Posted on 07/28/2003 7:09:53 AM PDT by presidio9
Young Patrick O'Malley was 10 years old when a conversation took place that would change his life dramatically and ultimately lead him to the steps of Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross for installation as archbishop Wednesday.
The boy and his lawyer father were returning from a visit to a Franciscan retreat center in Pennsylvania where Patrick's older brother was staying. In an off-hand comment, Theodore O'Malley said of an old German friar they'd just met: ``You know, that's the happiest man in the world.''
Five decades later, now-Archbishop-designate Sean Patrick O'Malley remembers agreeing. ``(The friar) was very happy and very filled with peace,'' he recalled in a Boston Catholic Television interview this week.
It was an impression that took hold of the young boy who, according to family members and friends, was passionately curious from a young age about faith and the wider world.
``He was exceptional, even then,'' said Mary Alexsovich, O'Malley's younger sister.
Alexsovich remembers her brother as a popular and gifted elementary school student who ``was very bright, never had to study, won all the awards.''
He also was an ``excellent'' older brother, she said. He read aloud to her when she was very small and later taught her to play chess.
When she was in 8th grade, he took her to her first opera - Madame Butterfly.
``He got me interested in different cultures, languages, literature,'' she said.
``He was interested in the world,'' she said. His favorite books were swashbucklers. Among them: ``The Count of Monte Cristo.''
In the O'Malley household, the Catholic church was a big part of growing up. ``It was a very strong influence on him - part of our everyday life,'' Alexsovich said. So family members were receptive when the 10-year-old future archbishop, returning from that ride to the retreat house, discussed entering seminary.
``He'd talk about it all the time - how he'd really like to go to St. Fidelis (Seminary),'' Alexsovich said.
The response to his interest was ``wonderful,'' she added. The only reservation their parents expressed was whether it might have been better for the boy to wait until after high school before entering religious life.
But that was not to happen.
At age 12, O'Malley shipped off to St. Fidelis - essentially a boarding school for teens interested in studying to enter the Capuchin order as brothers or priests.
``Everybody was happy that that's what he wanted, he was very sure of it,'' Alexsovich said. ``Nobody pushed him.''
The Rev. Paul Kuppe, a Franciscan leader who entered St. Fidelis with O'Malley, remembers his classmate as a ``shy'' boy.
``We weren't the center of attention,'' Kuppe said.
O'Malley took the religious name ``Sean.''
As time went on, Kuppe said, ``he moved to a more prominent role in the class.''
``He was never one of the star athletes,'' Kuppe said. ``His qualities were more in theater productions - he often had significant roles in them.''
Other classmates said O'Malley not only wasn't a star athlete, but tended to avoid the playing fields altogether.
They were far more likely, several said, to find him in the kitchen helping the German nuns who fed the boys and their teachers.
``He kind of endeared himself with the sisters, and they always asked for his assistance,'' recalled Kuppe. ``They thought he was more thorough than the rest of us.''
In return for his cheerful help, O'Malley got what amounted to tutorials in German.
``That began his love of languages, I suppose,'' Kuppe said.
Jack Healey, a former Franciscan friar and internationally recognized Human Rights worker who was ahead of O'Malley and Kuppe at St. Fidelis, said O'Malley's dedication to the nuns made an impression on older boys.
``We would play ball or walk around the campus or whatever,'' Healey said. ``He'd be in washing the dishes with the nuns, who only spoke German. He never gave that up. He always did the humble things.
``Usually we'd beat up somebody like that or make fun of him,'' Healey said. ``But we had great respect for him. He always astounded us with his sense of humor, his own sense of humility, his own religious belief.''
With its dedication to missionary work, the Capuchin order places a huge emphasis on multi-lingualism - a priority reflected in the curriculum at St. Fidelis.
With overlapping classes, the boys took six years of Latin, four years of German, two of Spanish, two of Greek and one of Hebrew.
``You learned all of that, not to speak so much but to read and understand. That was the unfortunate part,'' Kuppe said. ``But Sean went beyond the rest of us and learned to speak many of those languages and loved it.
``He's always been very unusual, really,'' said Healey. ``Most of us were ballplayers hoping to be priests one day. Sean was a little priest the whole way through . . . he was a little Franciscan the whole way through. He was the real thing from day one.''
Healey, whose human rights work included a stint running Amnesty International's U.S. operation, sounds skeptical when talking about many members of the church hierarchy, but not when the topic is O'Malley.
``I said 30 years ago, maybe longer: I always thought he was going to be the first American to be the pope.''
My dad wound up acknowledging that he had a vocation for marriage rather than the priesthood and resigned the seminary about a year before his scheduled ordination to the diaconate.
According to my dad, O'Malley is the real deal. The Capuchins are not like some other orders - the leftists have made much less headway within their ranks than they have within the Regular Franciscans. Good things may come of this.
The Capuchins are not like some other orders - the leftists have made much less headway within their ranks than they have within the Regular Franciscans.
So true. Whenever you hear of Fr. Benedict Groeschel, you know it must be orthodox and faithful to the Vatican. His books are a beacon in an otherwise confused era.
The Capuchin order that Fr. Groeschel belongs to (didn't he help found their particular order?) came about because a group of Franciscans were unhappy/disturbed by the changes in their order at the time - changes that were liberal and not necessarily in line with the church's teachings.
The Capuchins (literally Cappuccini - both the coffee [cappucino] and the monkey [capuchin] take their names from the order) themselves began in the same way: Fr. Matteo de Bassi broke off from the Observant Friars Minor in 1525 because he thought the Observants were becoming too worldly and not living truly Franciscan poverty.
The Observants themselves broke off from the Conventuals originally for the same reason, as did the Fratres Minimi.
Fr. Groeschel's Franciscan Friars of the Renewal may well be the next wave in the continually self-reforming Franciscan tradition.
I hope and pray so. One of the younger priests with their friars is from our little town, Fr. Herald was a year or 2 behind me in high school. He was always very devout, even then. It is such a treat when he visits, he celebrates Mass at his former parish. Such a difference since our diocese has swung so far out to the left.
..were becoming too comfortable - not living poverty with sufficient intensity..
Sigh, so true. A priest at our local Catholic high school was nicknamed Fr. Hilfiger, because he drove a sporty coupe with a 'cool' stereo system, wore designer clothes, and lasted just 2 years. I was glad to see him go before my son started there. We need more Franciscan Friars of the Renewal!!
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