Reflection by Kevin Kearney
The Congregation of Holy Cross and I have been crossing paths for over 60 years. Who I am today has much to do with Holy Cross. The order has had a profound impact on my life. It all began in the early 1960s.
Fr. Bill Neidhart, C.S.C., was the first Holy Cross priest I ever met. He and my parents were high school classmates in Fort Wayne, IN. He used to occasionally visit our home.
When I was in 8th grade, I thought about entering a high school seminary. I considered several options but chose Holy Cross Seminary at Notre Dame. Probably because it was at Notre Dame, but also because Fr. Bill was a friend of our family, and he seemed like a good priest. My dad graduated from ND in 1948, and in our home listening to Notre Dame football games on the radio on Saturdays in the fall was a family tradition. So, the possibility of going to school at the edge of the Notre Dame campus made the choice easy: off I went to Holy Cross Seminary in the fall of 1964.
High school seminaries are now for the most part a thing of the past, for good reasons. (Fourteen-year-olds really have no idea what vocation they want to pursue as adults, and few of those who entered these institutions went on to become priests. From a business perspective, these institutions had a poor return on investment.) But my experience at HCS – the “Little Sem” as it was affectionately called – had a profoundly positive impact on my life.
My first year at HCS was also Fr. Bill Simmons, C.S.C.’s first year as superior/principal. We were very fortunate to have him at the helm. Those were exciting but also turbulent times for the Church, shortly after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, as the changes initiated by the Council were beginning to be implemented. This was on top of the challenges of educating a group of adolescent boys.
The priests, brothers, and laymen who were members of the faculty and staff of the Little Sem were dedicated educators. They taught us English, history, math, Latin, science, etc. Not all were great teachers, but they were all good role models; and from them, I began to get a glimpse of what members of the Congregation of Holy Cross were like and what they did as educators in the faith; and I liked what I saw and experienced.
I could write at great length about what I learned from the CSC priests who educated me at Holy Cross Seminary, but I’ll limit myself to 3 who had different types of impacts on me. I mentioned Fr. Bill Simmons above. He was a wise guide, especially for adolescents in the 1960s; he was also a gifted and demanding teacher (Latin III); from him, I learned the importance of rigor. Fr. Richard Grimm, C.S.C., (Religion I, II, and III) was not a very good teacher, but he was passionate about the importance of the reforms of the Council, and he introduced us to the documents of the Council – not exactly riveting material, but he somehow embedded some of the reforms in my memory. And Fr. Bob Griffin, C.S.C., English III (American Literature) was not my favorite subject, but I still remember him walking us through Lord of the Flies, The Grapes of Wrath, and one of his favorites as a New Englander, Moby Dick. He loved what he taught.
It was not only the teachers at HCS who impacted my life. There were 50 students in our entering class, but that was whittled down to 20 by the end of my junior year. No one from our class is today a C.S.C. priest, but I remain friends with a couple of my classmates. It may be that there was something about the C.S.C. way of life that attracted us, even if we did not go on to be lifetime members of the order. Finally, when we were freshmen, a few seniors served as special mentors to us, even living in the sparse quarters allocated to freshmen. Two were particularly wise ‘big brothers,’ and are today C.S.C. priests, Frs. Steve Newton, C.S.C., and Pat Gaffney, C.S.C.
Holy Cross Seminary closed after my junior year of high school. The provincial council of the Indiana Province made the right decision in closing the Little Sem, but it was sad to have to say goodbye to my friends, teachers, and mentors one year shy of graduation.
I returned to my home for my senior year of high school, but after that year I returned to Notre Dame for undergraduate studies, enrolling in the college seminary program. The first year of the college program was spent at St. Joe Hall – which currently serves as the home of the entire seminary program while Moreau Seminary is being renovated – and then I moved next door to Moreau Seminary for the remaining three years of my undergraduate studies. Fr. Louis Putz, C.S.C., was the superior at Moreau. He was a visionary leader, implementing the reforms of the Council in seminary education. Fr. Jim Lackenmier, C.S.C., directed the undergraduate program at Moreau and was a wise and dedicated mentor. At Moreau, I interacted with many fellow seminarians who would go on to be lifetime friends.
After graduating from Notre Dame in 1972, I headed to Holy Cross Novitiate in Bennington, Vermont. That was certainly the most critical year of my formation process in the Congregation of Holy Cross. I learned how to pray, and that is something that has been central to my life for over 50 years now. Our novice master, Fr. Tom Barosse, C.S.C., was a wise and holy man. He taught us about the history of religious life in the Church and Holy Cross in particular, about prayer, liturgy, the Second Vatican Council, and much more. Fr. Greg Green, C.S.C., was my spiritual director, and we remained friends for the rest of his life.
After my novitiate year, I returned to Notre Dame to study theology. While studying, I lived at Moreau Seminary for two years and in a house in Christ the King Parish for one year. (Four of us lived in that house and helped out at the parish.) I was considering entering a Clinical Pastoral Theology program during the summer after my second year of theology, but our provincial superior at the time, Fr. Bill Lewers, C.S.C., suggested that I consider an alternative: spending the summer living and working with Holy Cross in Bangladesh. A “suggestion” from the provincial is a bit more than a suggestion, so I began making preparations for my summer overseas. Along with two fellow seminarians, Fr. Tom O’Hara, C.S.C., (who would later become the president of King’s College and then the Provincial Superior of the U.S. Province of Priests and Brothers) and Fr. Jim O’Connor, C.S.C., we made our way to Dhaka in May 1975.
To say that that summer had a strong impact on my life would be a great understatement. For years, I had heard about the work of Holy Cross around the world, but that summer I got to experience it first-hand. I met Fr. Dick Timm, C.S.C., who had gone to Notre Dame College in Dhaka to teach biology, but then got involved in development in the country, and finally became the head of Caritas Bangladesh (the local arm of Catholic Relief Services). I spent some time in a remote village with Fr. Gene Homrich, C.S.C., who told us stories about how his parish had sheltered freedom fighters during Bangladesh’s (then East Pakistan’s) war for independence from (West) Pakistan. I came to understand how much Holy Cross was a global order, dedicated to the spiritual and physical needs of the people it serves.
After that life-changing summer, I returned to Notre Dame to complete my theological studies. I spent my diaconate year in campus ministry at Notre Dame, serving as a Resident Assistant and later as Assistant Rector of Sorin Hall. Fr. Greg Green was the Rector of Sorin Hall, and therefore my boss and mentor. I was ordained a priest in April 1977, and when Fr. Greg was appointed to an administrative position at Notre Dame that summer I became the Rector of Sorin Hall. I accepted that appointment with the understanding that I would serve as the Rector for only one year since I had been approved to begin graduate studies in 1978.
In the fall of 1978, I moved to Connecticut, to live with a group of Holy Cross Brothers in West Haven and to begin graduate studies in biochemistry at Yale University. At that time, I was beginning to have many questions about my vocation. At the recommendation of a close C.S.C. mentor, I sought counseling from a professional. This led me to request a leave of absence from Holy Cross and I moved to an apartment in New Haven. I continued to have contact with my confreres in Holy Cross, but at the conclusion of that year, I decided to formally leave Holy Cross. This was the most difficult decision I ever made because Holy Cross was so much a part of me, but it had become clear to me that I did not have a vocation to celibacy.
In September 1980, I married Mary Mullaney. (Mary had attended St. Mary’s College and Notre Dame for her undergraduate studies and then graduated from Notre Dame Law School. We had, and have, many C.S.C. friends in common.) Over the years of our marriage, we were blessed to have 7 children, and now 11 grandchildren. Five of our children graduated from Notre Dame, and all of them ended up interacting with my C.S.C. friends. One son, Damian, spent some time with the Holy Cross Associates in Uganda. I was fortunate to be able to visit him there, to see some of the places I had heard about from my C.S.C. friends, and even to see a couple of people with whom I had been in the seminary.
The bonds of Holy Cross extend over time, and through life changes. For many years a group of us, current and former members of the order, have met annually for a meal in the Boston area: Frs. Tom Gariepy, C.S.C., and Jim Doherty, C.S.C., Chris Chappell and I, and occasionally others. We often reflect on how much Holy Cross has positively impacted our lives.
Mary was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the spring of 2021. She underwent surgery and chemotherapy, which prolonged her life; but in the end, pancreatic cancer always wins. In May of this year (2024) Mary entered hospice care. We were told that we could travel a bit if Mary felt up to it, which she did. We made our last trip together that month, to Indiana. We visited my brother in Fort Wayne, and then Holy Cross House at Notre Dame. We had visited HCH several times over the years to see friends and wanted to go there one more time – to see Frs. John Young, C.S.C., Tom Gariepy, C.S.C., Paul Doyle, C.S.C., and others. In early June, Mary was anointed by and received Viaticum from Fr. Bill Miscamble, C.S.C. She died on June 29. Among the concelebrants at her memorial service were Frs. Bob Wiseman, C.S.C., and Jim Doherty, C.S.C.
I am happy to be a supporter of the Congregation of Holy Cross. The order has given me so much over the last 60+ years, and I have been able to see the ministries of Holy Cross across the U.S. and around the world. From Holy Cross, I received my undergraduate and graduate education and my spiritual formation. I have seen the work of Holy Cross in Bangladesh and East Africa. I have seen the care provided to my mentors and peers at Holy Cross House. I am happy to support these ministries, as a way of giving thanks for all I have received.
Published November 2024
