen to where he is calling you and live it out. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.”

27

Summer 2008

Kansas Monks

Abbey Notes

Tony, 67, has died.

Emily List is suffering from a malignant tumor on her face.

Pat Marrin, former Journalism teacher at BC, asks that we pray for her and her family.

Continued from page 6 fund-raising event.

Pray With Us

David O’Reilly, son of Charlie O’Reilly and the late Helen O’Reilly, was injured in an accident a few years ago, and has been dealing with some unjust litigation since the event. Please offer prayers that he be taken care of by those involved in the accident.

The mother and father of Jeff Hovorka, a 1986 graduate residing in Devner, both died in 2008. Mike Gaughan, also a BC graduate in Denver, has asked that we remember Jeff and his family in our prayers.

Matt and Jessica Darling have experienced the miscarriage of their fifth child.

Brother Gregory Dulmes asks for prayers for the couple.

Kevin Cotter underwent a heart procedure recently to eliminate a second pathway in the heart. He asks for the prayers of the community.

John Bongers, a Maur Hill graduate of 1955, is in a David City NE, nursing home, with Alzheimers. He will appreciate our prayers.

The family of Tony Ruda, Atwood, KS, requests prayers for Tony and themselves, as

Fr. Gilbert

Continued from page 9 dict’s as a post-WWII refugee from Europe. Planning to enter medicine, I wanted to major in biology and minor in chemistry and physics or mathematics. As dean of studies at the time you made me choose 28

Vincent Henningsgaard has asked for our prayers for a good friend of his mother. The friend has a tumor underneath her heart and is receiving chemotherapy. She has a small 10-month old son and other children.

Lucia Schoenecker is a 14-year-old daughter of Dan and Susan Schoenecker, cousins to Father Meinrad Miller.

A grapefruit sized tumor has

health care staff, was transferred to Heartland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph after a bone scan at the Atchison Hospital revealed cancer spots. She has been experiencing severe neck pain.

Gregory Vertin of Wathena suffered broken vertebrae and other injuries when a tractor overturned. He is in the KU Medical Center.

Brother Joseph Ryan requests prayers for his Aunt Mary who has been ill and for his friend Ruth Noble who is still weak after a recent neardeath experience. He also asks prayers for Charlie and Pat Goasher who were killed in a car accident on June 1.

Father Meinrad Miller requests prayers for Katrina Baker, a BC graduate, whose mother Sonia had colon cancer surgery recently. He requests prayers for BC student Johny Greenhalgh’s grandfather, Henry Greenhalgh, who died in Philadelphia.

Photo by Dan Madden

Father David Linnebur has experienced a recurrence of cancer and is not tolerating chemotherapy treatments.

Bishop Jaekels has asked that prayers for his healing be made through the intercession of Father Kapaun.

tion. Leon is a 1976 Maur Hill graduate, a brother of State Representative Jerry Henry.

Abbot Barnabas gives Jim Stadler a retirement gift.

Sarah Macy, daughter of Joan (Torline) Macy, BC ’90, and Steve Macy, is a threeyear old whose cancer has metastasized. She had a fivehour surgery recently.

Leon Henry had a cancerous kidney removed at St. Luke’s in Kansas City. Theother kidney will be treated with radiaphilosophy as a second minor so that I would not be too onesided in the natural sciences.

This opened my eyes to a new world and studying St. Thomas Aquinas taught me to think very accurately. I consider my studies in philosophy and theology invaluable. I have told the story many times but now

been discovered in Lucia’s uterus.

Cindy Dooley requests prayers for her brother Mike as he undergoes tests to determine the nature of an abnormal growth on his brain.

Dorothy Randall, mother of Vernon Randall of our am belatedly able to thank you.”

Father Gilbert continued to be a regular traveler to the library in his older years. He was beloved by the staff and they watched as he learned to use the computer to transfer his diary notes onto a disc for future printing. His reminis-

Sister Margaret Ann LaCapra asked that the community prayer for her brotherin-law, Bill Dooley.

Mick Hundley of the Maur Hill-Mount Academy staff requests prayers for Marylou Hayford who died in Hobe Sound, FL, recently. Warren Hayford, her husband, is a 1946 graduate of Maur Hill. cences have come to an end.

His envisioning his future has been realized. We thank him for his example, for his living life as a man of Atchison, as a Benedictine, as an influence in the lives of many.

Summer 2008

from the editor

Continued from page 2

rustic terrain and said to myself, “What, are you nuts! The monks wouldn’t drive all the way up here for a Mass!”

Heeding my first sound thought of the day, I found a place to turn around. I approached the large mud hole and decided there was no way I would risk that twice, so I drove up on the grass bank, bent on driving around it. I almost made it, when I lost my nerve and let off the gas. My right front wheel caught a rut and the entire car slid into the mud hole with a whoosh!

tried to flag me down when he saw me pass by earlier.

“There’s been a fellow running cattle up on that ridge in a one-ton truck,” he said. “He left some pretty big ruts.”

“Yes, he did,” I said drily.

We got in his pickup and when we crested the hill and saw two big mud holes and a third with my car buried in it, he didn’t even laugh. While I on the other hand was thinking, what kind of imbecile would get himself in this fix?

But Herbert, either in a Herculean effort of restraint—or

Photo by Dan Madden

beautiful doe dash across the flood plain to the south. Then, four large turkeys crossed my path and scurried into the timber. Despite the ruts and the fact that I still didn’t know where the monument was, my trip to this point was peaceful and enjoyable. Eventually, about two miles down the road, I came to a levee and a large sign that said, “Road Closed.”

Worrying a bit, but undeterred. I backtracked to the main intersection and found that Monument Road went the other direction as well.

So I headed east, passing a perfectly good home where I could have asked directions.

That would be the Bishop house. Mrs. Bishop would be very helpful later.

By this time I had called a monk back at the Abbey. He told me the monument was at the top of a steep hill. I told him I hadn’t seen any steep hills on Monument Road. I assured him I would stop and ask for directions. He thought that would be best.

I hung up my cell phone and decided to drive just a little bit farther. About a mile down the road I rounded a corner and found a steep hill.

Aha! I crested the hill, which seemed a bit rocky, but it was a hill. At the top I kept going.

After about 100 feet I came to a massive mud hole. But like a child who isn’t thinking any further than the next step, I drove through it. A few hundred feet more and I made my way through another mud hole, and then came upon a third, larger one. After barely making it through, I looked at the scarce road ahead of me into beautiful, even more

Kansas Monks

In a cruel twist of fate the monument I sought was not on Monument Road. I sacrificed a pair of shoes, two hours of my time and my dignity to this quest.

In mud-caked shoes I walked around two mud holes, down a rocky hill, around a curve in the road and came to a farm house. Luckily a very nice man named Herbert was home. I asked him if there was anyone available who could assist an idiot.

With a peaceful look on his face he obliged. When I told him what I had done, there wasn’t a hint of sarcasm in his voice when he told me he had

compassion—quietly preceded down the road as if he ran into people like me every day.

He good-naturedly pulled my car out of the hole, then waited like a nurturing father to make sure I could maneuver the two other holes to freedom.

When I told Herbert I was looking for the monument, he asked me if I remembered an earth contact home back up the road. I said, yes. He told me the monument was on a

hill behind it.

Got it, I replied.

Problem was, I didn’t. I had no idea what he was talking about. I guess I just wanted to look competent. So I lied.

I drove back into Doniphan and did what I should have done two hours before.

I pulled into the driveway of the Bishop home.

Trish Bishop answered the door, and we both laughed at the car parked in her drive, which had formerly been white but now was the rich brown of Doniphan County river bottom farmland. Although she didn’t know exactly where the monument was, she kindly made a couple of telephone calls, in which I overheard her reply, “no, he’s already been in the soup,” and soon she was directing me to the monument, which by the way was nowhere near Monument Road. Having reached my destination, I assured myself that I would learn my lesson, find a car wash in Atchison and simply ask directions the next time.

Unfortunately, I’ve been in such predicaments before and have made the same assurances. The next one may not be a mud hole, and there probably won’t be a monument, but rest assured I’ll be writing this column again.

We welcome your comments: development@kansasmonks.org

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Summer 2008

Kansas Monks

St. Ann’s

Continued from page 13 are going to pop up,” he said.

“But we’ll get along with what we have.”

For now, the parish will make due with photocopied music and an electric keyboard.

Eileen noted with a sad grin that her parish, not necessarily known for its strong singing, had come alive the Sunday before the fire.

“I told Walt the singing was super,” she recalled.

Walt remembered a parish-

Gene Hegarty

ioner approaching him and telling him, “Your wife had that organ going red hot.”

One thing has remained a constant since Gene Hegerty returned from two years of military service in Japan as a

young man.

“When you saw the water tower and the steeple of St. Ann Church, you knew you were home,” he said.

However, in the emotional aftermath of the fire, Hegarty has found other constants. On Tuesday morning, with heat still rising from the ashes, Father Ben arrived at the parish hall early to prepare for 8 a.m. daily Mass.

“It felt good,” Hegarty said. “There were a lot of strong feelings. Yes, our building may be gone, but we were having daily Mass like we always did. We were continuing on.”

Hegarty said with confidence, “We’re going to have a new church. As we get further down the road the sadness will ease and we’ll still be the same community.”

Sitting in that Tuesday morning Mass, Hegarty recognized another constant in the face of Father Ben. “Everything that has gone on in that Church, the many memories that appeared to be evaporating in that fire— the funerals, the baptisms, the marriages—every one of them, a Benedictine monk has been part of.”

He said it’s important that as the community moves forward it embrace that. “I look

Walt and Eileen Wohletz had planned to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary in St. Ann Church in August.

30

This photograph, sold in a CCD fundraiser and hanging on a wall in Gene Hegarty’s home, is a poignant reminder of the buiding where many of his family memories were made.

at every happy memory and every sorrowful memory in the past 75 years that I’ve been a member of this parish and a priest of St. Benedict’s Abbey was a part of it,” he said. “The Abbey is more than a building up on a hill.”

Also lost in the fire was a framed list of the 36 pastors who have served St. Ann’s since its foundation in 1867, all but one a monk of St. Benedict’s. Hegerty kept a copy of it, which he intends to return to a place of honor in the new church when it is finished.

St. Ann will rebuild. The new church probably won’t resemble the old one, but Father Ben said the parish hopes it can salvage the cross from the top of the old steeple and the bell within.

For the time being, Hegerty will have to find comfort in the lonely structure of the water tower when he returns from trips out of town. That and the daily Masses, which continue as always.

“A few years back, the CCD students took a beautiful picture of St. Ann Church and sold it to raise money,” he recalled. The picture hangs on a wall in Hegarty’s home. The church’s red brick looks extra red, the summer sky overhead extra blue. White, puffy clouds hang idealistically in the sky. In the picture, the old church looks like it can easily stand for another century or two.

“I’m sure glad I bought that picture,” Hegarty said.

Summer 2008

Doniphan Mass

Continued from page 18 ordained for five years, and Casimir, 28, ordained only a few days, began their days in Doniphan.

“These two young Bavarians… thought highly of their place and encouraged Abbot Boniface (Wimmer) to come to visit this new foundation,” the Abbot said. “If he came he would be more willing to do what was expected in a monastic house, send a brother to be their cook.”

Abbot Barnabas shared that Abbot Boniface eventually allowed many more men to journey to Kansas, even the man whom he had hoped

Papal Rally

Continued from page 7 stage to wild cheering and shouting. He greeted the prominent cardinals and bishops, and then ascended a set of steps to a gold and white throne. For what seemed like fifteen minutes or so, the crowd cheered and chanted, and energetically waved their white and gold towels. My arm, too, twirled a gold towel as I yelled the Pope’s name in Italian. The Pope was clearly gratified by the crowd’s response.

Then the best part happened. The stage had two walkways extending out in a “V” from the center of the stage toward the “mosh pit.”

The Master of Ceremonies leaned into the Pope’s ear and motioned toward the walkways, evidently telling him he could walk out to the crowd if he wished. When we figured out what he was suggesting, we roared our approval. We excitedly watched the Pope’s red shoes carry him down the steps and out to the first walk-

Kansas Monks would be his successor at St. Vincent, the man who would become Abbot Innocent Wolf, the first abbot of St. Benedict’s Abbey, who would serve for 46 years.

Abbot Barnabas told the story of Father Louis Mary Fink, who became the first bishop of the then newly established diocese of Leavenworth.

“The combination of good sense and sound spirituality that had made him a good monk and a good religious superior made him also a good bishop, particularly of a rural missionary diocese,” Abbot Barnabas said. Quoting one author, the Abbot said of Fink, “He was one of the most ac-

tive and zealous of the western prelates in encouraging colonization and providing for the wants and necessities of the Catholic settlers.”

For all the men sent west

by Abbot Boniface, when St. Benedict’s became an abbey it truly became a Kansas abbey.

“The responsibility for new members rested more with the Catholics of Kansas,” Abbot Barnabas noted. “And the settlements begun under Bishop Fink became sources of students and monks. Kansas itself became a place of springs.”

Springs, the Abbot said, that are still flowing.

“Our beginnings were in Bavaria and in Pennsylvania.

Our beginnings were in the faithful families who gave us birth and nurtured a vision of life that stressed service to others rather than accumulation for self,” he said. Our individual beginnings were in the companionship we experienced in a simple way of life that involved hard work, a desire to learn, and a desire to live in community. To all who have brought us to this day… we give thanks and continue to walk with ever growing strength.”

way, swarms of security men gathering around him. Now, I had managed over the past hour and a half to wiggle my way to within a couple persons of the fence at the front of the mosh pit. When the Pope came to the end of the walkway, I was only fifteen feet away from him. I believe I managed to catch his eye at one point! He is not a tall man, so I had to stand on my tiptoes to see him clearly.

The actual ceremony took longer than they had planned.

Young children and teenagers presented the Pope with gifts of various kinds of bread, as well as images of six holy American men and women, canonized or on their way.

Some of the children didn’t know what to do when they went up to meet the Pope, and instead of kissing his ring, they kissed his cheeks!

At one point, we sang Happy Birthday to the Pope – in German! The program tried to give us phonetic pronunciations, and we muddled through, but the Holy Father graciously complimented us,

saying we deserved an “A plus” for our German.

The Holy Father delivered a long but excellent address.

In terms of personality, he is basically a reserved intellectual who is most at home with the written word. They put the microphone right next to his mouth, since he speaks softly, but we had no problem hearing him. The entire crowd remained attentive, perhaps because his thick German accent required close listening.

For that reason, though, what he said probably sank in much deeper. The crowd enthusiastically erupted once, that I remember: when the Pope declared that “ultimately truth is a person: Jesus Christ!”

Amen, Holy Father, amen!

The rally turned out to be a much more edifying experience than I had hoped for.

Being up front near the stage made it a more exciting time for me, since I could clearly see the Pope at all times.

Just being there with at least 25,000 other people (some estimates were higher) marked this as an event of special

significance, especially since they had come from all over the country. Other people who had seen Pope John Paul II when he visited the United States had been inspired by his presence. Until now, I had no way of empathizing with them. But now I can.

It is electrifying to actually see in person this man whom I have seen on TV and in whose writings I have found edification. When the Pope came into my presence, I realized that right here, right now, is the man who has succeeded to St. Peter, the fisherman whom Jesus made the earthly head of His Church; a feeling of awe came over me. Seeing him a dozen feet away from me made me feel close to Jesus and the Apostles. In the presence of the Pope, our common spiritual head on earth, I felt at one with the crowd: we all loved him, all felt the same, and all came away from the rally feeling great to be Catholic and inspired to do better and greater things for Christ our Lord.

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Kansas Monks

Courtyard in Bloom

Summer 2008

Photo by Father Donald Redmond

Father Donald put many hours of work into placing a vinyl lining in the fishpond in the Abbey’s north courtyard, completing the project before the June 2007 General Chapter meeting. His vision expanded into a plan to renew the entire courtyard. The zoysia grass was dug up from the lawn and between the walkway stones. New grass was planted. Trees and shrubs were cut back and new trees and flowers placed very tastefully. Doors were painted. Benches and swing seats were placed. Father Eugene Dehner longed to see the day that the fishpond would be effectively sealed. That has happened. All the monks rejoice and give thanks for the beauty that now blesses us through the vision and energy of the monks who volunteered.

-Abbot Barnabas Senecal

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