Volume 2 Issue 3 Fall 2009
Communio
Father Neal Stull’s ministry was short but full of love
– by Joe Bollig—this article was reprinted with permission from ―The Leaven‖
the newspaper for the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas
EASTON — A vocation to the
priesthood came relatively late for
Father Neal Stull, SOLT, at age 45.
And his ministry lasted only seven
years. Nevertheless, Father Neal
served Christ and the people of God
with passion, commitment, and
empathy before he died of cancer on
Sept. 17 in Eldora, Iowa.
Mike Ralston, now of Nevada, Iowa, was a boyhood
friend of Father Neal in Grundy Center, Iowa. He
described his friend‟s piety as “average.”
“Certainly if someone had said, „Pick out the fella in
this room who is going to be a priest,‟ I probably
wouldn‟t have picked out Father Neal,” he said. “But
he certainly had a faith,” he added.
After the future priest received his degree in
communications, he began working in radio. He
moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, where he became a
member of the cathedral parish. There, his faith
blossomed and his vocation emerged.
“I‟ll never forget the call he made to me and said, „I
wanted you to know that I‟m getting married,‟” said
Ralston. “And I said, „Neal, you‟re kidding me. You
were just talking about becoming a priest.‟ And he
said, „I‟m going to get married to the church.‟”
Even though he had left Grundy Center, the people
joyfully welcomed him when he returned. “When he
came back to celebrate Mass at Sacred Heart after
he was ordained, it was a big deal,” said Ralston.
“The only priest to come out of Sacred Heart Parish
was my great-uncle . . . during the 1920s.”
Father Neal was first assigned to work in Houston at
St. Monica Parish, which was predominately African-
American. It was during his time there that he was
diagnosed with cancer. It seemed to go into
remission after treatment, but his superiors decided
to reduce his workload by sending him to a smaller
parish.
Father Neal loved his parish in Houston and was
reluctant to leave. But after arriving in Kansas in July
2007, it wasn‟t long before he fell in love with his
new parish.
“He was a phenomenal man,” said Dawn Dean, a
member of St. Lawrence in Easton and St. Joseph of
the Valley in rural Leavenworth. “He reached out to
everyone, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. He‟d go
to the high school, middle school, and elementary
school games,” she continued. “There is only one
other church in our town, and when they had a
fundraiser, he‟d go.”
Father Neal had a heart for working with the youth
and people who were drifting away from the church.
“He was a caring person, and he displayed God
through his humanity,” said Tim Herken, also of St.
Lawrence and St. Joseph. “He was very interested in
the youth of our parishes. He was easy to talk with.”
“It was a big goal of his to find lost parishioners and
bring them home,” Herken continued. “He made it a
point to search them out. He was approachable.
People were just naturally attracted to him.”
But the cancer that he had fought successfully
before returned in full force. It became apparent,
after he brought the youth group back from a major
event, that his illness had taken a very serious turn.
He returned to Chicago for treatment, never to
return.
“In one of my last conversations with him, he really
hoped that he made a difference with young people,
and I know that he had,” said Shelley Stull Webb,
Continued on page 3
Letter from the Editors
The peace of Christ and the great joy of Our Lady
be with you!
Once again, we rejoice in the blessings God gives
us, some of which you can read about in this issue
of Communio.
We are living in the “Year of the Priest.” While this
may immediately lead to appreciation and prayers
for the ministerial priesthood, might we in Our
Lady‟s Society strive to live the meaning of
priesthood in all our vocations? The Catechism of
the Catholic Church lifts up the “priesthood of the
faithful” in the following ways:
On entering the People of God through faith
and Baptism, one receives a share in this people‘s
unique, priestly vocation: ―Christ the Lord, high
priest taken from among men, has made this new
people ‗a kingdom of priests to God, his Father.‘
The baptized, by regeneration and the anointing of
the Holy Spirit, are consecrated to be a spiritual
house and a holy priesthood.‖ (784)
Christ, high priest and unqiue mediator, has
made of the Church ―a kingdom, priests for his God
and Father.‖ The whole community of believers is,
as such, priestly. The faithful exercise their
baptismal priesthood through their participation,
each according to his own vocation, in Christ‘s
mission as priest, prophet and king. Through the
sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation the
faithful are ―consecrated to be…a holy
priesthood.‖(1546)
As a "holy priesthood", let us, with a keen eye
toward all we have been given, take what is holy
and offer it to God.
In Christ,
Bernadette Cathers
Diane Olsen
P.S. We are eager to hear from you! Please send
any news, articles, prayers, etc. to:
Communionewsletter@yahoo.com.

Kommunio Kids Korner

(for kids ages 4-144)
The prophet Isaiah prepared the people of God for a very special gift. He describes this gift, a person,
with many different names. Here are the names, with some words missing. Can you fill in the blanks?
For help, look in the New American Bible, the book of Isaiah (in the Old Testament), Chapter 9 Verse 5.

__ __ __ - Hero

__ __ __ __ __ __ - Forever

Prince of __ __ __ __ __

Wonder - __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
Answers are on page 7

What do these names tell us about this person? Who could this person be?

2
Notes from St. Anthony’s Parish—Harper, TX
– by Fr. George Carlin, SOLT

Two significant events highlighted the six years included much needed CCD classroom space.
(2003-09) Fr. George Carlin, SOLT was pastoral
administrator of St. Anthony‟s parish in Harper, In the Texas Hill country, St. Anthony is a small,
Texas: unique parish, with a core of old German-American
families, who are sheep and goat ranchers.
The parish centennial celebration last June 12-14.
San Antonio Archbishop Jose Gomez, in the climax Fr. George was
of the varied events, celebrated the Mass to mark reassigned in
the 100th year. July as visiting
priest with the
The building of a $500,000 Parish Hall, which SOLT family
apostolate in
Covington,
Georgia.
Succeeding him
at St. Anthony‟s
is Fr. Paul
Grala, SOLT,
who had
previously
served for five
years in the
Belize missions
and as a pastor Fr. George Carlin, relaxing after a
hard day’s work of serving God’s
in Laredo, TX.
people.
Parish hall built while Fr. George Carlin was pastor.

Fr. Neal Stull (continued from page 1)

one of his sisters. “He was really passionate about SOLT, now in Bosque, N.M. “He said he had only
that. Any youth group member would say he made been a priest for seven years, and there was so
a difference.” much more he wanted to do than he had done.”

Father Neal endured his illness with dignity and
hope, even after it was clear the outcome would be
terminal. Just days before his death, Father Neal
was thrilled to receive a phone call from Billy
Williams, a former outfielder with the Cubs and
1987 Baseball Hall of Fame member.
“He absolutely loved sports, particularly baseball.
He loved the Chicago Cubs and knew everything
about them,” said Webb. “He could quote certain
player‟s statistics, the positions and teams they
played.”
At the end, Father Neal had only had one regret:
that his illness prevented him from doing more. “He
was really at peace,” said Father Dennis Dolter,
“He said, „Whatever is the will of God,‟” continued
Father Dennis. “„If he wants to heal me and wants
me to stay, then fine. But if he wants me to come
home, that‟s fine.‟”
“And he was sincere. He was a tremendous
witness to people of how to handle death with
dignity and peace.”
A visitation was held on Oct. 7 at Holy Family
Parish, St. Gabriel Catholic Church, in rural
Reinbeck, Iowa. A Mass of Christian Burial was
celebrated at St. Gabriel on Oct. 8, followed by
burial at Sacred Heart Cemetery in Grundy Center.
A memorial Mass was celebrated on Oct. 9 at St.
Lawrence Church in Easton.
3
Haiti Mission—serving Kobonal’s most vulnerable
– based on information provided by Fr. Glen Meaux
In 1989 The Society of Our Lady of
the Most Holy Trinity established the
Kobonal Haiti Mission. The SOLT
Ecclesial Team, made up of Fr. Glen
Meaux and Deacon Norman and
Kitty Sparks, arrived in this desolate
hill country area to serve the
population. Their main focus was the
sanctification of the family and the
development of peoples. From the
beginning, the team rejoiced in the
presence of the blessings of the Lord and the love
of Our Lady that she constantly presented to the
Mission.
Kobonal was known
as “the darkest
corner of the
Diocese of Hinche”,
located in the center
of Haiti. At that time,
the people of Haiti
were enslaved and oppressed by black magic
priests and their ritualistic services, zombiism and
human sacrifice. The people had no land of their
own. The subsistence farmers of this remote
mountain village of Haiti‟s Central Plateau couldn‟t
grow food to eat, and the unemployment rate was
more than 80%. They couldn‟t afford clothing,
shoes, or food for their families.
All the people lived in crude, tin shacks with leaky,
thatched roofs. These makeshift structures were
unsafe, unsanitary, and vulnerable to thieves and to
disease-carrying
vermin and pests.
When it rained, water
poured right through
the roofs and turned
the dirt floors to mud.
As one villager
reflects, “We had to
hold the babies off the
ground until the rain
stopped.” Families also lost their few precious
belongings, including valuable birth certificates, to
the invasive rain. The family unit had been reduced
to grandmothers struggling to care for infants and
toddlers who had been abandoned by their parents
and teenage girls who were having children every
4
year by different men. The families
were facing starvation. Few of the
families had gardens.
Since then, the Kobonal Haiti Mission
has reached out to help Kobonal‟s
most vulnerable people, with
programs to help the elderly,
widowed, orphaned, ill, and mentally
challenged.
Today, due to the grace of God and the Unity of the
Trinity and the Love of Our Lady, the Mission‟s
programs and ministries are working to see that
every generation is cared for from their birth.
Throughout these 20 years living among our Haitian
Brothers and Sisters, God‟s hand can be clearly
seen hard at work. Jesus has been doing a mighty
work of restoring the souls among all here.
Hundreds and hundreds of persons have
experienced dramatic positive changes in their
lives. God has changed hearts. There now exists
among families a vibrant faith community, whose
members reach out in loving service to others. The
ritualistic priests and their related services have
disappeared from among the villages. Teenage and
unwed pregnancy has been reduced dramatically.
The families in the mission‟s villages are now living
in loving and graced relationships. Marriages are
blessed and the dead are given a Christian Burial.
The Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated as well as
the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Holy
Communion, Confession, Anointing of the Sick and
Dying and Christian Marriage. One of the young
men of the villages is studying for the Catholic
Priesthood and another is in the University studying
Agronomy. The children are in school and the
adults have opportunity for employment in the
Mission’s Bakery, Sewing Center, Agricultural
and Animal Husbandry Projects, our Schools,
our Housing
Construction
Project and in
many other
areas related to
the Mission‟s
work.
Since April 2009 the mission school has
enrolled the following number of students:
Pre-School - 189
Elementary - 530
Middle School - 241
The school has employed 52 teachers/
school personnel, 14 cooks who prepared
52,487 meals, 4 bakers who prepare bread
for school children 3 days each week, 4
seamstresses who sew school uniforms.
The mission employs 27 adults in Mission
Projects. The mission has:
 Purchased 150 school desk/benches
 Distributed a monthly allotment of basic food
the mountains to 7 of our villages, including
Kobonal. Our families now have access to filtered
spring water. We have 7 water stations that we call
fountains that are open from 6 to 9am and 3 to
6pm. Each of the fountains is supervised by fathers
of the Mission‟s school children. Each fountain
attendant is employed to oversee the distribution of
the water to each family. The overflow of the water
goes into gardens around the Mission and for the
irrigation of fields and watering of our pigs and
chickens.
School Uniform Sewing Project

F
supplies for 435 elderly and destitute or over 10
 Purchased a cement mixer for the House years the
Construction Project Mission‟s
 Built 3 homes School Uniform
 Purchased a solar and battery powered Sewing Project
refrigerator and freezer was under the
 Purchased 108 pigs and 182 goats for the direction of Mrs.
Husbandry Project Jane Braquet of
Lafayette,
Pastoral care has borne the following fruit: Louisiana. With the
 Prepared children and 58 adults for the help of a team of
Sacpaya Sacraments of Reconciliation and First seamstresses the uniforms for the Mission‟s school
Communion children were made in the Lafayette area and
 Confirmed 4 shipped to the Mission each year. Mrs. Braquet also
 Prepared 3 collected used uniforms and polo shirts from
couples for the Catholic Schools and other groups in the area and
sacrament of shipped them, also.
Matrimony
 Baptized 36 One of the goals of the Mission is to empower the
babies Haitian people, so plans were made to transfer the
 Provided Mission‟s Sewing Project to a Haitian team.
Christian Burial Because sewing is a trade that can be mastered by
for 1 young person the Haitian women, it was a good match of a need
and a skill that could be handled by the local
Haitians to meet that need!
Water Project
In 2007, the sewing of school uniforms for the 1100

I n 1996 our
Water Project
was completed
through the efforts of
the villagers and
boys and girls in the SOLT Haiti Mission School
was transferred into the hands of a team of 4
Haitian women. These seamstresses work at the
Mission and earn a salary for their work. Theirs is
an important job of providing uniforms for the
with funding from a poorest of the poor school children. This program
Church Parish in reflects the Mission‟s commitment to promote self
Florida. sufficiency, jobs, and self esteem for Haitian
women. The Haitian sewing team has transitioned
From a tiny source smoothly from sewing with nonelectric old fashion
of spring water that treadle sewing machines to sewing with modern
was discovered in electric sewing machines. The treadle machines will
the mountains, the Mission‟s engineers developed a be used in a class to teach sewing to some of the
Water System which flows eight miles up and down School‟s Middle School girls.
5
50th Anniversary Celebration at our Birthplace
– by Sr. Megan Mary Thibodeau

On the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, June

7, 2009, the original novitiate of the Sisters of
Our Lady‟s Society was rededicated and
blessed in Holman, New Mexico. Archbishop
Michael J. Sheehan of the Archdiocese of
Santa Fe was the principal celebrant at the holy
sacrifice of the Mass celebrated at Immaculate
Heart Church in Holman. Archbishop
Sheehan‟s greeting to Fr. Flanagan before
Mass began was a heartfelt “Welcome home,
Father. Welcome home.” The Church was filled
to standing room only with many people from
the Mora valley and Our Lady‟s Society. In his
homily, the Archbishop once again welcomed
Our Lady‟s Society back home and announced
with delight that he was the one responsible for
giving us the property here in Holman so that
we can be “home forever”. And as so many
people said that day, “it is good to be home.” Immaculate Heart of Mary Church during Mass.

The Mass was a beautiful celebration in honor of
the Most Holy Trinity with many priests and
deacons from Our Lady‟s Society and the
Archdiocese concelebrating with the Archbishop.
The Sisters and the postulants added to the
solemnity with their beautiful voices and music. Sr.
Mary of the Redemption and Theresa Marie Cruz
proclaimed the readings and Sr. Marie Hesed of the
Trinity prayed the general intercessions. The Mass
was offered in thanksgiving for all of our friends and
benefactors who made the return of Our Lady‟s
Sisters to the valley possible.
After Mass, there was a procession from the
Church to the Nazareth Formation Center, the
name of the convent and property in Holman. The
Archbishop proceeded to bless the convent and the
people gathered to celebrate with us.
The people of the valley were long awaiting the
return of Our Lady‟s Society and most especially of
Fr. Flanagan, who served as the pastor of
Immaculate Heart of Mary from 1958-1964. He was
welcomed home by many old friends and
parishioners who waited in long lines to greet him
and to receive a blessing.

The Nazareth Formation center. On the left, the building to be reconstructed and on the right, the newly
blessed novitiate convent.

6
 Lunch was served
in the backyard by Since the Great Jubilee Year of 2000
Margaret Vigil and the number of our professed Sisters has
her crew. They doubled and the number of women in
had quite a battle formation has tripled. Currently we have
with the wind but 40 women in various stages of
gracefully carried formation, along with newly professed
on and made sure Sisters who are being sent out to serve
everyone had in our various missions and apostolates.
enough to eat. As In order to house all of these vocations,
the wind continue we are having a raffle to help raise
to whip through funds for our building project. The Raffle
and everyone drawing is December 12, 2009.
wondered if it
would ever slow
First Prize is $5000 Second Prize is
down, Fr.
Flanagan gently $500 Third Prize is $50
said, “That‟s what
happens when you Tickets are $50
invite the Holy All the proceeds of the raffle will be
Spirit.” And the used to continue the reconstruction of
Holy Spirit the Nazareth Formation Center in
Archbishop Sheehan blessing the
convent. certainly was with Holman, NM.
us that day.
To purchase a ticket send a check
At one point during the day Archbishop Sheehan told us payable to:
that he has been a bishop for twenty-five years and SOLT Sisters to
during that time he has closed many convents but did PO Box 3 Holman, NM 87723
not remember ever opening one. He was so grateful to
see the convent transformed from a broken down For more information contact
building to a house of prayer and formation. As he was Sr. Megan Mary or Sr. Mary Peter at
leaving, he pointed to the original convent, now 575.387.5411 or
commonly referred to as the second building, and asked, soltnazareth@gmail.com
“when will that one be finished?”
All praise to You, Father, Son and Holy
And with that we begin another phase of reconstruction
Spirit!
at the Nazareth Formation Center.

Wonder-Counselor
Prince of Peace
Father-Forever
The Sisters living in Holman at the time of the celebration. God-Hero
Kommunio Kids Korner:
Answers to

7
 Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity
PO Box 152
Robstown, TX 78380

Please pray for the health of:

Fr. Jim Flanagan, SOLT
Fr. Tito Ayo, SOLT
Br. Philip Howard, SOLT
Br. Michael Brady, SOLT
Sr. Trinity Vaughn, SOLT
Sr. Eileen Dougherty, SOLT
George Estes
Deacon Paul McCardle, SOLT
Kathy and William Armour
Rosa Langevin and her baby
Mary Noel Shallow
Felicitas Moreno

Please pray for the repose of the souls of:

Leocadia Serban, SOLT
Br. Wayne Williams, SOLT
George Sparke
Fr. Isidore Sitnyein
Gilbert Cancio
Fr. Neal Stull, SOLT
Rudy Marks
Maria Cuca M. Hernandez

SOLT Lay Formation - Part Three (last)

– based on conversation with Fr. Zachary of the Mother of God Shallow 2/09

Last issue we identified one grace received from
God during this Jubilee Year as the development of
a new Lay Formation program. Fr. Zachary of the
Mother of God is working to organize this effort. Lay
Formation is based on the manner Our Lady was
formed by the Trinity, and is run by a complete
ecclesial team, each member sharing in the
responsibility of the formation program.
SOLT Lay Formation is designed to prepare laity for
their apostolate. This is different than a local
ministry, e.g. usher at the local parish.
Discerning an apostolate will flow from the formation
experience. Each person discerns their unique gifts
received from God, and how the gifts they are given
are to be used to serve God in fulfilling the plan of
God and building the Kingdom of God. The
apostolate gives a person a worldwide vision, an
ability to see how to transform the world as God
desires.
This is not a “perpetual formation program”; in the
third year, the focus is on the apostolate.
Participants discern, “Where will I go to serve? How
will I serve?”
Presently there are Lay Formation teams in Corpus
Christi, Texas and Capulin, Colorado, and the
program is bringing great blessings in Georgia. The
diocese of Corpus Christi has given its blessing to
this work for the laity in its diocese; this blessing is
viewed as a powerful confirmation that this is the
work of God.
To learn more contact Fr. Zachary at
ourladylovesyou@gmail.com. You may also visit
the website at ourladylovesyou.com.