Father William J. Dineen, C.PP.S.

Father William J. Dineen, C.PP.S, 73, a member of the Kansas City Province of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, died at St. Charles Center in Carthagena, OH on January 15, 2013. Father Dineen was born in Dayton, OH on August 22, 1939 to William J. and Irene (Mannix) Dineen. He entered Brunnerdale Seminary in Canton, OH in 1953 and then St. Joseph College in Renssalaer, IN in 1957. He made temporary incorporation in 1960 and definitive incorporation in 1963 with the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, and on June 4, 1966, he was ordained to the priesthood at St. Charles Seminary in Carthagena, OH by Bishop Paul Leibold.

Father Dineen’s first ministry assignment was at Precious Blood Seminary in Liberty, MO, where he served from 1966 to 1974, as an instructor and also Director of Seminarians. During these years he also served as an assistant chaplain at St. Mary Hospital in Kansas City, MO and also completed Clinical Pastoral Training at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Washington, D.C.

From 1974 to 1976, Father Dineen worked as a chaplain at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, IL. In 1976, he returned to Precious Blood Seminary and served there as an instructor and also seminary treasurer and local director until 1982. During these years, he was also instrumental in starting Good Shepherd Parish in Smithville, From 1979 to 1987 he served the province as a member of the provincial council. In 1987, he was appointed Assistant Provincial Treasurer and in then Provincial Treasurer in 1992, a position he held until his retirement in 2005. From 1993 to 1995 he also served as Sacramental Minister at Church of the Annunciation in Kearney. Following his retirement in 2005, he resided in Liberty, until 2009 when he moved to St. Charles Center, where he lived until the time of his death.

Affectionately known as “Truck,” Father Bill taught physics and math at the seminary. His financial acumen led to a long career as province treasurer. More than a numbers person, Father Truck was a wonderful storyteller who often drew upon the wisdom of Charles Schultz’ Peanuts characters for inspiration. Though his sermons were often brief, his stories would connect Scripture with everyday life and offer others an encouraging word. Proud of his Irish ancestry, Father Bill made several trips to Ireland before his health began to deteriorate. Even as his body was slowed by Parkinson’s disease, it could not stifle his spirit or his appetite for a good story.

Father Dineen is survived by his sister and brother-in-law, Anna and Claude Sacksteder of Dayton, OH; numerous cousins and friends; and the members and companions of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. Visitation will be at St. Charles Center on January 17 with a wake service at 7 p.m. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on January 18, at St. Charles Center at 2 p.m. with Father Joseph Nassal, C.PP.S., Provincial Director, presiding. Burial will be at Calvary Cemetery in Dayton, OH.

Jesuit Father Martin J. Bredeck, 79, died Dec. 3, in St. Louis. He was a Jesuit for 61 years.

Marty, as he was known, was born Nov. 5, 1933, one of three sons of Dr. Joseph and Catherine Bredeck. He entered the Society of Jesus at St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant, Mo., on Aug. 8, 1951.

Marty completed a Licentiate in Philosophy and earned a Master of Arts degree in Latin and Greek at St. Louis University. After teaching classical languages at St. Louis University High School from 1958 – 1961, he completed theology studies at St. Mary’s College in Kansas and was ordained to the priesthood June 16, 1964.

He entered tertianship, the preparation for final vows as a Jesuit, at St. Beuno’s College in Wales. After professing his final vows, Father Bredeck began working towards his Doctorate in Religion and Religious Education at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. While working on his dissertation, the young priest taught Theology at St. Joseph College in Philadelphia.

After completing his doctorate, Father Bredeck taught for two years at Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles. In 1978, he joined the Theology and Religious Studies Faculty at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, where he taught for the next 33 years.

In 1988, Father Bredeck published Imperfect Apostles: The Commonweal and the American Catholic Laity, 1924-1976, a book based on his doctoral dissertation. He remained interested in American Catholic history throughout his long career as an educator.

Father Bredeck took a sabbatical in the mid 1990s to explore Midwestern Jesuit history. His students enjoyed his dry sense of humor and considered him a fair but demanding teacher. Rockhurst University awarded him professor emeritus status in 2011.

He later returned to St. Louis where he died. He is survived by his brother Henry, nieces and nephews. Memorials may be made to the Dr. Joseph F. Bredeck Scholarship Fund of Rockhurst University, 1100 Rockhurst Road, Kansas City, Mo., 64110.

Sister Agneta Morh, OSB, 85, passed away on Jan. 2 at Our Lady of Rickenbach healthcare facility in Clyde, Mo.

She was born Agnes Cecilia Mohr on Feb. 12, 1927, in New Ulm, Minn., to Martin Joseph and Clara Tauer Mohr. Agnes, the sixth of 10 children, grew up on a farm and helped with milking cows and also did baking and cleaning with her mother. During those depression years, music brought much joy to the family, and they played a variety of instruments.

Agnes graduated from Holy Trinity High School in 1945. She enrolled in a nursing program at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn., and graduated in 1948. She worked as a registered nurse for hospitals in New Ulm and did private duty nursing at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, Minn.

Agnes was content with her nursing profession but still felt a deep, inner voice calling her to more prayer. She had been aware of a calling to religious life since the sixth grade even though she had pursued a nursing degree. A priest in her parish at New Ulm had a sister already in the Benedictine Sisters congregation – Sr. Consilia. He suggested Agnes contact the monastery in Clyde. She visited the convent and had a “God-experience” while keeping a period of adoration, which helped her know it was the community for her. She entered on the feast of St. Anne, July 26, 1951, and made first vows on Feb. 24, 1953, receiving the name Sister Mary Agneta so she could keep her beloved St. Agnes as her patron. She made final profession on March 13, 1958. After first profession, she was assigned to help the infirmarian and from that time on had ample opportunity to practice her nursing profession.

In 1959, she spent a few months in San Diego, Calif., at the temporary convent in Old Town. She then went to Tucson, Ariz., where she welcomed a change from nursing to altar bread work. She returned to San Diego and helped with moving to the new location on Paducah Drive where she had charge of the infirmary. She would serve as infirmarian in many of the Benedictine Sisters’ monasteries over the years.

When Mother Mary Carmelita had her serious car accident in 1958, Sister Agneta helped her convalesce at Mercy Hospital in St Louis. In 1971, she took a clinical refresher course in nursing at the Rochester Clinic in Minnesota. That same year she received the Consecration of Virgins at the Benedictine Sisters’ monastery in Kansas City, Mo. It was her privilege to return to San Diego in 1990 to help care for Sister Luella Dick and Sister Angela Toigo, both dying from cancer.

Sister Agneta was fond of the Good Shepherd image of the Lord and considered herself a “poor and needy lamb who was a little lost” at times. “But Jesus the Good Shepherd always finds me, in Him I place my trust,” she once wrote.

Sister Agneta entered Our Lady of Rickenbach in 2007. In late December 2012, her health rapidly declined before she passed in January. Her funeral Mass was held on Jan. 5, and she was buried in Mt. Calvary Cemetery at Clyde.

To share a condolence or send a gift in Sister Agneta’s memory, please visit “Donate” at the www.BenedictineSisters.org or mail it to Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, 31970 State Highway P, Clyde, MO 64432.

Before a full church at St. Bernadette Parish on Dec. 13, the Knights of Columbus give their final salute before the casket of Msgr. Henry Bauer. (Kevin Kelly/Key photo)

By Kevin Kelly
Catholic Key Associate Editor

KANSAS CITY — He chose the wrong church for his funeral Mass.

The parking lots at St. Bernadette Church, the last parish where Msgr. Henry Bauer served as pastor, could only hold a few hundred cars. The church itself could seat only about 500 mourners or so. Nearly 10 percent of that space taken up by Msgr. Bauer’s brother priests concelebrating with Bishop Robert W. Finn, among them, his Kenrick Seminary classmates Father Robert Burger of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, and Father Maynard Brothersen of the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa.

But as surprised as he was when a throng showed up earlier this year to celebrate his 90th birthday, Msgr. Bauer would have been just as surprised to see a packed church at his funeral.

Such was the humility of Msgr. Bauer, said his funeral homilist, Msgr. Bradley Offutt, vicar general of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

And so it goes with priests who are simply unforgettable, even 21 years after they have retired from parish ministry. Sixty-three years of priesthood in 10 parishes are impossible to forget. Nor was his 23 years as director of Catholic cemeteries for the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, and his six years as president of the National Catholic Cemetery Conference.

Msgr. Offutt even remembered the first time he met Msgr. Bauer, nearly 50 years ago when Msgr. Offutt was a boy attending Mass with his grandparents at Nativity of Mary Parish in Independence.

It was after Mass, and “I was sitting with my siblings in the back of my grandparents’ Cadillac Coupe de Ville. He had in his hand a full sack which I found out was that day’s collection. He stopped to speak to my grandparents and to us, and then we went on our way,” Msgr. Offutt said.

“I thought, ‘Wow! I like that guy,” he said. “It was very hard not to like Msgr. Bauer.”

Fast forward 20 years. The young Bradley Offutt was about to be ordained himself and was concerned about his first assignment as a priest.

“We had some crusty old codgers (of pastors) whose favorite form of psychotherapy was berating their young associates,” Msgr. Offutt said. “I was at my grandparents’ home washing a car when my grandfather stuck his head out the door and told me I had a call.”

It was Father Michael Coleman, informing the young priest-to-be that his first assignment would be with Msgr. Bauer at St. Bernadette Parish.

“I felt a great sense of relief, a relief that was well-placed,” Msgr. Offutt said.

Msgr. Offutt said he will always be grateful for the opportunity to learn from mentor who was complete at peace in his own skin.

“I learned how to confront people, always gently and they would always part as friends,” he said. “He could turn the most mundane moment into a teaching moment, and he always remained with his people, never above them.

“He always had his Bible or his breviary tucked under his right arm, but he didn’t wear his religion like a flag on a pole blowing in the wind,” Msgr. Offutt said. “He wore it inside.”

But perhaps the most important lesson taught to a young priest who was throwing himself into his work was balance. As in Ecclesiastes, Msgr. Bauer taught that there was a time for everything, especially taking care of one’s own well-being, which meant a time to rest.

Msgr. Offutt recalled himself frantically trying to complete the day’s work in the parish offices below the priests’ living quarters.

“I’d hear the unique sound of his La-Z-Boy (reclining chair) going up at 4:30 every day without fail,” he said.

“It was time for a drink and for (the TV game show) ‘Jeopardy,’” Msgr. Offutt said.

The young priest admitted some resentment about that then, and about the fact that “he took two vacation days for every one of mine,” Msgr. Offutt said.

Msgr. Henry Bauer

“Only later in life did I learn he was right,” he said. “I have come to learn that he was much more of a man for it.”

Msgr. Bauer didn’t need to impress anyone with workaholic habits.

“He knew how to work and how to rest. He knew how to pray and how to play,” Msgr. Offutt said.

“He was so comfortable in his own skin that he didn’t have to prove anything to anyone. People knew he was a wise man, and you can’t fake wisdom,” he said.

“He could say what needed to be said, but he was humble enough to hear what needed to be heard,” Msgr. Offutt said.

“He showed people Jesus Christ, and he inspired us to find Jesus in ourselves,” he said.

Still, the young priest, so eager to please his first pastor, worked hard for months without receiving a word, critical or in praise, from the pastor so comfortable in his own skin.

Finally, the young priest had to know how he was doing.

“I went into his office and put the question to him,” Msgr. Offutt said.

“He said, “Brad, it’s been great having you here,’” Msgr. Offutt said.

Then Msgr. Bauer added his own wisdom: “It can’t always be great,” he told the young priest. “But it can always be good.”

That’s what he told his classmates years later at from the Kenrick Seminary Class of 1948, as the surviving members gathered in 2008 to celebrate their six decades as priests, Msgr. Offutt said.

Reading from his remarks that Msgr. Bauer asked his former associate pastor to read as his funeral: “Life has its share of pleasure and pain, successes and failures, for me more than I care about. How greatful I am to our Heavenly Father for all of them. How grateful I am to my triune God.”

“Monsignor died on Saturday, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a most fitting day for a priest to die,” Msgr. Offutt said.

“He couldn’t speak that day, but he could the day before. On that day before he died, he said to me, ‘Brad, remember to say a prayer for me.’

“I ask for your prayers for him,” Msgr. Offutt told the hundreds gathered at St. Bernadette Parish to mourn Msgr. Bauer’s death and to celebrate his life, “that he may live in us, and that Jesus Christ may live in us.”

In addition to St. Bernadette and Nativity of Mary parishes, Msgr. Bauer also served as pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Raytown and at Vistation Parish in Kansas City, and as administrator of the now closed Holy Family Parish in Kansas City’s Leeds district.

He also served as assistant pastor at St. Agnes Parish in Springfield and at St. Lawrence Parish in Monett before those parishes became part of the new Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, and also at Sacred Heart Parish in Kansas City and St. Mary Parish in Independence.

In his retirement, Msgr. Bauer became a leading advocate for the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, speaking in parishes to invite parishioners to sponsor a child or elderly person in the Third World.

Sister Mary Pauline Kramek, OSB

CLYDE, Mo. — Sister Mary Pauline Kramek, OSB passed away on Nov. 20, 2012.

Angeline Therese Kramek was born on March 20, 1921, to Felix and Catherine Kuziola Kramek in Hamtramck, Mich., and baptized a week later in St. Florian Church in Hamtramck.

Angeline had three older brothers and one younger brother. When she was eight, the family moved from Hamtramck to Detroit, where she went to school.

One day Angeline, who had always wanted to be a religious sister and considered joining the Notre Dame Sisters who taught her in school, found a copy of the BSPA’s magazine, “Tabernacle and Purgatory,” in the back of church and read it from beginning to end. When she saw a picture of four postulants kneeling in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament in the Benedictine Sisters’ Adoration Chapel at Clyde, Mo., she decided that was where she wanted to go.

Her mother told her she was too young to go so far, and her father asked, “Where in the world is Clyde, Missouri?” Her brother got a map and drew a line from Detroit to Clyde, and her father said “we can try it.” In 1935 they traveled for three or four weeks to Clyde, stopping along the way.

Before making that trip with her parents, Angeline had already made up her mind and planned to stay at Clyde. She and another young Academy girl then had to go to nearby Conception Abbey for four years to continue their studies for a high school diploma. The first two years they were aspirants, not yet postulants.

Angeline became a postulant on Aug. 3, 1937, and was invested as a novice on April 30, 1938. On the day of her first Profession of Vows on Aug. 26, 1939, she became Sister Mary Pauline and made her Perpetual Vows on Aug. 26, 1944. She lived in the monasteries located in Clyde, Mundelein, Ill., Kansas City, Mo., San Diego, Tucson, Ariz., and Our Lady of Rickenbach, the Sisters’ healthcare facility.

For her, every place was a “blessing.” After one day in kitchen as a new postulant, it became obvious that her talent was elsewhere and was invited to help in the sewing room. She loved sewing, and being in the Church Work Department at Clyde, and later in San Diego, proved to be her talent and her special joy. Sister Mary Pauline also served as portress and as the sacristan in all the Congregation’s monasteries.

Her pleasant disposition and ever-grateful spirit never left her, even when she was in much pain, and her youthful enthusiasm and simplicity of heart did not diminish with age. Her conversation in her last days was not about pain, but about her heart-felt appreciation for the loving care and goodness she was experiencing.

To donate a memorial in Sister Mary Pauline’s honor, please visit the BSPA planned giving site at www.BenedictineSisters.org or mail it to Benedictine Sisters, 31970 State Highway P, Clyde, MO, 64432.

An unabashed automobile buff, Father Thomas Ward stands next to a 1930 Ford Model A coupe in this 1966 photo. (Key file photo)

By Kevin Kelly
Catholic Key Associate Editor

INDEPENDENCE — Impossible. Couldn’t be done.

How could anyone celebrate the life of Father Thomas Jerome Ward without some laughs?

The sharp wit of Father Ward, who died Nov. 4 at the Little Sisters of the Poor St. Jeanne Jugan Center, brought thousands of the people to laughter in his 80 years, both as a U.S. Navy chaplain and as pastor of eight parishes in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, and his hand-chosen funeral homilist wasn’t about to let a congregation of hundreds forget that.

“He was referred to as Jerry and Uncle Jerry in his family, but I usually called him Tom when we were on good speaking terms,” Father Lloyd Opoka, pastor of St. Matthew Apostle Parish, told the congregation that packed Father Ward’s home church at St. Mary Parish in Independence for the Nov. 8 Mass of Christian Burial.

“About five years ago, we had lunch together. He asked me if I would do the homily at his funeral,” Father Opoka said.

“I said, ‘Well, if you tell me what to say,’” Father Opoka said. “He told me once again of the three rules of public speaking: Stand up. Speak up. Shut up.”

And in that vein, Father Ward continued with a story about a bishop and friend of the priest who, after a rather lengthy speech, asked Father Ward for his opinion.

“I told him,” Father Ward said to Father Opoka, “that two out of three wasn’t bad.”

His advice to the young Father Opoka about giving the “money talk” to a parish was equally succinct and to the point, particularly his advice to avoid the minute details of parish finance.

“He said that people don’t care how many light bulbs we use. Tell them, ‘You gave it, we spent it, now give some more,’” Father Opoka said.

“He had a whole bunch of ‘Wardisms.’ He may not have made them up himself, but he added his own touch,” Father Opoka said.

“He told me about the three biggest lies in the world: The check is in the mail. I’ll respect you in the morning. And I’m from the chancery and I’m going to help you,” Father Opoka said.

But Father Ward also told him, while he was dying, that the third one was not a lie. He received a lot of comfort from the visits of Katy Crabtree, a registered nurse and the diocese’s Priest Wellness coordinator.

Father Ward also enjoyed long visits with Bishop Robert W. Finn, who came to his bedside frequently.

“He told me that Bishop Finn visited him several times, and would spend a whole hour with him,” Father Opoka said. “He also said that he offered the bishop a lot of advice, but that the bishop wasn’t taking notes.”

Father Opoka said that Father Ward had two things left on his “bucket list” before he died — celebrating the 50th anniversary of his ordination, and celebrating his 80th birthday. He celebrated both this year, months before his death.

“Because of those, he became acutely aware of God’s love for him, and the appreciation and love people had for him,” Father Opoka said.

Father Opoka said he was an underclassman at Conception Seminary College when the newly graduated future Father Ward addressed the seminarians, as was the custom of all new graduates about to be ordained.

Usually, the new graduates would tell the seminarians that the days spent at Conception were the best days of their lives. Not Father Tom.

“I remember Tom getting up and saying, ‘No, not these days. I expect the best days of my life to be as a priest, and the best view of this seminary to be in my rear view mirror,” Father Opoka said.

Father Opoka repeated Father Ward’s story of how he had no choice but to be a priest. His mother gave birth to him in the backseat of a 1930 Dodge, and prayed to Mary that if her baby son survived, she would turn his life over to the Mother of God.

“He said, ‘There I was, five minutes old, and already under contract,’” Father Opoka said. “I believe Father Ward fulfilled that contract very well.”

In his homily at the Oct. 13 rosary and procession at St. Patrick Parish that opened the universal Year of Faith in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Bishop Finn told the 1,300 in attendance of speaking to a dying priest.

This priest, the bishop said, told him that God must truly love those whom he chooses to bear particular suffering.

“He reminded me that the Holy Spirit is still in charge. God loves us a lot, he insisted. I listened,” the bishop said that night. “In the midst of his suffering, this dying priest clearly believed this. With all my heart, I believe it, too.”

Following the Mass of Christian Burial on Nov. 8, Bishop Finn confirmed that the dying priest he had listened to was Father Thomas Jerome Ward.

Father Jim Taranto, pastor of St. Mark Parish in Independence, blesses the body of Father John Eldringhoff. (Kevin Kelly/Key photo)

By Kevin Kelly
Catholic Key Associate Editor

INDEPENDENCE — “Have I made a difference?”

It’s the ultimate question. It was also the last question that Father John Patrick Eldringhoff, as he lay on his deathbed, asked his friend Father Jim Taranto.

St. Mark Parish, where Father Taranto is pastor, has one of the largest churches in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, easily seating 1,000 people.

It was large enough to hold the mourners at Father Eldringhoff’s funeral on Nov. 7. But not by much.

The living answer to Father Eldringhoff’s ultimate question, told to the congregation that easily numbered into the several hundreds, was inside the huge church at St. Mark Parish.

He had made a difference. To the hundreds there, and the hundreds who couldn’t come, whose lives the priest touched, and made even more remarkable by the fact that Father John Eldringhoff, in his 44 years as a priest, had never served as pastor at any of the diocese’s very largest parishes.

Yet they came in huge numbers — from St. Munchin Parish in Cameron, from St. Ann Parish in Independence, from Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Raytown, and from Father Eldringhoff’s home parish, Christ the King in Kansas City.

And in equally impressive numbers, Father Eldringhoff’s brother priests and deacons also came, nearly 50 strong, to concelebrate the Mass of Christian Burial with Father Taranto, and to pray with two bishops who came – Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert W. Finn, and Salina Bishop Emeritus George K. Fitzsimons, first ordained as a priest of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph who had known Father Eldringhoff, who died Nov. 2 at the age of 77, through the priest’s entire career.

It was a scene that Father Eldringhoff would have relished, said another of his friends, Father Charles Tobin, his Conception Seminary roommate whom Father Eldringhoff personally asked to deliver his funeral Mass homily.

Upon his retirement from active ministry in 2000, Father Eldringhoff openly worried in a story in The Catholic Key that he had could have been “more patient, more understanding, less judgmental” as a priest.

But as Father Tobin told the huge congregation inside the huge church at St. Mark Parish, where Father Eldringhoff made his last home, friendship was important to this priest, as was hospitality, as was preparing his home as a place where his friends could feel welcome.

“What a wonderful man. What a wonderful priest. What a wonderful blessing he was for all of us,” Father Tobin said.

Father Tobin told the story how Father Eldringhoff invited his seminary roommate to come to his parents’ home in Kansas City for Thanksgiving, knowing that Father Tobin’s parents were deceased.

The Eldringhoffs made the young seminarian and stranger feel immediately welcome, and an instant member of their family. That characteristic, learned from his parents, would serve Father Eldringhoff for the rest of his life, Father Tobin said.

“John always loved his living space, and he always welcomed a guest,” Father Tobin said. “That was part of who John was, making his home a place where you are at peace,” Father Tobin said.

Father Eldringhoff spent his priestly career as a “good shepherd,” his friend said.

“He was concerned for the poor and the sick, for people who were alone,” Father Tobin said.

Father John Eldringhoff

And he also had a special gift, not given to every person, for sharing the Word of God in his preaching, simply and unforgettably.

“There were always people in his congregation who thought he was speaking directly at them. John had that gift,” Father Tobin said.

Still, Father Eldringhoff worried as he was dying, his friend said. And, as Father Taranto, his own voice breaking with emotion, told the congregation he worried in their last conversation together whether his life made any difference at all.

Then, said Father Tobin, Father Eldringhoff would remember the words of Jesus: “I am going to prepare a place for you in my Father’s home.”

“John had a happy death,” Father Tobin said. “From the day of our baptism, we long to go home.

“You and I are also going home,” Father Tobin told the mourners. “May you and I both know that we may reunite with John at the gates, and he will again welcome us into his home.”

Father Thomas Richard Saale

By Kevin Kelly
Catholic Key Associate Editor

CHILLICOTHE — The key to understanding what drove the life and priesthood of Father Thomas Richard “Dick” Saale can be found in Chapter 17 of Luke, said Father Robert Mahoney, his friend of nearly six decades.

“When you have done all you have been commanded, say ‘We are unworthy servants. We have only done our duty.’”

“Saale did the things a good priest was supposed to do,” said Father Mahoney, delivering the homily for the Oct. 3 funeral of his dear friend — whom he constantly referred to endearingly and only by his last name. “But Saale reminds us we need to do more.

“We can’t be complacent, going to Mass on Sunday and only doing the things we’re supposed to do,” he said. “We must do more.”

Father Saale, who died Sept. 29 exactly two weeks before his 87th birthday, did more, Father Mahoney said.

Father Saale was a Golden Gloves boxing champion in his youth, and carried that fighting spirit through his life.

But Father Mahoney said it gave him the confidence of a boxer to keep his head and defuse violent situations, such as when he convinced a group of angry young men during the Kansas City race riots in 1968 to put down a can of gasoline and talk.

“He was able to persuade them in terms they understood, and they respected him for it,” Father Mahoney said.

There was the burglar at Blessed Sacrament School was confronted by Father Saale, then the pastor.

“When the burglar came out, he was looking at the wrong end of Saale’s shotgun,” Father Mahoney said. “But in an instant, he sat the man down, talked to him, listened to him, and turned him around. And he is a good citizen today.”

Father Saale did all the things a good pastor does at a parish. But when he looked around Blessed Sacrament Parish and saw the needs, he had to do more, Father Mahoney said.

Seeing people without high school diplomas, he started a parish program staffed entirely by parish volunteers to tutor adults for their GED tests. That program, launched in 1966, was the model for a federally funded GED preparation program at nine sites throughout Kansas City, including Blessed Sacrament.

In 1965, when the call went out for clergy of all faiths to join Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., after marchers were brutally beaten back at the Edmund Pettis Bridge, Father Saale was in a large contingent of Kansas City priests and religious sisters who went. He had to do more, Father Mahoney said.

As Father Saale neared retirement in the early 1990s, he gathered a group of priests together who would meet “religiously” every three weeks. Father Mahoney, a career sociology and criminology professor at Rockhurst University, was in that group who gathered on the pretext of poker, but really came to talk with brother priests.

“In that group, we could say anything, and we did,” Father Mahoney said.

“In that group we had nearly 400 years of combined pastoral experience, and Saale was the key member of that group,” he said. “It was like a seminar.”

Father Mahoney looked at the mourners gathered at St. Columban Church, which Father Saale’s ancestors helped Father John J. Hogan — later the first bishop of both St. Joseph and Kansas City — establish and build some 160 years ago, and said that each of them will take from Father Saale’s life one piece that he touched in his special way.

But everybody he touched should remember Father Saale’s example that there is always more to do.

“If we learn that lesson from Saale,” Father Mahoney said, “we will definitely find a teaching moment here today.”

Bishop Robert W. Finn prays for the repose of the soul of Father Richard Saale as he celebrates the priest’s funeral Mass Oct. 3 at St. Columban Parish. (Kevin Kelly/Key photo)

Sister Mary McNellis, SL

By Marty Denzer
Catholic Key Reporter

Sister Mary McNellis, 102, the oldest member of the Loretto Community, died July 23. A familiar name in Kansas City, she was a long-time educator and worker for peace and justice. She had celebrated her 84th year as a Sister of Loretto in December.

“Mary was a beautiful spirit,” said Loretto Sister Barbara Doak, her housemate and caregiver for more than 35 years, who was at her side when she died. “She was straight forward and frank, but her love went deep. She had patience and an acceptance of human foibles, and she loved everybody equally. She was a real spiritual inspiration.”

Mary McNellis was born in Kansas City, on March 6, 1910, a daughter of Irish immigrants Anthony and Hanna McFadden McNellis. Sister Barbara recalled Sister Mary often saying that at her birth, her mother dedicated her to the Blessed Virgin by naming her Mary. She attended Sacred Heart Grade School, where she first became acquainted with the Sisters of Loretto. She briefly attended Redemptorist High School, transferred to Loretto Academy, and graduated in 1927. After working one year as a stenographer, Mary entered the Sisters of Loretto community at Nerinx, Ky., in June 1928. She was received into the congregation on Dec. 9, 1928, and professed her first vows a year later. She professed her final vows Aug. 15, 1933, and was known as Sister (Mary) Cornelia until the 1960s.

Sister Mary attended Webster College (now University) and earned a bachelor’s degree in History, with minors in education and French, in 1944. She received a master’s degree in education, with a minor in American history, from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in 1950.

She served in the Archdiocese of St. Louis as a teacher, principal and parish convent superior from 1930 to 1948. A longshoreman’s strike in 1948 kept her from sailing to China, so she went wherever she was needed — teaching in Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Texas for more than 20 years. Sister Barbara said Sister Mary had an innate Irish spirituality, sensing God’s calls to her through the actions and needs of others.

She also served as superior of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish convent in West Las Vegas, N.M., from 1949 -1952.

In 1972, Sister Mary found herself back home in Kansas City, and soon she held numerous responsibilities at Loretto in Kansas City, including Latin teacher, assistant school librarian, tutor, volunteer coordinator and researcher. She also served as alumnae relations coordinator.

She worked as a school secretary at Longfellow School for a year before “retiring” from teaching in 1980. Following her retirement, Sister Mary served as a Montessori school aide and assistant in Roeland Park, Kan., and at Seton Center, and as activities director for Catholic Charities’ Social Ministries Dept. from 1982-84.

She also taught religious education classes at Our Lady of Sorrows Church for several years. She “officially retired” in 1991, but until recently, Sister Mary spent many hours volunteering, especially for organizations committed to peace and justice.

In 1999, Sister Mary and four other Loretto Sisters, accompanied by a group of lay people, attended The Hague Appeal for Peace Conference in the Netherlands. The following year, she was named Kansas City’s Citizen of the Year by then-Mayor Kay Barnes at a United Nation’s Day event.

Often accompanied by Sister Barbara, Sister Mary was a regular participant at weekend peace demonstrations at the J.C. Nichols Fountain on the Country Club Plaza, sometimes in a wheelchair.

In 2004, PeaceWorks, Kansas City awarded her the Charles Bebb Peace Merit Award. For a number of years, Sister Mary participated in the planning of the annual Troost Avenue Festival. She and Sister Barbara had lived in the neighborhood since the 1970s.

Sister Barbara said Sister Mary was a “pretty traditional Catholic, and she was OK with that. Her outlook enabled her to open her arms to the world. She believed all people to be children of God and deserving of love and respect from other children of God. The Gospel is hard to live, but Mary took it seriously, and as a result, she was loved by many, of many backgrounds and faiths.”

The Funeral Mass was celebrated July 28 at St. James Church in Kansas City. Burial followed at Mount St. Mary’s Cemetery. Sister Mary is survived by 25 nieces and nephews, and their families, friend and caregiver Sister Barbara Doak and her Loretto Community family.

Donations in memory of Sister Mary McNellis may be sent to the Loretto Community, in care of the Loretto Development Office, 4000 S. Wadsworth Blvd., Littleton, CO 80123-1308, or by visiting www.lorettocommunity.org, click on “Give to Loretto.”

Sister Martha Smith, CSJ

Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet Martha Smith, 82, died May 9 at Nazareth Living Center in St. Louis. She had been suffering end stage renal failure.

Martha Smith was born Sept. 7, 1928, in Kansas City, Mo., a daughter of Edmund and Anna May Smith. She and her sisters attended St. Teresa’s Academy. Martha also attended the College of St. Teresa. She entered the community of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1947.

After professing her vows, Sister Martha completed her bachelor’s degree in philosophy at Fontbonne College in St. Louis. She then enrolled at St. Louis University to earn her Master’s Degree and Doctorate in history.

She was a teacher all her adult life, beginning in Catholic grade schools and then high schools mostly in the St. Louis area. She taught history at Fontbonne College for one year, then in 1965, returned to Kansas City to teach history at Avila University.

She earned a Fulbright scholarship to study in India the summer before she began teaching at Avila.

In 1999, she and Dr. Carol Coburn of Avila co-authored Spirited Lives, a book about the influence religious sisters had on American culture between 1836 and 1920. The book is considered outstanding in its field.

Sister Martha retired from active teaching in 1995, and was named Professor Emerita. In 1997, she began volunteering as the manager of Avila University Library’s Special Collection. She retired to Nazareth in 2010.

The funeral Mass was held May 12 in the chapel at Nazareth Living Center. Sister Martha is survived by a sister, a brother-in-law and many nieces and nephews.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Louis Province, 6400 Minnesota Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63111-2899.