MILWAUKEE-BORN COLLEGE PRESIDENT, MISSIONARY PRIEST SERVED WHERE CALLED

Divine Word Father Gilbert Gawlik, a leader in seminary education in the United States and the Philippines, died Monday, June 14, in Techny, Ill.

Born in Milwaukee in 1926, he was the third of Clement and Agnes (nee Czarnecki) Gawlik’s eight children. The young Gil Gawlik grew up in St. Vincent de Paul and St. Josephat parishes and eventually graduated from St. Matthew Elementary School.

In 1947, he became a Divine Word Missionary and was ordained to the priesthood in 1954. The Society of the Divine Word first assigned him to Indonesia, but like so many missionaries at the time, he could not obtain entry papers.

Instead, he went to the Philippines, where he spent much of the next two decades. While in the Philippines, he taught theology and educational psychology at Mindoro College (now known as Divine Word College of Calapan). In addition, he also served as dean of education for three years and college president for two terms.

Fr. Gawlik served his first presidential term from 1961 to 1963. Then, he went back to the United States in 1963 to attend Catholic University of America, which awarded a master’s degree in education to him in 1966, after which he returned to the Philippines and his second term as college president. During Fr. Gawlik’s tenure, admission at Mindoro College steadily grew.

In 1977, Fr. Gawlik once again returned to the United States and became vocation director, a job that he did for eight years. In 1985 with enrollment declining sharply, his religious superiors gave him the responsibility of closing Divine Word Seminary in Girard, Penn., and moving the community’s cemetery to Techny. After completing that two-year assignment, he became director of development for the Chicago Province.

Fr. Gawlik also served as chaplain at Techny Towers and for the Knights of Columbus. He stayed active even in retirement, working on behalf of Worldwide Marriage Encounter and filling in for the parish priests at Holy Cross in Deerfield, Ill.

Fr. Gawlik’s viewing and wake will be held at the Chapel of the Holy Spirit in the Techny Towers Conference and Retreat Center on Sunday, June 20 at 3 p.m. His funeral Mass will begin at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, June 21, at the Divine Word Residence Chapel. Techny Towers Conference and Retreat Center is located at 2001 Waukegan Rd., Techny (Northbrook), Ill.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations for the care of retired missionaries may be sent to The Rector, Divine Word Residence, 1901 Waukegan Road, P.O. Box 6000, Techny, IL 60082-6000.

FROM FARMER’S SON TO PIONEER: MISSIONARY LET PROVIDENCE LEAD THE WAY

Divine Word Father Elzear (Al) Gehlen, 94, a respected pastor in an African-American parish on Chicago’s Southside during the Civil Rights Movement, died on Saturday, June 12, at Techny, Ill.

Fr. Gehlen credited divine providence with his life journey, which took him from his parents’ Minnesota farm to the mountains of New Guinea and beyond. Elzear Gehlen was born in Glencoe, Minn., the fourth of Joseph and Catherine (nee Willems) Gehlen’s 11 children.

He was a grade school student when a Divine Word Missionary visited his school and ignited his desire to become a missionary. In 1939, the then-24-year-old Gehlen professed first vows. In 1944, he became a priest, but with World War II raging, leaders in the Society of the Divine Word ceased appointments of newly ordained priests to the missions in the South Pacific.

Instead, Fr. Gehlen took a course at Alexian Brothers Hospital in Chicago on treating tropical diseases, such as malaria and skin ulcers. His superiors later sent him to Bordentown, N.J., and then Cathedral Parish in Youngstown, Ohio.

In 1947, with the world situation improved, he was assigned to Koge, New Guinea. While there, he built a mission church, school and other buildings needed for the mission station in the mountainous region. He also tamed horses for other missionaries, introduced coffee and peanut crops to the region, and taught the residents how to rotate crops and saw planks from trees.

In 1954, Fr. Gehlen returned to the United States for back surgery after being thrown from a horse. Upon his recovery, he became assistant pastor at St. Elizabeth, Chicago’s oldest African-American parish, thus beginning the second stage of his career.

During the late 1950s, Fr. Gehlen coached the St. Elizabeth High School basketball team and led them to two consecutive city championships.  In 1957, his team went all the way to win the National Invitational Interscholastic Basketball Tournament.

Later that same year, Fr. Gehlen joined the staff at St. Anselm. Four years later, he became pastor and served the parish until 1977 when he was assigned to St. Mark in Venice, Ill, which lies across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. After 11 years at St. Mark, Fr. Gehlen retired and became priest-in-residence at St. Cecilia in Mount Prospect, Ill.

Joann Harper, who graduated from St. Anselm and later returned as a teacher, met Fr. Gehlen when she was a second grader. “He was the tallest man I had ever seen,” she said of the man who stood 6 feet, 4 inches tall.

“He put the fear of God in us,” she said with a laugh. “He was a genuine, loving person who cared about the kids and the school and the parish. Everyone looked up to him and respected him.”

One of Harper’s most compelling memories of Fr. Gehlen dates back to 1968 when riots broke out on Chicago’s Southside following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Fr. Gehlen actively brought together the gangs to bring some peace to the neighborhood,” she said. “He was a part of the community, as well as the parish.”

Dr. Dorothy Williams, a scholar of theology and biblical studies, also appreciated Fr. Gehlen’s presence at St. Anselm, where her children attended school.

“He knew how to discipline in love,” she said. “He was like a shepherd. His presence was part of his ministry. The children would gravitate to him.”

She told of the sports and skating arena that he built so that the children in the community had a safe haven. “To know him was to love him,” she said.

Fr. Gehlen once told a reporter that divine providence led the way. “My life has given me great faith in divine providence,” he told the reporter. “Everything seems to work out in the end.”

He is survived by two sisters, Joanne Boyle and Claire Speck.

His viewing, wake and funeral will take place at Chapel of the Holy Spirit in the Techny Towers Conference and Retreat Center. On Friday, June 18, the viewing will begin at 6 p.m. and the wake service at 7 p.m. On Saturday, June 19, Fr. Gehlen’s funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m., followed by burial at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Techny and a luncheon at Techny Towers.

TAILOR FOR GOD, EXAMPLE FOR URBAN YOUTH DIES AT AGE 80

Known in the Society of the Divine Word for his bright smile and customary greeting, Brother Herman (Thomas) Joseph, 80, died Thursday, April 15, at Techny, Ill.

“Brother Thomas’s smile could brighten the bleakest winter day” said Rev. Mark Weber, SVD, provincial superior for the Chicago Province. “He displayed cheerfulness in all that he did—from working as a tailor in his early years as a brother to helping urban youth find their talents to making rosaries in his retirement years.”
Brother Thomas always sought to be active even during retirement. For six years as a Techny resident, he often volunteered to staff the reception desk. He welcomed all guests as brothers and sisters and could frequently be heard saying, “Hello, my brother,” and “Hello, my sister.”

Born in Belize, Central America, Brother Thomas was one of Matilda (nee Roches) and Geraldo Joseph’s 14 children. The elder Joseph, a tailor by trade, began teaching his son the business when the boy was only eight years old. At age 21, when Brother Thomas began studies with the Society of the Divine Word, he already had achieved master tailor status.

In 1954, he began novitiate in Bay St. Louis, Miss. In 1956, he professed first vows, became a member of the Society of the Divine Word and took the name Brother Thomas. And in 1962, he professed perpetual vows.

Brother Thomas’s varied career included tailoring; administrative work in Conesus, N.Y., and Duxbury. Mass.; and youth ministry in Asbury Park, N.J., and Chicago, Ill. From 1981 to 1989, he was assigned to St. Peter Claver in Asbury Park. While there, he managed dance and art classes, as well as sports teams. As part of the parish’s Catholic Youth Organization, he organized weekly visits to a local nursing home.

These activities helped the youth to stay away from gangs, a ministry that he continued on Chicago’s Southside. From 1989 to 1991, he worked in Our Lady of the Gardens and from 1991 to 2001 at St. Elizabeth.

Brother Thomas was the last living Divine Word Missionary from Belize. His viewing will take place at the Chapel of the Holy Spirit in Techny Towers Conference and Retreat Center, beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 23. On Saturday, April 24, viewing will begin at 10:30 a.m. His funeral will commence at noon, followed by burial at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Techny and a luncheon.

He is survived by two siblings, Elistina and Simeon, as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

DISTINGUISHED EDUCATION ADMINISTRATOR,
MISSIONARY PRIEST DIES

Rev. Edward Norton, 90—a proud Bostonian, gifted education administrator and Divine Word Missionary—died Thursday, Dec. 31 at Techny, Ill.

“Ed was a great mentor,” said Rev. James Braband, SVD, who succeeded Fr. Norton as director of the Office of Education, Recruitment and Formation. “I will always be grateful for his wisdom and guidance, and for his willingness to assist me for a number of years after his retirement. I will miss his friendship.”

Among his accomplishments as an administrator, Fr. Norton founded a Catholic girls’ high school in the Philippines and guided Divine Word College in Epworth, Iowa, through a successful accreditation process.

Born in 1919 in Medford, Mass., he was the third of Edward and Mary (Walsh) Norton’s five children. In 1940, Fr. Norton became a member of the Society of the Divine Word and was ordained in 1945.

After earning a master’s degree from Catholic University in Washington, D.C., he began his first assignment in 1947 at Catholic University in Peking, China. Barely a year after his arrival, the Communist government expelled all Catholic missionaries and Fr. Norton left for the Philippines.

While in the Philippines, Fr. Norton worked as an administrator at University of San Carlos, Cebu, and founded an all-girls secondary school. He returned to the United States in 1953 and completed a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Chicago.

In 1967, he returned to his beloved Boston. For nine years, he served on the faculty of the School of Education at Boston College and was the weekend assistant at his home parish of St. Clement’s—where he had attended grammar school.

Over the years, Fr. Norton’s many roles in the Society of the Divine Word included rector of the Divine Word Seminary in Duxbury, Mass. from 1961-67; rector of Divine Word College in Washington, D.C. from 1976-85; and Chicago Province director of Education, Recruitment and Formation from 1985 until his retirement in 1991.

Fr. Norton’s funeral was held at the Divine Word Residence chapel on Tuesday, Jan. 5, with burial at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Techny. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations for the care of retired missionaries may be sent to The Rector, Divine Word Residence, 1901 Waukegan Road, P.O. Box 6000, Techny, IL 60082-6000.

DEATH COMES TO A MISSIONARY PRIEST WHO UNDERSTOOD PEOPLE, CAMERAS AND CARS

Rev. Frederick Rudolph, SVD, 81, who was known in Northbrook, Ill., for his warm smile, big heart and assistance to Our Lady of the Brook Parish, passed away on Wednesday, Aug. 26.

“People just loved him to pieces,” said Rosalie Rodiek, business manager of Our Lady of the Brook. “You just couldn’t help it. He exuded love. He gave it all the time. He didn’t hold back at all. Nothing stopped him from being a person and a priest at the same time.”

After Fr. Rudolph reached retirement age, he assisted the parish on a regular basis for more than ten years. Twice a week, he celebrated daily Mass at Our Lady of the Brook and sometimes on Sundays. “He couldn’t say no,” said Rodiek, who added that he also filled in for pastors at St. Norbert in Northbrook and St.Anthanasius in Evanston, Ill., and counseled parishioners in need.

He will be greatly missed, said Rodiek as she told the story of an infirm man whom Fr. Rudolph once visited. The man was not Catholic but his wife asked Fr. Rudolph to talk with him. She feared that her husband might be on his deathbed. The conversation with Fr. Rudolph helped the man gain the strength he needed to regain his health. Rodiek said, “They felt that Fr. Fred saved his life.”

Fr. Rudolph first moved to the Chicago area in 1945 as a young seminarian. Born in 1928 in Pittsburgh, he was the fifth of Aloysius and Gertrude (Mansmann) Rudolph’s nine children and nephew to two priests—an uncle on his mother’s side and another on his father’s side. Knowing from an early age that he wanted to be a priest, he entered Divine Word Seminary at Girard, Penn., in 1941 and professed first vows in 1947.

After ordination to the priesthood in 1954, Fr. Rudolph became assistant dean at the Brother Candidate High School at Techny, Ill., where he also taught Latin, religion and auto mechanics for two years.

“As a young missionary priest, Fred wanted to go overseas,” said Rev. Mark Weber, SVD, provincial superior of the Society of the Divine Word’s Chicago Province. “However, he accepted the superiors’ decision and made an adventure of administrative work in the States.”

In 1956, he left for Perrysburg, Ohio, and helped to establish the Society of the Divine Word’s tenth seminary in North America. Following his success with students at Techny, his superiors name him the first dean of students at the new school.

“I’m a lifelong fan of Fred Rudolph,” said George Irish, vice president and eastern director of the Hearst Foundations and chairman of the Newspaper Association of America. “He was my prefect [dean] at the seminary in Perrysburg.

“He introduced me to both writing and photography,” Irish said as he recalled that Fr. Rudolph allowed the students to use his bathroom as a photography darkroom. “He was a person who had a positive outlook. I remember him as a prefect who sometimes had to do battle with the rector over the conduct of the students. He was an intercessor on our behalf. He has been a lifelong friend.”

In 1961, Fr. Rudolph began 18 years of work in the vocation offices of Techny and Epworth, Iowa. During that time he established the Vocation Office at Divine Word College in Epworth and became the Society of the Divine Word’s national vocation coordinator for North America. In 1977, the National Conference of Religious Vocation Directors of Men honored him with the St. Matthew the Apostle Award, acknowledging his inspired and tireless efforts to give young men opportunities to discern a religious calling.

In 1979, Fr. Rudolph attended “Focus on Leadership, Ministry Training Services” at Loretto Heights College in Denver. This education opportunity led to his next pastoral role as spiritual retreat director at Divine Word International, which is now Techny Towers Retreat and Conference Center. While spiritual retreat director, he specialized in retreats for teenagers and young adults.

Continuing his work with youth, Fr. Rudolph was named rector of Divine Word Theologate in Chicago, where he served from 1982 until 1985. He returned to Techny in 1985 to serve as superior delegate for 11 years. As superior delegate, he managed the activities of Divine Word Missionaries from provinces outside of North America who came to the United States to study. He provided for their academic and medical needs.

Fr. Rudolph enjoyed outdoor activities, including golfing, hiking, skating, swimming and softball. In many ways, he was fearless. In 1941, his parents were surprised when they arrived to visit their 13-year-old son, and his forehead was bleeding. Prior to their arrival, he dove into the shallow side of a swimming pool and grazed his head, but the incident did not dampen his love of sports.

At age 38, when some people give up risky sports, Fr. Rudolph learned how to downhill ski. He also relished the story of a particular photo.

In 1951, he photographed a carefully orchestrated shot of a Divine Word ordination in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit at Techny. In order to capture the angle that he wanted, he carefully lay across beams in the center of the chapel’s ceiling—four stories above the altar—and peered through an air vent. He not only captured the photo but also a 1952 Catholic Press Association (CPA) Award for best photography.

Fr. Rudolph realized at an early age that photographs could convey the stories of the missions in a powerful way, Fr. Weber said. In addition to the 1952 recognition, Fr. Rudolph won CPA awards for his photographs of missionaries in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. And his images also helped to chronicle the nationally recognized work of Brother Charles Reckamp, SVD, a botanist who is known for his hybridization of irises and daylilies and recipient of the Chicago Botanical Garden’s first Award of Linnaeus for lifetime achievement.

As with sports and photography, Fr. Rudolph applied his daring to his vocations work. In 1974, he partnered with Rev. John McHenry, SVD, director of Divine Word News Service, and Dennis O’Brien of the public relations and marketing firm Dennis O’Brien & Assoc. They applied innovative marketing techniques to inform and attract young men who were called to religious life. Although they received criticism for a poster that proclaimed “Do a wheelie for Jesus,” the gamble paid off. Within six months, they received more than 1,400 inquiries.

Fr. Rudolph used that same creativity in other arenas as well. From his father, a World War I veteran and a private chauffeur for a well-to-do family in Pittsburgh, Fr. Rudolph learned the art of auto mechanics. Over the years, he accepted donated cars, repaired them and sold them for money to send to the missions.

Ironically, Fr. Rudolph did not obtain his driver’s license until after college. However, he did learn to drive during his high school years. He and his classmates helped the missionaries farm the land. And he frequently drove the potato truck. Whether in a potato truck, with a camera in hand, or for the religious education of youth, Fr. Rudolph gladly went where he needed to go.

Visitation will begin at 6 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 31, at the Chapel of the Holy Spirit in Techny Towers. A wake service will follow at 7:30 p.m. Fr. Rudolph’s Mass of the Resurrection will take place at the Chapel of the Holy Spirit at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 1. Techny Towers is located at 2001 Waukegan Rd.

Fr. Rudolph is survived by a brother, Alfred Rudolph; three sisters, Sr. Celesta (Agnes) Rudolph, Celine Ann Miller, and Theresa Marie Rudolph; and numerous nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be sent to The Rector, Divine Word Residence, 1901 Waukegan Road, P.O. Box 6000, Techny, IL 60082-6000.

MISSIONARY PRIEST WHO DEVOTED LIFE TO APPALACHIA PASSES AWAY

Father Edwin Daschbach, SVD, the first Divine Word Missionary to be assigned to Appalachia, died Sat., Aug. 15, in his beloved West Virginia.

In 1973, Fr. Daschbach was assigned to West Virginia and spent most of the next 36 years living among and caring for the Appalachian people. The West Virginian communities in which the Divine Word Missionaries work are three of the poorest counties in the state and arguably some of the most economically disenfranchised counties in the United States.

When Fr. Daschbach went to West Virginia, 22 of the state’s counties did not have a priest—much less a rectory. For living quarters, Fr. Daschbach and another Divine Word Missionary priest divided their time between a small, un-insulated house in the town of Gassaway and a small church in Webster Springs, where they had to sleep on church pews.

The second of George and Beatrice (Shimek) Daschbach’s three children, Fr. Daschbach was born in Pittsburgh, Penn., on Dec. 6, 1938. In 1958 after graduating from Divine Word Seminary in Conesus, N.Y., he professed religious vows as a Divine Word Missionary. In addition to a bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s Seminary in Illinois, he held a master’s degree in religious education from Fordham University in New York.

Bishop Harold Perry, a fellow Divine Word Missionary and the first African-American bishop of the 20th century, ordained Fr. Daschbach at Techny in 1966. Following ordination, Fr. Daschbach took up his first assignment, teaching religion and music at Divine Word Seminary in Bordentown, N.J.

In 1973, Bishop Joseph Hodges of Charleston (West Virginia) made an imperative request for more clergy. The Society of the Divine Word answered his plea. Except for a brief summer at St. Rita in Indianapolis, Ind., Fr. Daschbach served the rest of his priestly life in West Virginia. He was pastor at St. Thomas in Gassaway from 1973 to 1978; St. Anne in Webster Springs from 1978 to 1987, St. Peter and Christ the King in Welch and War from 1987 to 1991; and Good Shepherd in Glenville from 1991 to the present.

Fr. Daschbach’s visitation and Mass of the Resurrection was held Aug. 18 at Good Shepherd Church in Glenville, W.Vir. He will be interned at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Techny, Ill.

FIRST DIVINE WORD MISSIONARY TO SERVE IN KENYA DIES

Divine Word Missionary Father Edward “Spike” Dudink, 90, died on Monday, June 8, in Boston, Mass. A Chicago native, Fr. Dudink distinguished himself as the first Divine Word Missionary to work in Kenya.

“I first met Spike when I was a novice and later he was my rector at Divine Word Theologate,” said Rev. Mark Weber, SVD, provincial superior of the Society of the Divine Word’s Chicago Province. “Spike was one of the calmest people I know.”

Born in 1919, he was one of Garrett and Gilda (Schuit) Dudink’s ten children. After graduating from St. Nicholas Grade School in Chicago, the 14-year-old Dudink headed north and entered St. Mary’s Seminary at Techny, Ill.

In 1941, he professed his religious vows and became a Divine Word Missionary. After ordination to the priesthood in 1946, Fr. Dudink worked in education and formation. From 1971 to 1976, he served as novice master at Bay St. Louis, Miss., and then accepted an assignment as the first Divine Word Missionary to minister in Kenya.

In 1979, he returned to Chicago, where he became rector of the Divine Word Theologate, and later founded a house of prayer in Goroka, Papua New Guinea.

Fr. Dudink studied education at Marquette University and received a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from Catholic University in Washington, DC.

Beginning in 1986, Fr. Dudink spent his retirement years working as a spiritual director and counselor at Miramar Retreat Center, facilitating directed, guided and preached retreats. A certified handwriting analyst and an avid gardener, Fr. Dudink’s passion for perennials led to the Miramar Retreat Center’s thriving landscapes.

Fr. Dudink’s visitation will be held at Miramar Retreat Center on Thursday, June 11, from 4 to 8 p.m. The retreat center is located at 121 Parks St., Duxbury, Mass. His funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m., Friday, June 12, at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, 40 Canal St., Green Harbor, Marshfield, Mass.

Fr. Dudink’s body will be brought to Techny, Ill., where there will be visitation at Divine Word Residence from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 14, with a funeral Mass on Monday, June 15, at 10:30 a.m. He will be interred at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Techny.

Fr. Dudink is survived by a brother, Fred Dudink of Kenosha, Wis., and a sister, Anne Donovan of Lowell, Ind. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be sent to The Rector, Miramar Retreat Center, P.O. Box M, Duxbury, MA  02331.

DIVINE WORD MISSIONARY DEVOTED PRIESTHOOD TO PEOPLE IN NEED

Divine Word Missionary Father Norman St. John, 76, died on Sunday, May 10, in Bordentown, NJ. Fr. St. John, who served in parishes in Illinois and New Jersey, sought creative ways to help his urban parishioners.

The Chicago Tribune once published an article about a market day—sponsored by St. Elizabeth Parish on Chicago’s South Side, the Self Help Action Center and small farmers from Kankakee, Ill. Fr. St. John was quoted as saying, “They [parishioners and neighbors] can shop conveniently, closer to home, and they know they’re getting fresh food. They’re tired of buying stale stuff in some of the stores.”

He predicted that shoppers could save 30 to 40 percent on their grocery bills. The year was 1972, and a dozen farm-fresh eggs cost 45 cents.

Born in 1933 in Utica, NY, he was the sixth of Windsor and Odila (Suprenant) St. John’s seven children. After graduating from St. Francis de Sales High School in Utica, he entered the Divine Word novitiate in 1952, professed religious vows in 1954, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1962 at Techny, Ill.

That same year, Fr. St. John earned a licentiate in canon law from the Gregorian University in Rome. That degree led to his first assignment at Divine Word College at Techny, where he taught canon law and moral theology until 1968. At the year’s end, Fr. St. John was assigned to St. Anselm on Chicago’s South Side. In 1971, he moved to Chicago’s St. Sabina and later St. Elizabeth, the city’s oldest African-American parish.

In 1973, he was elected to the Association of Chicago Priests and headed the committee to develop guidelines for supply priests, traveling clergy who fill in for pastors.

In 1975, Fr. St. John was transferred to New Jersey, where he was assigned to Our Lady of the Divine Shepherd in Trenton. Three times—in 1985, 1993 and 1996—he was elected rector of the Society of the Divine Word’s Bordentown Community. He also devoted much time to prison chaplaincy.

MISSIONARY PRIEST, ACCOMPLISHED ADMINISTRATOR DIES AT TECHNY

Rev. Leo Hotze, 92, a Divine Word Missionary who served two terms as provincial superior, died Sunday, Jan. 18, at Techny, Ill.

Born in 1916 in Leopold, Mo., he was the fifth of Bernard and Anne Margaret (Steinnerd) Hotze’s nine children. Of the nine children, five took religious vows. Two siblings entered the School Sisters of Notre Dame, and his brothers Alphonse and Clement served as Divine Word Missionaries in Japan and Ghana, respectively.

Fr. Leo Hotze became a member of the Society of the Divine Word in 1938 and was ordained in 1943. His assignments included teaching math, speech, music and English at Divine Word seminaries in Epworth, Iowa, and at Techny. At the schools, he nurtured the choirs, bands and orchestras and enjoyed conducting.

In the interim, Fr. Hotze also found time for his own studies. In 1948, he earned a master’s degree in English from the University of Chicago. A year later, his superiors chose him to establish the Brother Candidate High School and trade programs at Techny, the first program developed specifically for boys, ages 14 to 18, who wished to become religious brothers.

During his career Fr. Hotze served as vocation director from 1951-1958 and 1967-1971. In the 1960s, the governing body in Rome twice named him to head the Eastern Province. As provincial superior, he oversaw territory that spanned from the Province of Quebec through the Eastern seaboard of the United States and included six seminaries and three mission centers.

“Retirement was not a word in Leo Hotze vocabulary,” said Rev. Mark Weber, SVD, provincial superior of the Society of the Divine Word’s Chicago Province. “Along with the high-profile appointments that he handled with grace, Fr. Hotze saw fit to fulfill any need he observed—from spraying the apple orchards when an elderly brother could no longer do it to founding a prayer group for North Shore residents who had been to Medjugorje [a pilgrimage site in Eastern Europe that was visited by many Catholics in the 1980s].”

Beginning in 1972, Fr. Hotze coordinated appeals for the Divine Word Mission Center. Working with the Propagation of the Faith, he assigned brothers and priests to speak about the missions. Fr. Hotze also served as chaplain for the Knights of Columbus councils in Glenview and Northbrook and organized a prayer group that met regularly at the Holy Spirit Chapel at Techny Towers.

He is survived by three sisters, Sr. Mary Clarea Hotze, SSND; Sr. Mary Helen Hotze, SSND; and Angela Ann Hotze. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations for the care of retired missionaries may be sent to The Rector, Divine Word Residence, 1901 Waukegan Road, P.O. Box 6000, Techny, IL 60082-6000.

MISSIONARY PRIEST SERVED THE UNITED STATES AS EXAMPLE FOR OTHERS

The Rev. Edward Wald, 86, a Divine Word Missionary and an educator, died Dec. 9, 2008, at Techny, Ill.

“Ed Wald epitomized what it means to be a missionary in the United States,” said Rev. Mark Weber, SVD, provincial of the Society of the Divine Word’s Chicago Province. “During his priesthood, he conscientiously taught the youth, actively supported his brother’s ministry in Papua New Guinea, and tirelessly served the poor and marginalized in our country.”

The eighth of Ann Marie and Michael Wald’s 12 children, Fr. Wald was born in Karlsruhe, N.D. and followed his older brother John’s footsteps by leaving the family farm and becoming a Divine Word Missionary. Although he left the farm, he never lost his love for it.

Fr. Wald became a member of the Society of the Divine Word in 1943, the same year that his brother John, who died this past May, was ordained a priest. Fr. Ed Wald’s own ordination took place in May of 1950.

For more than two decades, he taught scores of future Divine Word brothers and priests at Divine Word Seminaries in Miramar, Mass.; Conesus, N.Y.; Bordentown, N.J.; and Girard, Pa. During many of those years, he managed farms at Conesus and Girard. Those farms on which they grew produce and raised animals allowed the missionaries and their students to be somewhat self-sufficient.

In 1971, when the working farms were no longer needed, Fr. Wald spent six months studying at the Society of the Divine Word Tertiate at Nemi, Italy, near Rome. Upon return the following year, he became a chaplain for four hospitals within the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Then, in 1984, he was assigned to St. Thomas Parish in Gassaway, W. Vir., where he and his parishioners built a two-story parish hall with classrooms.

Ten years later, he reported to St. Louis, where he provided pastoral care at St. Nicholas Parish, the Jefferson Arms Retirement Home, and St. Thomas of Aquin. In 2001, he moved to Techny and was joined by his brother John in 2002.

Fr. Wald is survived by his brother Alex and two sisters, Mary Bujnovsky and Ann Ziegler. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations for the care of retired missionaries may be sent to The Rector, Divine Word Residence, 1901 Waukegan Road, P.O. Box 6000, Techny, IL 60082-6000.

The Rev. Lawrence Wagner, SVD, a founder of the first Society of the Divine Word (SVD) seminary in Mexico and manager of Mission Press, died in Techny, Ill., Sept. 3, at age 91.

“Larry once said that one of the greatest compliments he ever received was that he spoke Spanish like a native-born Mexican,” said Rev. Mark Weber, SVD, provincial of the Society of the Divine Word’s Chicago Province. “When he arrived in Mexico as a missionary, a man told him that he should not unpack, that the people wouldn’t accept a priest from another country. Fortunately, he unpacked and proved the man wrong.”

The fifth of Lawrence T. and Elizabeth (nee End) Wagner’s eight children, Fr. Wagner was born in Pittsburgh, Penn. As a youth, he followed in his older brother Wilbert’s footsteps and attended Sacred Heart Seminary in Girard, Penn.

Father Lawrence Wagner professed religious vows in 1939 and was ordained in 1944. Although first assigned to Papua New Guinea, Fr. Wagner and other missionaries were not allowed to travel during World War II. Instead, he taught Greek and English composition at the SVD seminary in Conesus, N.Y.

Following the war, international travel resumed, but Fr. Wagner’s superiors sent him to the Society’s Mission Press at Techny. After a year of studying about the plant’s many printing presses and attending night classes to learn about paper, ink and graphic arts, Fr. Wagner became manager, a role he cherished until fire destroyed the operation in 1960.

For the next three years, he served as director of the religious brothers at Techny. In 1963, Fr. Wagner realized his dream of being a foreign missionary and accepted an assignment in the Diocese of Cuernavaca, Mexico, where he, his brother and Fr. Andrew Renko established Divine Word Seminary in Guadalajara, Mexico. Fr. Wagner served as rector of the seminary, as well as regional treasurer for the Divine Word Missionaries in Mexico.

At age 65, he returned to the States to teach at the seminary in East Troy, Wis. Upon the request of the Divine Word provincial in Mexico, Fr. Wagner went back in Mexico in 1990 and taught at the seminary in Guadalajara until 2002 when he retired and returned to the Unites States at the age of 85.

Fr. Wagner is survived by his brother Joseph and a multitude of nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations for the care of retired missionaries may be sent to The Rector, Divine Word Residence, 1901 Waukegan Road, P.O. Box 6000, Techny, IL 60082-6000.

Brother Joseph Urban, 72, a Divine Word Missionary, died Sunday, Aug. 17, in Techny, Ill.

“Whatever assignment he received, Brother Joe carried out his work with great care,” said Fr. Adam MacDonald, SVD, vice-rector of the Techny community. “He faithfully accepted God’s will.”

Brother Joe, the third and youngest child of Joseph and Margaret (nee Cleaver) Urban, was born in New Orleans, La., in 1936. As a boy and youth, he attended grammar school at St. Alphonsus and studied upholstery-working at L.E. Rabouin Vocational High School in New Orleans.

In 1954, he moved to Techny and three years later professed his first vows as a member of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD). In 1960 his first assignment took him to Marburg, Australia, where he professed his perpetual vows in 1963.

Following three years as a cook, tailor and maintenance engineer in Marburg and Epping, Australia, Brother Joe returned to the United States, where he served the communities of Techny; East Troy, Wis.; and Bay St. Louis, Miss.

In East Troy for 12 years, Brother Joe taught CCD at St. James in Mukwonago, St. John’s in Twin Lakes, and St. Robert Bellarmine in Union Grove. He also volunteered to work with children with intellectual handicaps, and he actively served the Knights of Columbus as a fourth degree knight and as assistant chaplain. Devoted to the Knights of Columbus, he founded their East Troy chapter.

In 1973, Brother Joe spent six months in Rome studying moral theology, Old and New Testament, missiology and sociology as part of the SVDs’ spiritual renewal program.

Later, he accepted a transfer back to Techny and became guest master, chauffeur and kitchen director of the SVD residence. In the early 1990s, he performed similar duties at St. Augustine’s Seminary in Bay St. Louis before retiring at Techny.

Brother Joe is survived by his sister, Margaret Bonck of Metairie, La., and a sister-in-law, Grace Urban of Independence, La. He was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Donald J. Urban. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations for the care of retired missionaries may be sent to The Rector, Divine Word Residence, 1901 Waukegan Road, P.O. Box 6000, Techny, IL 60082-6000.

The Rev. Roger Arnold, 75, a Divine Word Missionary, psychologist and educator, died Tuesday, Aug. 12, in Techny, Ill.

Fr. Arnold, who lived on three continents, was many things to many people—a priest, a scholar, a professor, a clinical psychologist, a judo instructor and more.

“I often likened Rog to a light switch–when he was on, he was full power; whereas, the rest of us work more like wind-up toys,” said Rev. Mark Weber, SVD, provincial of the Society of the Divine Word’s Chicago Province.

“Rog had an incredible energy and enthusiasm, and he threw himself into whatever he was doing–whether that was cutting grass, reading a new book, or giving a talk or homily,” he said. “This enthusiasm drove him to understand things and gave him an ability to make connections and integrate apparently unrelated things into a unified whole.”

Born in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1933 to Simon and Teresa (nee Brandl) Arnold, he was the eldest of five children. In 1947, he entered the SVD high school seminary in Girard, Pa., and professed first vows with the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) in 1953. In 1955, he graduated from Divine Word College in Epworth, Ia.; attended St. Mary Seminary at Techny from 1955 to1961; and was ordained to the priesthood in 1961.

Dedicated to learning, Fr. Arnold earned a licentiate (M.A.) in canon law from Gregorian University in Rome in 1963 and then went back to Illinois to teach canon law, moral theology and pastoral theology at the seminary at Techny. While teaching, he also worked on a doctorate in the psychology of personality at Loyola University (Chicago), which he completed in 1976.

A professor who taught group therapy at Loyola ignited Fr. Arnold’s interest in judo, which emphasizes non-violence and self-defense. The priest went on to become a black belt and taught classes for children at the North Suburban YMCA in Northbrook and for adults at Elk Grove High School.

To gain clinical psychology training, Fr. Arnold accepted a job as an assistant psychologist at the State of Ohio Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison, in Lucasville, Ohio, for one year. For another three years, he worked as a staff psychologist at the Mental Health Center in Fort Wayne, Ind.

In 1980, Fr. Arnold returned to Techny and founded the Center for Human Development, which integrated psychological counseling and religious experience. Influenced by the work of Fr. Bernard Lonergan, SJ, a philosopher-theologian, Fr. Arnold said he wanted to offer psychological counseling that took a person’s religious convictions into account, a practice that most traditional psychologists did not provide.

Teaching called him again in the late 1980s. From 1988 until 1994, Fr. Arnold taught at Missionary Institute London in England and the Lonergan Institute in Toronto, Canada. In 1994, he once again returned to Illinois, this time to serve as the SVD formation director at Divine Word Theologate in Chicago.

After nine years as formation director, he accepted an assignment to the SVD Postulancy House in Kabwe, Zambia. Most recently, he was in the United States visiting family and was preparing to go back to Africa.

“To me he epitomizes a man who never ceased to challenge himself and push the boundaries, and that impresses me more than anything in this world,” said Rev. Wojciech Szypula, SVD, a Polish missionary who studied theology at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and served with Fr. Arnold in Zambia.

In 1937, Br. Vincent Webb became the first African American Brother to profess vows in the Society of the Divine Word. He served the Church as a Brother for 68 years.

Br. Vincent, —originally Louis— Webb, was the seventh of ten children of Wesley and Ella Webb of Fordyce, AK. He attended a community school in Fordyce, where a teacher was hired for only three months of the year.

In 1925, he went north to Toledo, Ohio at the age of 17 to work in a creosote plant. Raised in the Baptist faith, Webb had never heard of Catholics, much less met one. (According to Br. Vincent, there just weren’t any Catholics in the black community in Arkansas at that time.) The owner of the creosote plant, a Catholic, invited him to Mass St. Patrick’s church.

Br. Vincent remembered, “Before I walked into St. Patrick’s church in Toledo, I had never seen a crucifix. When I looked up at that life-sized crucifix, something just happened to me,” he remembers. He kept going back to St. Patrick's, and was baptized that year. Before long, decided that he wanted to become a priest.

At the time, the only Catholic seminary in the United States that would accept black men as candidates for the priesthood was the Society of the Divine Word St. Augustine’s Seminary in Bay St. Louis, MS. It had opened in 1923 specifically to educate black men for the priesthood to seek converts among the poor blacks in the rural South. In 1928, Louis Webb applied and was accepted at St. Augustine’s Seminary, but because of his lack of formal education, he could not keep up with the demands of the courses. He went back to Toledo after one year and continued to work in the creosote plant.

In 1934, he began again to apply for admission to other religious communities. Time after time, he was turned down, and he became mightily discouraged. He said he wondered what he had done that he could not be accepted anywhere. He stopped going to church for about three months. The priests at St. Patrick’s wrote to every religious community in the United States on his behalf, but, it seemed, none would accept a black candidate.

That year, the Society of the Divine Word was given permission by Rome to accept black candidates for the religious Brotherhood at Bay St. Louis.

In 1934, Webb, who attributes his perseverance to grace, entered the Brothers’ program at St. Augustine Seminary, Bay St. Louis. He professed first vows in 1937, and was thereafter known as Br. Vincent Webb, a name he retained in honor of St. Vincent de Paul. “I read about how St. Vincent de Paul went around helping the poor in Paris. I liked that, and I wanted to imitate him,” Br. Vincent told friends.

Br. Vincent’s first assignment was to take charge of the laundry and cooking for the seminary at Bay St. Louis. That was where he learned to cook in the French Creole manner. “In New Orleans, they like their food hot and their coffee strong,” he used to say.

Fifteen years later, in 1952, he was transferred to the Society’s Montreal district in Canada, where he ran a farm and took care of a dairy herd at Granby, Quebec for seven years. “That was the hardest assignment to give up,” he once said with evident regret, “but I had taken a vow of obedience and I was needed elsewhere.”

For the next six years, from 1960-1966, he did the cooking at the Society’s community in Bordentown, New Jersey and in Pittsburgh. Despite his liking for Creole cooking and chicory coffee, he always learned to cook the way the community I was sent to liked its food.

In 1966, Br. Vincent was assigned to Divine Word Seminary in Riverside, California, where he plied his culinary skills for the next 31 years before retiring to Techny. In 1996, he suffered knee injuries that confined him to a wheelchair. His response to this misfortune was, “My hands are still good, so I’ll volunteer to peel the potatoes for the community.” He also helped by sorting stamp collections to help the missions.

Br.Joachim (Stephen) Oros died November 7, at the Techny residence. He was ninety-three and had been a Divine Word Missionary for seventy-one years.

Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Joachim entered the Society at Techny in 1931 and professed vows in 1934.

He was sent to Bordentown when that house first opened and then in 1944 he was assigned to Conesus where he went to work for O-Neh-Da Vineyards, then owned and operated by the SVD. Joachim worked in the winery first as a salesman for ten years, and then worked as a truck driver for more than twenty years.

I first met this gentleman in the early 1960s, when I, too, worked for the winery. In the mid 1970s Joachim was told that he could no longer make trips to Florida to deliver wine and so he quit his job. A few days later he tried to get it back but the winery owners would not take him back. He then asked for a transfer to Miramar where he worked in the gardens. In the early 1980s when the house was sold he moved across the street to the retreat house and continued to garden. In the mid 1990s, after being sick for a few years, he was again assigned to Techny.

Joachim was a kind man who often thought first of others. He had many friends wherever he lived. In the seventies he loved to go to Miramar for the Thanksgiving holiday and visit with his old friends and share a nip or two with them, but I believe that he himself did not drink.

Now a few personal stories about my SVD Brother Joachim.

While I was in the novitiate at Conesus, Joachim was having problems with his back and he asked permission to have some of the novices who worked at the winery to help him on his daily deliveries. On the day it was my turn, we left Conesus after breakfast and headed straight to his chiropractor. Then it was on to our first stop, just south of Buffalo, New York. On the way we had enough time for five decades of the rosary. He led, I answered. Then it was on to some cheap but good food at a truck stop. Our second stop was a few miles away down the road. Then onto the third stop, but with enough time for five more decades of the rosary. Between the third and fourth stops, we had enough time for the litanies of the Blessed Mother, Sacred Heart and St. Joseph all from memory. He led, I answered. After the fourth stop it was time to head home but we had enough time for five more decades of the rosary. That was a typical day in Joachim’s life on the road.

Joachim helped with a clambake that we had at Miramar, in the early 80s—one of the best I ever had. Joachim, who had a license to dig clams, went out and dug them for us. It was his gift to the community even though he himself would not eat them. He preferred hamburger.

I remember him traveling to Florida to deliver wine to retired priests. When his truck was emptied he would buy fruit for the community at Conesus.

Joachim, my friend, thank you for being you and for all the good you have shown to us and to others and may God have mercy and bless you and welcome you into His Heavenly kingdom, His good and faithful servant.

Fr. Paul J. Connors, 70, died of complications from diabetes October 9 at Barbara E. Cheung Memorial Hospice in Edison, New Jersey.

A wake service will be held at Divine Word Residence, 101 Park St., Bordentown, Wednesday, October 12 from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. The funeral Mass will be offered at St. Mary’s Parish Church in Bordentown on Thursday, October 13 at 10: A.m. followed by burial in St. Mary’s Parish cemetery.

Fr. Connors celebrated 50 years in religious vows last month. He was born in Somerville, MA, and attended St. John’s Grade School. He entered the Society of the Divine Word at the Divine Word Seminary in Duxbury, MA and continued his studies for the priesthood at St. Mary’s Seminary, Techny, IL. He was ordained at Techny in 1963.

His early ministries included administration and education in the Eastern U.S. at Divine Word seminaries in Duxbury, MA, Bordentown, NJ, and Girard, PA. He was principal of the Divine Word high school seminary at Bordentown from 1969-1976. He was director of Miramar Retreat Center, Duxbury, MA from 1981 to 1990.

Fr. Connors was trained in spiritual direction and retreat ministry. He held an M.A. in Theology from St. Mary’s Seminary, Techny, IL and an M.T.S. in Spirituality from the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, CA.From 1995-1999 he served on the staff of Techny Towers Retreat Center, Techny, IL, offering holistic individual and group spiritual direction and individual retreat direction. For four years he coordinated the adult spiritual enrichment program called “Northern Lights,” that was a collaborative effort sponsored by Divine Word International, Techny, St. Philip the Apostle Parish, Northfield, St. Norbert Parish, Northbrook, and Our Lady of the Brook Parish in Northbrook.

He served as a retreat director in the Northeastern U.S. while living at the Divine Word residence in Bordentown since 1999.

Fr. Donald Mulrenan, 73, died in Boston, MA, September 25.

Born in Melrose, MA, in 1932, the fourth of seven children of the late Dominic and Gertrude Mulrenan, he attended St. Mary’s grade school in Melrose and Divine Word Seminary high school in Duxbury. Following ordination at St. Mary’s Seminary, Techny, in 1960, he was missioned to the Philippines, where he served for thirteen years as prefect, treasurer and president in Divine Word colleges.

Between assignments in the Philippines he attended graduate school at Boston College where he earned a masters degree in education.

He returned permanently to the U.S. in 1973 to become principal and treasurer at Divine Word Seminary in Perrysburg, OH, then vice-provincial of the Chicago Province in Techny, IL, from 1976 to 1978. From 1979-1985, he served as provincial of the Chicago Province at Techny. From 1985-1990, he served again as vice-provincial of the Chicago Province and assistant provincial treasurer.

He moved to Boston in 1990, where he worked as mission director for the Divine Word Missionaries from 1990-2005 preaching retreats and missions in the Boston Archdiocese and other areas of the Northeast. He also served as associate pastor at St. Joseph Church in Woburn, MA, for 15 years.

Chicago Province Provincial Fr. Mark Weber said, “We have lost a great confrere.”

Fr. John Koster, 87, died at Divine Word Residence, Techny, June 21. Born in Dunkerton, Iowa, in 1918, John Koster entered the Society in 1932 at Epworth, Iowa. He professed first vows in 1939, and was ordained at Techny in 1944. Following ordination, he completed a Master’s Degree in Physics at De Paul University and went on to earn a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of London. In 1950 he was assigned to Ghana, West Africa, where he became a chaplain and lecturer in physics at the University of Ghana.

Through radio astronomy, he tracked both Russian and U.S. satellites, and is credited with being the first scientist outside the Soviet Union to detect Sputnik, the first Earth satellite launched in 1957.

Because of his success in tracking both Russian and U.S. satellites, he was appointed Ghana’s official satellite observer. He was also among the first to prove the Earth’s upper atmosphere was most ionized over the equator, and not the poles. He continued teaching in Ghana for twenty- eight years, then transferred to the Society’s Fu Jen University in Taipei, Taiwan, where he taught computer science and atmospheric physics while doing research until 1993. He retired at Techny in 1997.

In addition to his work as a scientist, Fr. John worked as a missionary among his students in Ghana and among students and migrant workers in Taipei. One former student in Ghana said when John retired, “How can we forget this ‘stranger’ so humorous, gentle and solicitous, yet so firm and forward looking?” Fr. John celebrated 65 years in religious vows and 60 years as a priest in 2004.

Fr. Louis Luzbetak, 86, died of heart failure March 22 at Divine Word Residence, Techny. Known simply as Fr. Louie among SVDs and friends, he was an internationally known scholar
in the field of missiological anthropology. He was as well known among Protestant missiologists as he was among Catholic scholars in the field.

Fr. Louie’s first book, The Church and Cultures: An Applied Anthropology for the Religious Worker, published in 1963, was widely translated and recognized as a classic handbook in mission training by Christian churches involved in missions throughout the world.

Darrell Whiteman, the evangelical Christian who contributed Louie’s biography in Eerdman’s prestigious Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, wrote: “While uncompromising in matters of faith, he was opposed to all forms of manipulation or pressure in mission action, and his foremost concern was what is known today as inculturation and
contextualization.”

At a papal Audience in 1988, Pope John Paul II receives a copy of The Church and Cultures: New Perspectives in Missiological Anthropology from its author, Fr. Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD.

Fr. Louie himself wrote in a 1992 article in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research, “The evangelizer must deal with culture not as a heap of unrelated odds and ends but as a living organic system.”

Born in Joliet, Illinois, to parents who were immigrants from Slovakia, Fr. Louie attended SS. Cyril & Methodius School. He entered the Society of the Divine Word at St. Mary’s Seminary, Techny, in 1932, and was ordained a priest at Techny in 1945. Following studies in theology at the Gregorian University in Rome, he earned a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

From 1952-1956 he did anthropological field work in the Wahgi Valley of the New Guinea Highlands. Throughout his years in New Guinea, Fr. Louie actively promoted literacy among the population, devising phonemic alphabets for unwritten languages; making major contributions toward the standardization of Pidgin English; and serving on the government’s Commission on Languages.

Returning to the U.S., he taught at Divine Word Seminary, Techny, and lectured widely at various Christian universities and mission training centers.

In 1965, Fr. Louie became the founding executive director at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), a center for gathering statistical demographic data for the Catholic Church. CARA is located at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, where he served until 1973 when he became president of Divine Word College, Epworth, Iowa.

In 1979 he became editor of the journal Anthropos: International Review of Ethnology and Linguistics and Acting Director of the Anthropos Institut, Sankt Augustin, Germany.

From 1982-1987, Fr. Louie worked on the new, post-Vatican II version of his handbook, The Church and Cultures: New Perspectives in Missiological Anthropology, published by Orbis Books in 1988.

Following the re-publication of his classic book, Fr. Louie served from 1987-1989 as a staff member of the Pontifical Council for Culture at the Vatican.

Among his many academic honors, fellowships and distinctions are the Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD, Chair of Mission and Culture, established at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, (presently held by Stephen Bevans, SVD), and the Father Louis Luzbetak, SVD, Award for Excellence in Church Research established by CARA at Georgetown University, Washington, DC.

Fr. Louie was a Fellow of the American Anthropological Association; served as a member of research committees of various ecumenical organizations, including the National Council of Churches and various professional organizations. He also served as president of the Catholic Anthropological Association and president of the American Society of Missiology. In 1989 he began working from his office in Techny, continuing to make scholarly contributions to mission science publications until recent months.

At the news of his death, tributes poured in for Fr. Louie. Here are some of them:

Fr. Aylward Shorter, a British missiologist and author of books on inculturation and Africa, wrote:

Thanks for telling me the sad news about Fr. Luzbetak. Please accept my condolences and pass them on to his confreres. He was a “father” of practical missiology and of the theology of cultures. I shall always be grateful that I was given the privilege of paying tribute to him in his presence at the 4th Luzbetak Lecture in Chicago in 2003. May God reward this good and faithful servant.

Paul Hiebert, Trinity Evangelical University School of Theology professor and much-published missionary anthropologist with an international reputation, observed:

I always found Louis to be warm, appreciative and interested. The world never has too many At a papal Audience in 1988, Pope John Paul II receives a copy of The Church and Cultures: New Perspectives in Missiological Anthropology from its author, Fr. Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD. human beings like Louie.

Ken Gill, a publisher of Evangelical Missions Quarterly and Associate Director of the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton, Illinois, commented:

I will miss Louis. I used his famous text, The Church and Cultures, in graduate school and was elated to meet him in the late 1980s in Pittsburgh. I was attending the ASM (American Society of Missiology) conference and waiting in line for a meeting when this very nice man started a conversation with me. He was very interested in who I was and what I was doing and made sure I felt welcome at the meeting. and then he said, “Oh—by the way—I am Louis Luzbetak.” I looked forward to seeing him every year at the annual meeting. He was always humble and gracious and happy to see me.

Jonathan Bonk, Director of the Overseas Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut, and author of Missions and Money, states:

What a wonderful spirit has departed for a better place! But he will be missed!

Angelyn Dries, OSF, Professor of Theology at St. Louis University and author of The Missionary Movement in American Catholic History, writes:

What a wonderful man! I am so happy I got to know him in his later years. When I finally got to the SVD archives, I stayed with the Techny community. He was so dear to me. I always made a point of speaking with him at the ASM meetings and he would get a little grin on his face when I inquired about his health. I’ll certainly remember him in prayer and with gratitude.

Bryan T. Froehle, Director of the St. Catherine of Sienna Center and Associate Professor of Sociology at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, writes:

I first met Fr. Luzbetak in 1998 when I became Executive Director of CARA. I sought his wisdom as I took this commitment on—I was only thirty-three at the time—and he graciously took me under his wing, something for which I will be forever grateful. The following year CARA celebrated its thirty-fifth anniversary and he was there. We had instituted an annual dinner each October and it was a pleasure to host him and have him with us. I was at CARA from 1995 to 2003, roughly paralleling his length of service some thirty years previous. One of the books I coauthored with a CARA colleague, entitled Global Catholicism, published by Orbis in 2003, is dedicated to him.

“Father Louie” greeted and spoke with SVDs and lay employees daily as he came and went from his office in the Province Center in Techny. He did not advertise his accomplishments. Even among SVDs, few fully understood his stature as a scholar and groundbreaking author, but everyone agreed that Fr. Louie will be missed for his unfailing graciousness, gentle humor and genuine courtesy toward all.

Fr. John Beemster, 92, died at Divine Word Residence, Techny, March 15. On September 8, John would have been 70 years in vows; on August 15, he would have celebrated 65 years of priestly ordination. Fr. John was born in Zwaag, North Holland (The Netherlands). The family immigrated to the Chicago area and became members of St. Willibrord’s Parish on Chicago’s southside. Brother Willibrord Beemster, stationed mainly at Bordentown, was a cousin of the Beemsters.

Fr. John pursued graduate studies in mathematics at Catholic University and at Marquette University. In 1970, he received a research grant from the National Science Foundation to pursue mathematics courses at St. Louis University.

When Fr. John was ordained in 1940, neither he nor his classmates received mission appointments as World War II was on the horizon. In the 1950s Fr. John served as rector of Divine Word High School Seminary in Epworth, Iowa.

For most of his career he taught mathematics at Divine Word Seminary, East Troy, Wisconsin. He was a dedicated chaplain of the Knights of Columbus in the East Troy area for twenty years and was honored with special celebrations by the Knights in recognition and appreciation of his years of outstanding
service.

Fr. Lawrence (Larry) Poetz, 87, died March 12 at Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge, Illinois. Larry was born in Chicago in 1917. He entered the Society of the Divine Word at Techny in 1931 and was ordained in 1944. Fr. Larry served as teacher, treasurer and dean of students at the Society’s Sacred Heart Seminary, Girard, Pennsylvania, from 1945-1950.

In 1950, he was transferred to Divine Word Seminary, Duxbury, Massachusetts, where he taught and directed a summer camp. During the thirty-seven years he worked in the Boston area, he became a popular retreat director. When the seminary became Miramar Retreat Center in 1962, he was appointed rector.

Fr. Larry once said, “When I came to Miramar in 1962, I built a five-room lodging in a cement garage (which included my office). I also set up a gift shop in a section of the building. Later on I built the stone Stations of the Cross in our woods. During the twenty years I was in charge of Miramar, I never called in a builder. I did all the repair work myself.” He served as rector of Miramar Retreat Center until 1982.

From 1982-1988, he served as the treasurer of Divine Word Residence, Techny. Fr. Larry retired in 1988. A talented
craftsman, he spent most of his retirement in his small workshop refurbishing crucifixes to send to the missions and making whimsical clocks to sell for donations to the missions.

Fr. Gerald Garry, 77, died March 12 at Divine Word Residence, Techny. Fr. Garry was born in Schenectady, New York, where he attended St. Columba parish school. After graduating from high school he studied at St. Bernadine of Siena College, Loudonville, New York. He began his missionary training in 1951, as a “late vocation” at Divine Word Seminary, Bordentown, New Jersey. He completed his studies for the priesthood and was ordained in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, in 1959.

Fr. Garry devoted his religious life to teaching sociology and missiology in Divine Word seminaries in the U.S. He held advanced degrees in missiology (Gregorian University, Rome), sociology and library science (Catholic University, Washington, DC). He taught and was library director at Divine Word College, Epworth, Iowa, from 1965 to 1997.Fr. Garry worked as provincial archivist at Techny for three years before retiring in 2000.

Fr. Eugene (Gene) Schmitz died of a heart attack on January 8 in Surabay, Indonesia. He was 66. Gene was born in Skokie, Illinois, where he grew up in St. Peter’s Parish. He attended St. Norbert Grade School in Northbrook, entered the Society at Techny in 1953 and was ordained at Techny in 1967.

His first mission appointment was to Indonesia in 1968. He served the far-flung mission parishes in the mountainous area of the Island of Lembata for more than ten years. In 1979, he became district superior for the SVDs on Lembata. He served nine parishes of between six and ten thousand people with the help of twelve priests. He managed the mission repair shops, the Catholic school board and the formation team on the island.

He worked for thirty-six years as a missionary pastor and seminary dean on the Island of Lembata. Two months before he died, he had begun a new assignment as vicar general of the Diocese of Larantuka. He was the last North American SVD to be allowed by the government of Indonesia to remain there on a permanent assignment.

In the middle of December, Fr. Gene learned he was suffering from a serious heart problem. Doctors recommended days of bed rest. When he suffered the fatal attack, he was about to return to Larantuka. His fellow missionary to Indonesia, Fr. Nicholas Strawn, SVD, was with him when he died and accompanied his body back to Larantuka for the funeral.

Fr. Joseph Miller (provincial, US Western Province), a classmate of Fr. Gene, described him as “a special friend and a simple, dedicated, enthused SVD priest.”