From left, Ashlyn Alexander, Kaitlyn Vaught and Tori Allen of St. Gregory Barbarigo School in Maryville help singer-guitarist Joe Peterson lead hundreds of Catholic fifth graders through songs at the annual Vocations Days Feb. 27. (Kevin Kelly/Key photo)

By Kevin Kelly
Catholic Key Associate Editor

KANSAS CITY — What does God want you to do with your life? Right now, he wants to you pray about it, hundreds of fifth graders were told at the annual Vocation Days, held at Archbishop O’Hara High School Feb. 27-28.

That message was repeated by priests, sisters and Bishop Robert W. Finn himself on this edition, some 20 years after the first Vocation Days for fifth graders was piloted at St. Andrew Parish in 1994.

They are at an age when they are just beginning to decide what vocation God is calling them to, and that makes prayer and listening to God very important, Bishop Finn told the fifth graders at the Mass that opened each day.

He himself was an altar server, and he especially remembered the Holy Hour devotions before the Blessed Sacrament.

“Many times during that time, in front of the Blessed Sacrament, I began to think that maybe God was calling me to the priesthood,” Bishop Finn said.

“It is very possible already you are beginning to think what if God is calling me to be a religious sister, what if God is calling me to be a priest or a religious brother,” he said.

“Ask God,” Bishop Finn said.

“Ask him, ‘Tell me what do you want me to do?’ It is a great prayer no matter what your vocation is,” he said.

Father Charles Rowe, now vicar general of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, said he had already earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering and was prepared for a financially lucrative career, when he heard God calling him in another direction.

“I started praying a whole lot more,” he told small groups of fifth grade boys in a breakout session.

Through prayer and listening to God, he came to a realization about his once-chosen profession as an engineer.

“It wasn’t what God wanted me to do,” Father Rowe said.

His life as a priest has been full and rich, he said.

In 2002, three years after he was ordained, Father Rowe said, Bishop Raymond J. Boland sent him to Rome for four years to study moral theology with an emphasis on medical ethics.

“2005 was the year Pope John Paul II passed away,” he said. “It was a historic time in the life of the church, and I was right there.”

Upon his return, Father Rowe was assigned to Holy Trinity Parish in Weston, “the oldest church in the diocese,” with the additional task of forming a new parish in Platte City, 10 miles from Weston.

“We prayed hard, we worked hard and we built a beautiful church. It’s called Twelve (XII) Apostles,” he said.

In other breakout sessions, girls learned about the life of sisters, and both boys and girls, learned from Vocations Director Father Richard Rocha about the power of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, with Benediction and Adoration closing both days.

The message was heard.

“I learned about Adoration. There’s a gold monstrance and the priest puts the host in it. I thought that was pretty cool,” said Elisa McGowan of St. Charles Borromeo School in Kansas City.

Tori Allen of St. Gregory Barbarigo School in Maryville was fascinated by the story she heard about the Little Sisters of the Poor, founded to care for the poor and elderly.

“They are in 32 countries,” she said. “It was started by a saint (St. Jeanne Jugan). She saw somebody being thrown out in the streets, and she took them in.”

Charles Palmentere of St. Patrick School in Kansas City learned that priests do much more than say Mass on Sunday.

“They go to hospitals and pray with people. They go to people who can’t go to church,” he said. “They help people.”

That is why God could be calling at least some of the fifth-graders to a religious life, Bishop Finn told them. But a person must be tuned in to how God speaks to hear him.

“You should be a little suspicious if you hear God’s voice like you are hearing mine right now,” Bishop Finn said.

“God speaks to our hearts. We have to spend time talking and listening to God. We need to spend time in prayer,” he said.

“The more we listen to God, the more likely we are to understand when God is speaking to us,” Bishop Finn said.

Vocation Days is sponsored by the diocesan Vocation Office and Consecrated Life Office.

This year also marked the last one for a fixture.

Harold McDermed, a member of Knights of Columbus Council 2244 in Higginsville, has been in charge of organizing the Knights as they prepared lunch for the hundreds of fifth graders since the Vocation Days began 20 years ago.

“I’ll be 88, and it’s time for me to give it up,” McDermed said.

“I always have to have something to do, and I do this for the diocese,” he said.

“That’s what it’s all about.”

Eric Verzola looks over construction progress at St. Michael’s Veterans Center. Phase I should open in about 3 1/2 months. (Marty Denzer/Key photos)

By Marty Denzer
Catholic Key Reporter

KANSAS CITY — It really does take one to know one! Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph announced Feb. 3 that Eric Verzola, retired U.S. Army Major, has joined the agency as Director of Veterans’ Services. His 20 years service in the army enables him to understand veterans — where they’ve been and where they are now. “Our view of the world is from the same foxhole,” he said.

With completion of Phase I of St. Michael’s Veterans Campus, a campus of homes and wrap-around, comprehensive services for homeless veterans near the Veterans Hospital in Kansas City, anticipated at the end of June, Verzola expects to be very busy.

Busy — that’s something else he knows first hand. Born and raised in Festus, Mo., about 30 miles south of St. Louis, Verzola’s boyhood heroes were Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and John Pershing. A close cousin’s admittance into West Point, the U.S. Military Academy, inspired him to seek admission also. Cadet Verzola graduated from West Point in 1992, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Management Studies, and received his commission as a second lieutenant in the United States Army.

After graduation he served as a Department of Physical Education instructor at West Point, teaching fitness and health to more than 2,000 cadets. He also served as a combatives-CQC (close quarters combat)/boxing instructor. The physical fitness, health and combat boxing programs were geared toward increasing cadets’ confidence and motivation as they prepared for active duty. Verzola earned his M.S. in Kinesiology, the study of the anatomy and physiology of body movement, esp. in relation to physical education or therapy from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Verzola also attended the Defense Information School, a U.S. Department of Defense school in Fort Meade, Maryland, completing the Public Affairs Officers course.

Later, serving as a battery commander at Fort Sill, Okla., he oversaw the training and welfare of personnel and their families. While at Fort Sill, Verzola also worked to implement an innovative support program for military families.

Thirteen years after receiving his first commission, the public relations officer and Subject Matter Expert was deployed overseas. For the next 14 months, he was sent to bases where U.S. Army personnel were stationed, to coach and mentor senior leaders. In 2007, he was serving as spokesman for the Multi-National Division Baghdad and emailed statements about insurgents, fighting, casualties and other concerns of the Iraq War.

Eric and Patty Verzola were married shortly after his graduation and commissioning in 1992. Their kids, three girls and three boys now age 5 to 18, grew up as “Army brats,” he said with a smile.

As a husband and father, he understands the fear and worry of military families when a spouse, parent or sibling serves in a combat zone. Patty and the children remained in their house in Anchorage, Alaska during his deployment.

Eric Verzola

Verzola also recognizes the pain a family feels when a loved one falls in battle and is buried overseas. He and his staff documented and videotaped the memorial services held for soldiers killed in Iraq and made sure their families received them. Military family members are the real heroes, he said.

“I wasn’t in actual combat,” he said. “I wasn’t a Rambo, firing my gun all the time. But from time to time sirens would sound in the middle of the night, and we had to grab our guns and race to the bunker for safety. The sound of cocking my gun while running in the dark is a sound I’ll never forget.”

Major Verzola retired from the U.S. Army in 2012, after serving 20 years. The family felt pulled back to the Midwest, especially Missouri and Kansas. They settled in Lansing, Kan., and Verzola took a job in communications for Payless Shoesource in Topeka.

He had a hard time adjusting to civilian work after army life. “It wasn’t long before I found out it just wasn’t the right fit,” Verzola recalled.

He, Patty and the kids had joined a parish in Leavenworth, Kan. Verzola became acquainted with Bob Roper, the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocesan human resources director. He connected with the Catholic Business Network and met people from the diocese and Catholic Charities at a meeting last August. After learning about the position of Director of Veterans Affairs from the Catholic Charities website he decided that “it only made sense to pursue it.”

His hiring was announced early in February 2014. Verzola hit the ground running and hasn’t slowed down yet. With the first phase of St. Michael’s Center roughly 120 days from completion, he’s asking questions at the building site, answering reporters’ questions, making contacts and connections, all with veterans in need of homes, counseling and, above all, dignity, in mind.

Walking through the first phase building’s apartments, commons areas, and laundry facilities — some recognizable as kitchens with granite countertops and cabinets, living or bedrooms, and baths, some just past the rough-in stage — he pointed out features and explained some the purpose of the design.

“St. Michael’s will serve homeless and at risk veterans,” he said. The Campus will be a physical location where veterans can transition to the realities of civilian life, with permanent housing and services.

“We want them to feel that this is their home, a place where they belong!” Verzola said. “Through counseling, employment, financial education, and other services provided by Catholic Charities, they’ll be taught life skills. Our eventual goal is to get them into their own homes, become sustainable members of society.” Living in close proximity to other veterans, “they will be able to share stories and the experiences of shared backgrounds. There is definitely something to peer to peer, veteran to veteran counseling and interaction. It really does help. Watching the building of St. Michael’s and being a part of it, is what attracted me to this job.”

When completed, the three story Phase I will have 58 one-bedroom apartments. The apartments are well lit, with large windows in living and bedrooms, high ceilings, granite countertops and wood cabinetry in kitchens, wall-to-wall carpeting, and tiled showers in the bathrooms. One unit per wing will be dedicated to the handicapped, with bath and kitchen equipment wheelchair accessible. On the second floor a gymnasium and fitness center is being constructed, and adjoining the gym will be a wifi enabled classroom. There will be laundry rooms on each floor to enhance the community feeling. Verzola and the Catholic Charities services coordinator will have offices in the building. Leasing is slated to begin this spring.

Phase II, construction of 59 one and two bedroom apartment homes with ancillary management and community space should begin later in 2014. A campus welcome and support services center, designed to provide activity areas for support services, community activities and administrative functions, is also slated to begin construction later this year.

Phase III, another 50 – 60 apartment homes, should begin construction in 2015.

“With the cutbacks and downsizing of the military to what it was before World War II, a lot of young veterans will be coming out,” Verzola said. “We’ll see a lot of them. They were battle ready, but the real world deployment will be challenging. I know where they’re coming from, and that’s what makes St. Michael’s Veterans Campus so exciting and motivating for me. The effects, the tentacles of military service and deployments are long reaching and unforgettable. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, we’ll be working with and helping veterans from all of them.”

It’s funny, he said. “Growing up, we all have ideas and plans for our future. In my case, God saw my plans and laughed. It’s interesting how things worked out. Serving the Church and serving veterans through Catholic Charities is God’s plan and it’s a job I’m embracing. I look forward to the tomorrows.”

Bishop Raymond J. Boland is pictured in his residence at Our Lady of Sorrows with his brother, retired Savannah Bishop Kevin Boland,
on Feb. 22, the day they left Kansas City for Ireland.
(Key photo/Joe Cory)

Ed. note – On September 3, 2001, Bishop Raymond J. Boland typed out a document called “My Personal Funeral Arrangements,” explaining his desire to be buried in Ireland. The document is a classic example of Bishop Boland’s spirit and style, and so we share it in full.

In God’s providence the life I now enjoy will some day come to an end. Whether it will be as the result of a lingering illness or whether it will come suddenly I know not.

Now that my life is certainly far beyond the half way stage I have been thinking of a last resting place and something keeps drawing me back to the land of my parents, the land I knew so intimately before I became a missionary priest.

Maybe I am influenced by the lines of his own Requiem which Robert Louis Stevenson penned for himself:

Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

Maybe this missionary should go home also, as it were, to complete the circle. There are, of course, two circles. The smaller one confines our life to a finite cycle of years; the larger one knows no bounds, beginningless and endless in that infinity which is the playground of our God. Some say one can’t go home again but, in reality, we all do. And that is why, almost symbolically, I would like to be buried in Ireland.

I once had three places in mind but I have now settled on one, namely, along with other priests, on the right hand side (see map) beneath the shadow of St. Michael’s Church in Tipperary, Ireland. This is the parish church where my mother served as a member of the Altar Society, where my parents were married in January, 1931 and where I was baptized in February, 1932. It is also the place where my maternal grandmother introduced me to the sights, sounds and smells of Benediction on the many occasions when, as a youngster, I visited the town of my birth. Within the grounds of this sacred place memory recalls a feeling of that peace which is a foretaste of heaven.

Mallow-born Thomas Davis asked the question, “Shall they bury me….under the shade of Cathedral domes?” “Oh, no!” he replied and his desires are mine also.

No! on an Irish green hill-side,
On an opening lawn – but not too wide;
For I love the drip of the wetted trees -
I love not the gales, but a gentle breeze,
To freshen the turf…….

When I look back upon my life thus far it is obvious that God has blessed me in many ways. For that reason I would hope that my passing will not bring sorrow or pain to others because I will be sharing the happiness promised by the Lord of compassion and love. It is my prayer and I only ask that, on my behalf, it be yours too, at least for a little while, that the God of mercy will be waiting to welcome me home.

Maybe Tennyson said it best:

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For though from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.

So my choice is Tipperary. With the cooperation of and through the courtesy of St. Michael’s Pastor, Archdeacon Matthew McGrath, V.G. the actual site has been chosen. As one faces the church it is located on the right hand side, immediately inside the railing and immediately behind the grave of Father James O’Neill, coincidentally also an All Hallows College graduate. He died in Tipperary in 1911 while home on sick leave from his parish of St. Mary’s in Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia. In the History of St. Michael’s Parish published in 1999 the O’Neill grave is numbered #8 on page 41 which reproduces a simple plan of the graves on the south side of the church. The attached map is an enlarged copy of the layout. The current Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, the Most Rev. Dermot Clifford, D.D. is aware of my wishes and has given his approval.

Some may wonder why I have not decided to be buried in Kansas City. The answer is simple. The Diocese does not have a specific place for its bishops. Currently the former bishops of Kansas City are buried in three different cemeteries and even then not always in the same location, e.g. Hogan and Lillis. If my presence here needs to be acknowledged then I would have no objection to a plaque in a suitable place which indicates where I am, in fact, interred. Sic transit gloria mundi!

The annual Steer Dinner features silent and live auctions, student ambassadors and that grand old game, Heads and Tails. Proceeds benefit student scholarships to help more students attend Avila. This year, the funds raised at Steer Dinner totaled $773,100. (Marty Denzer/Key Photo)

By Marty Denzer
Catholic Key Reporter

KANSAS CITY — Thirty eight years ago, Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet Olive Louise Dallavis, then-president of Avila, received an unexpected 4-legged gift from some area businessmen. Jimmy C., a 1977 American Royal Grand Champion Steer named for President Jimmy Carter, was the inspiration for the university’s major fund raising event, the Steer Dinner.

Back in 1977, the school cafeteria was decorated moderately, tables set and steaks were served. An auction was held, with guests bidding on additional steaks. The funds raised from the auction provided student scholarships.

The 38th Steer Dinner, held Feb. 15, took place in the Grand Ballroom in the Muehlebach Tower of the downtown Marriott Hotel, with floral decorations, well-appointed tables and, of course, beef tenderloin. About 600 people attended the event. The university hoped to raise $625,000 for scholarships that evening.

Master of Ceremonies Len Jennings, KMBC Channel 9 news co-anchor, introduced the speakers and other things taking place. The evening’s program opened with a prayer by Avila senior Raquel Roman followed by the University singers and Avila Drumline performing under the direction of Dr. Amity Bryson, the Music Dept. Chair.

The couples who served as Honorary Chairs and Event Chairs, Dave and Geri Frantze and Kenneth and Marilyn Hager, were presented to those in attendance. Dave Frantze, ‘76, said that in the past 38 years, the Steer Dinners has raised more than $7 million in scholarships for Avila students, of which 31 percent are the first in their families to attend college. Avila awards $11 million in scholarships yearly. Of first time students enrolled in the university, 98 percent receive financial aid to defray some of the costs of attending college. The funds raised by the Steer Dinner “provide a better education and opportunities for students,” Frantze said.

As knives and forks chimed against dinner plates, Dr. Ron Slepitza, president of Avila University, described the annual Steer Dinner as bringing together the Avila family — teachers, students, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, the religious order which founded and sponsors the university, friends and more. “It is an inspiration to the students to work harder, above and beyond (class requirements), because you (the audience) have acknowledged them! We have a new tagline: Avila University — Be Inspired.”

A freshman, who, with support from a local family and a full-ride scholarship awarded for hard work and good grades, is enrolled at Avila, was the special speaker of the evening. Teri Martin was a homeless teenager, who became the first member of her family to graduate from high school and now is working toward a double major in business, marketing and management with a minor in public relations. She hopes to own her own coffee shop someday.

Angie Heer, vice president for advancement and external relations at Avila University since Oct. 2011, was introduced as a member of the 2014 Class of Influential Women selected by KC Business magazine. Her selection was announced in January. The Influential Women program celebrates outstanding female Kansas City leaders in the creative, entrepreneurial, non-profit and corporate communities. Since the program’s inception, KC Business has honored more than 200 women.

Heer is the second member of the Avila administrative and academic staff to be selected as an Influential Woman by the magazine. Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet Marie Joan Harris, Avila Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, was selected in the class of 2012. Heer will be featured in the March issue of KC Business magazine. The 2014 class will be honored at a reception and program March 19 at the Polsky Theater in the Carlsen Center on the campus of Johnson County Community College.

The silent auction closed as the Live Auction opened, followed by a spirited game of Heads or Tails. Two women were the final players and the winner took home an amethyst and diamond pendant (Avila’s colors) from Joslin’s Jewelers. The grand total raised that evening and from pre-event donations totaled $773,100.

Dr. Slepitza said that each year for the past four years, the total raised at the Steer Dinner has “beaten the year before by a major amount. Students receiving specific named scholarships will be connected with their donors; it’s important to put a face to a name.”

He said “Avila has always been a jewel, living the mission of a Catholic university, with our focus on the students. The people who make that possible, with their contributions and more, are changing lives for the better.”

By Marty Denzer
Catholic Key Reporter

KANSAS CITY — So far, this year has been rough for two seminarians of this diocese: Deacon Leonard Gicheru and Wesley McKellar, and their families. And it’s only March.

In early January, a week before he was to return to Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Conn., to complete his final year of study before ordination, Deacon Gicheru underwent a routine laparoscopic operation to remove gall stones, and something went wrong. The 45 minutes became 4 hours; and he spent another month in hospitals — first at North Kansas City Hospital and then the University of Kansas Medical Center. He has had seven additional procedures to correct the complications, including an inflamed, draining bile duct which infected a lung. That lung later collapsed. He has had stents and tubing inserted to prevent any more bile from getting into other organs. Now, although frequently tired, he is beginning to feel more like himself and looks forward to his ordination to the priesthood in May.

At almost the same time, Wesley felt a full –blown migraine coming on, with nausea and fatigue, accompanied by a weakness in his right hand. He had just returned to St. Gregory the Great Seminary in Seward, Neb., for his second semester of study. Some of his fellow seminarians took him to the local hospital’s emergency room, where he was given treatment for a migraine and released.

When the treatment had no effect, Wesley and his parents, Scott and Wendy McKellar, decided he should come home. Seminarians drove him to the Iowa border, where Wesley’s father picked him up and brought him home. Scott and Wendy took their son to North Kansas City Hospital that very evening. Tests, including a CT scan, revealed a bleeding lesion on the brain. An interesting case, Wendy recalled the doctors saying.

Wesley was transferred by ambulance to KU Medical Center, where an MRI was performed. The results were frightening: a tumor on his brain. Surgery to remove the tumor took place Jan. 17.

“The surgeons were excited,” Wendy recalled, “when it appeared they had gotten the entire tumor, which was then sent off to world experts for review. When the test results came back, we learned that the majority of the tumor was a glioblastoma, with the remainder formed by a primitive neuroectodermal tumor or P-net. The world experts suggested the exact same mode of treatment that the doctors at KU Med did, which thrilled them.”

Then began the long waiting game of chemo and radiation treatments. Wesley has been unable to return to the seminary.

For both families, medical expenses have mounted up. St. Andrew the Apostle, home parish to Deacon Leonard, his aunt and uncle and the McKellar family, is hosting a Seminarian Benefit Luncheon, 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m., March 30, at St. Andrew the Apostle Church, 6415 NE Antioch Road, Gladstone. The parish hopes to raise funds to help both families and the two seminarians. Visit the parish website, www.sataps.com, for information, reservations and links to contribute.

Life is full of races. Wendy said Father Gregory Lockwood, Administrative Director of the Diocesan Office of Vocations, described this particular race as “a marathon, not a sprint,” for both Deacon Leonard and Wesley.

Wesley, 20, Canadian by birth, was transplanted to Kansas City by way of his father’s job in 2006. He graduated from St. Pius X High School in 2011 and attended William Jewell College in Liberty for two years, studying International Relations and Philosophy. He “grew up in a Catholic family, altar served and even ‘played’ Mass as a kid,” Wesley explained.

“I had a pretty good idea that I should discern the priesthood by the time I graduated High School, but I also had my own ideas about life, where I was going, and frankly what it was I wanted to do. I attended William Jewell … on the Debate Team, Student Senate, and the Scholarship Committee for the International Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta; suffice to say I did my own thing, pursued my own interests, and avoided listening to the call at all costs.

“During my second year at Jewell I reexamined my life, did a total consecration to Mary, and began to entertain the dreaded ‘seminary question.’ However, I wasn’t willing to pull the trigger without some sort of confirmation. After hearing Father Michael Gaitley’s testimony earlier that spring and the role that St. Therese of Lisieux played in his affirming his vocation, I did one of those ‘silly Little Rose Novenas.’ I asked for a yellow rose and then went off for Totus Tuus training the summer of 2013. From the first night of training (yellow roses at Our Lady’s feet above where I chose to sleep), to the first parish we taught at (Our Lady of Lourdes crowned with yellow roses), all the way through the seminary interview with Bishop Finn (yellow roses on a Kleenex box) they kept appearing.”

Wesley misses St. Gregory the Great Seminary, “home to five of my Diocesan brothers” and 42 seminarians representing nine other dioceses, a great deal. “It is truly an awesome seminary! It was a blessing to spend the fall semester at St. Greg’s.”

In the weeks since he learned about the cancerous tumors, Wesley has had a lot to digest. “In these sorts of situations,” he said, “people expect you to either sink or swim. No one expects you to stand. As with Peter when he saw Jesus out walking on the water is assured to ‘take courage, it is I; be not afraid’ (Mt 20:26). As long as Peter remained focused on the Lord, he walked without trouble, but the moment he turns away seeing the terror of the stormy winds, and abyss of the deep he becomes disheartened, crying out, ‘Lord, save me.’ (Mt 20:30). Jesus saves Peter, bringing him safely back into the boat remarking, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ (Mt 20:31). I have found great consolation in this passage.

“My cancer, treatment, and the side effects (namely fatigue) are all out of my control. I have no more control than Peter had over the waters or winds. Sure it’s difficult at times, but to quote one of my favorite films, ‘Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something’ (The Princess Bride).” In other words, “trust in God is the foundation for enduring any trial … without Him I cannot stand.”

Wesley has asked Charles Untz, a teenager whose main ambition was to be a saint, to intercede for him. Untz was 18 when he was struck by a car in front of his home and died. Untz had a strong devotion to the Blessed Mother, whom he called “My Lady.”

His parents, brothers and sisters are also leaning on Jesus and his Mother. Wendy said, “Wes is keeping his heart up, but becoming fatigued from his chemo and radiation treatments. Poor kid! It is a mind and soul game with me. I am so thankful Wes’ heart is in such a good place, wanting to be a priest.  But it is shockingly weird news, and I feel shaken. This kind of cancer is very aggressive, and the prognosis is horrible. We really do need a miracle.”

Deacon Leonard, 31, was born in a village about an hour and a half from Nairobi, in Kenya. His parents, Peter, a government employee and Mary, a stay at home mom, had a great devotion to the Holy Family, he said, and imparted that devotion to their three children. “Mom played a great role in developing my faith. Going to Mass on Sunday was not an option. It was at Mass that I first started thinking about the priesthood. My father said I was about 7 years old, I don’t remember. But I do remember thinking I wanted to be like the priests who celebrated Mass for us. They were missionaries; they bound the community together in faith. They served and worked with the community in all things — they were priests, teachers, nurses, mechanics, just everything to our community. That was a pretty big motivation.”

He attended the village school and after he graduated from high school, he entered a seminary in Kenya. “Mom wasn’t happy at first, she wanted me, her oldest child to marry and have children. She’s happy about it now.”

After seven years of seminary study, the young man reached a crossroads: did he still want to be a priest or not? He decided to emigrate to the United States, and study nursing. Obtaining his green card, Leonard arrived in Kansas City and took some CNA (Certified Nurse Assistant) courses. He then enrolled in LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse) studies. The host family he was staying with, Mary and Joseph Mwaura, are parishioners of St. Andrew the Apostle in Gladstone. Leonard got in the habit of spending a lot of time in the church, praying and meditating. The priesthood still called him, but he wasn’t sure. Then Father Vince Rogers, pastor of St. Andrew’s, approached him, and they talked about the priesthood. The more they talked, the more certain Leonard became that he wanted to be a priest. Father Rogers introduced him to Father Richard Rocha and Father Lockwood, of the Vocations Office, and Leonard found himself at Holy Apostles Seminary.

His final semester of study interrupted by health challenges, Deacon Leonard was afraid that he wouldn’t be ready for ordination. Kansas City-St. Joseph diocesan Bishop Robert Finn decided that as Deacon Leonard had spent seven years in seminary in Kenya before enrolling at Holy Apostles and, since Leonard was ordained a transitional deacon last spring, he could be ordained with his class in May of this year. Any remaining coursework could be completed later.

Brother seminarians of both Deacon Leonard and Wesley have prayed for them. Friends, acquaintances and people who have been touched by their stories have sent cards, notes and had Masses said for them. Sixth graders at St. Andrew the Apostle School have sent Wesley a Joke a Day through his sister Anna. Well wishers here at home and as far away as Rome, Galway and Canada have holy cards honoring Charles Untz, and praying to him to intercede with God for Wesley. “The thoughts and wishes make his day,” Wendy said.

Both young men have dreams of being a priest, the kind of priest they hope to be. Father Lockwood marveled at how much alike they are, “Leonard is at the end of his study and Wesley has just begun, but they both are interested in the people in the pews. A priestly vocation is about caring for the spiritual lives of the people. These two understand that.”

Wesley dreams “of being a holy enough priest to bring people to know, love and serve Jesus Christ by my example, through evangelization, catechesis and the sacraments. I would love the opportunity to return to my home parish of St. Andrew the Apostle as an associate pastor. We’ll see.”

His bout with brain cancer “has brought home the lesson of my own mortality, and it has given me an inside perspective on the real lived experience of suffering and all it entails; physically, psychologically, emotionally and spiritually. I hope to be more compassionate for the experience, to speak from personal understanding and solidarity. Embracing the cross is a tough lesson, but ‘just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.’ (2 Cor1:5)”

Deacon Leonard admits that at times during the past two months, he has found it difficult to pray due to heavy sedation. But he’s finding life and prayer easier now. He hopes to be more empathetic to people who are suffering, physically, emotionally and spiritually, because he’s been there. “Sometimes, you don’t need talk about it, just be there,” he said. “Presence is very helpful, either a priest or a lay person.”

Deacon Leonard is praying to the Holy Family that his family, his parents and aunt are able to come to Kansas City for his ordination. “My aunt was approved for a visa, but my parents were denied.” His disappointment was obvious. “But they are going to try again, and reapply for a visa next week. I hope this time they are approved. My aunt says she will not come alone!”

Despite the health challenges, the pain and uncertainty about recovery that both Deacon Leonard and Wesley and their families have felt, both young men are all smiles when they talk about becoming a priest. May that bode well for both.

For more information on the Seminary Benefit Luncheon, visit www.sataps.com.

Bishop Robert W. Finn blesses the casket of Father Donald Cleary with holy water before the retired priest’s funeral Mass March 4 at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Harrisonville. Father Cleary was pastor of the parish for nine years from 1983 to 1992. (Kevin Kelly/Key photo)

By Kevin Kelly
Catholic Key Associated Editor

HARRISONVILLE — Vanity, thy name was not Father Donald Robidoux Cleary.

Delivering the homily at Father Cleary’s March 4 funeral Mass, Msgr. Bradley Offutt recalled when he was meticulously hanging up his vestments, carefully smoothing out all the wrinkles, after a Sunday Mass when in walked the retired Father Cleary to celebrate the next Mass.

“I saw in his hand a rumpled paper sack. I asked him what was in the sack, thinking it surely had to be a large print Lectionary, or his shoes. He answered me, ‘These are my vestments.’ And they were. All rumpled up. All together in that paper sack,” Msgr, Offutt said.

“That was our brother, Don,” he said. “A man altogether without pretense or conceit or vanity.”

Father Donald Robidoux Cleary died Feb. 23 at Villa St. Francis in Olathe, Kan. He was 84.

He was born into a family as close to historical nobility as possible in northwest Missouri. His great-great-grandfather was Joseph Robidoux, founder of the city of St. Joseph.

Father Cleary was a late vocation to the priesthood. After service in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, he earned a degree in electrical engineering from Notre Dame University before hearing another call and attending Conception Seminary.

He was just two weeks past his 39th birthday when Bishop Charles H. Helmsing ordained him to the diocesan priesthood on June 1, 1968.

Father Cleary served as associate pastor of Guardian Angels, Annunciation and Risen Christ parishes in Kansas City, and Coronation of Our Lady Parish in Grandview before become pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes and it’s then-mission, St. Bridget in Pleasant Hill. After that assignment, he served as pastor of St. George Parish in Odessa and its mission, St. Jude in Oak Grove, until his retirement in 1997.

In addition to those assignments, he also served 12 years as a hospital chaplain at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital and St. Joseph Medical Center in Kansas City, and St. Mary’s Hospital in Blue Springs.

“That’s where the joy in being a priest comes from — making a difference in people’s lives,” Father Cleary told The Catholic Key upon his retirement. “As a priest, you can touch people at a level that most other professions cannot.”

Msgr. Offutt, who succeeded Father Cleary as pastor in Harrisonville and Pleasant Hill, said that Father Cleary used that gift of touching people’s lives in his humble service as a parish priest.

He noted that as priests or people, he and Father Cleary could not be more different.

“I tend to be passionate, even volatile in my search for holiness,” Msgr. Offutt said. “I labor under the apprehension that as a Christian, I have a right to shout that I may inspire you.

“There are other ways, and you know, they may be better ways — the Don Cleary way,” he said.

He told of a former parishioner, now a captain of industry, who “got his start on this sanctified ground in Harrisonville,” who told the Monsignor that Father Cleary always had time to talk to him about whatever adolescent problem he had.

Father Donald Cleary

“Father Cleary would lead him to scope out the problem and find a solution,” he said.

“People knew that he parted with his valuable time for them as if it were so much water.”

Another Harrisonville parishioner told Msgr. Offutt, “He was a gentle soul. He was a loving man. He lived to do his best for people, and I never heard him berate anybody. If anyone gets to heaven, it will be him.”

“I can’t claim to know him well,” Msgr. Offutt said. “But I knew him well enough to know that the high praise I heard was true.”

Even as his life was ending, Father Cleary offered his suffering as “redemptive suffering — a means of atoning for what he perceived to be his sins of his active life.”

“Would that we endure our own search for holiness with his grace and with the patience that shot through the life of this good man, and in a way that calls all people to find God,” Msgr. Offutt said.

Benedictine Father Sunoj Thomas speaks with St. Thomas More School teachers Sue Wachtel and Paula Pawlewicz following his March 14 keynote with Father Jeffrey Stephan on the first year of the papacy of Pope Francis. The two priests delivered a two-hour presentation in two sessions for all diocesan teachers at the annual Education Ministry Formation day held at Archbishop O’Hara High School. (Kevin Kelly/Key photo)

By Kevin Kelly
Catholic Key Associate Editor

KANSAS CITY — Go ahead and love Pope Francis all you want. But be sure you love the church even more.

That was the advice of Father Sunoj Thomas, a Benedictine priest and native of India who is now in residence at St. Thomas More Parish, and Father Jeffrey Stephan, pastor of St. Sabina Parish in Belton, to diocesan teachers at the annual Education Ministry Formation day at Archbishop O’Hara High School.

“I love Pope Francis, but he is our leader. We are all church. We are all on a faith journey,” Father Thomas said.

“If the pope becomes our faith, then we are missing the point. He is telling all of us, ‘Here is Jesus Christ. Here is where we need to go. Don’t look at me. Look at Jesus,’” he said.

Father Thomas was in Rome when the Conclave of Cardinals elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, and he chose the name “Pope Francis” in honor of the humble St. Francis of Assisi.

The scene in St. Peter’s Square when the election was announced was right out of Pentecost Sunday, Father Thomas said.

“People who speak different languages were singing the ‘Ave Maria’ and praying for the cardinals to choose the right person to lead the church. It was raining, but we didn’t care. We went to pray for the church,” Father Thomas said.

“When they announced his name, the immediate reaction was, ‘Who is this?’” he recalled. “Then they announced he would take the name, ‘Francis.’ Suddenly, the crowd took that name into their hearts and began shouting, ‘Viva Papa!’”

Both priests told the teachers that much has been written and spoken in the media that Pope Francis is leading the church in a completely different direction.

But those who say that haven’t really been paying attention, the priests said. In fact, Pope Francis is in many ways continuing to build on the foundation set by his predecessors, especially that of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

“Pope Benedict bought the lute. Pope Francis tuned it, and we the people are now enjoying the music,” Father Thomas said. “Now we are hearing a beautiful song.”

It is a song that is taking the church out of its buildings and into the streets, and particularly to the poor, Father Stephan said.

“Pope Benedict actually set the frame for all things Pope Francis is doing,” he said.

“He wants to put the whole focus of the church to be a missionary church, going out and being with the people in the streets,” Father Stephan said.

“Pope Francis tells us that if our faith doesn’t lead us into the streets, then what good is it?” Father Stephan said.

Soon after his election, Pope Francis led by example. On Holy Thursday, he visited a prison for juvenile offenders and washed the feet of the children incarcerated there, including the feet of a Muslim girl.

“That was the first time that has ever been done,” Father Stephan said.

His first trip outside the Vatican was to the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa. There he tossed flowers into the sea and prayed for the thousands of immigrants who drowned trying to sail from Africa to Europe in search of a better life.

“Pope Francis says that we as Catholics don’t care what country you come from, or whether or not you have documents. We are going to minister to you,” Father Stephan said.

“That angered a lot of Italians, and we are having that argument in the United States,” he said.

In his first apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis decried increasing income inequality in which the global wealth is concentrated in fewer hands and never seems to reach the poor.

That enraged some pundits in the United States who accused the pope of socialism.

“I don’t think they read it,” Father Stephan said of the pope’s critics.

“This is exactly what Pope Benedict was saying — that the economy should serve the people, and people should not serve the economy,” he said.

“Pope Francis has a lot to say, but it’s nothing new that the church hasn’t been preaching about,” he said.

Father Thomas added that Pope Francis’ message is essentially one of joy.

“Christ is the joy in our life,” he said. “If you are happy, you can share it. If you are not, you cannot share it. So feel the joy and share it.”

That message was driven home to the priest by a St. Thomas More family who invited Father Thomas to dinner.

Before eating, each family member was invited to say something good about another member of the family.

When they were done, one of the girls offered this prayer to God: “I want to thank you for giving me a beautiful church,” she prayed.

“She learned that from her family,” Father Thomas said. “For her, the church was her family, and she shared it. And that is what we are all supposed to do.”

Vince Thomey and Phil Patton sign the Book of the Elect at the March 8 Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Kansas City. They will be entering the church at Easter Vigil at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Independence. (Kevin Kelly/Key photo)

By Kevin Kelly
Catholic Key Associate Editor

KANSAS CITY — Sometimes the newest Catholics are the best evangelizers.

Deborah Kerr entered the Roman Catholic Church at Easter Vigil last year at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Independence.

This year, it will be her parents, mother Sue Patton and stepfather Phil Patton.

“I saw may daughter become Catholic and I just felt like I was in the house of God for the first time in my life,” Sue Patton said.

Ever since that Easter Vigil a year ago, Sue and Phil Patton haven’t missed a Sunday going to Mass with Deborah and her husband, Greg Kerr.

“I never been to church before,” Phil said. “I have a lot of friends who are Catholic, and I always said if I ever found a church, it would be the Catholic Church.”

Phil Patton was one of 109 adult catechumens — those who had never been baptized in any Christian tradition — to take part in the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion in one of three liturgies March 8 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Kansas City and March 9 at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph.

Sue Patton, who is coming into full communion from the Methodist tradition, was one of 239 candidates who participated, and who will receive the sacraments of Confirmation and the Eucharist at Easter Vigil.

Breani Winston, 11, was one of another 71 catechumens aged 7 to 17 who will be received into the church, bringing the total number of catechumens and candidates at this year’s rites to 419.

Breani said she was led into the church by the example of a veteran Catholic — her grandmother Pamela Singleton.

“I just want to become a Catholic,” she said she told her grandmother last September.

“My heart was absolutely racing,” said Singleton, a member of St. John Francis Regis Parish in Kansas City.

“I was so excited. This is the only grandchild I have who wanted to be Catholic,” she said.

Others, like Rhonda Crews who will join the church at Sacred Heart Parish in Warrensburg, heard another call.

“I am doing this because I’ve been called by God to join the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church,” said Crews, who is coming from the Baptist tradition.

Whatever brought them to seek full communion with the Catholic Church, be grateful for it and rejoice, Bishop Robert W. Finn said in his homily before personally welcoming each catechumen and candidate.

“To those candidates who are entering the church this Easter from other Christian denominations, know that the gift of faith you received in your Baptism is not discarded or diminished by your entrance into the Catholic Church,” he said.

“The faith that has been given to you by your parents, family, teacher and friends is a great give for which we are all thankful,” the bishop said.

“It will only be deepened as you take this next step on the journey by which Christ calls you into fuller communion with himself,” Bishop Finn said.

The catechumens, he said, will receive Baptism for the first time in their lives.

“You will be washed in the life-giving waters of Baptism and you will begin to live in Christ, really for the first time,” he said.

Catechumens and candidates will receive “a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation” and then will receive “the most intimate gift Christ gave us on this earth.”

“You candidates and catechumens will partake of his own body and blood in the Holy Eucharist,” Bishop Finn said.

“This is the gift of himself to you: ‘Take, eat, this is my body which will be given up for you. Take, drink, this is the cup of my blood of the new and eternal covenant. It will be shed for you and for many so that sins may be forgiven,’” he said.

“On that first Good Friday, he further defined and consummated the Eucharistic gift by his suffering and death — the total gift and sacrifice of himself — so that you and I might have life,” Bishop Finn said.

Bishop Finn also reminded the catechumens, candidates and their sponsors of “another gift Christ gave to the church.”

“At the foot of his cross on Calvary, he looked upon the disciple whom he loved and said, ‘There is your mother,’” Bishop Finn said.

“I pray you will come to see in Mary, the poor Virgin of Nazareth, a great friend in your path toward Christ, a consoling mother, and a patient and loving teacher,” he said.

“Dear friends, Christ calls you to the fullness of life in his one, holy, catholic and apostolic church,” Bishop Finn said.

“As successor to the Apostles, it is my great pleasure to affirm you in your faith, to enroll you among the elect, and to call you to continuing conversion in Christ,” he said.

“May God, who has begun a great work in you, bring it to fulfillment,” Bishop Finn said.

A public Way of the Cross has been sponsored by Communion and Liberation in New York since 1996 and has since spread to other cities. This second Kansas City event begins 4 p.m. on April 18 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

By John Heuertz
Special to the Catholic Key

Founded in Italy in 1954 with a special charism of service to young Catholic adults, “Communion and Liberation” is an organization of Catholic laity that calls itself a “friendship open to everyone.” Its’ purpose today is to remind the world of the living presence of Christ in the Catholic Church.

The Stations of the Cross devotion retraces the Lord’s Passion and Death on the Cross from Pilate to Christ’s tomb. It recalls in a public way Christ’s love for all humanity. Ultimately, the devotion traces itself back to daily visits to the scenes of Christ’s Passion, death and burial by Mary, his Immaculate Mother – and the perfect Catholic laywoman.

Thus, for a Catholic lay group to promote the Stations of the Cross is a match literally made in Heaven.

Communion and Liberation has organized a public Stations of the Cross in Kansas City to start this Good Friday, April 18 at 4 p.m. in the Cathedral and process through downtown from there.

About eight stops of prayer, song, sacred reading and a short reflection are planned at prominent locations including the Kauffman Center and the Sprint Center.

Around 40 people attended last year, said organizer Fiona Holly of CL’s Kansas City chapter. This year’s event is the group’s second event in Kansas City.

“We don’t usually do all 14 stations,” Holly said. “We decided to have our own Way and to invite people in the community to participate. What we do depends partly on the group.”

Communion and Liberation has sponsored public Stations of the Cross for many years in New York, Chicago, Washington and a host of other cities here and abroad. The CL chapter at Benedictine College in Atchison is planning its own Stations for Friday, April 11.

“I think that the Way of the Cross tradition dates back to the beginning of our movement in Italy,” said CL member Daniel Musso, Executive Director of the Center for International Education at Benedictine College.

“Then someone got the idea to do it across the Brooklyn Bridge when we got started in the United States, and it quickly became a tradition.

“Mainly it’s a way to witness the presence of the Lord in the world. And what represents a more significant act of love of the Lord for us than to die for us?”

“The Stations of the Cross is a thought-provoking and prayerful devotion,” Holly said. “Basically, what appealed to me the most when I got involved with CL at Benedictine is that it’s a very direct participation in the Faith. I think CL really draws you into participating in the life of the Church in a way that is very real and very profound.

“It really makes you look at your life and see where Christ is in your life. You see if He’s an add-on or a part of your life that is there every moment of every day.

“It helped me see that Christ is not just in my life when I go to Mass or pray the Rosary. He can be in every other area too.”

Contact Fiona Holly at ksmo.cl@gmail.com for more information on this event.

Students at Our Lady of Angels cheer for their school, their teachers and for learning. (photo courtesy Jenny Wheat)

By Marty Denzer
Catholic Key Reporter

KANSAS CITY — Remember the Central City School Fund? The partnership of civic, philanthropic and Catholic communities was established 25 years ago by then-Bishop John J. Sullivan to help families in Kansas City’s urban core attend Catholic schools. More than 26,000 kids have been able to attend neighborhood Catholic schools over the years as a result.

Today, there are three Catholic grade schools still providing a quality education to kids in the inner city. The Central City School Fund was renamed the Strong City School Fund in 2011 to highlight the fund’s new path expanding outside the inner city. Jeremy Lillig, director of the Bright Futures Fund, said the name, Strong City, comes directly from Isaiah 26:1: “On that day this song shall be sung in the land of Judah: ‘A strong city have we; he sets up victory as our walls and ramparts.’” The Strong City School Fund will benefit not only students in Kansas City’s urban core, but also in Montrose, Nevada and other rural areas, Lillig said.

The annual School Bell Breakfast, to be held April 24 at the Muehlebach Tower, will celebrate 25 years of opportunity to students in need in Kansas City. Over the past quarter century, the now Strong City School Fund has invested more than $36 million in urban core education and assisted more than 15,000 families.

The School Bell Breakfast will honor the late Bishop Raymond J. Boland, with the St. Thomas Aquinas Award for his contributions to Catholic education during his 12 years as bishop of Kansas City – St. Joseph.

The fund, a part of the diocesan Bright Futures Fund, continues the legacy of the Central City School Fund by helping families attend Holy Cross, Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of Angels schools through scholarships that offset part of the tuition cost.

Education, especially quality education, costs money. Catholic schools have a long history of educating students on a shoestring, and doing it well. The 2013-14 KCSJ Diocesan School budget for all its elementary and secondary schools is $41 million. According to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), the unaccredited Kansas City Public School District (KCPSD) costs the taxpayer approximately $15,000 a year per student. According to the same department, the KCPSD 2013-14 budget is $234,000,000.

Catholic Schools in the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph save Missouri taxpayers $130 million every year.

The importance of the Strong City schools — Holy Cross, Our Lady of the Angels and Our Lady of Guadalupe — to the Northeast, Midtown and Westside neighborhoods is multifaceted. In addition to the tax dollar savings, strong schools help anchor families and stabilize the neighborhoods. They also educate great future business professionals.

Children attending the culturally diverse Strong City Schools build self-esteem as they grow academically, spiritually, emotionally and physically. Families are assisted through support services including before and after school care, breakfast and lunch programs and seminars on parenting skills. Neighborhoods are strengthened and stabilized by the presence of vital schools offering a strong basic education in reading, writing and mathematics.

“We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors in Catholic schools,” Lillig said.

Holy Cross School opened in 1910, Our Lady of Angels in 1911 (as Guardian Angels School) and Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1915. Their neighborhoods, once strong working class neighborhoods, suffered when families moved away and gangs moved in. But, as Bob Paredes, Board Chair, Bright Futures Fund, said, there are still kids playing ball and riding bikes, and there are parents watching out for them. Many of those parents make huge sacrifices to send their kids to the neighborhood Catholic school. Although the tuitions charged are reasonable, for families who get paid by the day or by the job, $4,000 can be a major expense.

The majority of the students attending Holy Cross, Our Lady of Angels and Our Lady of Guadalupe are Catholic, while about 14 percent are of other faith traditions. Many of the students and their parents are non-English speaking; their mother tongue is often Spanish, Sudanese or Vietnamese. In fact, 43 percent of the students are English language learners. They will become fairly fluent in English in a short time, but at home they will still speak Spanish, Sudanese or Vietnamese.

A number of the neighborhood children are “warehoused.” These are children whose parents have been deported. They stay with relatives — aunts, uncles or other relatives — and those relatives often send them to Catholic schools like Holy Cross.

About 88 percent of the 436 students in the three schools receive free or reduced (cost) lunch. And yet, despite the families’ daily struggles, the three Strong City Schools can boast a 96 percent average daily attendance. The kids and their families want to learn!

Scholarship need is going up, at a time when charitable donations are going down.

But Lillig said, quoting last year’s School Bell Breakfast Keynote Speaker Nicole Stelle Garnett, Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame, “Demographics do not determine destiny.”

There were 740 attendees at the 2013 School Bell Breakfast, and Lillig hopes more will come to the 2014 breakfast. He is excited about new partnerships with area Catholic high schools, Seton Center and beginning to partner with Catholic Charities to enable families to access wrap around services. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet have enabled the Strong City School Fund to access their Emergency Fund for certain needs at the schools.

“We are working together to be more mobile and agile,” Lillig said. “Poverty is nomadic — it doesn’t stay in one place. We are one cog in the machine to lift people up.”

The School Bell will ring for Breakfast at 7 a.m., April 24, at the Muehlebach Tower of the Marriott Hotel downtown, 200 West 12th Street, Kansas City. Individual reservations for the School Bell Breakfast are $30, and partly tax-deductible. For more information, visit www.brightfuturesfund.org.

Lillian Naka

By Marty Denzer
Catholic Key Reporter

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — There’s a lot of talk these days about empowerment and micro- finance lending, especially for women with children in poverty. Lillian Naka does more than just talk. Through Unbound’s (formerly Christian Foundation for Children and Aging) Nairobi Project, she works with women in her native Kenya, helping them climb out of poverty and be able to proudly provide for their families.

Lillian visited Unbound’s headquarters in Kansas City, Kan., in February, attending board meetings as a visiting representative from its projects. While in town, she spoke to high school and college students, played with children at Operation Breakthrough, and met their caregivers, teachers and some of their moms. She also gave several talks about her work and introduced some of the women she works with via video.

Lillian, 32, is the youngest of nine children. She was born and raised in Mombasa, Kenya’s second largest city with a population of 1.2 million people. Situated on the Indian Ocean coast, the climate is warm and humid.

Mombasa is a very diverse city, with descendants of early settlers from Iran, the Middle East, India and Somalia living there. Christianity, Islam and Hinduism are the three dominant religious faiths practiced in Mombasa.

Lillian attended Mtongwe Primary School, and Likoni Secondary School. Early on, she learned the art of public speaking and won awards in it and in drama.

She has vivid memories of her mother’s struggles to keep her family fed, as well as the struggles of many other mothers. “It’s painful for parents who cannot provide for their children, especially food,” she said.

After graduation, she enrolled at the University of South Africa (UNISA), the largest institution of higher learning in Africa. UNISA changed its structure, direction and mission in 1946, becoming a distance education university. When Lillian enrolled in UNISA, she did not own a computer — all her work, papers and tests had to be mailed to and from her professors, which created delays. She finished however, earning a degree in Community Health.

She also had to depend on public transportation to get to places that weren’t within walking distance. Kenya has strict laws related to bus travel, and several years ago Lillian ran afoul of one of those laws.

Having heard of the sponsorship organization through volunteer work, she applied to work for C.F.C.A. in 2007. Lillian was living in Mombasa and her interview was to be in Nairobi, entailing a bus ride of more than six hours.

“Kenyan police will arrest you if you are not fastened into your seatbelt on a bus,” she said. “I sat in my seat, and when the bus driver said, ‘Seatbelts!’ I went to put it on. The long side of the belt I was able to find, but the short side, where you fasten it, was missing. It just wasn’t there. I tried to wrap it around me and sit on the end, but I got caught. The police woman didn’t care that the short side of the belt was missing. I was arrested and taken to police court.”

She was detained for several hours and wound up arriving hours late for the interview.

“I called from the police court and told them what had happened, and I was told ‘Oh yes, come on to the interview.’ I did, but I did not get the job.”

Two years later, the story had a different ending. She was called again for an interview with C.F.CA., and boarded a bus for the six hour ride. But, this time the seatbelt worked, she was on time for the interview and, she got the job. Lillian joined the team in August 2009, and in July 2010 she was named Mothers Group coordinator, based in Nairobi.

Lillian speaks three languages, English, Swahili and Kikuyu, a tribal language; all come in handy when dealing with different mothers groups.

The mothers groups were begun in 2007; currently there are 367 mothers groups in the Nairobi Project, with about 10,000 moms and 230 fathers as members. Two other Kenyan projects, the Meru and Kasama, as well as Unbound projects in Tanzania and Uganda, India, Madagascar and South America also have mothers groups.

The mothers groups aren’t coffee klatsches. They are a way for mothers to mingle with other mothers, which increases confidence and social skills. And through cooperative goal setting and money saving programs, the groups can loan small amounts to members, which can help a woman start or grow a business and work toward self-sustainability.

How are the groups established? “There are 13,000 sponsored children in the Nairobi region,” Lillian said. “Most of the moms have many children, at least four. To join a mothers group, a mom has to have at least one sponsored child. We usually ask the mother of a newly sponsored child to join a group.”

Where do the fathers come in? Single fathers who need to be able to support their children are invited to join the moms groups, Lillian said. There are no fathers groups yet.

Once a group is established with about 15-20 members, and mothers start saving, and they are ready to elect group leaders — a chair, secretary, two committee chairs. They then are able to register for certification and elect signatories (cannot be group leaders). Then they formally open a bank account for their mothers group, which is used as the depository for their monthly savings, the funds that can be loaned out to group members, and the repayments of those loans.

When a woman joins the group, Lillian and other members spend about six months working with the new member, getting to know her, helping her understand Unbound’s programs and how they build on her potential, and preparing her to start saving $1 (about 87 Kenyan shillings) a month. In the beginning, she said, mothers who have been barely hanging on are often afraid to save. After the first year, a new member has grown comfortable with the idea of saving each month.

The next six months are used to work on financial literacy education, for both the mother and her children. “It’s easy to work with children, teach them responsibility,” Lillian said.

Here’s how it works. The group allocates $1 of her child’s monthly sponsorship fund to the mother, which is deposited into the group’s bank account in her name. After the first year of attendance at meetings, responsible saving (she must have saved at least $12 that first year) and interaction with other members, a mother is able to apply for a loan from the group. There are four primary reasons mothers give for needing a loan: to start a business or boost an existing one, pay tuition fees for a sponsored child or for a sibling of a sponsored child. Moms want to plant potatoes, maize, groundnuts (much like peanuts) or traditional Kenyan vegetables, raise poultry or livestock, run a laundry service or beadwork. Charcoal selling is another business avenue.

Lillian said the first loans are about $20, and mothers are given a year to repay it. If something happens that makes it impossible to repay the loan on time, the mother must go before the entire mothers group, explain the situation and ask for an extension.

After the first loan is paid in full, a mom can apply for another loan. By that time, her savings account will have grown, and the loan amount is usually a match times two, Lillian said. In other words, if a mother has saved $25, her loan could be as much as $100. However, she must have saved at least $12 to get the matching funds loan.

The mothers groups have loaned out millions in Kenyan shillings since 2007, Lillian said.

“No, not everybody succeeds. When we have a mom who fails to save each month, or doesn’t pay a loan back, the mothers group looks at what caused the failure and tries to figure out what can be done to not fail again. Working together is a traditional way of resolving problems and challenges.”

Lillian, who is working toward her second degree from UNISA, in Government Administration and Development (now made easier with a computer), hopes that within the next decade, Unbound and its Nairobi Project develops a database to track progress.

And which of the 367 mothers groups she coordinates is her favorite? “Oh the Hope Mothers Group,” she answered immediately. “The group had so many problems and challenges, meetings were chaos. But we sat down, and by conversations, we were able to work through the problems. The things we can be accomplished by working together!”

Vince Thomey and Phil Patton sign the Book of the Elect at the March 8 Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Kansas City. They will be entering the church at Easter Vigil at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Independence. (Kevin Kelly/Key photo)

By Kevin Kelly
Catholic Key Associate Editor

LEAWOOD, Kan. — Jesus loves you and so does his church, Bishop Robert W. Finn assured scores of people who came to receive the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick March 29.

“In this Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, the church is with us, and God is with us,” said Bishop Finn in his homily at the annual Mass, sponsored by the Knights and Dames of Malta with Kansas City, Kan. Archbishop Joseph Naumann as principal celebrant and Bishop Finn and Archbishop Emeritus James P. Keleher as concelebrants.

“Sickness and suffering is a reality that reminds us of the frailty we all have,” Bishop Finn said.

“When we gather together in light of the mystery of sickness, it is important we do so as a source of prayer and hope,” he said. “It is so meaningful to remind ourselves that we are not alone.”

The annual Mass, held as it has since its inception nearly 20 years ago at the accessible and spacious Cure of Ars Parish church, is a joint project of the diocese and archdiocese begun by Archbishop Keleher and Bishop Raymond J. Boland of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

Bishop Finn noted that just four days earlier, the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph celebrated a Memorial Mass for Bishop Boland, who died in his native Ireland on Feb. 27.

Bishop Boland served as an example of the power of faith as he approached his own death, Bishop Finn said. And that is because he knew God was with him.

“Let us strive to know the Lord,” Bishop Finn said.

“Know that he is God. Know that he calls us into life and love. Know that he is with us always,” he said.

Bishop Finn noted that the Gospel of the day told of the tax collector, standing in the back of the church and praying, “Be merciful to me, Oh Lord, a sinner.”

The faithful can always depend on that mercy and love if they know God, Bishop Finn said.

“I want to know, in the midst of human frailty, and sickness and suffering, and challenges and trials, that God is with us,” he said.

“Knowing that, we can persevere. We can live in joy with the sons and daughters of the Father,” the bishop said.

Jesus gave the faithful seven sacraments to show he is always there, and one of them is the Anointing of the Sick.

“Jesus knew we would need this reassurance of God’s love,” Bishop Finn said. “We have hope because in giving us the seven sacraments, he gave us this promise that he would always be with us.”

Jesus also gave the church another gift as he was dying on the cross.

“He gave us Mary, our Mother,” Bishop Finn said.

“She is also with us to console us, to comfort us, and to keep us on our path,” he said.

Bishop Robert W. Finn consecrates the Eucharist at the Memorial Mass for Bishop Raymond J. Boland at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Among the bishops concelebrating was Bishop Emeritus Kevin Boland of Savannah, Ga., right, brother of Bishop Raymond. (Joe Cory/Key photo)

By Kevin Kelly
Catholic Key Associate Editor

KANSAS CITY — There was no better day to say good-bye than the Feast of the Annunciation.

Exactly 26 years ago that day, in the Cathedral of St. Paul, Msgr. Raymond James Boland was ordained Bishop Raymond James Boland, second bishop of the Diocese of Birmingham, Ala.

His younger brother, Bishop Emeritus J. Kevin Boland of Savannah, Ga., recalled the day vividly.

“It was a joyous day for our family,” Bishop Kevin told a pin-drop hushed congregation on March 25, who nearly filled Kansas City’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to remember the man and bishop who served the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph for nearly 21 years.

“Ray’s appointment sent minor shockwaves through the presbyterate in the USA,” he said in an accent both brothers shared. “Ray was the first Irish-born priest to be selected as a bishop for many decades.”

A special guest came that day — Cardinal Timothy Manning, archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles.

At the end of the ordination Mass, Cardinal Manning rose to speak. Twenty-six years later, Bishop Kevin Boland could relay his words verbatim:

“I waited for this day a long time,” the aging Cardinal said.

“Over the years, Ireland has gifted many U.S. dioceses with a multitude of priests. Today, that gift is crystallized with the ordination of Ray Boland as a bishop.”

Cardinal Manning then turned to the front pew, where the newly ordained Bishop Boland’s mother, Gertrude, and his three brothers Tony, Frank, and Father Kevin — still seven years away from his own ordination as a bishop — were seated.

“Mrs. Boland, this is a proud day for you,” Cardinal Manning said. “And I want your son Ray to remember that the (bishop’s) ring on his finger is only there because of the ring on your finger. God bless you.”

March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation was certainly a fitting day for the ordination, and also for the second and final diocese that Bishop Raymond Boland would serve as bishop to remember him, Bishop Kevin said.

“Mary was afraid when approached by the angel,” he said. “I am confident that Ray was afraid when the question was posed: ‘Will you accept the Holy Father’s appointment?’

“Obviously, he said yes, and chapter after chapter of service has unfolded over the next 26 years,” he said. “During these days, we close the covers on this remarkable journey and prayerfully usher in the promise of life eternal.”

Bishop Raymond James Boland died, according to his longstanding wishes, in his native Ireland. After his funeral, he was buried in the cemetery of the very parish, St. Michael’s in Tipperary Town, where his parents were married and his mother served until her death as a member of the Altar Society, and from which she sent two of her four sons to serve the church in missionary service to America.

Bishop Raymond James Boland was remembered on the Feast of the Annunciation, 2014, for his passion for the church, for his compassion for the poor, for his intellect, and for his sheer competence as a servant leader.

And he was remembered in grand style in the cathedral which was renovated and rededicated under his direction.

On that night in the spirit in that sacred place, Mass was celebrated by his successor, Bishop Robert W. Finn.

“We lost a good shepherd,” Bishop Finn said. “We pray that he will now intercede and help this diocese he loved to grow and prosper.”

A long line of bishops process through an honor guard of Knights of Columbus and Knights of Peter Claver at the opening of the Memorial Mass for Bishop Raymond J. Boland. (Joe Cory/Key photo)

The celebration of Bishop Boland’s life was attended that evening by Knights — of Columbus, of Peter Claver and their ladies auxiliary, of Malta, of the Holy Sepulcher and the dames.

It was attended by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and by the members of Serra International, who helped Bishop Boland foster vocations to religious life.

It was attended by dozens of priests and deacons of the diocese, and by bishops, including his two successors in Birmingham — Bishop Robert Baker and Bishop Emeritus David Foley, with whom Bishop Boland served as priests of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.

It was attended by Benedictine Abbot Gregory Polan of Conception Abbey.

It was attended by his fellow Missouri bishops — Bishop John Gaydos of Jefferson City, Bishop James Johnston and Bishop Emeritus John Leibrecht of Springfield-Cape Girardeau. It was attended by Bishop Michael Jackels, formerly of Wichita and now of Dubuque, Iowa. It was attended by Archbishop Joseph Naumann and Archbishop Emeritus James Keleher of Kansas City, Kan.

And it was, most of all, attended by the people whom he served, nearly filling the cathedral.

“I can hear him now — ‘This is way too much,’” said John Massman, one of Bishop Boland’s earliest, closest friends in Kansas City.

“He was a great man,” Massman said. “He was not only intelligent, he was sincere.”

Larry Moore, the now retired and legendary local television news anchor, was frequently tapped by Bishop Boland to lend his celebrity to a variety of Catholic charitable causes.

“You couldn’t say no to him,” Moore recalled. “He asked in such a loving way. He had all the characteristics Christ would have wanted a bishop to have.”

Pope Francis recently told the Catholic clergy to get out into the streets where the people are so they will be like shepherds, living with “the smell of the sheep.”

Bishop Boland didn’t need to be told.

As bishop, his residence was in a gated community, but not far from the midtown Kansas City parish of St. James.

Precious Blood Father Bill Hubmann, in a remembrance on the religious order’s Web page, recalled how Bishop Boland was a frequent volunteer at the parish’s food pantry and community kitchen, living out his call to serve and not to be served.

He even would occasionally volunteer, on a rare free weekend, to celebrate Sunday Mass at St. James, where Father Hubmann was pastor.

“One young man, whose mind had been altered by drugs, came up to him and said, ‘Mister Bishop, Mister Bishop. I always wanted to join the Catholic Church but my family won’t let me.’

“‘Are your shoes nailed to the floor?’ Bishop Boland asked him.

“‘No,’ said the young man.

“‘Well, if your shoes aren’t nailed to the floor, you can go anywhere you want.’”

Father Hubmann also recalled how at large gatherings, Bishop Boland would tell everyone in earshot, “Father Bill is my pastor.”

“I was never so honored,” Father Hubmann said.

Bishop Boland called them his “Sandwich Club.” Officially, they were the BLT — the Bishop’s Leadership Team.

One of them was Benedictine Sister Anne Shepard, now the prioress of her Mount St. Scholastica community in Atchison, Kan., in her service as superintendent of diocesan schools from 1994-2000.

Sister Anne recalled the day she told Bishop Boland that she must resign because her Benedictine community was calling her to leadership.

“The immediate words out of his mouth were, ‘I am going to miss the Benedictine influence at the top.’ That was the best professional compliment I have ever received,” Sister Anne said.

“He let his senior staff be senior staff, and that trust prompted excellence,” she said.

Father Patrick Rush, now pastor of Visitation Parish in Kansas City, served 10 years as Bishop Boland’s vicar general.

“He was a man of great intelligence,” Father Rush said.

“He had very strong opinions, and he would express them strongly at times,” he said. “But he was ready to take in new information and adjust his opinions. He was a great delegator, and he trusted his staff.”

George Noonan, diocesan chancellor from 1994 to 2005, reads the Second Reading during the Memorial Mass for Bishop Raymond J. Boland. (Joe Cory/Key photo)

George Noonan, now in hospital administration in California, served Bishop Boland as chancellor for 10 years, the diocese’s first lay chancellor.

“One of his great strengths was that he tapped the gifts of people and utilized them in the way that was best for his administration,” Noonan said.

“But he let you use your competency, and he trusted you to do your job,” he said.

Noonan recalled Bishop Boland’s first opportunity to take a vacation in Ireland. He assembled his “Sandwich Club” and gave them a clear order — “Don’t call me unless the cathedral burns down. You are all competent people. You handle it.”

“You didn’t have to guess where you stood with him,” Noonan said.

Father Ernie Davis, administrator of St. Therese Little Flower and St. James parishes in Kansas City, was a former Episcopal priest whom Bishop Boland ordained as the first married priest in the diocese under a special papal pastoral provision.

He recalled how Bishop Boland welcomed him with open arms, but with reservations about how other priests would accept Father Davis.

“I knew what he wanted to do, but he didn’t want to do it without the support of his priests. He wasn’t afraid, but he wasn’t going to do it without his priests. So he told me that if it didn’t work out here, he would find another place for me to go,” Father Davis said.

Father Davis was ordained with the support of Bishop Boland’s priests.

Denise Kopek served as his administrative assistant for his entire tenure, both as active and retired bishop.

“He taught me so much,” she said. “You could ask him any question. I never met anybody who knew so much about everything.”

Bishop Boland was installed as bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph on Sept. 9, 1993. On Sept. 8, Archbishop James P. Keleher was installed as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas.

From the pulpit, on the day he was installed, Bishop Boland declared that on matters of the church in Kansas City, he and Archbishop Keleher would speak in unity, with one voice.

The two then-new Kansas City bishops knew each other, but not well. They didn’t have the opportunity to become friends until they both arrived simultaneously in the two Kansas Cities. One meeting before installations changed that, and both dioceses.

“It was clear to both of us that the situation before we came was that each diocese did its own thing and that there were few shared activities between us,” Archbishop Keleher said.

“Although we had hardly known each other, we soon decided with clear intentionality to be more cooperative as brothers across a narrow strip called the state line and at some points across the great (Missouri) river,” he said.

One of the first public signs of cooperation came the following January, as the two dioceses joined forces for a joint banquet and auction to raise money for Conception Seminary College in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

“We both needed an influx of priests,” Archbishop Keleher said. “Many seminarians of both dioceses studied at Conception, so we agreed to establish the SOS (Support Our Seminarians) dinner that aided our seminarians financially. It rallied the faithful on both sides of the line to become more aware of the need which they have supported enthusiastically.”

There were many other signs of cooperation, culminating in the 1997 National Catholic Youth Conference that was repeated in 2009, drawing thousands of young Catholics to downtown Kansas City, Mo., and requiring the talents and gifts of both dioceses.

Both Bishop Boland and Archbishop Keleher retired in 2005, succeeded by two priests of St. Louis who have continued the collaboration between the dioceses.

But on the Feast of the Annunciation, Archbishop Keleher’s thoughts turned to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, renovated under Bishop Boland’s watch, and to the friend he has lost — for now.

“I pondered upon when the Good Shepherd will call me home to judgment,” the archbishop said. “I trust that my record before the Lord will resemble a little bit like Raymond’s.

“That will also be the day when I will be able once again to greet my good friend.”

Bishop Kevin Boland’s homily at his brother’s memorial Mass also recalled an earlier good-bye.

“It was late August 1957. The newly ordained Ray Boland, accompanied by his parents and siblings, boarded a tender at the Cobh docks to travel out to the cruise ship Mauritania anchored in Cork Harbor near Roche’s Point,” Bishop Kevin said.

“The time had come for Ray to depart for the USA. Another one of the Irish missionaries was departing for a foreign land.

“My abiding memory of that day was the convulsive tears of my father. He was saying good-bye to his eldest, proud beyond measure to be the father of a priest. Sadly, within five months, Ray would return to preside at our father’s funeral. He went to the Lord at the early age of 59,” Bishop Kevin said.

On Feb. 22, Bishop Raymond Boland would come home for the final time by an ambulance plane.

“He was admitted to Marymount hospice (in Cork) and peacefully, in the presence of family, took his final breath on Thursday, Feb. 27,” Bishop Kevin said.

According to his typically precise and poetically written instructions, Bishop Raymond James Boland, 82, was laid to rest at St. Michael’s Church, in Tipperary.

Bishop Emeritus Kevin Boland laughes while describing his brother during the homily. (Joe Cory/Key photo)

“In homily preparation, it is not recommended to isolate one verse of Scripture to the detriment of the fuller text,” Bishop Kevin said.

“On this occasion, I will not follow the dictum. I quote one of the most consoling statements of Jesus: ‘And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it up on the last day.’

“Well, Jesus — you gave us Ray Boland,” Bishop Kevin said.

“He was your gift to us for the past 82 years,” he said.

“He was born in the shadows of the hills of Tipperary. He was laid to rest in the church yard of St. Michael’s,” he said.

“We believe in faith, that it is the will of your Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and that he will raise you on the last day,” Bishop Kevin said.

“Ray was a story teller par excellence. His memory was a steel trap. He would blend people together, places and happenings of times long ago in such fashion that the impact in the present moment was life-giving and refreshing,” Bishop Kevin said.

“Ray was multi-faceted and multi-talented. He used these talents in service to the church. His friends constantly approached him, including myself, for assistance in this project or that project. He never failed to oblige,” he said.

“From childhood, he was a natural leader,” Bishop Kevin said. “There were four boys in the family. As adults, we had to practice to get together on an annual basis for a four- or five-day rendezvous — ‘Boys Night Out.’ It won’t be the same without Ray, but we will continue with three.”

Bishop Kevin then quoted the words of his older brother, written in 2001, to explain to the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph why he is now resting in Ireland.

“Maybe this missionary should go home also, as it were, to complete the circle,” Bishop Raymond wrote.

“There are, of course, two circles. The smaller one confines our life to the finite circle of years; the larger one knows no bounds, beginningless and endless in that infinity which is the playground of our God,” he wrote.

“Some say one can’t go home again, but in reality, we all do. That is why, almost symbolically, I would like to be buried in Ireland.”

“March 4,” the day of the Irish funeral and burial of Bishop Raymond James Boland, Bishop Kevin said, “was another homecoming.”

Members of the LIFE Runners and supporters take time from their ‘Run A-Cross America’ to pray the Rosary at St. Charles Borromeo church in Kansas City. (Photo courtesy of John Heuertz)

By John Heuertz
Special to The Catholic Key

KANSAS CITY – If you ever see a fit-looking someone wearing a blue tee shirt with Jer.1:5 on the back, you’re probably seeing a LIFE Runner.

LIFE Runners multitask. They combine distance running, love for the unborn and witness to the prophet Jeremiah’s words: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah’s prophetic spirit and lots of blue tee shirts were in the Kansas City area last Saturday, April 5, when the second annual LIFE Runners “Run A-Cross America” relay came through town on its way to Sioux Falls, SD.

Starting March 5 at the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City and also at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the nationwide route goes by abortion facilities for prayer with “40 Days For Life” pro-life groups everywhere along the way, with both legs meeting in Sioux Falls on Palm Sunday.

The 40 day, 4,089 mile coast-to-coast event is designed to raise awareness of our nation’s ongoing abortion holocaust.

Local activities included prayer in front of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic on Vivion Road and a potluck dinner at St. Charles Borromeo parish Saturday evening, where about two dozen people shared fellowship, great homemade lasagna and funny, inspiring stories that any distance sport person could relate to.

The potluck idea “really got started as a way to honor out-of-towners who came here for the run,” said St. Charles parishioner Mary Ann Barlett.

“Sorry we don’t have our blue shirts on,” said Joe Craven of St. Louis. “We’ve been wearing them for two days straight.”

Grant Fenske of Lafayette, La. read about LIFE Runners in a Catholic magazine, joined up at once, and then started a chapter that has grown to 27 members in a year.

“It’s a powerful experience to be able to pray and run at the same time for such a great cause,” he said.

St. Charles pastor Father Joseph Totton is the LIFE Runners chaplain in this area, and even became a LIFE Runner himself.

“With some coaxing,” he laughs. “But if you need a motivation to do something, a spiritual motivation is best.”

The blue LIFE Runner shirts challenge everyone to “Remember the Unborn,” and several runners at the potluck testified to the overwhelmingly positive responses their shirts have gotten.

“I have never had a negative experience with the shirt,” Mary Ann Barlett said. “We give people a chance to have a voice.”

St. James parishioners Josh and Lindsey Bachman from St. Joseph, Mo. also say the message is always well received.

“It’s really popular at half marathons,” Lindsey Bachman said. “We get lots of positive comments, especially from women.”

When T.D. Dorrell of Greeley, Kan. heard about LIFE Runners on Catholic radio, “It gave me a new sense of purpose for my running.”

Interesting things happened when she started wearing a LIFE Runners jacket. A complete stranger bought her groceries one day in gratitude for it. Then she wanted to promote the group, but had very little money.

A local sign painter didn’t know the situation. But he donated all the signs anyway.

Father Totton himself was wearing his LIFE Runners shirt in a half marathon when a woman saw it and unburdened herself to him while running alongside him. She told him a heartbreaking story. But it could have had a much worse ending.

“She didn’t know I’m a priest,” he said. “I just had the shirt on. It gives people a chance to talk about things.”

Some runners also talked about redemptive running, and about the conversions that had taken place in their own lives.

“A lot of LIFE Runners have been involved with abortion,” said one. “So a lot of us run to make amends for past mistakes, and maybe help others not to make that same mistake. It’s a powerful apostolate.”

The witness is sorely needed. In the time it will take anyone with average adult reading speed to read this article, about six or seven unborn people will be killed in the United States because they are unwanted.

According to the Planned Parenthood-funded but generally reliable Alan Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortion, nearly 53 million surgical and medical abortions have taken place in the USA from 1973 through 2011. Adding chemical abortions from 1965 on raises the total about eleven-fold.

Just over one million abortions took place in 2012. The victims, both mothers and children, are nearly four times as likely to be black as white. About 28 percent are Catholics. Forty percent of minors report neither parent knew about their abortion. None of these numbers represents cherry-picking.

The good news is that the overall trend is down. Like all pro-life groups, LIFE Runners make a dent in these numbers by their ongoing witness, and in a way that irresistibly reminds one of St. Paul: “I have fought the good fight, I have run the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Tim. 4:7)

Groups like LIFE Runners make a difference partly because “keeping the faith” means to them what it meant to St. Paul. And not just in perseverance.

“We are not here to judge anyone,” Fenske reminded the group Saturday night. “We are to approach everyone in mercy and love.

“We all have only one judge, and that is Jesus Christ.”

President Ron Slepitza (center), Avila trustees and officers stand in front of the wall in Bundschu Library that they just knocked holes in to symbolize a breakthrough in learning on March 31. The library will be renovated, digitized and will offer state of the art technology, class and group study rooms and areas for quiet study. It will be finished this coming August. (Marty Denzer/Key photo)

By Marty Denzer
Catholic Key Reporter

KANSAS CITY — Avila University was founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet as the two-year College of St. Teresa in 1916, on the campus of St. Teresa’s Academy. Margaret O’Reilly became its first graduate in 1918. The decision was made in late 1939 to make the college a four-year institution. The name was changed to Avila College, after the birthplace of St. Teresa of Avila, the college’s patroness, in 1962, and the campus moved to its present location at 119th and Wornall Road in 1963. Avila was chartered as a university in 2001. Now, as it approaches its centennial anniversary, the university is in the midst of updating and upgrading its library and science center.

On March 31, Avila University officials, faculty, staff and students gathered in the Hooley-Bundschu Library to celebrate a breakthrough. Sporting hardhats and protective glasses and wielding purple and gold decorated hammers, men and women knocked holes in a library wall to symbolize the going out of the old and the coming in of new technology and layouts designed to further the university’s push into the 21st century.

The $43.3 million Centennial Campaign began in 2011. The campaign is comprised of six initiatives that are intended “to inspire students to transform the world.”

Avila president Dr. Ron Slepitza told The Catholic Key, “We’ve had our highest enrollments in each of the last four semesters, and a boost in retention. We brought on many new programs in the past 5 years, including the Avila Advantage, and we’ve had more new construction and renovation in those years than we had in the previous 50 years. And we’ll be doing more work this summer, $7 million worth.”

The south Kansas City campus has seen an astonishing amount of building — a new gymnasium, two new residence halls, a new chapel and an entrance plaza — as well as renovating several of its 1960’s era academic buildings in the last 5 years. But the new facilities under construction will be icing on the cake.

Dr. Slepitza said he feels a sense of energy and excitement around campus. Many things are moving forward, typified by the library and Science Center renovations and upgrades.

A year ago, the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation of Tulsa, Okla., a longtime supporter of Avila, issued a $1 million challenge grant, with the stipulation that the university raise $9.4 million within one year. On Breakthrough Day, March 31, Dr. Ron Slepitza, Avila University President, announced that the university had successfully raised the required monies and the library and science center initiatives were fully funded.

As a key component of the Transformational Learning Environment Initiative, more than 17,750 square feet of the library will be renovated into a Learning Commons.

The $3 million renovation will introduce new technology, a new environment and support, through which the Learning Commons will enable 21st century students to not only succeed, but excel now and in the future. When completed, the Learning Commons, on the second floor of Whitfield Center, will include computer pods, reading and study areas. The Innovative Learning Center will contain classrooms with televisions and writeable walls so instructors and students can interact, collaborate and plan projects. There will be spaces designed to encourage small group study as well as quiet independent study.

“More and more,” Dr. Slepitza said, “on university campuses around the country, students are engaged in interaction with technology.”

Talia Gonzales, 20, wielded a hammer at the Breakthrough ceremony. The Joliet, Ill., native is a second year student majoring in Business Marketing with a minor in advertising and public relations.

Digitizing the Learning Commons doesn’t faze Talia one bit. “Our instructors encourage us to use our resources to obtain information. I take my laptop to class every day to help me take notes. I know it’s my responsibility to pay attention and follow along with my instructor. I personally feel that I can type way faster than I can write so putting pencil to paper will not help me retain the information properly. Because I am too busy trying to remember what the instructor said previously and is saying at the time I am writing, I find it difficult to take proper notes.

“I believe the new digital learning system will be very beneficial, especially since students are now taking all of their resources for assignments from online databases.” She added that books and online resources have the same amount of impact. “We are not losing but instead gaining information. Especially since a majority of our society is becoming accustomed to modern day technology.”

The Ruth Wilcox Writing and Tutoring Center will provide quiet spaces for students who might need a bit of extra help from peer or faculty tutors. The Eschbacher Room and Laura Sloan, Ph.D. Children’s Collection will offer education majors pathways to informative and interesting ways to educate and delight children.

There will also be a circulation and information center for students wishing to order a book from the closed stacks. A refreshment area will provide beverages and snacks to fend off hunger pangs that could interrupt a productive study session.

One area of the Learning Commons will be given over to the Martha Smith, C.S.J., 1949, Archives and Research Center, and its adjoining Anne Smith Fritzlen, 1953, Reading Room. Fitted with a living history wall telling the story of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and of Avila University, the Archives will house the largest archival store of the U.S. Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph. Smaller stores of archived documents from other religious orders will also be housed in the Avila Women’s Religious Collections. The Center will also hold the official Avila University archives.

The second initiative, Future Healthcare Leaders, will establish the Marie Joan Harris C.S.J., Ph.D. Science and Health Complex in O’Reilly Hall. Named for the first graduate of St. Teresa’s College, O’Reilly is home to the departments of Science and Health. One of the original buildings on the south Kansas City campus, it was built in 1963. The new science and health complex will be named in honor of Avila provost and vice president for academic affairs, Sister Marie Joan Harris. She began her career at Avila as a chemistry professor in 1971.

O’Reilly Hall was still new then, but “it’s time to see about getting our facilities to a modern look and adapt our teaching to current science education,” Sister Marie Joan said. Several years ago, the anatomy lab was renovated and upgraded. Now “we will renovate two more labs and create a third lab. The microbiology and chemistry labs will be renovated, and a general science lab created.”

The instrument room will be moved to the lab floor, giving students and faculty easy access to the anatomy, organic chemistry, chemistry, physics, biology and general science labs and the instrument room.

She is excited about the Marie Joan Harris C.S.J., Ph.D. Science and Health Complex and looks forward to its completion, but “It’s not about me. It’s all part of the wonderful energy and planning” of Avila’s leaders and board members, she said. “And it’s time. About 46 percent of our students today are majoring in science or pre-health fields.”

There will also be a 130-space parking lot built, with easy access to both Wornall Road and to the university campus.

What is under consideration for future upgrades and the advancement of Avila’s mission to not only educate but to serve the dear neighbor without distinction as a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet-sponsored institution?

Dr. Slepitza shared some of his dreams for the university. “We plan to enhance the Performing Arts Center. We hope to boost endowments to support scholarships to provide more students opportunities for life changing breakthroughs. Almost half of our students would not be able to attend Avila without financial assistance.” He enumerated the figures: 46 percent of Avila students are Pell Grant eligible; 23.3 percent come from families living at or below the poverty line; another 23.7 percent live at no more than twice the poverty level. “We might also build another residence hall. Many students, 40 percent overall, live on campus. If enrollment continues to increase, it would be needed.”

Construction has already begun in the library. Completion of the Learning Commons and the Marie Joan Harris C.S.J., Ph.D. Science and Health Complex is expected to be in early August.

Seminarians Randolfo Lemus, Conception, Garrett King, Andrew Kleine and Jared Samson, all of St. Gregory the Great , pose to catch their breath after a 60 meter dash to conclude the first Kansas City Parochial League Track meet of the 2014 season at Bishop LeBlond High School in St. Joseph April 5. The seminarians, and Nathan Rueb, also from St. Gregory the Great, served as timers and spotters for the meet events, in an effort to introduce the 4 – 8th grade athletes to seminarians and get the kids thinking about the possibility of a vocation.
(Photo courtesy/Heather Conners)

By Marty Denzer
Catholic Key Reporter

KANSAS CITY — You might think that five young men, seminarians for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, would like to sleep in on a Saturday morning. Well, Andrew Kleine, Garrett King, Jared Samson, Nathan Rueb and Randolfo Lemus not only got up early April 5, they spent the day helping time and spot for the Kansas City Parochial League’s first grade school track meet of the season at Bishop LeBlond High School in St. Joseph. The impetus was to introduce the seminarians to the athletes, interact with them and perhaps get them thinking about a vocation.

The Diocese places great importance on vocations, whether to the priesthood, consecrated life or marriage, and strives to get kids thinking about their future as early as fifth grade. Several Catholic organizations, especially the Serra Clubs of Kansas City, which are dedicated to pray for and promote vocations, work alongside the diocesan Office of Vocations sponsoring events that highlight the priesthood and the consecrated life. Fifth Grade Vocations Days, held over a two-day span each February, introduces all the fifth grade students attending diocesan Catholic elementary schools to the priesthood and religious life, usually in the person of Bishop Robert W. Finn, Fathers Richard Rocha and Gregory Lockwood of the Vocations Office, Sister of St. Francis of the Holy Eucharist Connie Boulch, director of the Consecrated Life Office and other priests and religious sisters.

Wanting to keep future vocations in the kids’ minds, Larry Fitzgerald, Vocations Director for the Serra Clubs of Kansas City, had an idea. Larry’s son Vince is the Director of the diocesan Kansas City Parochial League, which provides opportunities for elementary school students to benefit from a positive experience in football, basketball, volleyball, cross country and track. Larry asked Vince which sport would work best for the seminarians to interact with athletes and with volunteer parent and high school helpers. Track of course, was Vince’s reply. Larry’s idea took off running.

Larry and Vince approached diocesan Vocations Director Father Rocha, a former football player and coach. Father Rocha immediately liked the idea, and set to work getting permission from the two seminaries and inviting the seminarians to the track meet in St. Joseph. Although Ty Sanders was in the midst of exams, Andrew, Garrett, Nathan and Jared from St. Gregory the Great Seminary in Seward, Neb., and Randolfo from Conception Seminary College in Conception, Mo., were willing and able.

All five were present with Father Rocha when he said the 8 a.m., opening prayer over the P.A. system at LeBlond’s football stadium. They then sprinted to the timers’ stand or to their position around the course to spot runners in a particular lane. Ty Sanders’ parents Clint and Karen Sanders, served as head timer and helped set up lanes for distance events.

The 4th-6th grade girls 1600 meter (mile) run was the first event, followed by the boys 1600 meter run, then sprints, both preliminary and finals, middle distance runs, relays and field events. As each runner went to have his or her time recorded, Father Rocha or a volunteer, offered the kids a vinyl drawstring backpack and a ball point pen with the Vocation Training Diocese of KC-SJ imprinted on it. Seventh and eighth graders took the track in the afternoon. At 5 p.m., the officials, volunteers and the seminarians took a deep breath. The track meet was concluded. But wait, several of the officials and coaches persuaded Andrew, Garrett, Jared and Randolfo to run a 60 meter dash. The starter raised the gun one last time for the day. Bang! They were off. Ten seconds later, it was a photo finish. They all won. Parents and athletes still in the stands cheered and applauded.

Larry said the parents he spoke with were pleased to see the seminarians working as timers and spotters at the meet. The young men enjoyed it also. Several seventh grade athletes agreed that it was an eye opener to see “that guys studying to be priests were real guys in their 20s, crackin’ jokes and havin’ fun.”

Vince said a number of the athletes brought their Vocations backpacks to the second meet a week later in Blue Springs. “They’re using them!”

Larry and Vince both said they hoped to make the “track-meet seminarians” an annual event. Next year, Larry said, he wants the seminarians to work the field events, which will allow them to interact more with the athletes. Vince said he will consider having the seminarians run the 60 meter dash as the opening event of the day, to introduce them to everyone there.

The Bishop LeBlond meet was a Vocations-directed track meet, Larry said. The seminarians certainly deserved blue ribbons for their cheerful, friendly hard work. And, maybe a few minutes extra sleep the next day.

Bishop Robert W. Finn, with Benedictine Abbot Gregory Polan at right, blesses the Oil of Chrism during the annual Chrism Mass, which also celebrations the institution by Christ of the Eucharist and the priesthood. (Kevin Kelly/Key photo)

By Kevin Kelly
Catholic Key Associate Editor

KANSAS CITY — Yes, it is a day to celebrate the priesthood.

But the Chrism Mass is also a day for priests to remember why they are priests, and to celebrate the people to whom they have dedicated their lives in service.

“My brothers, here is my call to you,” Bishop Robert W. Finn told the scores of priests assembled in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception as he blessed the three sacred oils to be used by the church throughout the coming year.

“Let us be priests, complete priests. And let us be brothers, co-workers in the mission entrusted to us,” the bishop said.

“As priests and intercessors, we stand before the throne of the High Priest, bringing the intentions that are so important to God’s people — for the protection of marriage; to bind in love all spouses and families; to grant peace to those engulfed in war; to heal the sick and to heal those who have been abused; to reconcile all who are estranged and bring back those on the point of despair; to bless us with vocations; to grant us relief from our enemies, (to grant us) simplicity of life and deep love for souls,” Bishop Finn said.

With Benedictine Abbot Gregory Polan at his side, assisted by permanent deacons, and with scores of diocesan priests and priests from every religious order serving the diocese in attendance, Bishop Finn then blessed the oils.

The Oil of the Catechumens, used in Baptism as a sign of driving away evil.

The Oil of the Sick, used in the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.

The Oil of Chrism, first mixed with fragrant balsam, and used in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders as a permanent mark and source of strength, and in the dedication of churches.

Formerly held on the mornings of Holy Thursday, the day commemorating the Last Supper when Christ instituted both the Holy Eucharist and the priesthood, the Chrism Mass is now celebrated in most U.S. dioceses in the evening on the preceding Thursday, for the full participation of as many priests as possible, and attendance of the faithful.

Throughout the day, the priests serving the Diocese of Kansas City gathered at the downtown Kansas City Catholic Center for a day of reflection, inspirational talks, prayer and dinner before the evening liturgy.

It is, because of their service to the people, one of the rare days in which priests can gather together in large numbers.

During the Chrism Mass, the priests also formally and publicly renew their commitment to priestly service, and the faithful also renewed their promises to pray for both the priests and the bishop.

“The Lord God has anointed us,” Bishop Finn said in his homily.

“Unworthy as we are, He has called us and made us priests for His God and Father,” he said. “He gives us a share in His eternal priesthood so that we can bring the Eucharist to His people, and so that we can know the joy of the Gospel and preach the saving Word of God.”

Anointing with oil is more than symbolic, Bishop Finn told the priests and the faithful who came by the hundreds.

Bishop Finn pours balsam into the Oil of Chrism. (Kevin Kelly/Key photo)

“It is an act of grace and consolation from Him who loves us, an intimate gesture of comfort and healing for us. It is mercy,” Bishop Finn said.

“In Christ, we are not only marked out,” he said. “We are re-created, reconfigured in some way to more fully resemble Christ. Jesus presents us to the Father, who gives us a share in His fatherly love. And we come to be spiritual fathers.”

Bishop Finn explained the rich meaning of “father.”

“A father is a teacher, a guardian and protector, one who provides as best he can even when this means great cost to himself,” he said.

“The good father challenges but quickly comforts. He listens and observes so he can know how best to give in response to the legitimate needs of his children,” Bishop Finn said.

“He seeks to know intimately, never for the sake of taking advantage, but so he can understand how best to offer himself for the care of those who depend on him,” he said.

“This is the ‘Father’ that you and I are called to be,” Bishop Finn said.

At ordination, priests are configured to be “alter Christus,” other Christs, the bishop said.

“We are, in some way, ‘Ipse Christus,’ Christ himself,” he said.

“Jesus Christ is alive in us. Indeed, St. Paul proclaims, ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,’” Bishop Finn said.

“If they are to know us and love us in the way God intends, people must see Jesus Christ in us,” he said.

“It doesn’t mean we must first be perfect before people can accept and love us as their priests. But we must allow Christ to take us over, more and more. ‘He must increase,’ John the Baptist says, ‘We must decrease.’”

Bishop Finn noted that the life of a priest isn’t always easy. But it is always with God.

“If we suffer through injustice or even because of our own failures or sins, and if we bear these trials with patient endurance, then even now we can be sure that we are being purified by the saving mercy of God, the only hope of sinners,” he said.

“God calls us to be priests. Let us not fail to be signs of God’s forgiveness and healing by frequently making ourselves available for Confession. Let us be fatherly in comforting the sick, and come quickly to their aid in the Sacrament of the Anointing. Let us cherish the privilege and responsibility of offering the Holy Sacrifice of Mass daily for the salvation of souls,” Bishop Finn said.

“God calls us to be priests,” he said. “Let us not be ashamed to proclaim the truth faithfully even when the world rejects us. Let us be joyful and daring, ready to do great things against all odds so that others will have to conclude that we draw our hope and strength from God.”

Kansas City Royals designated hitter Billy Butler spent his day off April 28 sacking groceries for the poor at Bishop Sullivan Center’s midtown St. James Place with special help from area little leaguers. (Kevin Kelly/Key photo)

By Kevin Kelly
Catholic Key Associate Editor

KANSAS CITY — Take it from Billy Butler.

You can’t play baseball or feed the poor by yourself. Teammates are important.

On a rare day off, the Kansas City Royals’ designated hitter called on some special teammates from area little league teams to help him kick off this year’s “Hit It a Ton” campaign to benefit the poor served by the Bishop Sullivan Center’s two locations.

The little leaguers and Butler quickly filled 18 sacks of groceries to be distributed to the hungry, then they helped serve a Zarda BBQ-catered meal to anybody who came to the center’s St. James Place community kitchen in midtown.

The younger athletes were among 36 Kansas City-area little league teams who have signed up to conduct food drives and raise money to feed the hungry as part of this year’s “Hit It a Ton” campaign.

“This is definitely fun,” Butler said as he tried mightily to keep pace with his far younger teammates. “It’s fun being around and teaching these kids.”

Yes, it was fun for the kids who came from teams in Lee’s Summit and Overland Park to hang around and work with one of the most feared hitters in major league baseball.

But it was more than that, said Paul Cole, centerfielder for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Lee’s Summit Legacy Park League.

“I’m just glad I can help other people in need,” he said. “I don’t want people not to have enough food.”

Neither does Butler or his wife, Katie, who began volunteering with St. James Place when Butler was first called up from the minor leagues in 2007.

The very next year, Butler agreed to donate the Bishop Sullivan Center’s costs of purchasing a ton of food from the Harvester’s community food bank — about $250 — for every home run he hit.

The Bishop Sullivan Center then invited the community to join in. In just seven years, with Billy knocking ‘em over the wall and community partners and individuals writing checks, Billy and Katie Butler’s “Hit It a Ton” foundation has raised more than $500,000.

And last year set records, thanks to Zarda BBQ.

Terry Hyer, chief operating officer of the Zarda restaurants, said Zarda began offering a Billy Butler sandwich with profits going to the Bishop Sullivan Center.

Then last winter, he had a brainstorm. Why not kick the recipe for Zarda’s signature sauce up a notch, put Billy’s name on it, then sell that to raise even more money?

He pitched the idea to the Butlers, and they said go for it. Thus Billy Butler’s Hit It a Ton BBQ Sauce was born.

An instant hit? Not quite. Zarda was able to get some bottles on store shelves, where they sat in a sea of barbecues sauces in the Barbecue Capital of the World — Kansas City.

Then a minor miracle happened.

With the Royals mired in a deep slump last May, Billy’s teammates learned he had a sauce, but wasn’t sharing it with them. It took some good-natured clubhouse ribbing before Butler agreed to bring in a few box loads.

Then, from the mind of starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, sprang the idea of “Rally Sauce.” A bottle of the sauce became a fixture in the dugout, grabbed and waved around every time the Royals needed some runs.

And they got them. In bunches. Suddenly, the Royals got as hot as a slab of ribs right out of the smoker, and “Rally Sauce” was featured on every televised game.

It started flying off supermarket shelves, sometimes so fast that marketers didn’t even have to put it out on shelves. They’d just leave a pallet loaded with boxes of sauce, and Royals fans would snatch up every bottle.

Yes, it’s good sauce, but Hyer said another hand was at work.

“It felt divine, like God was pushing the agenda here,” he said. “He was feeding the hungry through our barbecue sauce.”

True to Zarda’s word, Hyer presented a check for $31,000 — every nickel of profit earned from the sale of Billy Butler sauce — to the Bishop Sullivan Center and to St. James Place director Mike Mathews.

Butler was in awe over what he and his new bride began when he was a rookie.

“We didn’t envision anything as big as this,” he said. “We just figured we wanted to help out. We just tried to make things better for people, and now it’s grown into this.”

More information about joining Billy Butler’s “Hit It a Ton” program can be found online at www.bishopsullivan.org.

Strong City School students join in conversations with guests at the April 24 School Bell Breakfast. The breakfast raised more than $258,000 for Strong City School Fund scholarships. (Marty Denzer/Key photo)

By Marty Denzer
Catholic Key Reporter

KANSAS CITY — The annual School Bell Breakfast, a benefit for the Strong City Schools, is a celebration of Catholic education in Kansas City’s urban core. Founded in 1989 under Bishop John J. Sullivan as the Central City Schools Fund, it was later fostered by Bishop Raymond J. Boland and now by Bishop Robert W. Finn. The Central City School Fund was renamed the Strong City School Fund, a Bright Futures Fund, in 2010. For 25 years it has provided need-based assistance for low-income children in Kansas City’s urban core; $36 million raised over the past quarter century has helped more than 15,000 families access Catholic education.

When the bell rang at 7:30 a.m., Bob Paredes, Chair of the Bright Futures Board of Directors welcomed more than 550 guests at the breakfast held in a ballroom at the Muehlebach Hotel downtown —educators, students and donors — and said that Catholic schools are a 100-year tradition in KC’s urban core. Holy Cross School was opened in 1910, Guardian Angels — now Our Lady of Angels — in 1911, and Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1915. Paredes, a Holy Cross School alumnus, spoke of the sacrifices parents make to send their kids to Catholic schools. He said, “The children and parents of our Strong City Schools simply want the opportunity to obtain a quality, values-based education.” The Fund makes that possible.

Strong City School students were seated at tables with the guests. Aiden Luna attends Our Lady of Guadalupe School with his brother Reuben. Aiden’s favorite subject is Math and he enjoys playing soccer. Other students were scattered around the room, eating breakfast and chatting, some shyly, some eagerly.

Following Bishop Finn’s invocation and grace, and the Pledge of Allegiance, Emcee Johnny Kane, KMBZ-radio sports director, spoke briefly of the life changing importance of Catholic education.

Several awards were presented. The St. Thomas Aquinas Award, whose namesake, a Doctor of the Church, theologian and philosopher, and patron of Catholic schools and students, is given by the Bright Futures Fund to those who promote and foster Catholic schools.

Jim O’Sullivan, immediate past Chair of the Bright Futures Fund, presented the award posthumously to Bishop Emeritus Raymond J. Boland, who died Feb. 27 in Ireland.

In announcing the award, O’Sullivan described Irish-born Bishop Boland as a wayfarer, an immigrant to the shores of this country. Like Bishop Boland, “Catholic education takes us to faraway shores in so many ways,” he said.

Raymond Boland was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. in 1957 and named and ordained Bishop of Birmingham, Ala., in 1988. In 1993, Pope St. John Paul II named him to lead the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. He served as bishop until 2005, when Pope Benedict XV accepted his retirement request.

During his years as bishop, he promoted the establishment of endowments to ensure the continuity of diocesan Catholic schools. He established the diocese’s first capital campaign, Gift of Faith, and sponsored the feasibility study which led to the opening of Cristo Rey Kansas City High School.

O’Sullivan urged guests “to take Catholic schools under our care and turn their sails seaward.”

The award was accepted by Bishop Emeritus Kevin Boland of Savannah, Ga., Bishop Raymond’s younger brother. He spoke of his brother as a boy, a seminarian and then missionary priest leaving his homeland for the United States.

“Ray was deeply involved in Catholic education,” Bishop Kevin said.

Bishop Kevin travels to Ireland regularly to visit family and plans to share his brother’s St. Thomas Aquinas Award with them.

Dorothy Lambert was the first lay principal in this diocese and served the diocese’ schools for 37 years before her retirement in 2001. She died in 2006. Lambert believed Catholic schools’ mission was to help children realize education’s importance along with learning love for Jesus. The Dorothy Lambert Award is presented to a Strong City Schools teacher who exemplifies what she tried to do; this year’s awardee is Susan Hoffman, who has taught at Our Lady of Angels for six years.

Sally Robinson received a Lifetime Achievement award for 35 years of teaching at Holy Cross.

Keynote speaker Dr. Mary McDonald, retired superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Memphis, was responsible for creating Memphis’ Jubilee Schools, eight long-closed (one school was closed for 57 years) which reopened under her leadership. Catholic schools in the inner city bring light to the area, she said. What Catholic schools do, matters, she said.

She reminded the audience that “we are the arms of Christ in this world. No matter where you are today, whether shining brightly or just about to give out, someone in a Catholic school is there for you, and that someone is Christ.”

The Fund’s Managing Director Jeremy Lillig shared statistics and accomplishments of the Strong City Schools during the past year. Total enrollment is 438, of which 64 percent are Hispanic and 43 percent are English language learners. Eighty six percent are Catholic.

With an average yearly family income of $16,000, 89 percent of the students are eligible for free or reduced lunch. Ninety percent live below the poverty level. And 24 percent are students with special needs. Despite poverty, the average daily attendance is 96 percent. Why? The schools provide a values-based, student-centered education focused on academics, with faculty support and collaboration in safe, secure environments. They are dually accredited by AdvanceED and the Missouri Chapter of the National Federation of Non-Public Schools.

Partnerships with several area Catholic high schools have been forged to provide tutoring and test preparation to boys and girls. The Richard and Olivia Mock Scholarship Foundation has awarded Strong City School students scholarships to Archbishop O’Hara and St. Pius X high schools. A partnership has been formed with the Foundation for Inclusive Religious Education to expand services for students with special needs.

The schools all have new computers. Each school will receive statues of St. Francis of Assisi that belonged to Bishop Boland. Best of all, last year, the School Bell Breakfast raised $136,000 for scholarships. This year, $258,602 was raised to help impoverished families give their children Catholic education.

To learn more or donate to the Strong City School Fund, contact Jeremy Lillig, (816) 714-2356 or email lillig@diocesekcsj.org.

Barbara Witherow, cafeteria director of St. Pius X High School, presents checks totaling $8,500 April 28 to Franciscan Sister Andrea Kantner to help the order ship medical equipment and other supplies to the poor throughout the world. (Kevin Kelly/Key photo)

By Kevin Kelly
Catholic Key Associate Editor

KANSAS CITY — There isn’t a doubt in her mind. Millions of people are alive today because of the generosity of students from St. Pius X High School, Franciscan Sister Andrea Kantner told the students.

Every year since 2004, St. Pius students have put together a traditional St. Joseph’s Table, a tradition particularly for Catholics of Italian heritage.

Every year since 2004, the students have donated every dime they took in from the table to the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Eucharist in Independence to use in their 19-year project of gathering and shipping medical supplies and equipment throughout the world.

It’s added up. $37,005.02 to be precise.

“What this money has done is save millions of lives,” Sister Andrea told the students at an April 28 assembly. “I want this diocese as a whole to know what your school has done by looking beyond your own needs.”

This year’s table was a record-breaker. In addition to the $4,500 earned from the sale of baked goods and the free-will offering pasta Milanese dinner, Sister Andrea also received a matching gift of $4,000 from Power Play Family Entertainment and Mick Witherow, son of the school’s cafeteria director, Barbara Tulipana Witherow.

The whole project was Barbara Witherow’s idea.

In November 2002, she clipped out an article from The Catholic Key about the Franciscans’ ongoing project to collect donated supplies and equipment and ship them to the poor around the world and in the United States.

At first, the sisters were taking in and shipping everything — clothes, school supplies, whatever people wanted to give.

They still do that, but soon the sisters learned that Kansas City area hospitals and medical clinics were throwing away perfectly good medical equipment as they upgraded. The sisters then started collecting hospital beds, operating and examining tables, wheelchairs, walkers, even ultrasound and other technological equipment before they went to the landfill.

Then they would load them up from their warehouse on their motherhouse grounds in Independence onto shipping containers and trailers to send to places that had very little, and sometimes, literally, nothing.

It costs the sisters $10,000 a month to make the one shipment per month that is their goal, Sister Andrea said. Through the generosity of donors, they are usually able to meet that goal, and the generosity of ongoing partners like the students of St. Pius X certainly helps.

This year’s donation went a long way toward sending a shipment of medical equipment, some 11 tons in all, to the Diocese of Otupko in Nigeria. In addition, it also helped fund a very special shipment to Barbara Witherow.

Years ago, Witherow’s mother, Thelma Tulipana, donated a new organ to St. John’s Mission in Dover, Mo. She took the church’s old organ and used it in her home until she died.

That organ, along with four pianos, as well as clothing and school supplies, were packed on a semi-trailer truck for Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where the instruments will be used to begin a music program for Native American school children.

“My mother’s favorite charity was the Indian missions, so I am thrilled with this,” Witherow said.

She is also thrilled that the St. Pius X students took her idea and ran with it to have an annual St. Joseph’s Table to raise money for the Franciscan outreach.

This isn’t the entirely elaborate St. Joseph’s Table found in traditional Italian-American parishes, where the bakers will spend weeks preparing elaborate pastries, cookies and bread.

The students are asked to bring in cookies — home-made cookies that they have baked themselves.

Witherow then displays the cookies along with a couple of traditional bread crosses donated by Roma Bakery in the school cafeteria on March 19, the Feast of St. Joseph, as students then give whatever they want to donate to buy the baked goods and eat the meatless pasta lunch.

“The kids do it all. They bring in the cookies, the spaghetti, everything,” Witherow said.

And they do one more thing. Nine days before the feast, they begin praying the Novena of St. Joseph.

“I can tell you that we’ve gotten some miracles out of that,” Witherow said.

Witherow also said that the project also ties in with her devotion to St. Therese, the “Little Flower,” who taught that little ways add up to big devotions.

“We can all be missionaries if we pray for the missions,” Witherow said. “We can all be disciples by doing what we can.”

Sister Andrea prays that more people, organizations and businesses would help the vital mission of providing better medical care throughout the world.

“Right now, we’re trying to average one shipment a month,” she said. “That’s $120,000 that we know we are going to be spending every year.”

Information about the Franciscan Sisters outreach to the world’s poor is available online at www.franciscanmissionwarehouse.org.