From the Archives

After 43 years as an employee of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, it’s time.

It is a mystery, this growing older business. It doesn’t seem so long ago that I came to Oklahoma City fresh from the seminary to teach at Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School, yet that was the fall of 1981.

The world has changed and inevitably, so have I.

The Holy Spirit has always found a way to nudge (sometimes push) me in the right direction. As a seminarian for the Diocese of Tulsa (I’m originally from McAlester), it became clear through a lengthy discernment process with the help of the wonderful Benedictines of Conception Seminary that God was not calling me to priesthood.  What indeed was my vocation? This conundrum was quickly resolved when I met the home economics teacher Stephanie Speligene who would eventually become my wife.

God has blessed us with 41 years of marriage and two spectacular children, Laura and Joe, their spouses Justin and Emily, and the queen, Margot my granddaughter. 

I have had the opportunity to experience various types of ministry and service, first as a theology teacher, then a DRE, a school principal (my two years in Purgatory – school administrators are saints) and then a canon lawyer. My friend from seminary, Father Weisenburger asked if I had ever thought about canon law and I replied, “No.” His response, “Well think about it.”

I did and the family packed up and moved to Ottawa, Canada, for school. It was the adventure of a lifetime and in many ways very foreign to the Oklahoma experience. A gift indeed.

Father Charlie Schettler, my mentor in canon law and a cherished friend, once told me that to write declarations of nullity decisions one must be part sociologist, part psychologist and part theologian. As usual, he was right. Seeing the pain and sadness of a marriage that was not sacramental, I gained an insight into the suffering of good people trying to do the right thing. Empathy became a more prominent factor in understanding the human condition.

The man who sent me to canon law was the kind and compassionate Archbishop Eusebius Beltran. I had known the archbishop since 1978 when I chanted the litany of the saints at his ordination as Bishop of Tulsa. I have teased him that my prayers that day cemented his effectiveness as a bishop, to which he replies, “Oh brother,” and the eye roll of disdain follows.

After five years in the Tribunal, I asked him to consider my application to be the director of the Office of Family Life. He laughed, which I did not think was a good sign. A week later the job was mine and 15 years later, the archivist position was created and I left the office.

I have known and worked under three ordinaries: Archbishops Salatka, Beltran and Coakley. Each had gifts unique to them. I am most grateful to them all but especially the last two.

Archbishop Beltran has always been supportive and had my back. He also allowed me one of the highlights of my life, that is working on the cause for Blessed Stanley Rother. Archbishop Coakley gave me the opportunity to become the archivist and has been generous in his support of my position. This was the perfect way to end my career as a church “lifer.” 

When I first started writing the “From the Archives” segment at the behest of then editor Diane Clay, I chose people that I knew and admired. However, as time progressed it became clear that throughout our rather colorful history there was oh so much more. Unearthing some of these people and places has been a joy and I gained a great deal.

As I complete this final column, I am eternally grateful for the lovely comments about what I have written. It has been a tremendous experience to learn in depth who we are as Oklahoma Catholics. So many gifted priests and lay persons have crossed my path and become friends. I miss more specifically priests who have passed from this life and helped me along the way to strive to be Christ to others and serve the People of God.

Have I always succeeded? Heavens no, but the effort is sincere.

So then at this juncture when life will again change (Saint John Newman, a personal hero, stated clearly that “to change is to be”), I have become the old man boring the young ones with my storytelling. In retrospect, I have seen Holy Mother Church at her best and at her worst but her beauty shines forth in a fallen world regardless of our sinfulness.
 
Thank you for allowing me to share a bit of my life, but most importantly for reading this column the last six years. It’s time.


Photo: George Rigazzi, seminarian 1978. Photo by Bobby Tom Wood, AKA Fr. Robert Wood.