Outspoken CPA : What Catholics Should Know about Their Faith

By Robert R. Schwarz

"If a man  loves God, his

children will love him. "

                                                                          " There's a lot of confusion

                                                                          in  the church  as to the basic

                                                                          precepts we as Catholics are

                                                                          obligated to follow ."


 (Note: This interview was posted originally
Dec. 1, 2013. )

 

            Sunday mass attendance at St. James since 1997 has decreased by approximately 1,800   regular Sunday worshipers , and according to a recent Pew Research Center analysis,  "the share of all Catholics who say they attend Mass at least once a week has dropped from 47% in 1974 to 24% in 2012." One cause—a battle cry of the Catholic hierarchy— is that Catholics  do not know their faith very  well and are confused about what to believe.   One Catholic standing in the gap for the church is Donald Knorr,  a 59-year-old certified public accountant and active  member of  the St. James Catholic church in Arlington Heights, Illinois.  We recently met in his office next to a Dunkin' Donuts and talked about his faith life and role with Opus Dei  (  a personal prelature of the Catholic Church) . His apostolate is seemingly inseparable from his office work , family, and championing of a balanced   education   for one's children.  He says that a long day of work and the people he meets are  his fun in life . 

Our interview required several requests. "I like to work behind the scene," Knorr once again reminded me with a skeptical eye on my camera.  After a few minutes  of warm-up conversation, it was obvious that Knorr is a man on a mission , has an amazing memory of facts and figures he gleans from religious books and financial reports ,  and has the boundless energy of a teenager. Oh, and he loves to expound on answers to peoples' questions.  

            Knorr faced me across a large desk smothered with papers. He wore a blue button-down shirt, possesses salt-pepper  hair cut short, and , when asked, sized himself at 210 pounds and six-feet in height. When Marcia, his  part-time office manager and  wife of 30 years , was exiting the office she teased:   "  Maybe I should stay ,Donald, to make sure you tell  it straight. "

His Day Begins with

Roman Missal in Hand

            We started with Knorr's typical work  day:  He begins  it with his  Roman Missal and in a rear  pew at St. James, sometimes arriving  early for private prayer but always remaining after mass for prayers for friends, family , and anyone else  in his life whom he knows needs a special touch of God's grace.   Sometimes Marcia  is with him, sometimes it  might  be one of his three daughters or  a granddaughter . Sitting with either of these pew mates  makes him beam, I've observed. Before day's end, his prayer time will usually  total more than two hours, he told me.

          

The CPA at work...so, what else is new ?

   " I do all sorts of things, like income tax planning, financial reporting , and giving general business advice. "  He's been doing this work for 35 years.  Now and then he hops on a jet to Washington, D.C. , to   help a company with its  retirement plan.  He was "just drawn  to accounting " while attending his alma mater, Illinois State  University.

            People with bothersome theological questions and other spiritual  issues sometimes come to his office for answers.  Knorr doesn't mince words when giving these  answers any less than when advising on complex finance  problems. He quickly pointed out, though, " I am not a spiritual director. "   For that kind of  help, there is an adjacent room set aside for a priest, when available,  who will hear any and all questions as well as a confession.

            At times, Knorr will encourage a lapsed  or new Catholic to drive with him to Maryville, a nearby  Catholic campus for underprivileged  teenagers , where the two will walk near a Marianne shrine while praying the Rosary . Other times, he'll invite friends or recent converts to the faith to a three-day Opus Dei retreat  in  Valparaiso ,  Indiana . He'll also invite them to monthly  evenings of spiritual recollection held in another suburb  and to  the monthly talks he or  a guest speaker  gives  in his home on topics ranging from  the Crusades and the Inquisition to federal banking policy.  Knorr generously and freely gives books and other religious materials to those he mentors—at his expense.

            These  people with whom he links arms are , he explains, " a whole array of people I've met  throughout the course of my life, all from different backgrounds. " He described them as "restless men who are  searching and who were created to know , love, and serve  God. With many , there's a level of trust already built through my  business relationship with them ," he explained .   " What I try to do , especially for the Catholic, is to sit with them, away from the busyness  of things going on . It helps to  get a man to step back from the hectic environment that we all operate in, especially those men who have  children and careers ."  As they grow spiritually, Knorr  encourages them to then get spiritual  direction. " 

            All of this is his "daily plan of life "  as advocated by Opus Dei , of which Knorr is a member.   This prelature  describes itself as : " a Catholic institution founded by Saint Josemaria Escrivá . Its  mission is to help people turn their work and daily activities into occasions for growing closer to God , for serving others, and for improving society."  It is part of the Catholic church hierarchical structure and   does not attempt to replicate any function of a  Catholic church, but rather  to complement that  church's work.   

            "Our work [ with Opus Dei ] becomes a sacrifice we make to God each day on  behalf of those who are struggling with any particular problem. "  His wife, whom he describes as "the heart of his family ",  is also an Opus Dei member

            Where does Knorr find time to manage his CPA work and his "daily plan of life " as well as being a responsible family man ?   " I don't," he flatly said.  " I rely on God's grace. "  When he's concerned about  getting everything done on his daily should- do  list, he recalls words of the late Fr. Fred Piegl, who once manned that  private room in Knorr's office:  If you take time for God, God will show you how to expand time in your day to get things done you need to get done.   "I can't explain how that happens, but I believe it with all my heart,  " Knorr said.  He saw proof of this  13 years ago when his father was dying of cancer in the midst of Knorr's  busy work  season and  questioned how he would ever find time for  his commitments to  clients, family, and  Opus Dei-- and still care for his father.  But he did.

            "It's often hectic," he said. And then, reflecting on how he has seen his children develop spiritually and professionally, he said with a sigh, "It's all worth it. " As expected when asked what makes him happy, the CPA replied, " my faith, my wife and my children." 

His children are: Kelly, 22, employed by a  Chicago tax specialty company ; Caroline,  25, an attorney with a global law firm in Chicago; Katlyn 27, a physical therapist ( with a PhD ) in St. Louis; and Donald, 29, now studying law enforcement at American Military University in Panama City, Florida. He recently completed six years of active duty with the Air Force, being deployed  for a year in Iraq and then in Afghanistan, earning three commendation medals.  All four children were married within a 27-month period. 
[ Update: In closing the email Don sent friends last June, he wrote: " So to quickly recap again and, for the moment, the final time, we have two granddaughters and three more grandchildren on the way before the end of the year ! "  ]

       " They have learned to defend their faith and to share it with others. They know the things that are right and wrong and , most importantly, they know how to discuss these issues with others. " Knorr then quoted from the Old Testament : " If a man loves God, his children will love him. "

            What particularly made him happy was seeing so many people at the marriage Mass of daughter Kelly. "They were smiling and happy, and when you see that, that's generally an indication that they're doing the right things. "

The  then younger Knorrs at Glacier National Park 

  Tongue in cheek, Knorr summed up his life's milestones this way: " You spend the first third of your life accumulating things like education and a home; the second third taking care of what you've accumulated; and the last third trying to get rid of what you've accumulated. "  He got more serious about his milestones and mentioned  attending a Catholic grammar school and a culturally-mixed high school ( New Trier West ) where  he learned about other cultures and religious beliefs of the many Protestant and Jewish students there.  In college, there was the "temptation  to go out with the boys for a beer instead of doing homework.  Then came  his first job, then marrying Marcia and seeing his first child born . The birthing of that child,  he said,  profoundly affected him for life . 

At age 33 and holding an important position with a multi-national company ,  Knorr began to sense something important was missing from his high-salaried job and that  he "wasn't being the kind of man and father that God wanted me to be ."   At the time he couldn't put what he felt into words .  Knorr quit his job and started his own accounting firm. " God doesn't force you to do things but He gives us the circumstances to exercise our free will. "   

He admits to one thing he had to learn the hard way :   that, despite the enormous energy with which he had been blessed  ( which since has diminished little ), a man or woman  has to keep a balance with work and  family . But, he added,  " work itself should not have a higher priority than taking care of one's family. I can see vividly today the effect that the absence of a father has on the family.  A family suffers when Dad's job takes away quality time his children. "  As his  children grew, Knorr said he then gave  quality time to coach his four children   in various recreational activities and by  taking the entire family on vacations, such as  letting them experience cabin life in the woods.     

Twenty-eight years ago the Knorr couple joined St. James . He became  president of the social activity committee and  later, with Marcia, began teaching baptismal preparation to parents expecting their first child.  Yet Knorr  desired something more   structured and tangible in his faith life.  " Parish work was fine but it did not create the opportunity to go deeper into my faith. "  He made friends with that  Opus Dei priest, Fr. Piegl , who had helped Knorr better understand what Knorr's dying father was going through. The priest had asked if Knorr had lately been to confession.  Knorr said it had been several years , and  the priest told  him: " Don, you're going to confession ."   A  few days later, Don did.

With daughter Kelly at her
        7th grade basketball game

Born Catholic and the oldest of seven children  , Knorr was raised in Glenview, Illinois , his father in  Chicago's Jackson Park, and his mother in the  Chicago Irish neighborhood  of "Canaryville,  also known  as "Back of the  Yards "  for its proximity to the famous—or infamous—Union Stock Yards that closed in 1971.  His  father owned a tree planting and landscape maintenance company, which employed the young  Knorr during high school and college. " At one time I was going to follow my father in his work but he encouraged me to get an education. "  

A Surprise Honeymoon for Marcia

He met Marcia through a friend and courted her for two years . During that time  he was playing all positions on a softball "team"  five nights a week ; it was a sport he played until age 50 . (He was on a "six-feet-and-under" basketball team until age 38. )  When honeymoon plans were being made,  Marcia asked where they were going.   Knorr replied, "I'm not going to tell you because I want it to be a surprise. "   Marcia wanted to know what she should pack.  " Pack a little of this  and a little of that, "  he said.

When their airplane touched down at the small  Canada airport of Calgary, Marcia was still wondering where she was honeymooning to.  Not until they had driven for 2 ½  hours over  British Columbia's farmland and approached  the Rocky Mountains at Banff National Park , did Mrs. Knorr know  where her honeymoon would be. " Yes, "  Knorr said leaning over his desk with a child-like grin,  ” she was absolutely surprised." 

Nowadays , one thing truly saddens Knorr : It's "seeing Catholics  who have left their faith, " he said.  " And it all stems from the same thing: they do not have a good interior life nor do they understand the God-given gift of their Catholic faith . They put their trust in the things of the world instead of God. "  To an admonition of St. John Vianney, patron saint of priests, that the more you sin in your life the harder to see what God wants you to see, Knorr added: " Sin makes you deaf, dumb, and blind ."

Asked if he would  like to see any changes in the Catholic church or his own parish church,   " No, " he replied . " I'm not an anarchist. My role in the church is to carry out the obligation God put in my heart when I was baptized . " He did, however, stress the importance of Catholics learning what their faith is all about, primarily by reading Sacred Scripture and studying the catechism . " This was the call, he said, put out by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2007  because of the kind of  culture we have today.

" There's a lot of confusion in  the church as to the basic precepts we as Catholics are obligated to follow ," Knorr said .  The more than  50 per cent drop in Sunday Mass attendance since 1997  at his own church stems from this confusion about the teachings of the faith,  he asserted. "It's sad."  He hopes that though the church has had  heresies since its beginning,  church leaders, particularly  bishops, will continue to sit down collectively and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, explain clearly and convincingly to the laity and some  priests  what their church really teaches and why. " And I hope we Catholics  will heed  what is said. "

THE END

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