Wichita, Kansas

    Sharon Hagan, Serra Metro Club VP of Programs, happened to see a talk given by Fr. Mike Schmitz at the annual SEEK conference in Duluth, Minnesota. Father Mike is a renowned lecturer and podcaster and is Chaplain at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. These are highlights of his talk shown at a recent Serra meeting.

     Father Mike acknowledged at the beginning of his talk that there are people in the audience who do not want to be there. They just want to be left alone. The heart of his talk is the statement that every sin is an attempt to be happy apart from God. We are free to make any choice we want; we are not free to choose the consequences of those choices.

      He used the analogy of a man on a spacewalk who loses contact with the spaceship and is now drifting in space. Nothing he can do will bring him back to the ship. He will die in this separation. It is the same with our lives. We are splintered or separated from God. That is the meaning of sin.

     When God created Adam and Eve it was good, and the world was good. After original sin, the world was still good but was broken.  We experience this every day.

    The brain and will are both weakened due to this brokenness. We are trapped in our sin. We can confess our sins, but we go on to repeat them. It is our choice to live as we want to live apart from God. He likes the term 'original wound' instead of original sin. As in 'How is a child born with original sin?' We have all inherited this as we inherit nearsightedness or other characteristics. 

     Like the astronaut, we all think we are drifting, but that we are drifting to heaven. He compared that to the Olympics. No one ever says they just ended up at the Olympics. They didn't drift there. It was a conscious effort over many years to reach that goal. I the same way, how can we think that we can drift to heaven?

     Every sin is an attempt to tell God to just 'leave me alone.' Let me drift.  We can still do good things but what we can't do is change our direction. In the world of relativism today, we shoot our arrow at the target and if we miss, we just paint a circle around where the arrow lands and call it our new target.' Success!' We try to make virtue out of faults we have no desire to correct. 

     G.K. Chesterton was quoted as saying, 'I don't want a church that tells me that I'm right, I need a church that tells me that I'm wrong'. We need more than a feel-good church but one that challenges us and helps us to see how we are pushing God away in our lives. 

      But what God did was send His Son into the world to reconnect us with himself. Religion means a binding together.  Because what this world needs today is religion that will bind our hearts together to God. Schmitz defines sin as,' God, I know what you want, I don't care, I want what I want.' Every time we say that, we get what we've chosen. We become what we repeatedly choose. 

      Fr. Mike offered a message of hope. He said that we are here in this world on purpose. 'God doesn't want a universe without out each of us in it.'  

Our speaker was Sister. Anjana from the Carmelite Sisters of St. Teresa of St. Rose of Lima. She was joined by Sr. Dibya for an opening prayer which was sung. Their order was founded in 1887 and they work to serve others especially the marginalized. They have an intimate relationship with God through fasting and service. Prayer, contemplation, and service are the words that guide them. They follow the charism of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.

      The order works in healthcare and pastoral care serving the needs of the church in India and also worldwide. There is a deep devotion to Mary and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. There are 800 sisters working in 143 convents, serving schools, parishes, preparing children to receive the Sacraments, and in homes for the destitute. They work in many different countries.

There are three sisters working in Wichita at the Catholic Care Center. Bishop Gerber invited the order to come to Wichita and they began their work at the Center.

She is a Wichita physician, who traveled the world in her youth and now shares her faith journey as a member of the Byzantine Rite of the Catholic Church. Her talk the other evening was enlightening and informed our members on church history that many of us had never known.

Dr. Gilbert is a convert, raised by her parents in several countries in Africa.  Her parents were missionaries for an evangelical church. She stayed in Africa until college where she attended Missouri State and later Medical School in Texas. Through this time, she wondered where the Lord was leading her. She thought, at the outset, that she would be doing medical missions much like her parents had done.  

     After medical school, she went to Africa to do medical work. She found the work difficult as there were so many deaths, especially among the young and pre-born. She decided that she couldn’t continue practicing medicine in Africa and returned to Ottawa, Kansas to continue her education.  There she encountered the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. She converted to the Catholic Church at this time. Leaving there, she went to Lakin, Kansas which is about as far culturally and every other way from Africa and Ukrainian Greek brand of Catholicism. It was the season of the desert her, separated from friends and a religious expression she had grown accustomed to. 

     She came to Wichita in 2017 and joined the St. Anna Byzantine Catholic Outreach Church. There is no church building here but have a Mass once a month said  by a priest from Kansas City at Newman University. Anna is a derivative of Hanna who is the Mother of Mary. 

     Part of the Byzantine Rite is called a Rite of Betrothal which most Catholics know nothing about. It is a pre marriage ceremony, perhaps months before the actual Marriage Ceremony. Dr. Gilbert will have her Betrothal Ceremony on February 14th and will be married later next year.  

She spent a great deal of the talk explaining where the Byzantine sect of the Catholic Church came from. The church got its start in Jerusalem and then had 4 main branches; Rome, Antioch, where Peter and Paul preached, Alexandria, where St. Mark preached, and Constantinople. The term ‘Christian’ began in Antioch with Paul. It was in Constantinople where the Byzantine Rite began. St. John Chrysostom and other took the faith north from there as Christianity spread through the world. This sect went thru Hungary, Austria, Romania, Ukraine and other part of Eastern Europe and eventually into Russia.  This is how the Russian Orthodox Church had its beginnings. 

     In India, St. Thomas, spread the faith into that part of the world even reaching into China and Japan. In a nutshell, that is how the rapid expansion of Christianity spread including the Byzantine Rite with Lisa has embraced. 

     She went on to explain about the various schisms that have occurred in the church. The first was in 435 AD at the Council of Calcedon. This is when the Coptic Ethiopians split from the Roman Catholic Church. This was primarily over language as they were trying to spread the faith of many languages with the ensuing challenges that that created. 

Between 1000-1300 AD the Great Schism between Rome and Constantinople began. The Crusades were a part of the schism. The Eastern Orthodox and the Catholics began the split during these 3 centuries. There was an attempt to reunify with Rome, starting in Eastern Europe, Rumania, Poland and Czechoslovakia. St. Josephat, whose feast day was recently celebrated died in his attempts to unify the Roman tradition and the Eastern Orthodox Rite of the Church in 1623. 

This schism has caused there to be 22 churches that are Catholic Churches but not Roman Catholic that fall under the Eastern Orthodox universe. They are recognized by Rome but not Roman Catholic. Byzantine Catholic are the largest non-Roman sect in the United States. 

     The liturgies are different for the 2 sects. They call their sacraments, mysteries. They call their Mass Divine Liturgy instead of Eucharistic Liturgy. Confirmation is called Chrysmation. There are some similarities in the prayers said at Mass and some prayers that are different. For Eastern Orthodox the posture of prayer is standing as opposed to kneeling. No instruments are used during the Mass and most of the prayers are chanted not spoken. 

     While different, the 2 main divisions on the church have many similarities and we are grateful for Dr. Lisa Gilbert’s explanation of and love for the church in its many forms. We are indeed the Universal Church.

Our speaker was Fr. Jarrod Lies. He was raised in Christ the King parish and has been a priest for 24 years. Bishop Kemme appointed him as the Vicar for Evangelization, Stewardship, and Discipleship for the Diocese of Wichita in 2023. This happens to be the topic he wrote his thesis on when he was in Detroit. He is incredibly motivated. He asked us to pray for our priests who are trying to embrace stewardship in caring for our parishes. We have to have healthy priests.

      In 2022, he took a 90-day sabbatical right before the renovations at St. Francis. He was able to take a 21-day free trip to Medjugorje. In 1984, there was a period of 3 days of darkness and everyone was asked to pray the rosary. His family prayed the rosary together sometimes more than once a day. One day he sat on the couch to pray. His silver rosary was changed to gold. This was something tied to Medjugorje. The Blessed Virgin Mary was instrumental in his call to the priesthood.

      While he was in Medjugorje, he stayed near Apparition Hill. It is a very small area with lots of dirt paths. There is one central church there and Mary has been appearing to one or more of the then six children every day for 45 years. At the church, there are confession lines going on all the time. Many people stayed in a room at the back of a home and shared meals with the family.

      He usually walked around in his cassock which was an oddity. Part of the Marian apparition is respect for priests. Whenever people saw him, they asked for a blessing. The guides were Catholic and shared their devotions with the people they were guiding. The trip gave Fr. Jarrod a resurgence of priestly identity. The presence of a priest is the presence of Jesus is how the people feel. He attended an outdoor rosary of all 4 decades which was prayed in the languages of the people who were there. He had an experience of interior death. He felt he should get over himself. He felt like all his prayers were being heard. He felt great peace. At the bottom of the mountain, he found himself giving blessings. A woman shared with him that she knew something had happened to him. Fr. decided to write it all down. As he was writing, he realized it was the day of his ordination and also Ascension Thursday. Mary was looking out for him. God arranged a moment for him.

Our guest speaker the other night told a tale of 2 tales. Her life recent life story was one part and how that intertwined with her working life and God’s work in both. Our guest speaker was Sarah Betsen and she works for A Better Choice.

      She was married in 2017 at the Cathedral and saw her life as being a stay-at-home mom and raising a family. Prior to marriage, she was a teacher for a short while but soon realized that that was not the direction that God was calling her to.

      She began work at A Better Choice starting as a receptionist and then training to be a parent advocate.  There she conducted pregnancy tests and provided peer to peer counseling. The agency also does ultrasound and provides newborn needs such as diapers and wipes. 

      Sarah and her husband soon realized that they had fertility issues. They went through a myriad of options including natural family planning and medical fertility assistance. Her diagnosis was endometriosis. Surgeries were performed with no positive results. They considered adoption and            Sarah described the false narratives surrounding that process.

      Adoption is very expensive; $20-80,000 with no guarantee that they will get their money back if the birth mother changes her mind. In the United states, there are over two million couples wanting to adopt a child but there is only 1 child available for every 36 couples. 96 percent of couples seeking adoption give up as the wait is too long and difficult. Studies show that there are over a million abortions each year. ‘Something to pray about’. 

      Well-meaning people asked how many children they had or when they will start a family?  All her friends were having children, and they still waited for theirs. She knew this was part of God’s plan, but she still suffered. 

       The irony in her work/life situation is that people come to her agency who want to terminate the life that she so desperately wanted. Sarah struggled to keep her personal life separate from her work life.

She talked a lot about Hope. Hope is what keeps her going through the struggle to be a mom. Hope is the expectation that things are going to get better soon. Hope is a person. Our hope is in the Lord. “Even in this darkness, I will trust You’. 

      About a year ago, she got a call from an agency asking if they would like an early Christmas present.  A mom at a local hospital was about to give birth and wanted to give the child up for adoption. She immediately said yes, they contacted their adoption lawyer and that day met their new son, Benedict Maximillian Betsen. The name means ‘greatest blessing.

God is Good!

      The talk we heard this evening was 5 years in the making. Sister Glora Marie was asked to speak to the club in November 2020. She was sick the night she was scheduled so she held onto it. Now 5 years later her Mother Superior asked if she would now give the talk, we she had just thrown away. Here it is.

       She gave the talk in snapshot format tying her life to the mysteries of the Rosary. The 1stsnapshot was when she was a student at St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton. She entered a vocation poster contest with her class. She asked her fellow classmate if she would consider being a sister. She got a positive response which surprised her. That willingness to that call impressed Sister and remained with her. 

      In 8th grade, her class visited Newman University. The girls got to talk with the IHM Sisters. They got a tour of the facility and learned about their history. She was impressed and though, ‘if I’d only lived 100 years ago, I would have become a Sister. Now she rarely saw anyone from her parish become a priest of a sister. 

      In 9th grade, she began to have a deep desire to live her faith more fully. Her 1st few weeks of high school were like an “Annunciation moment for me’. Discernment for young women she said was generally deciding to be a sister and then decided which order to join. The last question would be when the right time is. She felt very called to the religious life and to the IHM Sisters. The when was right after high school. She began to wonder of this was God’s calling or just her own desire to become a Sister was a big part of her discernment. A fellow Sister in the Convent said, ‘Jesus inspires holy desires’ and that phrase helped her to realize that this was probably God’s calling after all. 

     At Bishop Carroll, she got the opportunity to student teach at Margaret Mary Catholic Grade School with an IHM Sister. It was in thar classroom setting, that she saw 1st hand the reality of ‘spiritual motherhood’. She found it was so much more than teaching but rather forming disciples. 

      She entered the Convent right after high school. She became a Novice. She knew at the end of her 1st year that she was not ready and her superior agreed. She was both grateful and humiliated but was thankful that she had an extra 6 months to discern her call. This was a time of great personal growth. She benefitted greatly from the many prayers received from fellow sisters and from others in her life and when on to complete her discernment and went on to be a Religious Sister. 

      Sister then went on to talk about the Rosary in terms of other ways to recite it both scripturally and spiritually.  

      Sister’s enthusiasm for Jesus and Mary was infectious, and the diocese will greatly benefit in the years to come from her engaging and comforting style.   

‘I think the greatest gift my parents gave me was the gift of faith’. Father Grant Huslig, one of our 3 most recently ordained priests spoke to the Serra Club recently. He began his talk speaking of his rather normal prayer life that his family exercised that told him that there was a God who loved him and cared about him.  Nothing in his upbringing would suggest that his life would be one of service to God. 

As an adolescent, Fr. Huslig was a very shy kid. During those years, he was asked to go to a youth prayer group by a fellow classmate. Though initially hesitant to go, he found the experience of making new friends and sharing faith and prayers to be exhilarating. He knew there was a God that listened to him and one he could have a conversation with. 

His early career desires were to either be a professional soccer player, a dentist (like his father) or a neurologist. He attended KU his freshman and described it as a miserable experience. During that year, he went to Benedictine College with some friends on a weekend visit. While there, a friend asked if he would be interested in becoming a diocesan priest.  From that, he began to ask God, ‘do you want me to be a priest?’  He hoped the answer would be no. At about that same time, he started going to daily Mass, going to confession and began studying more about the Catholic faith.  

He transferred to K-State the next year because two of his best friends went there. He was still uncertain of his career path between priest, dentistry and a scientist. He felt God ask him, ‘ if I asked you to be a priest, would you do it?’ His honest answer was no.  He participated in the 33 Days to Morning Glory. It began to untie knots in his heart, and he felt an increase in holiness. He still asked God the career question and really began to feel that God was calling him to the priesthood. It was then that he felt a ‘stupid amount of joy’. 

His grandmother, seemingly out of the blue told him there was a show on EWTN geared toward men discerning to the priesthood and that maybe he should watch it. During that broadcast, the book To Save a Thousand Souls was mentioned. He was meeting with a priest at the student center at K-State and he mentioned that he was thinking about being a priest. The priest gave him the book, To Save a Thousand Souls. 

In the book there is prayer from St. Therese of Lisieux that states in part, that if you pray her novena for 9 days and then receive a rose, that you will be come a priest. Having a science background, he thought the odds of that happening were slim, so he did the novena. On the night of the 8th day, he received a text message from a friend he hadn’t spoken to in a year. He didn’t open it until the next day. It was a picture of a rose. 

He started to have regular meetings with Fr. Chad Arnold, who was the diocesan vocation director. He told Fr. Chad that he thought he should finish his degree and then go to seminary. But when he said it, he knew in his heart that this was not what he really wanted to do. He really wanted to go straight into seminary. 

His parents were initially unsure about this whole seminary thing. But they could see as the months passed that he had an outward joy that he hadn’t expressed before and they knew he had made the right choice. For Grant, the House of Formation was a wonderful experience. It is ‘a special place’, like nowhere else in the world. There is no other place where everybody there supports you and loves you and are praying for your success. 

Upon graduating from Newman, he went to Mundelein near Chicago. He realized that during his 1stsemester, which was a ‘horrible experience’ that he was done and didn’t want to continue with his studies. One day, after leaving the adoration chapel, in the middle of winter, he ventured over to a pond on campus. The pond was frozen and covered with snow. On the pond there was a rose.  He told God then, that OK, I’ll stay. 

After hearing that talk, we know that the diocese and the people of God that he will serve are fortunate to have a Father Grant Huslig as our priest.

Linda  Landohl’s career started in Marysville, Kansas as a social worker. It was there that she met and married her husband 50 years ago. They moved to Wichita in 1977.

She took a position at St. Francis Hospital in the oncology unit. The unit was very faith-based.  Her talk centered around how God has spoken and worked thru her in her life. 

She was 42 and unexpectedly were expecting their third child. She was concerned about that when she was asked to meet with a patient on the unit who was going home to die. When she visited with them, he told her that they had 3 kids between 42 and 46 years of age. God put her in that room to hear that and knew that all weas going to be OK in her own pregnancy. His wife kept in touch with Linda for the next 20 years because of that conversation.

She was asked to find the daughter of a cancer patient who was likewise dying. She called her friend Judge Mike Corrigan for help. He told her he had only done 2 adoptions in his career and hers was one of them. Coincidence, maybe. But the hand of God was there for her that day. 

 A job change at the hospital caused another life change. Sister Silvia at the hospital asked her to take over the renovation of Gerrard House in North Wichita. Linda didn’t know anything about construction, but Sister Sylvia said, ‘yes, but you know people.’ Linda called every Knights of Columbus council, every mens club and altar society. With just a month to go before the dedication, they needed a driveway, patio and sidewalks poured. A friend of her daughter was a concrete foreman for Ritchie Construction.  He got together 5 concrete companies and did the work needed to finish the project. Luck, probably not. The money she was paid was set aside to pay for her Masters in Social  Work degree. It was exactly how much she needed for the degree to the penny. 

Her next department awas the Emergency Room at St. Francis. There was a mom who was admitted that who was in a bad car accident. Linda needed to find the lady’s son who was vacationing in Mexico. This was before cell phones and computers. Linda gathered all the information what she could on this young man, including bank accounts and credit cards. She called hotels and car rental agencies, none of whom had ever heard of him. The son happened to be using his rarely used American Express card at dinner one evening when everyone else’s cards did not work. Because he used his card, she was able to trace him down, get ahold of him and he left Mexico to see his mother. 

Once she was taking flowers on Memorial Day to the graves of her relatives. There were 3 young men at the cemetery who asked if they could help. They did and when she started to thank them, they were gone. There was no car, bikes or anything. She is pretty sure she was in the presence of 3 angels that day. 

Linda told these and many other stories about the seemingly small ways that God impacted her and others lives if we only take the time to see it.

   It was part history lesson, part spiritual journey. It was all interesting as Barb Pinaire told of her recent trip to Mexico on a Pilgrimage for Our Lady of Guadalupe. The pilgrimage was sponsored by Guadalupe Missions a non-profit organization whose goal is to introduce people to the shine there. 

      Here’s the history lesson part. It was the early 1500s and Cortez was on his conquest of the area we now call Mexico. He encountered the Aztec people in what is now the Mexico City area. Cortez and his men were seen as gods to the Aztecs. They were a pagan, demonic people who daily sacrificed 2 people to their gods. The Aztec civilization was very advanced, with many buildings and systems in place. They conquered the Aztecs and outlawed human sacrifice. The Franciscans came soon after to convert them to Catholicism.  

      Juan Diego was an early Franciscan priest who led the Spanish efforts at conversion. There was much civil discord and competition from other factions which caused the local Bishop to fear that all of Mexico would soon be lost to the other competing groups. It was at this time that our lady appeared to the people there 5 different times in less than a week. All the apparitions related back to the history of the indigenous people of the area. Juan Diego ascended Tepeyac which was an elevated area in Mexico City. There he encountered our Blessed Mother. Mary asked Juan to request of the Bishop that they build a ‘house for my Son”. The Bishop, at first, refused but through Juan Diegos persistence, he relented, and a house was built. Our Lady told Juan Diego during this time, that even though she had a number of servants to do her Bidding, “I chose you.” 

      The Bishop had to be convinced that Mary was making the request. He wanted ‘a sign’. Diego had gotten flowers to present to the Bishop and when he made the presentation, Our Lady’s image appeared in Diego’s tilma which is a burlap like cloth. This miracle convinced the Bishop that the apparition was real. The Bishop kept the image in the church, and many were converted to the faith by just viewing the image. Each part of the image has something to do with the faith of the people there. The image is now well known as the Lady of Guadalupe. Barb explained all the symbolism of the Our Lady image and how they related to the time of the apparition. 

      Throughout the early 1900s several attempts were made to destroy the image by those afraid of its power or heretics and disbelievers in the Church. A copy was made of it that was used for public display so the original could be kept safe. A cathedral was built to house and protect the image in Mexico City.

      Barb Pinaire brought the story of the Our Lady of Guadalupe image to life, and we thank her for the informative presentation on this sacred part of our Catholic heritage.

It’s summertime so the club gets to hear from our seminarians who are on break from their studies and are more available to give presentations. Last evening, we heard from one of the so-called ‘Magnificent 7’, Deacon Isaac Hilger, who is one of the 7 newly ordained Deacons for the diocese.

Deacon Hilger is the youngest of 13 children and grew up in the St. Joe Ost Parish. None of his other siblings entered the religious life and so his parents were ecstatic when he told them of his decision. 

        Pope John Paul II said that the first parish is in the home and that was true for the Hilger family. He grew up knowing that they had to take care of each other. The desire for service to others was an early benchmark for Issac that helped form his attraction to priesthood. Stewardship as a way of life was not only developed and nurtured in the diocese but was exemplified in the Hilger home.  Despite having meager means, the Hilger family helped in many ways around the parish to help the school with repairs and remodeling. That model of service was never far from young Issac’s thoughts.

      It was in 2nd grade where he had his first thoughts about becoming a priest. After 1st Communion and Confession, he ‘felt kind of a spark within himself’, in that direction. He recalls looking at Fr. Eck on the altar and thinking that it was ’pretty cool that he gets to bring Jesus to the people’. 

Not being a great student in grade school and learning that to become a priest, you have to go through a lot of schooling, he shelved any ideas of becoming one. But the desire to serve never left him. For a long time, he had the notion of becoming a Marine. Serving his country was very attractive to Issac and fulfilled that need to be of service to others. 

      He went to Andale for high school instead of Trinity in Hutchinson as his other family members had. The one stipulation was that he had to attend Mass every morning before school at St. Joe. That proved to be influential in many ways, ‘benefits that he doesn’t even know about’. 

      Hilger went on several retreats during high school, most notably a TEC retreat which, re lit the flame for a desire to become a priest’. But the desire to not attend any more school than he helped to quash those thoughts for a time. 

      A life-altering event when he was a high school senior caused him to rethink his life’s direction. His mother died of cancer that year. He called it a blessing in an odd way because at that time his life wasn’t going in a good way. He hung out with a rough crowd and wasn’t the best kid. He was just trying to ‘fit in’ but wasn’t choosing the right path to do that. Her death made him want more than ever to just get a job and settle down and start a family as his own father had done. 

      After high school, he got a job with the City of Andale on the maintenance staff. He was satisfied with that role as he got to fix things and help people. His dream of working, having a family and settling down was alive. 

      That 1st year after graduation, during Lent, he decided to start going to daily Mass again and to be more dedicated to prayer. It was during that time, that he realized that God’s call never really left him. God was still tugging at his heart. He decided to call the vocation office and start the process. He thought he would go for a semester, flunk out and that would be that. That was his ‘big plan to get God off his back’. 

      The day after calling the vocations office, a girl that he ‘had a long-standing crush on’ started chatting with him on Facebook. He thought, ‘sweet, God really doesn’t want me to go to the seminary. After getting coffee one day, she asked him if he ever thought about being a priest? Well, he knew that was that. God’s sense of humor is alive as well.

      He entered the House of Formation that next semester. He struggled with the academics but made it through. His was the first class to be at the House all 4 years. He realized that more he learned about God, the more he learned about himself. It all became clearer, as he continued his studies about God. Life at the house with a group of men likewise striving to find God’s role in their lives and if serving Him was their life’s course.

      He earned high marks at Newman. At the end of each semester, at Newman, he would continually re-evaluate his progress. Issac was still looking for an exit strategy. After graduating Newman, he began at Mundelein in Chicago. Though he doesn’t like Chicago, he loved the school and found his niche among the students there. 

      Part of his education is working at a parish for a semester. He was assigned to Coffeyville with Father Schibi. He grew to love serving the students and the parishioners and become more convinced that God was calling his to serve.

      We are excited thar Deacon Hilfer ‘stayed the course’ and kept with his studies and that the fire withing him was never fully extinguished. God willing, he will be a dedicated and faithful priest for the Diocese of Wichita.        

  Coming from what he calls a ‘baseline Catholic’ family, Seminarian Alex Klein has a unique vocations story. The youngest of 5 kids, Alex recalls that as far as their Catholic life, there was ‘nothing crazy’ but that they never missed a Sunday Mass but also rarely prayed together.  His Catholic education was at St. Jude and Bishop Carroll Catholic High School. Nothing unusual so far. 

       While in high school, he noticed that his 2 older sisters were living their faith better than he ever could in his estimation. After dating a girl during his sophomore year which turned out to be a ‘toxic relationship’ malicious rumors were spread about him that went on for a year and a half, ruining his reputation.  He hit rock bottom, but he thought it was actually a ‘mercy form God’. He had felt isolated as everyone seemed to turn away from him and so he turned to the faith for support. God seemed to be saying, you are not alone for I am here. 

      His older sister kept pushing him to attend various events at the Newman Center on the WSU campus. He resisted saying that he wasn’t into all that praying etc. He instead opted to get his Fire Science degree at Butler Community College. During that 2-year program, he started going to the At. Pauls’ Newman center at WSU as his sister had recommended.               He began building on his own faith at that time at WSU. He began going to daily Mass at WSU and had the feeling that he shouldn’t be there, that he didn’t belong. Adoration once or twice a week was also added to his religious practice, something which was foreign to him. 

       His mother encouraged him to do the 33 days to Morning Glory and at the end of that period was confession and a holy hour. He did his confession at St. Catherine’s. Due to the covid infection he had lost his sense of smell and taste a year earlier. When he finished confession, he had regained those senses and noticed an overwhelming smell of roses. He went to St. Paul’s for Mass that morning and the same thing happened, an overwhelming smell of roses. He knew this was no coincidence. After that experience, he fell in love with the faith even more. He wanted to give his life to God. He thought, what better way than through the priesthood?’

      Entering the House of Formation and a new lifestyle he knew he would ‘give it all’ for God. Without that attitude, he knew that he might not have continued had he not been given the graces that he got through this new ‘radical’ lifestyle. This was the first summer break that he can’t wait to be over so that he can continue his studies in Philosophy toward his degree at Newman.   

      Our prayer for Alex is that the fire for God and the priesthood will remain bright. The diocese will benefit from the transition from Alex Klein to Father Alex Klein. 

The work of sanctification of now Venerable Emil Kapaun is ongoing in the diocese of Wichita. That process is headed up by Scott Carter and Father John Hotze and the office of the Cause for Sainthood in the Chancery. Scott spoke to the club about the process and where we stand today.

      Having a near saint from our own diocese is truly a blessing to all. American saints are rare and having one who grew up here served here is rarer still. 

       On February 24th, the Pope issued the decree naming Fr. Kapaun as the Venerable Father Emil Kapaun, the next step I towards eventual sainthood. The cause for Kapaun’s sainthood opened unofficially in 1993. That step was fairly straightforward with little investigation needed to support the cause. In 2008, the formal cause for sainthood officially opened. That was begun by then Bishop Jackels. Documents from across the diocese were collected by many people to be sent to Rome to help support the initial stages of the project. Everything from grade cards to letters written home during the Korean War to homilies given were included. These were meant to describe his life and to show the great devotion that he had for the church and the faith. This amounted to 8,000 pages worth of documents which were each copied so now it’s over 16,000 pages being sent to Rome. 

      The Vatican theologians approved the case and then that was sent on the Bishops and Cardinals who actually vote on the case. That process was approved in early November of this year and the Holy Father said give it a couple of weeks and then Kapaun will be named Venerable. But the Pope was hospitalized and that delayed that announcement. The pope actually approved the Venerated stage from his hospital bed. 

      The Dicastery stated the Kapaun had ‘offered his life for Christ’. This is a new path toward sainthood by the Vatican. This was described as an ‘authentic measure of holiness’. This goes back to scripture that says ‘There is no greater love than to lay down ones life for ones friends’. There is something heroic about this act. From the Christian perspective, it is more than heroism, it is an imitation of Christ. 

      Carter mentioned the example of Saint Maximillian Kolbe who during World War II in a concentration camp in Germany offered his life for another prisoner.  Scott gave other examples of similar circumstances where the offering of one’s life for another as an oath to holiness. There has been one other person who attained the title of Venerable throughout church history with a similar path as is being pursued by the Cause for Sainthood for Father Kapaun. 

      Giving up one’s life at an early age and seeing it as a gift is a part of the ‘requirements’ for this path to sainthood. Instead of thinking that a person is giving up his life he is I essence giving life. Every time we go to Mass we commemorate Christs giving up His life so that we can have life. Love grows when it is given away.

       In applying to be an army chaplain, Kapaun was determined to spend himself for others. Not living in comfort but going to wherever that need was. He felt compelled to serve his people in faraway places where the availability of soldiers to receive the sacraments was limited. Carter related 4 moments during his army career where Kapaun offered his life for the soldiers. The last of which was after he was captured, and he sacrificed his health so that his fellow soldiers could live. Each moment was his own choice to help others regardless of the personal sacrifice that he had to make. End the end his sacrifice lef=d to his death, 

      While the work of sanctification goes on, we can rest assured knowing that with the diligent efforts of Father Hotze and Scott Carter, that they will do all in their power to see this cause for sainthood for Father Kapaun to the end.

Our own Serran, Barb Pinaire, presented a fascinating talk about the art expression, icons, and her own journey at learning to create these unique images. 

       The term icon comes from the Greek word image and is one of the earliest expression of Catholic art dating back to the age of the Apostles. The apostle Luke was one of the 1st iconographers. He created 5 of the original icons of our Lady back in the 1st century AD. Early tradition has it that he showed the images to Mary and she approved it. 

      We commonly associate icons with the Eastern Tradition of the Catholic Church. To those followers, icons were considered ‘windows to Heaven’. In the Byzantine era, iconographers enjoyed a special tax status. Icons were most notable from the 4th - 6thcenturies. In the 8th century, a group of people known as the iconoclasts came to be known as the icon smashers. They were ‘suspicious of any art that represented God and they demanded that they be destroyed’.  People then began to hide and preserve icons from destruction. The iconoclasts may have come from Jewish and Muslim followers who thought any representations of God was sacrilegious and a form of idolatry. During the Council of Nicaea in 783, icons were approved.

       The Russian people also created icons that were very similar to ones we are familiar with. Other Asian and European cultures have their own form of icons as well.   While icons seemed to be associated with the Eastern rite, they are really originally the product of the western or Roman Church. They are seen in frescos and paintings of that era. 

       Icons are seen as a way to ‘lead us upward toward heaven’. They raise the soul and mind of the believer to heaven as far as this can be achieved with human means. These images are intended to see the holy person as they are in heaven, not just a painting of how they look on earth. 

According to Barb, icons are more than just a painting, they are a prayer. You pray while you create the image. You pray to and for the person you are painting.

       Barb showed us an icon that she created a couple of years ago which was as good as any icon you would ever see. She stated that she has no particular artistic skill and that that was provided by the Holy Spirit. Barb took a week-long class that was formed to learn to paint icons. She thoroughly enjoyed the class and was amazed by what she created. I think that everyone at the meeting who saw her art were amazed as well.

       Thanks to Barb for this inspiring talk. I’m sure that none of us will ever look at icons the same way again. 

Our speaker was Rob Knapp, president of Kapaun Mount Carmel. He had three focuses for his talk. The first was his mom. He attributed his sense of justice to his and his sense of service from his mom. He said his mom was very important in his decision to accept the job as president of Kapaun.

       His second focus was to tell us about the Regional Serra Convention in Wichita in October 2026. The Wichita Serra Clubs will be hosting. There will be a hub of a central committee made up of 11 people. He will be in charge.                     There will be six committees: things like hospitality, venue selection and transportation, speakers, registration, liturgy, and meals & catering. The head of each group will be on the central committee. There will be a letter sent our asking for people to sign up and then the leader will be chosen from those lists. A date will be chosen after he gets the final work from the Bishop.

        His third subject is his favorite, Kapaun Mount Carmel where he has been president for 11 years. Formerly he was an attorney for 21 years at Koch Industry. He loved what he was doing and then got a call from Mike Burrus from KMC asking if Rob wanted to replace him as president. A big part of his decision was the email he got from Marriott saying he had spent 60 nights at the hotel for his job. He had spent 2 months away from his family. After discussing with his wife, he went to Mass the next day and heard the reading about the talents. He received the message that he had not been using his talents. It’s an incredible honor to be a part of the school.

        A great blessing for him is that KMC was the pilot school for the Cairos retreat. He has seen miracles happen to the young people. The students take a responsibility for each other. The entire Junior class attends the retreat in different groups throughout the year. The retreat is led by a team of Seniors who attended the year before. By the end of the weekend, the students are telling their parents that they are taking them to Mass. They learn that Jesus loves them. The students are talking to each other, and it will renew Catholicity in our city. Our diocese will be transformed.

       Here's some information about our school. KMC produces more National Merit Scholars than all the public schools combined. They are outperforming the public schools in Wichita and the state. The students are applying to the military academies. At least 1 has been accepted every year in the last 20 years, except one. Many are offered scholarships. Seven alumni have been ordained as priests and two have made final vows. Combining KMC and Carroll, they have 78 athletic awards. 

        Rob gets rewarded every single day and loves his work at Kapaun Mount Carmel. The Catholic schools in Wichita are doing remarkable things.

His grandfather was the Wichita Chief of Police for years. Our guest speaker, Jake Lamunyon felt that police work was his calling like his grandfather before him. For many years, he followed his heart as a police officer in the City of Wichita. Jake started with the force in 2015. It was through that work and the work of his grandfather that the next phase of his life originated, one that has provided satisfaction well beyond his work with the WPD.

        Jake had worked with Special Olympics, over the years, specifically the Torch Run. This was primarily in the fund raising and awareness activities with that event. When an opening came up with the Torch Run, he decided to leave law enforcement and begin a new career with them. In that new role, he was able to maintain his ties with the police department and help Special Olympics at the same time.

       This was not some random decision on his part. His grandfather, Richard Lamunyon, while he was police chief became very involved with Special Olympics, and it became his passion. 

       Jake explained the beginnings of Special Olympics and how Wichita played an important role in its growth. Eunice Kennedy Shriver was very involved with children with intellectual disabilities in the early 1960’s. In 1968, the 1st Special Olympics national event was held in Chicago with some 500 athletes participating, six from Kansas. In 1970, Special Olympics Kansas had its first event in Parsons, Kansas. Throughout the 70’s the primary event was a track meet held at various locations throughout the state. That has now expanded to 26 events statewide and they run throughout the year. Approximately 6000 athletes participate from Kansas and come from every county in the state. 

       In 1979, Richard Lamunyon was the police chief and was invited to hand out medals at the Special Olympics event at South High School in Wichita. The athletes were very drawn to the officers uniforms and wanted high fives, pictures and autographs. During the awards ceremony, one of the athletes gave him a big hug, literally jumping off the awards stand in doing so. Lamunyon knew that his department needed to get involved in this program. 

       That involvement began with some of the officers deciding to raise funds for a dinner-dance that was held at the end of the Special Olympics event. The athletes formerly had to foot those costs themselves. Then the idea came for an Olympic style torch run that would go from city hall to South High School to kick off the summer games. Chief Lamunyon convinced Eunice Shriver to attend the event in Wichita in 1981. Hundreds of officers in uniform marched into the stadium for the opening ceremonies. She was impressed enough by the event to get behind the Torch Run concept. With her endorsement, the Run began to be adopted across the United States.  By 1986, 43 US states with over 13,000 officers participated. By 1987 it had expanded internationally. Growth continued at a rapid pace. Eventually millions were raised each year and thousands of officers participated. It is now truly a worldwide event.

       ‘What started as a flicker of hope in Kansas is now a roaring flame for Special Olympics athletes worldwide.’ We can be proud that an idea that began in Wichita has had such impact to intellectually disadvantages children throughout the world. 

       Tish Neilson, President of Bishop Carrill Catholic High School, spoke to the Serra Club Metro last week. Her talk was a snapshot of Bishop Carroll today. She has been involved with Carroll for over 40 years as an instructor for several years and as an administrator, notably as principal and president. It was a state of the school address and a look into Catholic education today.

       She highlighted several changes in the administrative roles and personnel changes that they saw this past year. The foundation office, for instance, now has several new faces to help meet the challenge of the diocese request to raise over $600,000 this year to help fund the school above and beyond what the parishes provide. They are almost halfway towards that goal. Coaching changes involving long-time names in the Carroll community were mentioned as well. 

       On the instruction side, she highlighted several new initiatives, one of which involves WSU Tech. This gives students the chance to learn skills in HVAC, plumbing and electrical all at no charge to them. Other programs include a fire science curriculum through Derby where the fire chief is a Carroll grad, plus nursing and engineering programs which are likewise available to interested students. A popular construction program has been active for several years where students learn construction techniques and build structures for the community and school. 

       All these programs provide curriculum outside the walls of Carroll while trying to keep the student engaged in school activities. This is no easy task.

The challenge of finding teachers when competition with the more well-funded public school system is always present. Many teachers want to go to more of a part time model which has proven difficult to manage and has been largely scrapped. Fifteen new teachers were hired this year alone, highlighting the ever-changing educational landscape.

       The school is on the verge of busting at the seams in terms of enrollment. It currently serves over 1100 students in a building that is designed to hold 800 students. The next incoming class of freshman could be as high as 300 students. Parish pastors have difficult choices to make when a family wanting to send their kids to Carroll isn’t engaged in the stewardship way of life. A larger school makes it more difficult to create and maintain a community atmosphere at Carrol according to Neilson.

       Growth is a good problem to have though considering results from surveys done years before said that enrollment numbers will drop over the next 10 years. This has never occurred at Carroll according to Neilson.

Infrastructure needs are always at the forefront of concerns for the administration and staff at Bishop Carroll. The building is old and is perpetually in need of HVAC and roof repairs. Neilson said her own education didn’t involve building maintenance but along the way she has developed those skills as she works with contractors and maintenance staff regularly.

        Despite all these challenges, she is reminded of what is special about Caroll is not the building but the people inside, and the culture that a well-run Catholic high school fosters. Our hats are off to Tish Neilson who has been the captain of the ship for over 4 decades and who seems to have a boundless reserve of energy in service to Catholic students in Wichita.

       Emily Savage’s day job is director of the youth ministry and the confirmation program at St. Francis of Assisi Parish. An outgrowth of that and her passion for several years is the Fiat Program that she oversees. Fiat provides discernment opportunities for women interested in the consecrated life. Emily realized that there was ‘a gap’ in discernment opportunities for women that may be interested in the religious life. In 2014 she began the Fiat Ministry to serve women so moved at the parish. Now it is so much more. 

         When she began, there were no youth ministry positions available in ther Wichita area. Her first retreat in 2014 had 39 women and 9 sisters attending from Oklahoma and Kansas. To date they have given retreats in 11 dioceses and have had 782 women from across the nation attend these discernment weekends. He principal at St. Francis, Mary Carter, is on the Fiat board and helped found 8th grade Fiat at SFA to assist There you are female’. 

      Fiat has no advertising, relying on word of mouth to spread the message of this ministry. Eleven dioceses have proven the value of this grassroots movement. It as this point in their history that they are beginning to go beyond the present boundaries and being open to offering the retreats on a more regional scale. It’s up to the Holy Spirit to determine how far that reach will go.

       Emily shared several stories concerning meeting Sisters who several years prior had attended a Fiat retreat and are now Sisters serving Christ and the Church. Each story confirms the value that this discernment process can have in young lives. 

      Fiat Ministries is the vehicle that ‘allows women to see who they can be.’ This is not only true in terms of discernment to the religious life but as mothers, daughters, sisters and brides. Savage believes that when it is time for women to discern their calling that they will be ready to make that decision. 

        Fiat is for and woman who wants to ‘dive deeply into their spiritual life as a woman.’ Their three-part retreat doesn’t talk about religious vocations until the third session. She told the club that if there is anyone in their lives who they think needs an invitation to Fiat that they should reach out to Emily. The website is fiatministries.org. 

       This was a n inspiring about yet another ‘home grown’ ministry that can impact young women in an era of conflicting messages about who men and women are and what role they have in society. We are proud of Emily’s now 10 year journey with the Holy Spirit to pioneer this vital discernment process.

Our guest speaker at a recent meeting was Cindy Kellick who is the Program Coordinator for the St. Dismas Ministry for the Diocese. The ministry focuses on serving the incarcerated of our diocese. Cindy not just coordinates the ministry; she is actively engaged in it. Before we go any further, here’s a quiz, who was St. Dismas?

When she began work at the ministry, she thought she would be there to bring Jesus to the incarcerated. While that was true, the rest of the reality was that her faith became stronger, as she gave her time and talent to those who had lost everything. She considers her involvement in the ministry as a blessing. She feels blessed that she can share their lives and enjoys the fellowship and respect that they show her. For many, she and the volunteers are the only contact they have with the outside world. Most, but not all of the men she sees are Catholic. They conduct Bible studies and Mass on a regular basis. Whatever the event, they are called the ‘Catholic Call Out’. 

          Cindy told many stories about prisoners that she works with and how her corps of volunteers have changed their lives. Some of these men are ‘lifers’ and will never see life beyond the prison walls. Many were addicts who made mistakes that cost them their freedom. She imparts to them the knowledge that God loves them despite what they did and that they are God’s children. She shared stories of men who weren’t Catholic but have gone through RCIA and joined the church and are now ‘an amazing Catholic men.’  She reminded us that they are all somebody’s dad, brother neighbor or son. 

          Drug addiction, abuse and neglect were some of the contributing factors that led to their being in prison. Cindy and other volunteers tell them that they can change. She doesn’t sugar coat the situation but tells them that while difficult, it is possible to begin a new life whether that is in prison or upon their release. 

She regularly visits 10 prison facilities in the diocese. That includes the juvenile facility in Hutchinson up to maximum security prisons as in El Dorado. On one occasion she handed out Divine Mercy cards to 8 inmates at the juvenile facility. She told them to reflect on the image every day for a few minutes and to increase that time each week. Upon her next visit, she asked, and all were enthusiastically following her advice. 

         At the Winfield Correctional Facility there are 25 Catholic men imprisoned there who are all ‘on fire for our Lord.’ They make Rosaries for March for Life, for the Midwest Catholic Conference and St. Judes Childrens Hospital. Their goal is to make 1000 Rosaries this year.  The chaplain at that facility, at one point, banned the work. He said that Catholics were’ insignificant’ and not needed.  He took all the rosaries and tools away from the inmates. The inmates prayed for the chaplain every day in their daily prayer groups. In a short time, the rosaries and tools were returned and the rosary making was allowed to continue. This same chaplain sent a kind letter to Cindy thanking her for the work they do with the inmates.

       It is through the work of this ministry that volunteers a can live out Jesus’ teaching, 'I was in prison, and you came to visit me.  I assure you that as you did it for the least of my brothers, you did it for me.’ Pope Francis has said that ‘nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even prison bars'. 

       Cindy said that more volunteers are needed to attend Mass with these men, lead prayer groups or just talk to the prisoners. And of course, donations are accepted. 

       It is through the work of this ministry that we can aid the most marginalized in our society. Our church is universal, extending to even those outside of the norms of society. Jesus must be proud of their work.

       BTW, St. Dismas was the ‘good thief’ that was crucified with Jesus and was promised a place in paradise.

Dr. Chris Ebberwine is a clinical psychologist having earned his PhD. in that field. He is a psychologist working with the Diocese of Wichita and specifically with the seminarians at the St. Joseph House of Formation. He and his wife, Katie, have raised 5 kids at St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton Parish in Wichita.

His talk focused I the ‘human formation’ for the seminarians at the House of Formation. Pope St. John Paul II captured the aim of human formation when he wrote that priests should be a bridge, not an obstacle to meeting Jesus Christ. Taking their human formation seriously is the ‘heart of the matter’ in becoming an effective priest. 

         Dr. Ebberwine outlined the steps taken before a man enters the seminary. The steps boil down to this. “Is this man ready and able to be formed by way of seminary life’. He relayed a story from the book, ‘To Save a Thousand Souls,’ which is a guide to discernment. It was about a priest coming back to the dark and empty rectory after Thanksgiving and facing loneliness for the first time in his 25 years as being a parish priest. Later on, he would read about how through his training, he was able to effectively deal with this unfamiliar situation. He flipped this story around to have the main character be a seminarian and how he deals with that situation. 

         The seminarian begins to miss his appointments and is referred to the diocesan psychologist to see if they can get to the root of the problem. Various steps are outlined and implemented in the young seminarians life. Through many discussions it is revealed how the seminarian has taken the wrong steps at times which are reflected in poor lifestyle choices. He was reminded that he has lots of allies at this stage of his life and that going at it on his own is not always the best course. He was taught to grow in his emotions, which required him to begin to correctly name his emotions that he is struggling with. 

        The choices that a seminarian makes in his life are the product of proper formation. This is the goal of the work that Dr. Eberwine does with the seminarians. He works in concert with the formators in the diocese at large and more specifically at the House of Formation.

        We are proud to have this wonderful facility in our diocese and all grew in understanding of the work that many like Dr. Ebberwine do to support these young men as they work towards becoming our priests.