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I professed my first vows in September of 1962 and was ordained a priest nine years later in September of 1971 in the chapel of Sacred Heart Monastery. I bring that up because I'm retuning to the Monastery as President-Rector of Sacred Heart School of Theology. The school specializes in second career vocations. The old adage what goes around comes around rings true here!
One of the reasons I was considered for the position at the school is my background in education. I spent almost five years as a principal of one of our minor seminaries the community use to operate, and eight years as superintendent of St. Joseph's Indian School in South Dakota. To prepare for those positions I earned degrees from Catholic University, Mundelein College and finally Ball State University in Indiana. I look back with a lot of satisfaction for my years at the Indian School. It's a great work of our community and one of the oldest as well. The
scj's came to the US from Germany in 1923 and by 1928 the school was up and running.
After all those years in education the provincial leadership pointed me in a new direction. In 1986 having completed my time in South Dakota I joined the provincial staff and served there until 1991. While it was very different work from school administration much of the work was 'people' work involving our own
scj's and their works. I enjoyed my time serving the province and had the opportunity to see our
scj's working in South Africa, Indonesia and the Philippines. I greatly admire their work and the struggles they face in preaching the Gospel.
In fact they impressed me so much that I volunteered in 1991 to join the
scj's in the Philippines, a new mission project of the congregation began in 1988. God, being a God of surprises, it was not to be. I would find myself outside the United States, but in a very different place with a very different ministry. At the 1991 General Chapter of our congregation in which the new leadership team for the congregation is elected I found myself being chosen as one of the general councilors. Actually I kind of backed into that as well since my election came only after another scj turned down the position.
I was re-elected to the council in 1997, and so all together I spent 12 years in Rome. Actually being on the council meant spending about half the year in Rome and the other half traveling the congregation. Each councilor acts as a go between the provinces and the general administration. My provinces were the English speaking ones. I also had the chance to visit various parts of the congregation in Africa and Latin America (Brazil). It was a wonderful experience one I would not trade for anything. Living in another culture, learning a new language, meeting people of various languages, ethnic backgrounds and cultures opens your eyes to the world and what a wonder it really is. It also teaches you about the many problems people face, especially the vast poverty that exists in so much of our world.
Twelve years is all one is allowed to serve on the general administration so I returned to the US at the end of June 2003. 1 began a year long sabbatical in the midst of which I was chosen to become the rector-president of Sacred Heart School of Theology as of this coming July. Indeed what goes around comes around.
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