Reflections on Life in Holy Cross
Fr. José Ahumada, C.S.C.
Saint George College
Santiago, Chile
I was born in 1955 in Santiago, Chile, the fifth of seven siblings. I attended Saint George’s College, a Congregation of Holy Cross school. My roots in Holy Cross go back to my early years: I received first communion from Rev. Howard Kenna, C.S.C. during one of his provincial visits to Chile. After graduating from Saint George’s College in 1972, I went to the University of Chile to study history. At the same time, I decided to live in a small community in a poor neighborhood in Santiago with Fr. Gerald Whelan, C.S.C., the school principal at the time. The experience of prayer, of community and of living among the poor was fundamental to my decision to embrace the religious life in Holy Cross.
In 1974 I decided to enter the novitiate and I pronounced first vows in 1975. I continued my university studies and in December of 1975 was forced to seek asylum at the Embassy of Panama and was eventually expelled from the country. I was not able to return to Chile for four years, so I spent those years in the United States, where I was kindly received at Moreau Seminary. I graduated from Notre Dame in 1978 and then spent time at a parish in Brooklyn, N.Y.
I returned to Chile in 1979 and in 1983 I was ordained a priest by Archbishop of Panamá, Mark McGrath, C.S.C. My ministry in my first few years as a priest took place at the Parish of San Roque, in Santiago, as an associate pastor. Afterwards, I was appointed campus minister at Saint George. In 1989 I returned to the United States for graduate studies. Upon return to Chile, I was given the for the formation of candidates to religious life in Holy Cross. In 1995, the Congregation asked me to take over as principal at Saint George’s College, and I thus became the first Chilean religious and first alumnus to fill that position. After six years as school principal, I was asked to serve as Director of Formation for the Congregation in Chile. In 2005, the Congregation asked me once more to take up the office of principal at Saint George’s, and this is my present job.
On the day of my ordination to the priesthood, I picked a motto for my ministry: “Be open-handed to the poor, so that your blessing may be fulfilled” (Sirach 7,32). After these first 25 years of priestly ministry in such diverse apostolates and social and economic situations, this phrase continues to be a motivation for my surrender to Christ. I want to be an instrument of the Lord so that the poor may encounter the love of God, and that young people may listen to the call to multiply their talents and put them to the service of a more just, humane world, in the footsteps of our only Master, Jesus Christ.
Fr. R. Bradley Beaupre, C.S.C.
St. John the Evangelist Parish
Viera, Florida
When people ask me what led me to the priesthood, and in particular to Holy Cross, I respond by saying that it was definitely God’s call. Even into my senior year of high school I had plans to study medicine because of my grandfather who was a doctor. When I did change directions, my first thought was diocesan priesthood, but God put Holy Cross in my sights through a publication that existed back then—Catholic Boy Magazine. As soon as I entered the seminary and discovered what community life meant, I never thought about diocesan priesthood again. Community life in Holy Cross has somehow made all of my various ministries purposeful because I have always seen my ministries as being part of a broader community’s efforts to minister to God’s people.
As a new priest, my first ministry was secondary education. I served as teacher and counselor. Hospital chaplaincy came into my life only five years after ordination. It gave me the opportunity to minister to people in need, often in very stressful or life-threatening situations. However, I always felt the ministerial reward of being a comforting presence to someone.
Before I realized it, I was responding to another need—Director of Guidance at a diocesan high school. I was among high school youth, guiding them through high school and then into college. Six years after that I became a parochial vicar in a parish in Southern Maine. Again, my talent for working with youth proved useful. Three years into the assignment I was invited by the local bishop to develop a diocesan-wide youth ministry program.
Then I was asked to become part of the Provincial Administration for the Eastern Province as provincial treasurer—the biggest stretch yet. I thought I didn’t have the skills needed for the job. Even so, I decided it was God calling me to another challenge, and so I said yes.
From there, I responded to a need at Stonehill College—to serve the local community as religious superior. Six years after that I was named pastor of a parish near the campus. It was very satisfying and rewarding because it gave me an opportunity to work with a variety of families and individuals and to respond to their distinct needs. And now, after completing forty years of priestly service, I have just begun a new parish assignment—pastor of St. John the Evangelist in Viera, Fla.
Holy Cross, I believe, has an exciting future. Throughout the world we are being called by God to bring His message of Love wherever we go and to whomever we serve. I have always seen, and continue to see, my ministry as a small but important part of the entire Congregation’s global vocation.
Fr. Robert Dowd, C.S.C.
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana
Last summer, while visiting the medical clinic at our Holy Cross Parish in Dandora, one of Nairobi, Kenya’s vast slums, I noticed a smiling young woman waiting for treatment. She had a bright, wide and inviting smile. She told me her name was Nyambura.
During our conversation, she told me her husband had died of AIDS a few months before, she and her four small children lived with her elderly mother, she had recently lost her job and had taken up selling vegetables on the roadside. Eventually, she told me that she herself was HIV positive. Given what I had learned, I found myself wondering how she could manage to smile so widely.
Nyambura must have noticed that her story was causing me to wonder and she said, “I am not afraid. I have God, the Church and you people.” It was clear that, by ‘you people,’ she meant Holy Cross priests and brothers. To this day, I cannot help but be inspired by Nyambura’s courage and hope; courage and hope that were made possible in no small way by the work of Holy Cross.
The desire to inspire courage and hope, and to serve God by channeling the incredible power of the mind toward service of the common good, prompted Holy Cross to found the University of Notre Dame where I teach political science and direct the Ford Family Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity. I teach courses that explore the causes and consequences of extreme poverty and, as director of the Ford Program, I am responsible for coordinating Notre Dame’s efforts to conduct research that makes a positive and sustainable difference in the lives of the poor in Africa.
Together with my fellow Holy Cross priests and brothers who serve at Notre Dame, it is my responsibility to work together with our lay colleagues to ensure that this University, founded and ministered by Holy Cross, always stays true to its mission; to ensure that it serves the universal Church and that it never becomes an ‘Ivory Tower’ that is separated from the problems faced by the world’s poorest.
Like many Holy Cross priests and brothers at Notre Dame, I also live in a residence hall. Among other things, I celebrate Mass there on a regular basis and have found myself in late-night conversations with students about their aspirations for their lives at Notre Dame and beyond.
In a world where many people are not all that satisfied with their careers, I cannot imagine a more fulfilling and rewarding path than the one that I am on. I consider myself incredibly blessed to be working side by side with my fellow Holy Cross priests and brothers to bring out the best in Notre Dame students and to introduce many of these wonderfully talented future leaders to people like Nyambura so that they might learn from and serve them.
Fr. Joseph Corpora, C.S.C.
Holy Redeemer Parish
Portland, Oregon
It is hard to believe that I am in my seventh and final year as Pastor of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Portland, Ore. It just seems like yesterday that I learned that the Congregation of Holy Cross accepted Archbishop Vlazny’s invitation to serve at Holy Redeemer. These seven years have been years of growth and inspiration. I love Holy Redeemer School and look forward to bringing my passion for Catholic schools to my new assignment working with the Alliance for Catholic Education at the University of Notre Dame. I will work for the future of Catholic elementary and high schools on a broad, national level.
As I think about another change in assignment, I am reminded that God gives me exactly what I need when I need it. God has been faithful to me all my life, and I have no reason to think that will change. God will always be faithful. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. This is most true when it comes to God’s faithfulness.
My entire life as a Holy Cross priest has involved accepting assignments that I wasn’t so sure about, and they all turned out to be unique opportunities for God’s grace in my life.
Prior to Ordination to the priesthood in 1984, Holy Cross asked me to suggest three places where I might serve as a priest. None of my choices were accepted. Instead, I was assigned to the University of Portland where I served from 1984 to 1990. As I look back on those years, I cannot think of a better way to have begun my priesthood than by serving there. They were years of grace and blessing.
In 1990, I had been accepted to Middlebury College in Vermont to do graduate work in Spanish, which meant that I was going to live in Spain for the 1990–1991 school year. I already had an address in Madrid and was beginning to make plans to move. Instead, my Provincial Superior asked me to go to St. John Vianney in Goodyear, Ariz., to serve as the pastor. I was there twelve incredible years. It wasn’t in my plan, but it was in God’s plan for me. And then on to Holy Redeemer—seven wonderful years of service and fellowship.
All three of my assignments were not what I would have planned for myself. And yet, in God’s Providence, each assignment turned out to be exactly what God had in store for my life. I have a friend who says, “The worst thing that can happen to you in your life is not that your life plan fails. Rather the worst thing that can happen to you is that your life plan works. God’s plan for your life is always bigger and better than what you could have imagined.”
Fr. LeRoy Clementich, C.S.C.
Holy Cross House
Notre Dame, Indiana
Well, it’s all sort of a big mystery really.
It’s back in October; I’m sitting at an old dilapidated picnic table tucked away in a grove of golden-leafed trees. I have two books in front of me: A copy of The Duty of Delight, the Diaries of Dorothy Day and A Year with Thomas Merton, two of my favorite authors. You see, I’m sitting there, sort of on a private one-day retreat, reminiscing how I got to be where I am at this moment in my life, how I had ever become a Holy Cross priest of all things—a farm kid from North Dakota who did not even know that this Congregation of Holy Cross existed.
Then I suddenly remembered the last few sentences of Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain where he sums up his life, starting from his birthplace deep in some mountains in France, ending up in the cloister of the “burnt men” at the abbey of Gethsamene, Ky. His life history was one great miracle of grace. He admits it. I thought to myself, “Hey, you know, you’ve had sort of an interesting journey, too, from the flatlands of North Dakota to this grove of trees in Indiana.”
Think about this, for instance. I’m convinced that I need to go to a public high school with the guys I know from grade school. My mother says, “Sorry, son, you are going to a Catholic school. I want you to be a priest some day!” I’m floored! I don’t want to be a priest. She won! I go to a Catholic school and that’s how it all started. Now, that is grace, there’s simply no doubt about it.
After Catholic high school, I enlist in the U.S. Army and end up in Berlin, Germany where I meet a Holy Cross priest, a lieutenant colonel, who gives me a job working for him as a clerk-typist, driver, interpreter. I’m ready to leave the Army a couple of years later and head home and he says to me, “Listen, if you ever get to thinking about being a priest, go down to Notre Dame University and talk to Fr. John Wilson, C.S.C. He’ll help you out.” He did, and here I sit just now thinking about how all this could have happened the way it did. Amazing!
All this was neither coincidence nor being in the right place at the right time. This was grace, pure and simple. This was God working through dozens of ordinary things, worldly events that one might not even perceive as being sacred.
On this October day, I say to myself, “You know, it seems that if God wants you badly enough, God’s going to lay out all sorts of opportunities during your life for you to mull over and decide on. In the end, the decision may be to be a lay Christian in the world, and that’s okay. Grace is everywhere for the taking. It’s our choice.”
So, I walk home and kind of laugh because it all seemed so unlikely the way it happened.
Fr. José Luis Tineo Coral, C.S.C.
Apostolado Del Rosario
Lima, Peru
My call to serve others began as the fruit of a variety of experiences lived throughout my youth, academic preparation and sacramental formation at a school and parish run by Holy Cross. The religious who served there motivated me to make the decision to be part of the mission and demonstrate with visible signs that the Lord’s kingdom is near.
When I was in school, I was able to observe the constant desire of the Holy Cross religious to be educators in the faith. They put this into practice every day, helping to make the students better Christians and messengers of hope.
This example to be messengers of hope lives on in our commitment to serve the most needy—to help them know Christ and to hope in the midst of death and violence, to know Christ as Love in the midst of dysfunctional families, to know that Christ came to serve and not to be served.
I am called to be a man of hope and prayer. Also, I assist in the area of communications to build up family unity through the Apostolate of the Family Rosary. We are able to evangelize with a series of radio programs, which offer ways to strengthen the family through prayer together, particularly the Holy Rosary.
To be men of hope is a calling that comes to us daily from the Lord himself. This call is strengthened through our community prayer life. We accept the Lord’s providence and carry the cross as our only hope, with the burning desire to make him known to others.
The entire legacy of our founder, Blessed Basil Moreau, C.S.C., moves me to follow his footsteps, to continue in the conviction that our task is to liken ourselves and others to the life of Christ. Our mission constantly calls us to be carriers of hope in the midst of signs of death. The Lord accompanies us each day in this mission, showing signs of his kingdom on earth. He invites and inspires us to motivate others to be a part of this great mission: to be signs of hope for all people.
Fr. James Lies, C.S.C.
University of Portland
Portland, Oregon
Many men of the Congregation of Holy Cross have ministered at the University of Portland before me. Perched high atop a bluff with a grand view of the city of Portland and Mount Hood, we have been here since the University’s founding over a hundred years ago.
My path to Holy Cross and to this place has been variously winding and abundant with blessings. I grew up in the small town of Little Falls, Minn., two hours north of the Twin Cities, and, I like to say, very near Lake Wobegon. The eighth of ten children, my Dad taught at St. Mary’s Catholic Grade School and my Mom was a nurse at St. Gabriel’s Hospital. My family was filled with every imaginable vocation: seven aunts and uncles who married and had children; an aunt, a School Sister of St. Francis; an uncle, an Irish Christian brother; another uncle, a Pallottine priest; and a bachelor uncle. I was so immersed in Catholic culture that I am since convinced that I was wholly unaware that there was any other. I cannot remember a time in my life when religious life and priesthood wasn’t as likely a choice as the many others contemplated in my youth. It was only when I met Holy Cross, however, and came to know the ministries that they do and the brotherhood that they share, that I could imagine myself as a religious and a priest.
My encounter with Holy Cross came as a surprise. After graduating from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, I made my way to Notre Dame and into a Master’s program in counseling psychology. It was there that I met Holy Cross for the first time. It wasn’t long before I was aware of the great allure that religious life in Holy Cross had for me. I had long entertained the possibility of priesthood, but it was the combination of the sacramental ministry of the priesthood within a religious community with the intellectual and ministerial pursuits in a Catholic university setting, that made the movement toward Holy Cross a natural one for me. I felt immediately at home with the men of Holy Cross.
My days in Holy Cross have given me the opportunity to study in several contexts: the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley for an M.Div., the University of Minnesota for a Ph.D., and Stanford University for a post-doc. I currently serve as an assistant professor of psychology at UP, while living as a pastoral resident in Shipstad Hall.
I walk in step with my Holy Cross brothers who have gone before me and with those who walk beside me now. I carry on the traditions of the Church in which I have been steeped since my youth. I am grateful to be among those who will lead the way for others.
Fr. Bill Wack, C.S.C.
André House
Phoenix, Arizona
One of our homeless guests recently came up to me and said that she wanted to say “goodbye” before I left André House. I have been the director here for the past six-and-a-half years and am preparing to move on to parish ministry. The woman was thanking me for my service to the community here and saying how much André House does for the poor and the homeless in Phoenix. She said, “You people really care about us. I mean, you treat each person like they’re special.”
This year I celebrate 15 years as a Holy Cross priest. I entered the college seminary when I was fresh out of high school, having no idea where this journey would take me. I could never have imagined what I would see or how much I would love my vocation. Now, with a great deal of experience in ministry and life, I can honestly say that I find more joy and satisfaction in being a Holy Cross priest than I did at any point in my life.
For me the best part of formation in Holy Cross was getting to work “in the field” during breaks and in the summers between classes. I was able to spend time in an AIDS clinic, a women’s prison, a juvenile detention center, on a reservation working with Native American children, and at André House. The summer spent here was especially formative for me. I saw the Gospel come alive every single day as we reach out to the poorest of the poor to provide basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter. It was these experiences of ministry that confirmed the call for me to the priesthood in Holy Cross.
And so I was thrilled when I was asked to be the director of André House six years ago. I had truly enjoyed the previous five years I spent as Associate Director of Vocations with Holy Cross, and the four years before that as an Associate Pastor of a parish in Colorado Springs, but this meant that I was going back to a place I loved. Even though I was anxious (and a little scared) about moving to a new place and being the director of a large ministry, I was excited to take on this new responsibility.
Now that I look back, I am filled with gratitude for what I have learned and what I have been able to share with our guests, our volunteers and benefactors, our staff and my brothers in community. Selfishly, I feel as though I received so much more than I gave to others, but that’s how I feel every time I complete an assignment in Holy Cross. As I move on to a new apostolate I am filled again with a little anxiety and a LOT of joy and hope!
Fr. Thomas Zurcher, C.S.C.
Casa de Formacion
Monterrey, Mexico
For the past year-and-a-half I have been assigned to work in Monterrey, Mexico, as the Director of Formation for Holy Cross. In this assignment, I accompany young men from various parts of Mexico and Latin America in their response to God’s call. My role is to serve them in the discernment of their vocation and set the foundation for their community life and ministry in Holy Cross.
Although I have been a Holy Cross priest for 36 years, this is the first time that I have been assigned to one of our ministries outside of the United States. My life journey as a priest has been filled with many surprising twists and turns—19 years in parish ministry, some of which were with the Latino community in Phoenix, Ariz., six years as the Superior and Rector of Moreau Seminary, and 10 years as the Vicar for Priests in the Diocese of Phoenix.
Watching movies from Family Theater; walking the campus of the University of Portland, St. Edward’s in Austin, and Notre Dame; visiting the parish of 20,000 families in Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon, Mexico; spending time in one of the poorest sections of Lima, Peru with priests and brothers dedicated to the development of people with mental and physical disabilities—these experiences and others re-kindled a small flame of desire in my own heart to serve God’s people with a renewed spirit.
All of these Holy Cross ministries as well as others offer exciting ways to meet the needs of God’s people. Even so, for me the two most fulfilling experiences of priesthood have also been the most “ordinary”: celebrating a sacramental moment in someone’s life and contributing to the spiritual growth and commitment of another person. For me these experiences have provided the greatest opportunities to stand in the graceful presence of God.
Fr. Moreau has been quoted as saying that our mission is “to make God known, loved and served.” He did so in bold ways, sending Holy Cross priests, brothers and sisters all over the world. He was especially concerned for the poor who didn’t have the resources available to them that others in his society could enjoy. Fr. Moreau’s vision lives on.
There are two ways I keep my spiritual life alive and fresh. First, I try to stay connected. I keep in touch with friends, new and old, in Holy Cross. I keep a regular conversation going with a spiritual director about what is going on or not going on in my soul. I maintain contact with my brothers, sisters, cousins and the rest of the family. Secondly, I try to pay attention to what is going on within me and around me. I try to listen to what people are saying in between the words. I take quiet, meditative time each day to look for and respond to the way God is present.
Holy Cross is a vibrant community of men who have given much and are ready to give more in order that God’s kingdom might come more fully into people’s lives. Young men who want to do the same are knocking on the door asking to join with us who are growing in wisdom and age. Tomorrow will come with many difficult challenges. By the grace of God, Holy Cross will be there as a gift from God to meet them.
Fr. Simon Mwangi, C.S.C.
McCauley House of Formation
Kenya, East Africa
Sometimes I am challenged to re-examine my call as a priest in relation to the people I minister to in the aftermath of the violence I witnessed, when Christians take crude weapons against each other. What is our deepest call as Christians? How does the saving act of Christ redeem us in overcoming our personal interests in relation to other people? How does forgiveness help rebuild our lives?
As a minister in the Church, I look to accommodate and foster dialogue with people despite the obstacles I encounter. I realize speaking the truth may be painful but we have to do it. Christ did it. Why not me or you or my neighbor? Our Christian values have no space for lack of forgiveness. If Christ never forgave his persecutors how could he have saved me and you? Christ’s mission became fulfilled on the Cross when He said, “Lord, forgive them as they do not know what they are doing.” Amidst chaos and uncertainties, these words of Christ need to make an impact on every Christian.
It has been a time of many movements in my life and the life of every Kenyan. The aftermath of the disputed elections in December 2007 brought untold sufferings to many Kenyans who were displaced or killed or left homeless. Many are still homeless though normalcy has returned to many parts of the country. I pray for my aunt who was misplaced and lost property in Londian in the Rift Valley province. I still have to come to terms with untold suffering of many who have no food like some of our Christian families in a nearby parish.
After the December 2007 elections, incredible violence broke loose. People started burning property in the whole country. It was terrible when I watched unruly youth burn two cars in front of our gate in the presbytery. No one could venture out as our lives were in danger. The worst experience was the following day—a man was hacked to death in front of our house. Another house in the neighborhood with four floors was in flames and the people—women, children, men, old and young— were on the roof top screaming for help. Some jumped off and broke their limbs. I had to question, “Where are you God?”
I see the call to reconciliation is a need for each one of us. I invite Christ to be in our lives and help us to renew our faith. As a priest, I am called to bring Christ into the lives of the people I work for and with and to foster that unity. I never tire of educating peo-ple in faith as our beloved founder Blessed Basil Moreau called us to do. Educators in faith cannot give room to hopelessness. As a Holy Cross priest, I help to bring hope among the people I work with.
Fr. George Piggford, C.S.C.
Stonehill College
North Easton, Massachusetts
In Christian Education (1856) Blessed Basil Anthony Moreau, C.S.C. writes, “Since God alone provides the means for the successful completion of any task, it seems evident that a person needs to be called by God to be an effective teacher.” These words come to me when I am in front of a class, or trying to give direction to advisees, or working through a pile of critical essays—on James Joyce, Flannery O’Connor, T.S. Eliot or some other author— written for courses at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass. I was, after all, a college professor before I became a priest and religious of the Congregation of Holy Cross, which Fr. Moreau founded. The call to scholarship and teaching has been with me since I was an undergraduate.
When I was teaching at Tufts University after completing a Ph.D., I became aware of a need to act on God’s invitation to explore a different vocation. I had been a seminarian in Pittsburgh while at Duquesne but had left formation to pursue graduate work. My desire to become a college professor seemed stronger, but I could not shake the feeling that God had been inviting me throughout my life to consider ordination. I contacted a vocation director for Holy Cross.
When I visited the Stonehill community, I was struck by its hospitality and its sense of spirit and brotherhood. After prayer and conversation and a retreat with other interested young men, I entered formation. Although it proved difficult to readjust my life to religious community, I continued to feel that God was calling me forward. The first year led to a second at our novitiate, where I learned to silence my mind and to enter into rhythms of work and prayer. There in Colorado I realized that there was no guarantee that I would resume my career as a college professor after ordination. Religious life demands that we give our will over to the wisdom of the group and to the needs of God’s people. I decided to embrace this and petitioned for temporary vows at the end of the novitiate year.
During the next three years at Notre Dame, my commitment to Holy Cross deepened, and I took final vows in the summer of 2004 and was ordained a deacon. My assignment: teaching at Stonehill and part-time work at a parish. Within a year I was ordained a priest, and I now help at a nearby parish and preside at a weekly Mass in the student residence where I live. It can be difficult to fit everything in, but praying every day and finding time to be with other Holy Cross religious keeps me energized and grounded. The most fulfilling aspect of my work is watching students grow and mature.
My hope is that there will be others who follow in the footsteps of those of us who live the consecrated life and find our inspiration in Blessed Basil Moreau.
Fr. William Ribando, C.S.C.
Retired Faculty, King’s College
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
As a young high school student in Williamsport, Pa., I decided to major in journalism at Mount Saint Mary’s College in Maryland and I signed up for the college newspaper. My future for the moment was clearly before me. I would live the exciting life of a journalist, or so I thought. God obviously had a different plan!
While in college, I loved to attend Mass in the college chapel. During my two years at Mount Saint Mary’s College, I was assisted and encouraged by my pastor to pursue another calling. He helped me to explore the prospect of a priestly vocation and introduced me to the Congregation of Holy Cross. As Lent of my sophomore year progressed, I reflected on what I would do with my life. Upon my request, my father drove myself and a friend up to King’s College. There we met several Holy Cross Fathers. After meeting these men, I knew I wanted to be a Holy Cross religious. So, with the support of my family, I applied and was accepted at Stone-hill College, North Easton, Mass. and entered the initial formation of the Holy Cross Priests and Brothers. My friend also signed up and was accepted.
A year in Bennington, Vt., for novitiate, two years at Stonehill College, and I was off to study Theology in Rome for four years at the Gregorian University. In the summer of 1964, I returned to the States an ordained Holy Cross Priest. I was assigned to teach at Notre Dame High School in Fairfield, Conn. Then in 1966, I was asked to teach at King’s College. It was an opportunity to teach various theology courses and to serve as floor counselor in Holy Cross Hall, one of the student residences.
One day in 1974, I was called upon to become the Provincial Superior of the Eastern Province of the Priests and Brothers of Holy Cross. I realized then that a further goal I should strive for in my ministry and teaching was to convey to my fellow religious and students some sense of what the world is really like for the majority of its people who work so hard and have so little.
When I returned to King’s College in 1983 and became a member of the local community once again, I had many rich memories. Since being back, I have served at King’s as a teacher and, at times, as Chair of the Theology Department.
As I recall my forty years in Holy Cross, I am grateful that God has permitted me to be a part of this group of men for such a long time. It has, at times, been difficult and trying as we as individuals and as a religious group seek to understand our mission in Holy Cross in different times and different circumstances. In calling us to be with him as part of his Body, Jesus recognizes the wide diversity that communities and their members bring to the service of His Church. I continually feel His encouragement to unite my discipleship with the Body of Christ, to offer the diversity of the gifts I have been given.