Interviews with a Few Special Priests (#5 )

He's  86, Plays Golf  and Says Mass ;

Once a Dentist, Then …

 …a tragic death of his wife and 4 children

opened a seminary door for Gerald 

           There is an art to aging well;  it can be accepted,

                             affirmed and experienced as a process of growth

                             by which the mystery of life is slowly revealed

                             to us. It is not a reason for despair, but a basis

                             for hope; not a slow decaying, but a gradual

                              maturing; not a fate to be undergone, but an

                             opportunity to be embraced.  ( courtesy of the

                             Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House ,  South

                             Barrington, IL) 

                                I told them that I wanted to dedicate the

                                rest of my life helping other people.

                             ( Fr. Gerald  Meyer) 

By Robert R. Schwarz

                                    

        

All ten of the Meyer children in 1973

  "They weren't accepting guys that old, "  remembers Fr. Gerald Meyer about  asking  a bishop   to  admit him to a seminary to be ordained a Roman Catholic priest.   He was then  59, and the bishop was a little skeptical; many dioceses at the time would not accept a seminary candidate older than 45.  " But they knew I had experience dealing with people as a dentist and with tragedies in my family, " Fr. Gerald told me during our first interview.  Those tragedies  included the death of his wife from a brain tumor at  age 54 and the death of four of their ten children from cystic fibrosis.  " I told the bishop I wanted to  dedicate the rest of my life to helping other people . "

                Fr. Gerald was ordained  four years later at the St. Charles Borromeo  seminary outside Philadelphia . " It didn't bother me that I was the oldest in the seminary because  I had a lot of kids at home , " he said.  He had not  applied at a Chicago seminary because of his " run-in " with the  late  Cardinal Bernadine  over a difference of opinion about   archdiocese  churches  disallowing second grade  children  from making   confessions before receiving their first communion. Fr. Gerald , still then a  dentist ,  actively opposed the restriction. 

            His first assignment was  at St. Columba in Ottawa, Illinois , then  two years later   he was made pastor of St. Francis of Assisi church  in that town. 

A Slower But Still Active Life

Fr.  Meyer in front of his St. Emily church

          Currently, Fr. Gerald is saying two masses each weekday at St. Emily Catholic church in Mt. Prospect, Illinois , which he had  joined as a lay member in 1960. All  his children had  attended the church school. He also says a "personal mass " in the chapel he has arranged in  his nearby, one-floor  home , where he lives alone.  There, in front of a tabernacle and small altar he says he daily spends " a couple of hours praying for friends, family, and country . "

          At the Rob Roy golf adjacent to his suburb, Fr. Gerald still plays nine holes of golf ( often with his grandchildren ) , scoring 50 to 55. "Last week I shot a 49. How 'bout that !  I do not play frequently because most of the people I used to play with are not longer living."  In evenings at home  reads the Wall Street Journal and watches Fox News from 7 to 8  p.m.

          " I do very little travel now  but  I can still drive, though. I have  a 2008 Mercury , which is in good condition. "  Four of his  children live  in the area; "I visit them and they visit me." Until recently,  Fr. Gerald  took  an occasional three-day family  getaway  to the Lake Michigan peninsula town of Egg Harbor , Wisconsin , where he owned a condominium ( sold  since then ) .   

The youngest of his 23 grandchildren  is in the fourth grade. "I'm not as able to get out as much . My health is not as good as it should be ."  Commenting  on his recent two-day hospital stay, he said,  "They did a lot of testing but everything looked normal.  The only thing is that I'm slowing down. Just getting older. "  He mentioned that someone was coming within 20 minutes show him how to use his new cane.

          During our original interview, Fr. Gerald said he wanted  to wear priestly vestments as long as he could—" with  a functioning brain ."  As usual, he was

affable  and showed no signs of having lived more than eight  decades .  He wore  a green-check shirt and black slacks with black loafers  and    spoke with a firm,  engaging  confidence about his apostolate and other  priestly   labors .  I estimated his height at maybe  five-feet-ten and a weight of  perhaps 175 pounds . 

Tragedy Opens Seminary Doors

    

   

At dinner in 1973 with wife Catherine

  He told me  he had a "calling" for the priesthood when a student at  Quigley  Catholic High School ( now closed ) in Chicago. "I was always close to the faith and going on  religious  retreats every year, even when I was married. "  After his  wife Catherine Ann died he had "inclinations" to  be ordained but  needed  to care for his 29-year-old son , who would die months later, becoming his fourth child to die of cystic fibrosis. "All of my four children died of  CF before it was  recognized as a disease  caused by a defective  gene passed on by both                                                                 parents, "   he explained.

            When the last son for whom he was caring died , "that  opened the doors for me to seek a  bishop who would accept me at my age 59, " he  said.  After Fr. Meyer was ordained,  two of his   sons took over their father's dental  practice  they had joined with him  two years earlier. Two other sons today are physicians, a daughter is a nurse.

        Fr. Gerald  was raised on Chicago's South Side, went to St. Mary's college  in Winona, Minnesota and  earned his dental degree at Loyola University in Chicago, where he  met his wife. He  served as a captain in the U.S. Army dental corps at Ft. Bliss, Texas  ( he and this reporter  were stationed there at the  same time—I was  in  the Public Information Office—but we  never met  ) . Most of  Fr. Gerald's  36-year dental practice was in Des Plaines, Illinois, in a building he purchased in 1984.  He served as a Des Plaines  alderman for eight years.  "I'm still  a "political conservative,"  he said  during our first interview .  

About His Faith Life…

          " I've always been known as a   very orthodox Catholic  , "  Fr. Gerald   continued. "I know people enjoy listening to me because I reflect the teachings of the Catholic  church—everything throughout it—and the way  I live my life. "  His favorite saint is Francis of  Assisi . When asked how he would like to be remembered, he replied, " I never really gave that a lot of thought. I know that I'm doing what Jesus Christ taught. ."  His comments about Pope Francis, reflected the concern expressed today by  some of the  Church's leadership , namely  that  the Pope's statements  about certain controversial issues needed the Pope's  further explanation .  " He's a Jesuit, " Fr.Gerald  said, "and the Jesuits have gone off the deep end." 

What Has Shaped His Life the Most ? 

       

   I asked him what in life  shaped him the most. "My faith, my religion," he answered.  " God gave me a wife and then took four of my children away, and that might cause a dislike  of our Creator, right ? But I've stayed close to the faith all my life. It was really my anchor. "  All his trials and tribulations , he said , "were directed toward God "  and helped him to better understand  his parishioners, particularly when they make their confessions to him.  He's learned, he said, that "life  is a very difficult thing, a lot of happiness, a lot of sorrow.  What's important  is how we  react to this, how God wants us to react to it. We should rely on Him for His graces."

End of Interview

    

"The Spirituality of Aging with Wisdom and Grace"

( a handout from the Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House in Barrington, Illinois)

There is an art to aging well;  it can be accepted, affirmed and experienced as a process  of growth by which the mystery of life is slowly revealed to us. It is not a reason for despair, but a basis for hope; not a slow decaying, but a gradual maturing; not a fate to   be   undergone, but an opportunity to be embraced.

"Aging gracefully requires the courage to face our burdens, to accept our blessings,  and to recreate our lives in new ways. " (Sister Joan Chittister )

 Keep on giving of yourself  and receive graciously, the world needs you .

 Helping to meet the needs of others can be a source of meaning and hope 

 you closer to Jesus.

 As St. Ignatius said : find God in all things 

    

 Honor, live and teach the art of pondering God's presence, and slowing down  

    

 and savoring.

         

Learn new skills .Be open to growth and to life as a lifelong learning .

Come to terms with the losses you have sustained. Allow yourself to mourn,  grieve; know that this is a process and takes time ; be gentle with yourself .

Forgive and receive forgiveness;  learn to let go .

Make friends of all ages; you won 't outlive all of your friends!  You can learn from older  folks wisdom about the aging process and from younger ones how to receive a fresh .    outlook; your inspiration, memories and experience can help them .

Don 't be afraid to ask for help;  this shows humility and affords others an opportunity   to give of themselves .

"And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man." (Luke2:52)

Aging with wisdom is about being seasoned with life experiences  which leads to wholeness and balance, forgiveness and compassion, rather than bitterness and hardness of mind and heart. It is about honesty with self, others and God.

Remember: God called to Abraham when Abraham was 75 and to Moses when he

was  80!

Quotes from "Gift from the Sea" by Anne Morrow

Lindberg:

"Don't wish me happiness. I don't expect to be happy all the time ... it's gotten   beyond that somehow. Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor. I will   need them all;"

"The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere. That is why so much of social life is exhausting; one is wearing a mask. I have shed my mask. "

"1 would like to achieve a state of inner spiritual grace from which I could function  and give as I was meant to in the eye of God. "

The End 

Beginning October 13 :

Fr. Paul Wachdorf shares details

his long priesthood as a spiritual

director . Advice for all,                         All comments are welcome.

rrschwarz7@wowway.com

© 2019  Robert R. Schwarz