Quick Links

Music from Transitus
Reunion Recap by Rick Gardner

Music From Transitus

When you click on a link, the MP3 file will open and play in another browser window, or the app you have linked to play MP3 files. If you have any questions, please contact the webmaster@franciscan-alumni.org.

Transitus – O Sanctissima Anima
Transitus – Psalm 142
Transitus – Salve Sancte Pater
Transitus – Ultima

Reunion Recap by Rick Gardner, FAA President

The 2024 Franciscan Alumni Association Chapter reunion was an enormous success! It began on Thursday, October 3 with the celebration of Transitus and closed late Saturday, October 5 with the Remembrance Ceremony, and the singing of the Ultima. In between was another prayerful celebration of life and friendship and shared memories and shared food.

Members of the Saint Francis Seminary (SFS) class of 1969 gathered for activities on their own as a group as did the class of 1974. The class of 1974 had a great showing with twelve members in attendance!

SFS class years ranged from 1950, represented by Fr. Ric Schneider, OFM, to 1981, represented by Bob Bernzen, Mike Niehaus, and Pepe Paras.

For those staying at the host hotel, mornings started with prayer and breakfast with other alumni and their spouses. Small groups formed, plans were made, and alumni and spouses slowly filtered out the front door as they headed off to places like Findlay Market, the American Sign Museum, Great American Ball Park, the Hofbräuhaus, BB Riverboats, the Public House, and elsewhere. Each evening ended with an impromptu tailgate party in the hotel parking lot. A few alumni and their spouses sat around a cooler (in lieu of a campfire), having a beer or two and telling jokes and sharing stories. It was a very full, wonderful weekend!

St. Clare Chapel at the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor was the site for the Transitus celebration. The chapel was filled that Thursday evening! Among those in attendance were the Sisters of the Poor, Franciscan Friars, members of two fraternities of the Secular Franciscans, and Franciscan alumni and spouses. The celebration of Francis’ passing from life on earth to life with God in heaven was very moving. Said one of the friars who took part in Transitus that evening: “That Transitus was the finest I have been to since cleric and seminary days, and that was a long time ago.”

The celebrant for Tansitus was Our Lady of Guadalupe Provincial Councilor, Fr. Ed Tlucek, OFM. Fr. Fred Link, OFM, ’61 directed the choir. Mike Niklas, ’75 played the guitar, and the vocalist was Mary Wiley, spouse of Donn Wiley, ‘76.

Friars got together to practice for Transitus on Wednesday evening and former SFS glee club members gathered Thursday afternoon to practice the songs. The combined choir singing at Transitus was wonderful!

Alumni were free to explore Cincinnati as they liked on Friday. The activities suggested by the reunion committee were all quite well attended. So many people signed up for the ballpark tour, Dave Gehring, ’72, had to arrange for two tours at the Great American Ball Park. About forty alumni and their spouses gathered for lunch at the Hofbräuhaus, which was about twice as many people as expected. Over thirty people took a leisurely Ohio River boat ride together on a sunny, warm Friday afternoon with BB Riverboats. And the party room at the Public House that evening was packed with close to one hundred alumni and spouses! Each of these events had more in attendance than was predicted. But the fellowship was wonderful!

My dear friend and seminary classmate, Mark Kling, ‘75, was the organizer and chief architect of this year’s reunion. Mark arranged our hotel and our lunch on Saturday. He used connections with friends and family to arrange for the ballpark tour, the river boat cruise, and the social gathering at the Public House.

Mark was the lead for the reunion committee which included Fr. Larry Dunham, OFM, ‘65, Deacon Bernard “Butch” Feldhaus, ‘75, Mike Niklas, ’75, and Rick Gardner, ’75. While not officially named to the reunion committee, Paul Landers, ’76 was key to the success of the reunion dinner, as you will see, and was included in a lot of correspondence.

A couple of reunion attendees remarked about how much effort would have gone into planning the reunion and how much work it took to carry out everything. There was a lot! There were close to thirty people involved with the planning and execution of events that weekend. And that doesn’t count the Sisters of the Poor and the Secular Franciscans who hosted and planned Transitus and the reception after. Nor does it include the Knights of Columbus who prepared and served dinner for us on Saturday night and stayed long after the party to clean up and pack up.

I feel that I must recognize some of these people. Please read the following list. You may recognize a few people. You may also see some names repeated. These people deserve our thanks and are greatly appreciated. So here goes.

• Thank you to Michelle Clayborne Bankhead, property manager of Mercy Franciscan, the former St. Francis Seminary. And to Mercy Franciscan. Michelle worked with Fr. Larry to make sure we had the venues we needed at the times we would need them. The FAA was warmly welcomed and very well accommodated by Michelle and the residents of Mercy Franciscan.
• Thank you to the previously mentioned 2024 FAA reunion committee. The reunion would not have been so joyful and vibrant were it not for the hard work and dedication and follow-through of the committee members.
• Thank you to another dear friend and fellow SFS classmate, Deacon Bernard “Butch” Feldhaus. Deacon Feldhaus prepared the programs for our morning prayer services and for our Remembrance Ceremony. And he led us in both. And he assisted Fr. Larry at Mass.
• A special thanks to Fr. Larry Dunham, OFM. His patience, understanding and willingness to do what was asked of him by the planning committee was saintly. In addition to being on the reunion committee, Fr. Larry was the main planner and facilitator of Transitus. He was also the main celebrant at Mass on Saturday. Thank you, Father Larry!
• And a special thank you to Fr. Henry Beck, OFM, ’70. Fr. Henry served as an advisor to the reunion committee. He is a member of the Alumni Recruitment Committee (ARC) and helped develop and guide the discussion on that topic. Fr. Henry also helped plan the liturgy. He also was a celebrant at the Mass. Fr. Henry gave the homily reflecting on how we are called to mildness and gentleness like we see in children and like our Good God’s heart. Several alumni shared inspiring reflections here when Fr. Henry opened the homily for discussion.
• A BIG thank you to Paul Landers. Besides serving at the Saturday dinner, Paul set up before the dinner and cleaned up after. He oversaw the dinner menu and the procurement of food and drink. He arranged for the Knights of Columbus to cook and serve the meal. And thank you to Carly Landers, Paul’s daughter. Carly helped her dad and was also our greeter at dinner. She performed the duties of a restaurant host and helped in the gathering of receipts for the dinner.
• Thank you to Gary Bales, ’72 and FAA spouse liaison Sally Hossley Bales. Gary and Sally helped wherever there was a need. They staffed our reception desk to greet new arrivals. And Sally took photos of everyone who checked in and posted a lot of photos to our Facebook page.
• Thank you to Joe Sears, ’75. Joe is the FAA vice president and is also in charge of our awards. He ordered the awards and conducted the awards presentation.
• Thank you to all who took part in and led the different programs available to reunion attendees. “Franciscan Spirituality: The Nature of Healing” was a big hit. The program was conducted jointly by Mike Niehaus, ’81, Frank Lopez, ’77, Fr. Robert Seay, OFM, ’52 and Brother John Boissy, OFM. The guest speaker was Matthew Sleeth, MD.
• Thank you to the Alumni Recruitment Committee. About thirty alumni and spouses attended the discussion about the future of the FAA with Our Lady of Guadalupe Province. ARC members Fr. Henry Beck, OFM, ’70, Mark Clark, ’72, Deacon Bernard “Butch” Feldhaus, ’75, Joe Sears, ’75 and Rick Gardner, ’75 guided the discussion.
• Thank you to the Saturday work crew. About eight alumni joined Mercy Franciscan Garden Guild president David Ackmer for a work period on Saturday. This was a throwback to our SFS Saturday morning work periods. But it was in the afternoon. And it was warm! We worked up a sweat picking up and raking up debris blown out of the trees by the residual winds from hurricane Helene. This was antithetical to the Nature of Healing program that was occurring at that same time. But the cleanup was necessary for the grounds keeping crew to cut the grass.
• Thank you to our reunion photographers Dave Imhoff, ’70, Nancy Imhoff, Frank Lopez, ’77, and Sally Hossley Bales.
• Thank you to the talented musicians who played at Mass: Mike Fritsch, ’75, Joe Sears, ’75, Tom Shumate, ’77, Donn Wiley, ’76, and the vocalist Mary Wiley.

I apologize if I have overlooked or omitted someone from this list. It in no way diminishes your contribution for which we sincerely thank you!

Now I must say a few words about the awards presented at the reunion this year. Rick Kasper, ’70, and JD Moya, ’70, both stepped down from the board of directors this year. The FAA board voted to present them both with tokens of appreciation for their many years of service to the board and their dedication to the FAA. Neither could be with us at this reunion, so we asked a couple of other alumni from their class year to stand in for them. Fr. Henry and Dave Imhoff stood in for Rick and JD and accepted the appreciation awards from FAA vice-president Joe Sears.

This year’s FAA Christian Life award was presented to Fr. Robert Seay, OFM, ’52. Fr. Max Langenderfer, OFM, ’64, made the presentation and gave a short speech about Fr. Robert. Fr. Max, Fr. Robert, and Fr. Larry have apartments at Mercy Franciscan. So, a few residents of Mercy Franciscan who know and love these men joined us for this presentation.

This year, the FAA board of directors voted to bestow two Humanitarian awards. One was presented to Bern Schwartz, ’69. The second was presented to Jerry Kaelin, ’69. The opportunity to have each present the award to the other was too good to pass up. So, that is what we asked them to do. After their speeches, Bern surprised Jerry with a T-shirt for each of them with the letters “FCG.” Bern said that each was described many years ago as a “Fine Christian Gentleman” by Fr. Leander at Duns Scotus College.\

The whole reunion concentrated on family, fellowship, and fraternity. I totally forgot to mention that the former St. Francis Seminary building is one hundred years old now. Its cornerstone was laid in 1923, and the seminary was dedicated in 1924. Sure, there is sentimental attachment to the building and grounds. But the feelings of family and friendship fostered during our time at the seminary, and by others in other formation programs, are what is most important. As one of my classmates pointed out, when we get together, we are instantly fourteen years old again and brothers all!