The St. Mary’s Class of 2013 (photo courtesy of St. Mary’s High School)

By Marty Denzer
Catholic Key Reporter

INDEPENDENCE — High school seniors usually feel nostalgia, excitement and a bit of fear as they near the end of the academic year and graduation. But for the 27 seniors at St. Mary’s High School in Independence, that nostalgia and excitement is joined by a sense of loss. When the last student, last teacher and last staff member leave the school at the end of this academic year, the doors will not reopen in the fall.

In late January, Bishop Finn made the sad announcement that the school would close at the end of the school year due to low enrollment and mounting debt.

While seniors graduate, the rest of the student body will be starting again at other schools, and faculty members will have to find other positions. For many of the students, knowing that after generations of their families had attended St. Mary’s, being the last is hard to grasp.

St. Mary’s was founded 160 years ago. In 1853 Independence was still a young town and Kansas City was officially only three years old. The area that would eventually be the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph was at that time part of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Just eight years earlier, Archbishop Peter Kenrick of St. Louis had assigned newly ordained Father Bernard Donnelly to travel to Independence and found a parish there.

Father Donnelly arrived in May 1845, bringing a trunk, some books and $5, prepared to serve about 12 Catholic families in a parish covering roughly 18,000 square miles, according to the diocesan history, This Far By Faith.

Father Donnelly learned quickly that he was on his own to build a church and a place to live on property designated in St. Louis’s first Bishop Joseph Rosati’s will for a parish church. Bishop Rosati died in 1843. The location of that property has never been identified, the history says.

With the help of Independence residents, Col. Cornelius Davy, a Santa Fe freighter and businessmen Anthony Cosgrove, William Howe, Samuel C. Owens, as well as some local non-Catholics, Father Donnelly was able to raise the money to purchase a wagon shop and the half-lot it stood on from John and Elizabeth Parker for $750 in 1848. The front half was used as a chapel and the rear as sleeping quarters for Father Donnelly. He named the parish Holy Cross.

Five years later, Susan A. Hamilton transferred the remainder of the lot to Father Donnelly for the growing parish. On the lot was a 1½ story frame building that Father Donnelly converted into a school. Having no money to hire a teacher, he served as teacher until the following year when Sallie Mullens (Fox) offered to teach in the school at no charge. All students who wished to attend the school were accepted. Mullens taught for free at the school through 1856.

About 30 families lived in the parish by 1857. That year, Father Donnelly switched parishes with Father Denis Kennedy — Father Donnelly moved to what was then called St. John Francis Regis Parish (now Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception) in Kansas City and Father Kennedy to Holy Cross.

Father Kennedy began the building of the present church about 1860. Because of labor and material shortages during the Civil War, progress was slow. The cornerstone was laid in 1864, and the name of the parish and school was officially changed to St. Mary. The church was completed by 1865.

The school, which faced Main Street, stayed open during the war, with Mary Dunn teaching while her husband served in the army. In 1865, Independence established its first public school, in the St. Mary’s school building. Father Kennedy arranged with the town of Independence to hire and pay Mrs. Fox and Mrs. Dunn to teach children of all faiths in the school. The arrangement served students until 1876 when a cyclone destroyed the front half of the building.

Two years later, then-pastor Father Thomas Fitzgerald, architect, carpenter and mathematician, designed and built St. Mary’s Academy, with talent and time donated by parishioners. Father Fitzgerald solicited the treasure from some local railroad officials.

From 1878 – 1882, the Academy was staffed by Mother Xavier Ross and four Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth. Until they were recalled to Leavenworth in 1882, the sisters ran a boarding school, accepting both boys and girls, and a parish day school in the remains of the original school building. When the sisters returned to Leavenworth, Father Fitzgerald traveled by horseback the 18 miles to Kansas City, which had been erected as a diocese in 1880, to talk to Bishop John Hogan about finding sisters to teach in the school. Bishop Hogan asked his niece, Mercy Sister Mary Bernard Hayes who, with a companion, was visiting from Louisville, to visit the convent and school and consider helping Father Fitzgerald. The sisters agreed, and received permission from the motherhouse to stay, temporarily. Six Sisters of Mercy began teaching at St. Mary’s Academy in 1882 and, the following year held graduation exercises down the street at Wilson’s Opera House on N. Main Street.

Father Fitzgerald continued to seek permanent teachers. The Louisville Mercy Sisters returned to the motherhouse in June 1884. That summer he heard about a small community of Sisters of Mercy from Worcester Mass., who were living in Carrollton and looking for a place to establish a motherhouse. Three sisters eventually agreed to relocate to Independence. They ran both the parish day school and the boarding school, admitting only girls to the latter. The following year, they started a novitiate and two local girls, Sisters Mary Clara Reber and Mary Joseph Bowen, joined the community. The Sisters of Mercy remained a much loved presence at St. Mary’s through the life of the school.

The Rockhouse, in some histories described as a room in the Main Street school building, in others an addition to that building, made it possible for boys to be admitted as boarders again in 1901. The boys were housed in the Main Street school building, under the watchful eye of a Mrs. Livingston, and attended classes in the Rockhouse. The boy’s boarding school, St. Jerome’s Preparatory School, remained in operation until 1912.

St. Mary’s Academy building was enlarged about 1904, with funds raised by the Sisters of Mercy, who were also responsible for the debt. The building served as a combination school and convent until 1953.

In 1912, St. Jerome’s closed and the admission of boys discontinued. St. Mary’s Academy and day school was operated as an all-girls school for the next 34 years.

In November 1946, the cornerstone for a new, coeducational, high school building was laid. The current building was completed in early 1947 and St. Mary’s high school completed its accreditation that spring.

In 1953, the old Academy building became the sisters’ convent and a new parish grade school was dedicated. By 1961, the grade school building had become too small for the student population, and an addition was built. In 1975, the grade school was relocated to northern Independence and renamed Holy Family School.

St. Mary’s had become a diocesan high school in 1968, and the number of students rapidly increased as enrollment was opened to students outside the parish boundaries. In 1976, the high school acquired the grade school buildings.

St. Mary’s received a bequest in 1981 from the estate of Independence Judge Henry A. Bundschu, which was used to fund the construction of a new gym and field house on Main Street, just south of the school. The field house was dedicated in 1987, and the school was known from then on as St. Mary High School/Bundschu Memorial.

Since 1989, the high school has been fully accredited by North Central Association, now a division of AdvancEd, the world’s largest academic accrediting agency.

A decade later, the old high school became one of the first schools in the state to be wired for technology during a national “Net (Internet) Day.”

In 2010, a study by the consulting firm of O’Meara, Ferguson, Whelan and Conway reemphasized the long-recognized need of a new high school to serve eastern Jackson, western Lafayette and northern Cass counties. They recommended a site accessible to the I-470, M-291 and U.S. 350 highway corridors.

In Jan. 2012, it was announced that the diocese had, by a combination purchase and donation, acquired an 80-acre tract of land in Lee’s Summit, on which it plans to build a new Catholic high school, St. Michael the Archangel. If all goes according to plan, the new school will open in 2015, at which time, St. Mary’s and Archbishop O’Hara high schools were to consolidate at the new site.

As part of the merger process, O’Hara principal John O’Connor also became principal of St. Mary’s, splitting his time between the two schools.

Dr. Dan Peters, diocesan Superintendent of Schools, said that opening a new high school by combining St. Mary’s and Archbishop O’Hara into one school on the new site would be a sustainable way to make Catholic education available to a broader area.

After parent information meetings in Dec. 2012 and early January of this year, surveys made it clear, Dr. Peters said, that only seven students had committed to enroll as freshmen in 2013-14, and “the possibility of continuing any viable program at St. Mary’s became impossible.”

The bishop announced the closing Jan. 23. In an open letter to parents, the bishop wrote, “I know that the closing of a school, particularly one as historic and integral to a community as St. Mary’s, is met with much grief and sorrow.” He added that the diocese remained committed to honoring the legacy of St. Mary’s as the new high school project advanced. Students would be welcomed at Archbishop O’Hara and St. Pius X high schools at the same tuition rate they would have been charged at St. Mary’s.

As the school year draws to a close, the sense of reading the last words of the closing paragraph of a well-loved book grows stronger. Four teachers, three of whom had taught at St. Mary’s for more than 35 years, announced retirement. A Mass was celebrated May 5 honoring English and history teacher, Brenda Peak (42 years), American Government, geography and Street Law teacher, Glenn Young (41 years), head track and cross country coach Tom Bates (39 years) and Spanish teacher Nilda Bambenek (17 years), followed by a reception.

The Catholic Key got a chance to talk to several students, and teachers Peak and Young, the afternoon of the seniors’ final day of classes. Tears mingled with laughter.

Senior Lauren Martin plans to attend Avila University “probably going into nursing.” So many students have parents or grandparents who attended St. Mary’s, “it’s so sad to see it close. It’s been a struggle to get through this semester with any energy.” She said she knows that while the school itself will be gone, it will remain forever in her memory.

Lauren is the final recipient of the Sister Mary de Paul RSM Spirit Award. Sister Mary de Paul, who died in 1986, taught at St. Mary’s High School for 30 years.

Freshman MacKenzie Clark is the third generation of her family to attend St. Mary’s. “All my family went here,” she said. “It’s really hard to know I won’t graduate from St. Mary’s.” MacKenzie will be “starting over” at Archbishop O’Hara High School. “At least the principal will be the same.” She said the homework and study skills she learned will help her in classes no matter where she is.

Senior Emily Echlin said “everything that has brought us together as a school, basketball, volleyball, dances, pep rallies, will stand out in memories” during her college days at Rockhurst University and for long after.

Jenna Rau, also a sophomore, is the youngest of four who have all attended St. Mary’s. “I’ve been coming here since I was 4 years old for sports and other events,” she said. “Even though I will be at Blue Springs South High School next year, St. Mary’s will stay with me all my life. Forever a Trojan!”

St. Mary’s 159th and final, Baccalaureate Mass and Commencement will be celebrated May 19 at St. Mark’s Church in Independence.

Brenda Peak has taught for 42 years at St. Mary’s High School; she is also an alumna of St. Mary’s, class of 1967. Other members of her family who attended St. Mary’s include her two brothers, five nieces and nephews and a great-niece.

After she graduated from college, Peak received a phone call from a St. Mary’s school board member, asking her to come teach at the high school. “And Sister Paula talked me into it! The Sisters of Mercy, like Sister Aquinas, Sister Rose Marie, Sister Paula and Sister Mary de Paul, are really good teachers and people. It seemed like coming home.”

Glenn Young began teaching at St. Mary’s in 1972. He has been the “go-to” teacher for his students almost from the start.

Both teachers said the Mass and reception honoring them at their retirement was bittersweet. “It’s been a rough year,” Peak said. “We’ve all lost energy and spirit.”

Young said the faculty staff and especially the kids “have been going through all the stages of grief. The worst part is the kids won’t be together.”

What memories of St. Mary’s stand out? Young said in his opinion, it was a like family living together. “Just like in a family, if there’s a problem, there’s someone you can go to for help. When you see people helping others, it fosters a service orientation.”

Some of the best teachers worked at St. Mary’s, Peak said. “We had camaraderie — we taught together, we socialized together, we knew each others’ families. Everything we did was for the kids. We liked each other and that came through to the kids.”

Young said, “All of us demand that the students show respect to each other, to the teachers, and to other people. If a teacher can help instill the respect factor, it stays with their students al their lives.” Grinning, Peak interjected under her breath, “We also know their parents and can rat on ‘em!”

There have been many graduation success stories, Peak said. “I love thinking that we helped make them succeed.”

Father Joseph Powers shows his Silver St. George Award, the highest honor that can be bestowed by the National Catholic Committee on Scouting. (Kevin Kelly/Key photo)

By Kevin Kelly
Catholic Key Associate Editor

KANSAS CITY — They don’t hand this award out like lollipops on Halloween.

It took Father Joseph Powers some 52 years of near-continuous participation in and service to Scouting to earn his Silver St. George Award.

The highest award bestowed by the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, Father Powers was honored at the committee’s annual meeting on April 14 in St. Louis.

Presenting the award was Bishop Emeritus Gerald Gettelfinger of Evansville, Ind., a former liaison between the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Committee on Scouting.

Technically, the award was presented for Father Powers’ 15 years of service as chaplain for Region 9, which includes 15 dioceses in the states of Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska.

But this award, along with virtually every other award possible that Father Powers has earned from the Boy Scouts of America, really was earned from a lifetime commitment to Scouting that began when Father Powers was 8 years old.

That’s when he joined Cub Scout Pack 283 at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Raytown with his mother, Lorraine, as Den mother.

“I stayed with it all the way through Eagle Scout,” Father Powers said. “I just enjoyed it. I enjoyed being outside, camping, the merit badges, just everything about it. I still like going camping.”

He also remembered clearly something else. The late Father John Frame, an associate pastor at Lourdes during Father Powers’ youth, was also interested and very much encouraged the Scouts in Pack and Troop 283. Father Frame would later die in an automobile accident in 1971.

“He would drop into our meetings just to show he was interested. That meant a lot to me,” Father Powers said.

He also remembered the service to Catholic Scouting that the late Father Tom Waterman gave to the Heart of America Council. Father Waterman was frequently the celebrant at Sunday Mass at the H. Roe Bartle Scout Camp near Osceola, which was frequently a mid-summer steam bath.

“I didn’t know him personally then, but he was always at camp,” Father Powers said.

Father Powers said the examples of those two priests had nothing to do with his own call to the priesthood. That came from God, as does all vocations.

But the two priests, as well as the lessons he learned from Scouting, certainly made it easier for him to hear that call, he said.

“You take the Boy Scout Law. There is nothing in it that is out of line with what we believe as Catholics,” he said.

For those who might by rusty on the Boy Scout Law, boiled down to its essence, it goes: “A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent.”

Scouts are not only required to learn it, they must be committed to follow it, Father Powers said.

And that commitment hooked Father Powers from Bobcat to Eagle, and beyond.

He said that the only time he was away from Scouting for any extended period during the last half-century was when he was studying to be a priest at Conception and Kenrick seminaries.

And as soon as he was ordained, he jumped right back in knowing from his own experience that Scouting is an ideal form of youth ministry.

“Whatever parish I was involved with as a priest, I would get involved with the Boy Scout Troop,” he said, giving long hours to Troop 30 at Christ the King as an associate pastor, and at Troop 80 at Holy Cross as pastor.

He also dove right in with the Diocesan Catholic Committee on Scouting, serving as chaplain for 23 years, and also with the Heart of America Boy Scout Council, serving as religious emblems coordinator ant on the executive board.

The reason is simple, Father Powers said.

“What other youth program actually encourages youth to learn about their religion?” he said.

Scouting isn’t strictly Catholic, he said. But religion is at it’s core, whether the troop is Catholic, Protestant, Jewish or Muslim. And that is how Robert Baden-Powell set it up when he wrote “Scouting for Boys,” in 1908 when the worldwide Scouting movement began.

“Religion wasn’t an afterthought when Baden-Powell started this,” Father Powers said.

“You learn to put God and others first,” he said. “That dedication to service to God and others can help a guy be at least a little bit more open to hearing that call from God.”

But even for Catholic boys who aren’t called to the priesthood, Scouting can make them better Catholic men, Father Powers said.

“All those skills and values you learn in Scouting makes you a better person, and you can take that wherever you go,” he said.

Father Powers said he’ll be as active in Scouting as the Lord allows. This summer, he said, he is already planning what for him is a perfect “vacation.”

He’ll spend 15 days this summer at the National Jamboree, sharing a canvas tent with three other chaplains.

And he’ll do it gladly, not because, at age 60, he’ll be one of the oldest Boy Scouts out there, but because he is a priest.

“It’s important to let kids see a priest still doing normal things like they do,” Father Powers said.

“If we are being involved and interested in them and their activities, and if that sparks an interest in a vocation, then that’s a benefit,” he said.

By John Heuertz
Special to The Catholic Key

LEAWOOD, KS — Despite the damp and chill, it was excellent walking conditions at the seventh annual “Blisters for Sisters” event at Church of the Nativity in Leawood, May 4.

“Blisters for Sisters” is a Mass, luncheon, 2.2-mile walk, fund raiser and party that honors Catholic sisters for the many ways they help to build up the Body of Christ in western Missouri and eastern Kansas.

About 300 sisters and Catholic laity attended Saturday, and the solidarity went both ways.

“The sisters really appreciate this and look forward to it every year,” said Sister Connie Boluch OSF, Director of the diocesan Office of Consecrated Life.

Of the laity she said, “The Lord has put us in their lives and them in ours. We’re all on the road to salvation together.”

“The thing that’s most important is the community,” said Virginia Coppinger of Visitation parish. “Not only for the sisters, but also for the community to show its support.”

“It’s a chance to honor all those women who gave, and who still give, their lives to the Church,” said St. Thomas More’s Sandy Jungk.

“I’m here because I know a lot of the sisters and I love them,” said Katie Radford of St. Regis parish.

“I always feel very happy to be here,” said Sister Gracileia Alves OSF.

“How much they enjoy it is what makes it so enjoyable,” said Serran John Harris of St. Elizabeth parish.

“It’s all about thanking these sisters for answering the call of God,” said Christ the King’s Bob Rueckert, president of the Serra Club of Southeast Kansas City Mo.

“I think it’s just wonderful and I want to thank the Serra Club for putting it on,” said Sister Marie Loretta Modrcin SCL, who has lived a consecrated life for 46 years.

“I think the beauty of this is the Serra Club regard for these sisters,” said Sister Loretto Marie Colwell SCL, director of the Seton Center in Kansas City. “Also I thought it was a wonderful experience for the laity to find how many services the sisters offer, especially for people in need.”

“It’s just a very blessed experience.”

“It was good to be together with other sisters and the laity,” said Sister Mary of the Passion LSP. “It’s not often we get the chance to do that.”

“I want to say thanks to the sisters for coming out. I like it that they can see one another this way,” said Our Lady of Sorrows parishioner Pat Amey, this year’s event chairman.

The walk is the marquee Blisters event every year. Saturday’s first finisher was Sister Paula Rose SCL, a retired R.N. attending her first Blisters event. Sister Paula ran the course.

“I love it,” she said. “Not only does it get us all together, it’s a chance to get out and be active and see sisters in other communities.”

Apart from the fellowship, each sister receives a thank-you cash stipend and raffle tickets for prizes such as free passes to movies and car washes.

Catholic businessmen are a major source of donations each year. “They know how much good the sisters do,” Virginia Coppinger said, and her husband Tom added that “You’ll ask for $50 and they’ll write a check for $200 because it’s for the sisters.”

Fr. Joe Cisetti is the Downtown Serra Club chaplain when not pastoring St. Therese’s parish in Parkville. At Mass, he quoted the great 19th century Belgian Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier: “It is not enough that we give what we have. We must give who we are.” Then he held up St. Katharine Drexel as a model of self-giving.

Katharine Drexel was one of the wealthiest young women in America, and this in the Gilded Age. Yet in 1889 she gave up a huge inheritance to enter a convent.

Mother Drexel eventually founded an order of sisters devoted to the Blessed Sacrament, and to educating and caring for the poorest and most marginalized Americans of her time – work that continues today.

“I don’t think any of you parted with a fortune the size of St. Katharine Drexel’s,” Fr. Cisetti told Saturday’s sisters. “But all of us have one life to give, and we thank you for giving not just what you have but who you are.”

Blisters for Sisters celebrates what Catholic sisters are and have done in the world, while not being of it. The legacy is handed down to benefit not only the past and present, but also the future.

“I didn’t see a lot of sisters in my parish when I was growing up, so it’s been good to see them here,” Amey said.

“It means someone can see sisters walking down the sidewalk who maybe hasn’t seen a sister for years,” said Sister Christine LSP.

“It gives witness to the Church. That it’s alive.”

Bishop Finn is pleased to make the following clergy assignments. Unless otherwise noted, these assignments are effective June 26, 2013.

Retirement

Fr. Thomas Albers, CPpS, Pastor of St. Mary Parish, Nevada, to retire.

Deacon Ross Beaudoin, Administrator of St. James Parish, Kansas City, to retire.

Fr. Terry Bruce, Pastor of St Elizabeth Parish, Kansas City, to retire.

Fr. James Healy, Pastor of St. Robert Bellarmine, Blue Springs, to retire.

Fr. Lloyd Opoka, Pastor of St. Matthew the Apostle Parish, Kansas City, to retire.

Pastor/Administrator

Fr. Sebastian Allgaier, O.S.B., with the nomination of Abbot Gregory Polan, O.S.B., to be Pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Bethany.

Fr. Matthew Bartulica, Administrator of St. Cyril, Sugar Creek to Pastor of St. Cyril, Sugar Creek and Pastor of St. Mary, Independence with residence at St. Mary.

Fr. Matthew Benjamin, Administrator of St. Mary, St. Joseph and its mission, Seven Dolores, Hirlingen to be Pastor of St. Mary, Nevada and its mission, St. Bridget, Rich Hill, and to reside at St. Mary’s, Nevada.

Fr. John Bolderson, Pastor of St. Patrick, Butler to be Pastor of St. Robert Bellarmine, Blue Springs, with residence at St. Robert Parish.

Fr. Ernie Davis, Administrator of St. Therese Little Flower Parish, St. Louis, to remain Administrator of St. Therese Little Flower, and to be Administrator of St. James, Kansas City.

Fr. Terrell Finnell, Pastor of St. Monica, Kansas City, to be Pastor of Church of the Good Shepherd, Smithville, with residence at Good Shepherd.

Fr. Adam Haake, Associate Pastor of St. Regis, Kansas City, to be Administrator of St. Mary, St. Joseph, and of the mission, Seven Dolors, Hirlingen.

Fr. Greg Haskamp, Pastor of Church of the Good Shepherd, Smithville, to be Pastor of St. Elizabeth, Kansas City.

Fr. Thomas Hermes, Pastor of Immaculate Conception, Montrose to remain Pastor of Immaculate Conception, Montrose, and to be Pastor of St. Patrick, Butler, with residence at Immaculate Conception.

Fr. Jeffery Jambon, LC, Chaplain at Benedictine Priory of Our Lady of Ephesus, Gower, to be Administrator of St Patrick Parish, St. Joseph, with residence at St Patrick.

Fr. Adam Johnson, Associate Pastor of St. John LaLande Parish, Blue Springs, to be Administrator of St. Matthew the Apostle Parish, Kansas City.

Fr. Thomas Ludwig, Pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Joseph, to be Pastor of St. Monica, Kansas City, with residence to be determined.

Fr. Christian Malewski, Administrator of Our Lady of Lourdes, Harrisonville to be Pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Joseph, with residence at Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Fr. Sean McCaffery, Associate Pastor of St. Peter, Kansas City, to be Administrator of Saint John Francis Regis, Kansas City, with residence at St. John Francis Regis

Fr. Ian Murphy, Associate Pastor of Christ the King, Kansas City, to be Administrator of Our Lady of Lourdes, Harrisonville, with residence at Our Lady of Lourdes.

Fr. Joseph Powers, Rector of Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph to be Rector of Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Kansas City, with residence at Immaculate Conception.

Fr. Jorge Ramirez, Administrator of St. Patrick, St. Joseph, to be Administrator of Sacred Heart/Guadalupe, Kansas City, with residence to be determined.

Fr. Matthew Rotert, Pastor of St. Mary, Independence, to be Rector of Co-Cathedral of Saint Joseph, with residence at Co-Cathedral.

Fr Carlito Saballo, SOLT, to be Pastor of St. Louis Parish, Kansas City, with residence at the Society Residence on Tracy Avenue, effective May 1, 2013.

Special Assignments

Fr. T. James Hart, retired, to be chaplain to the Jeanne Jugan Center, Little Sisters of the Poor, Kansas City, and to reside at the Center, effective April 29, 2013.

Reverend Monsignor Bradley Offutt, Vicar General, formerly Rector of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, to remain full time Vicar General, and to reside at the Cathedral.

Fr. Richard Rocha, Formerly Pastor of St. John Francis Regis, and Vocation Director, to continue as Vocation Director with residence at Christ the King Parish, Kansas City.

Transitional Deacons

Rev. Mr. John Fitzpatrick, following Ordination to the Diaconate on May 18, 2013, assigned to assist the Pastor at Christ the King Parish, Kansas City, and to complete seminary studies.

Rev. Mr. Leonard Gicheru, following Ordination to the Diaconate on May 18, 2013, assigned to assist the Pastor at Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph, and to complete seminary studies.

Rev. Mr. Daniel Gill, following Ordination to the Diaconate on May 18, 2013, assigned to assist the Pastor at St. Andrew Parish, Kansas City, and to complete seminary studies.

Rev. Mr. Eric Schneider, following Ordination to the Diaconate on May 18, 2013, assigned to assist the Pastor at St. John LaLande Parish, Blue Springs, and to complete seminary studies.

Please pray for these men in their assignments. 

Last weekend I had the occasion to participate in the Commencement Exercises of our two Catholic Universities: Avila and Rockhurst. At Conception Seminary a special Mass similarly marked the completion of the school year and bestowal of degrees in Philosophy. May and early June brings the end of the school year for thousands of our young people. I wish to offer prayerful best wishes to all of our students and school administration, faculty and staff. Congratulations to those who have reached milestones in their education: graduates of 8th grade and high school, college, and the completion of graduate degrees. As you have been given a beautiful legacy of Catholic faith, I urge you to go Forward in Faith!

With God’s help you have persevered in realizing these significant accomplishments, and I pray you will continue to be guided in your next endeavors with a living faith. I commend our school leaders and teachers for the dedication and expertise by which you seek to form our youth. I thank you for regarding our students as holy persons who need and desire your best example and encouragement to grow intellectually, spiritually, and as mature and responsible men and women. You have shared your faith with our students, and I thank you.

Parents are the first educators and primary teachers of their children. Bringing children into the world and nurturing and teaching them are the first of the essential purposes of marriage. The Church also has a vital role in the work of educating children. She must assist and guide parents in this primary responsibility. I am grateful for the dedication of many of our parishes with schools and for the constant and significant support they provide for this important work. Many of our other parishes also fulfill pledges of financial support for these schools. They commit large portions of their parish income to prosper the program of Catholic education. They are parishes with the same bills and worries as other parishes. Alongside the parents, who make great sacrifices to keep their children in Catholic schools, these parishes accept heroic commitments to keep our schools going strong. I know it isn’t easy. I thank the pastors and contributing parishioners. To all those who move us Forward in Faith: I thank you.

I cannot stress strongly enough how the endeavor of Catholic education and the support of parents in the formation of youth is essential to the work of the Church. Without Catholic schools the work of the Church would certainly fall short of fulfilling her mission of evangelization and catechesis. Statistics make clear that students who attend our schools are more likely to be actively engaged in the life of their parishes as adults.

Our Diocese has now commenced the Forward in Faith Campaign for Catholic Education and Formation. The first “wave” of parishes has initiated the active phase of the effort and we are already seeing some very positive support for St. Michael the Archangel High School, and the several other elements of Forward in Faith. A successful campaign will also assist our other diocesan high schools, parish faith education and formation efforts, and the Bright Futures Fund. In addition, the parishes themselves will receive back a very generous portion of the parishioners’ gifts. This money may be directed to all sorts of projects determined by the individual parish.

Visit the Forward in Faith website www.fifkcsj.com (or the Diocesan website www.diocese-kcsj.org ) to learn more about Forward in Faith.

Congratulations to all our graduates! Thanks and best wishes to all those who work in and support our schools. May you enjoy some rest and recreation this summer.

 Near the end of the summer in 2010 a young woman in Eastern Europe became one of the most vilified people on the internet. What could she have done to receive such widespread disapproval? A video was posted of this woman throwing live, month old puppies out of a bucket into a fast moving river in Eastern Europe. One could make up a parallel example to this true story to illustrate a point. No matter where we visited in the world, if someone was found driving down a freeway while throwing puppies out the window of their car we would universally consider this an evil and despicable act. There would be no healthy, sane people who would consider such an act was even partly good.

While many points of morality are debated in our modern world, there are a certain virtues and beliefs which are universal accepted as true. There are no celebrations for ‘happy cowards’ anywhere in the world, and we universally condemn wanton acts of senseless cruelty to the innocent. These universal norms are called ‘natural law’ and our interior compass regarding these laws is called the ‘conscience.’

In Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Modern World, there is an important note about conscience which is frequently misunderstood. The Council Fathers note,

In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when necessary speaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged (GS 16).

In Catholic teaching, the law mentioned here is called “natural law”. This law is known by all people, even by those who do not have faith. It is a law “written on their hearts.” Conscience and law are co-witnesses to truth and together they accuse or defend, which implies that they must be in agreement.

This passage from the council quotes Romans 2:15-16;

They show that the demands of the law are written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even defend them on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge people’s hidden works through Christ Jesus.

The word St. Paul uses for conscience, means ‘the interior faculty for the personal discernment of good and evil’ (TLNT, 335). Peter Kreeft calls the conscience our ‘morality-detector.’ Just as a smoke detector goes off in the presence of smoke, this interior faculty helps us discern good from evil. The Catechism notes that the conscience is “a judgment of reason by which the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act” (CCC 1796).

The Fathers of the council also note that our conscience can be misled,

[ . . .] Conscience frequently errs from invincible ignorance without losing its dignity. The same cannot be said for a man who cares but little for truth and goodness, or for a conscience which by degrees grows practically sightless as a result of habitual sin. GS 16.

Our modern world is quite familiar with the term ‘conscience’ but often the term is used in a distorted sense. The traditional Catholic understanding of ‘conscience’ included a process which first involved the awareness of principles of morality, then included the process of reasoning from these principles to conclusions, and finally to the conclusions about the moral quality of a concrete act: do this, shun that. It is very common today to hear people exalting their ‘freedom’ and ‘choice’ in a manner that has short circuited principles of morality and careful moral reasoning.

Someone might also confuse their feelings or emotions with their conscience. I might feel compassion for someone and confuse this feeling with the voice of my conscience. Someone might feel compassion for the physician who chooses to euthanize his or her patent to comply with the patient’s wishes, and based on this feeling conclude that we should condone this act as a ‘mercy killing.’

The Catechism reminds us,

Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience . . . formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings. The education of the conscience is a lifelong task (CCC 1783-1784).

Our modern culture often exalts freedom as an absolute value without limits. It is clear that this is not genuine freedom and that living without limits does not lead to happiness or integral human fulfillment. Blessed John Paul II notes, “human freedom finds its authentic and complete fulfillment precisely in the acceptance of that law . . . God’s law does not reduce, much less do away with human freedom; rather, it protects and promotes that freedom” (VS 35).

Imagine yourself driving on a high mountain road along the sea coast. Along the edge of the road are guide posts and rails which literally protect you from driving over the cliff. Are these rails and posts an infringement on your natural right to freedom? Should you be offended that someone has placed them along the edge of the road? Is this a negative limit, a border, an imposition to rebel against? Human freedom becomes genuine freedom when it receives a limit, when it is formed and grounded by God’s law. Conscience and law are co-witnesses to genuine human freedom.

 Holy Mary, Star of the New Evangelization, Pray for us!

Scott McKellar is Director of the Bishop Helmsing Institute.

New classrooms were dedicated at Christ the King School in March 1959 by Bishop (later Cardinal) John P. Cody. School children sat attentively, hands folded in prayer, as the altar boy procession entered the church. Boys filled the north side pews of the church, girls in CKS beanies filled the south pews. Parents stood in the side aisles. (Diocesan archives photo)

By Marty Denzer
Catholic Key Reporter

KANSAS CITY — Father Gregory Lockwood, pastoral administrator of Christ the King Parish, made a sad and saddening announcement in early April. Christ the King School, for more than 60 years an anchor on the southwest side of Waldo, would close at the end of this school year. There simply weren’t enough students enrolled for the following year to enable the school to remain open.

Christ the King Parish was founded September 1938. When founding pastor Father Thomas J. Connelly took a census of the Catholic families living within the proposed boundaries of the new parish, he found 17. It was a beginning.

Within a few weeks, the parish was moved from the southeastern Waldo area to the southwestern side and it began to grow.

Three years later, in 1941, about 75 families made up the parish roster. That year the church, which had been dedicated just two years earlier, burned to the ground. The property was located outside the city limits at the time and there were no fire fighting facilities. The parish built a new church identical to the former one, which Kansas City diocesan Bishop Edwin V. O’Hara rededicated in December 1943.

During the dedication ceremony, Bishop O’Hara encouraged parishioners to plan for a school. He foretold that, partly because it straddled Wornall Road, the main auto and street car route to downtown, the Waldo area was likely to grow rapidly. The parish took his advice.

In the fall of 1945 the church basement was divided into three classrooms. Christ the King School opened with 46 children enrolled. Southwest of the church, brick by brick, a new, four-classroom school building was rising. By the fall of 1946 the new school was ready for students, teachers and the sounds of learning. The building had cost the parish $68,000.

Within a few short years, Bishop O’Hara’s forecast was proven correct. In 1950 there were 325 families in the parish. Waldo and Christ the King Parish continued to grow.

When Msgr. Vincent Kearney was named pastor of the parish in 1958, there were 2,029 Catholic children in the parish (925 enrolled in the school) and 2,457 adult Catholics. More classrooms and other additions were made to the school to accommodate the growing number of students. By March 1965, a gym and a cafeteria had been added to the school.

Students studied and got involved in sports, playing intramural basketball and volleyball. As time passed, the intramural sports became part of a parochial school league and Christ the King’s student athletes competed against other Catholic schools in the diocese. The school was well regarded academically, spiritually and athletically, throughout the Kansas City Catholic community and beyond.

Then, over the next two decades, the neighborhood began to change. Residents were growing older, and fewer children were born. Young people were relocating to other parts of the city or moving out of it. When Father Bill Bauman became pastor of Christ the King in 1984, he found 2,280 registered parishioners and 385 students in the school.

Father John Weiss was named pastor in 1993. He rapidly initiated several much-needed renovations in the school building, including new restrooms for the gym, the addition of a computer lab in the school basement and the remodeling of the cafeteria to accommodate a hot lunch program.

Father David Holloway became pastor in July 2004. One of the first things on his “to do” list was to air condition the school. He initiated “Cool The Kids,” a successful fund raising campaign later that year. Air conditioning was installed in the school and the electrical service upgraded during the summer of 2005.

In 2007, as interest in Catholic education increased, a study was begun on all the Catholic schools in the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese. The Southwest Pod, comprised of St. Elizabeth, Christ the King, St. Peter and St. Thomas More schools, in 2009 formed a task force to develop a strategic plan for sustainability, health and growth. In conjunction with the task force, Father Holloway contracted with Meitler, a Milwaukee marketing firm, to create a marketing and development plan for Christ the King School. The marketing plan they developed focused on increasing enrollment and visibility in south Kansas City, as well as increasing fiscal stability in the school, targeting goals for the coming two years.

Father Greg Lockwood became Parochial Administrator in July 2011. Enrollment had continued to decrease, and by the time he arrived at the parish, 102 students were enrolled in the Kindergarten through 8th grade. A year later 91 students were enrolled.

Enrollment, finances and demographics all contributed to the situation, “a situation that kept me awake nights since January,” Father Lockwood said. “The overall demographics were terrible. Our school system was built to support large families and we don’t have those much any more. In 1950, 975 kids were enrolled in Christ the King School, in 2005, there were 175 students. In 2011 there were 102, and we only had 91 this year.”

He finally came to the conclusion that the school would have to close.

“It’s a fearful thing for a pastor to even have to consider,” he said later. “There are no seminary classes that teach you how to do this. Our families now have to look for other schools for their children, maybe even other jobs to help with costs. Our teachers need to look for other teaching jobs or maybe have to completely change. We also have scouts, servers. This is a total change and a lot of people are suffering as a result. As pastor, all those families are my family, and I love them, mad at me or not!”

Families are now touring neighboring schools. Teachers are networking, looking for new teaching positions or other work. Father Lockwood is concerned about the kids and the teachers, he said. He understands their anger, their disappointment, their sorrow and their worries about the school closing: teachers having to look for jobs that might not be available, parents having to find different schools for their children and the kids who will have to start over again in a new academic and social environment.

“The Christ the King family is hurting, all of us,” he said. “We just have to remember and depend on the fact that Christ is in the middle of this, and he will take care of us.”

In a letter to the parishioners, school families and staff members, Father Lockwood wrote, “For 68 years, Christ the King parish has provided parish school Catholic education to our children, and those from our local community interested in having their children educated in a safe environment where virtue and knowledge have always gone hand-in-hand. This is a heritage to be celebrated and honored, as the hard work of our parents, teachers and staff have made this reality what it is. I meet graduates of our parish school each week out in our town who are proud and grateful that they attended Christ the King.”

He wanted the parish, the school families and the faculty and staff to know that he thought “our school families are great people, our kids are the best, our staff second to none,” all factors, he said, that made the reality of having to close the school “all the harder.”

What is the legacy of a small Catholic grade school, sandwiched between larger schools? “The generosity and thorough decency of the people of Christ the King willed this school to be open year after year, for many years after the neighborhood community expected it to close. This is something to be proud of and to remember,” Father Lockwood said. “The parish with few advantages, always the little sister, made a great contribution to our Church and our community. Our graduates are everywhere in Kansas City and across the country, and our community, city and country are better for it.”

He assured the families and teachers that the parish and the diocesan School Office and Human Resource offices would work with the people of Christ the King School who needed to find other schools or jobs.

He asked the parish and school families to pray for each other and for him, and to remember “the thousands of graduates, great Catholic people and a Church and world better because of them,” because of Christ the King School’s 68-year history.

Sometimes we are not sure what we celebrate on certain holidays. If you asked Americans what we celebrate on Memorial Day, Independence Day, or Labor Day you might get some very interesting answers, none of which have anything to do with the actual holiday involved. Consider the animated classic “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!” The Peanuts gang gathers to create a Christmas play, but there is no direction. Everyone is off doing their own activity, and Charlie Brown gets exasperated and shouts, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” Linus steps forward and recites the birth of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke, and suddenly the entire scene shifts. The focus has returned: the children help Charlie Brown to decorate his tree, and they all come together in a grand finale to sing “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.”

The feast of Pentecost is one in which many Catholics would struggle to explain to others, let alone themselves. And yet it is one of the most important feasts of the Church year, the only one to have an octave celebration along with Christmas and Easter. Some may know that the name means fifty days after Easter, and a few others could say that the Holy Spirit came to the disciples fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus – and no doubt all of these things are true. But like so many other matters in our faith, there is much more to this feast.

Originally, the feast of Pentecost began as a harvest festival, a day of joy and thanksgiving for the first fruits of the fields that came fifty days after the celebration of Passover in Judaism. The first fruits of the fields were offered to God as a thanksgiving sacrifice for God providing for the people of Israel in their material and spiritual needs. The feast was originally called the Feast of Weeks, placing it seven full weeks after the feast of Passover.

Over time, the feast became an anniversary. The covenant had been offered and ratified by the Jewish people fifty days after the Passover from Egypt. Hence, Pentecost naturally became the anniversary of the covenant just two hundred years before the birth of Jesus. Like Passover, Pentecost was a pilgrimage festival where Jews who lived outside Palestine would travel to Jerusalem for the feast in order to offer the first fruits of the harvest as a thanksgiving offering for the anniversary of the covenant. In this way, the original meaning of the feast was retained and kept alongside the new meaning.

In the account of the first Christian Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles, we can see the concept of the harvest and covenant in the coming of the Holy Spirit on the disciples. After receiving the Spirit, the disciples begin to speak in various tongues so that people from all regions understood what they were saying. Three thousand people accepted the Good News on that very day – the first fruits of the harvest after Jesus’ Passover sacrifice of himself on the Cross. At the same time, the gift of the Spirit is one that had been promised to the disciples by Jesus, and here we see the fulfillment of that promise, indicating a new covenant has been established by God with all people of the world, not just with the people of Israel.

The celebration of Pentecost is not merely remembering an act of the past, but an act that is continually reenacted in our midst. Recall that at the Easter Vigil we received new members into the Church through the rites of initiation. Pentecost is the final journey for our new Christians, completing the time of mystagogy in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Pentecost is intimately connected to Easter, just as Pentecost had been connected to Passover in the Jewish tradition. The Spirit of God is continually at work in the Church, constantly calling us to conversion and calling others to bring new life to the Church by their initiation into the Mystical Body.

Let us ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit to animate us so that we might bring forth a harvest of souls to the new covenant of Christ who renews us in the Paschal Mystery. “Let us pray in the Spirit who dwells within us. Father of light, from whom every good gift comes, send your Spirit into our lives with the power of a mighty wind, and by the flame of your wisdom open the horizons of our minds. Loosen our tongues to sing your praise in words beyond the power of speech, for without your Spirit man could never raise his voice in words of peace or announce the truth that Jesus is Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.” o

Jude Huntz is Chancellor of the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph.

Daily Scripture Readings

For complete daily Scripture texts, click here. http://www.usccb.org

Monday, May 20
Sirach 1:1-10
Psalms 93:1ab, 1cd-2, 5
Mark 9:14-29

Tuesday, May 21
Sirach 2:1-11
Psalms 37:3-4, 18-19, 27-28, 39-40
Mark 9:30-37

Wednesday, May 22
Sirach 4:11-19
Psalms 119:165, 168, 171, 172, 174, 175
Mark 9:38-40

Thursday, May 23
Sirach 5:1-8
Psalms 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
Mark 9:41-50

Friday, May 24
Sirach 6:5-17
Psalms 119:12, 16, 18, 27, 34, 35
Mark 10:1-12

Saturday, May 25
Sirach 17:1-15
Psalms 103:13-14, 15-16, 17-18
Mark 10:13-16

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Sunday, May 26
Proverbs 8:22-31
Psalms 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15

Monday, May 27
Sirach 17:20-24
Psalms 32:1-2, 5, 6, 7
Mark 10:17-27

Tuesday, May 28
Sirach 35:1-12
Psalms 50:5-6, 7-8, 14 and 23
Mark 10:28-31

Wednesday, May 29
Sirach 36:1, 4-5A, 10-17
Psalms 79:8, 9, 11 and 13
Mark 10:32-45

Thursday, May 30
Sirach 42:15-25
Psalms 33:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Mark 10:46-52

Friday, May 31
Zephaniah 3:14-18a or
Romans 12:9-16
Isaiah 12:2-3, 4bcd, 5-6
Luke 1:39-56

Saturday, June 1
Sirach 51:12cd-20
Psalms 19:8, 9, 10, 11
Mark 11:27-33

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ,
Sunday, June 2
Genesis 14:18-20
Psalms 110:1, 2, 3, 4
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Luke 9:11B-17

The full text of the Scripture readings for this week and next week can be found here: http://www.usccb.org/

Click on the “Daily Readings” tab on the right hand side of the page.