Ken died on May 25, 2002, the 39th anniversary of my ordination. He had been a close friend of mine through the
three years of philosophy studies at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein. Even after those years we
stayed in touch for a while. I visited his home in Maywood during those years,
staying for meals with his parents whom I’d met during visiting Sundays at
Mundelein. After ordination in 1963, we lost touch.
Ken had played a role at crucial points in my life.
Ken
had been my study partner on occasion when I suffered real difficulty trying to
grasp the abstract concepts of philosophy in Latin. I knew I had a problem with
abstract thinking in Latin when I recognized I was learning more philosophy in
the History of Philosophy class with John “Mousey” Walsh, S.J., than I was with Bernard
“Silver Fox” McMahon, S.J. I had no
difficulty in Latin or other foreign languages, having studied Latin and German
for 5 years and Greek for three. But my brain was not developed at the time to
work with the combination of grasping concepts and understanding them in
lectures in Latin. I always admired all of my successful classmates who apparently
felt so comfortable in responding in class. I wouldn’t volunteer a response
because I knew it would come out all garbled. As a study partner, Ken was a big
help, perhaps not in aiding me in responding, but at least in improving my test
grades.
He also was my cohort in a number of extra-curricular
activities calculated to maintain sanity. Assisting with the construction,
finishing and outfitting of the iceboat we christened “Snowflake” and tested on
the lake in the winter of 1958-59. Providing me with the plan for building a
three-transistor radio as small as a pack of cigarettes connected o a Telex
earphone—reception not much better than a crystal set because it needed a long
antenna to pick up any stations. Building baffled speaker enclosures and
laminating them with fine wood finish (I still have those speakers). And Ken,
as everyone everyone who knew him probably remembers, was a wiz with anything electronic. His ability in
recording events, building his own stereo tape recorder by combining the sound
boards of two Wollensak tape recorders. I’ll never forget the stereo rendition of a recording
he produced of the Dimitri Tiomkin score for the soundtrack of the film Giant. And we all remember Ken’s ability
with lighting, often collaborating with Gerry Walter, Don O’Connor or Jim Tolch, for our productions, as class assignments from John Conrath, S.J. Ken created rheostat-dimmers
that gave those productions a professional touch. 
During
the summer of 1959, Ken drove with me on a 425-mile trip (before completion of
I-80 and I-35) to Conception Abbey, Maryville, Missouri, in my 1931 Ford Model
A Coupe with rumble seat, pictured with Ken at Colonial Motel , Kirkwood,
Missouri. My parents asked if he’d join me in this trip, concerned that such a
long-distance solo trip would be too much for me—or the 28-year-old vehicle.
The reason for this trip was the requirement that I
take a summer Latin course as a pre-requisite for entrance to Mt. St. Mary of
the West in Norwood (Cincinnati). While I knew I didn’t need extra help with
Latin, I knew I wanted to be able to take courses in theology taught in
English. The three years of struggling with philosophy lectures in Latin
brought me to recognizing I needed to make this decision to switch seminaries. If
I was going to understand the theology studies needed in preparation for
ordination, I needed to seek a seminary where theology was taught in English. While
I knew the texts would still be in Latin, I knew that was not my problem.
Ken returned to Chicago by train
from St. Joseph, Missouri, and I continued the summer course assisting Fr.
Becker, O.S.B., and tutoring those struggling with Latin. One of my classmates
was Stan Rother from Oklahoma City, who had come out of the Navy to enter the
seminary and struggled with language learning. Later, I discovered he went on to
be ordained—coincidentally the same day I was, May 25, 1963 and 39 years-to-the-day before Ken's death—went to Guatemala and served 13 years in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala (1968 –1981), Diocese of
Solola,
translating the New
Testament into the Tzutuhil language. On July 28, 1981, Stan was murdered by a paramilitary death squad for his work among the indigenous people. Caught between the
revolutionary movement for self-determination and the military government in Central America’s
longest and bloodiest civil war, Stan refused to preach rebellion, but
his pastoral devotion to his people eventually cost him his life.
By his accompanying me on the drive to Conception Abbey Ken was instrumental in exposing
me to the Benedictine spirit of liturgical piety where I had the opportunity
of translating the hymns of the breviary four years before I was to be praying
them. In addition, Ken played a part in my being introduced to a martyr whom the people he served already consider a saint.
When I had approached my bishop, Loras T. Lane, he was
amenable to a change of seminary. And saw to it that I was recommended to Mt. St. Mary of the West, Cincinnati, But when I was making arrangements for the
transfer, there was a hitch. The rector, Msgr. Joe Schneider, figured I had a Latin
deficiency. So I was enrolled for the summer Latin Course at Conception Abbey. After I arrived at the Mount, I completed the required Latin Proficiency test with all those who were coming from "noon-feeder" seminaries to see if they needed further Latin classes. The results of the test showed I did not need Latin classes. However, the full results of that test were not revealed to me until four years later when, prior to ordination, I was called to the office of the rector. As we spoke he began by telling me he had received a letter from my bishop asking "Are you going to ordain this man or not?" He explained that when I came four years earlier, he began to have suspicions that I had some ulterior motive for switching seminaries. What added to that suspicion was what he then revealed to me regarding the full results of
that test: “You aced it; you aced it!” For four years he held this suspicion in what the seminarians had dubbed "his amateur-psychologist
mind."
The ironic twist was that, by second theology, the
Vatican released its Instruction on Latin in the Seminary, and the diocesan
priests who were the profs had to scramble to brush up on their Latin
abilities, most just gave lip-service to the recommendaiton. Our scripture prof, Father Gene Maly, was the only one who, having
received his doctorate at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, knew that “Rome
proposes, man disposes” and continued lectures in English, though some of his
lectures were given from texts he gave translating on the fly directly from articles
in German by such scripture luminaries as Rudolf Bultmann. Best course I could
have had. Gene was the co-founder with Passionist Fr. Barnabas Mary Ahern of
the scripture periodical, The Bible Today.
Ken also volunteered his excellent photographic skills for my First Mass at St. Peter Church, Rockford, on May 26, 1963.
All
this is background about how Ken was instrumental in a very crucial point in my life and as prelude to my discovering as I recently researched information about
Ken, finding, quite by accident, the listing of Ken as
defendant in the cases of 10 young men who accused him and Bob, another seminarian a year behind us, of sexually abusing them.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/il_chicago/#ruge
This revelation left me with a mixed response. I was
saddened to read the testimony found at that website.
In 2002, while serving as director of Service
Justice and Peace at Holy Family, Inverness, I had occasion to hear a
presentation at the parish by Barbara Blaine, co-founder of SNAP. Her account
moved me deeply because of the first-hand testimony of her abuse at the hands
of a priest. She had made me aware of the research being compiled on that
website created by a non-ecclesiastical entity to assure the transparency by
the Bishops in those days.
Reading the testimony of those abused by Ken and
Bob, I felt a sense of betrayal, but also a sense of wondering how the young men
I knew—one a talented and helpfully compassionate friend in early years—could
be the same persons I was reading about in the trial testimony by those they
abused. And I felt a sense of slight guilt for being so wrapped up in my own
life and Hispanic ministry that I was not in touch with or present to Ken in
the years 1976 and 1979 when he served at Divine Infant, Westchester and in
October 1991 when he was “withdrawn” from ministry and placed on “monitored
living.” Added to that, seeing that the abuse took place in part at Woodhaven
Lakes in Lee County, located within the my diocese, at a trailer Ken
and Bob owned, not far from one of the areas served by our Diocesan Hispanic
Ministry, hit my heart heavily.
Ken died in May, 2002. The Archdiocesan death announcement did little to
show respect or accept responsibility.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/resources/resource-files/databases/2006_03_20_list.pdf
So good to read the recent kind comment about Ken by my classmate of years ago, Bill O’Shea: “He
knew he was dying of cancer, but had found peace and acceptance." May his victims also one day find peace.
