founder St. Gaspar—that we are a community dedicated
to renewal of the Church and the reconciliation of all
peoples through the blood of the cross and the ministry
of the Word—gave him a clear insight to call forth from
us in our parishes and apostolates to be people of hope
and promise in a world so often conflicted with chaos,
confusion, and carelessness.
It was this hope which Paul writes in the second
reading from Romans, “does not disappoint, because
the love of God has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” This
is the message Fr. Larry preached, taught, and most im-
portantly, lived. He knew in his bones what Paul meant
when he writes, “God proves his love for us in that while
we were still sinners Christ died for us. How much more
then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be
saved through him.”
I was a student in the seventies when Fr. Larry was
provincial, but two stories from those years surface
and continue to inspire because they reflect the hope
that does not disappoint but rather dares us to be mis-
sionaries who move to the margins where the blood of
reconciliation and renewal calls us. The first has to do
with mission; the second with community.
Though our mission in Texas was begun when
Fr. Schaefer was provincial, Fr. Larry dramatically
expanded the number of missionaries serving in
Texas. He called on members to learn Spanish and
to serve those who yearned to hear the Word of God
in their own language and experience. But rather
than simply fill slots with Spanish-speaking mis-
sionaries, Fr. Larry was also attentive to the need
for community, so he worked with the bishop of
the Diocese of San Angelo to cluster our priests
and brothers in parishes where they could gather
regularly for fellowship and faith-sharing. For many
years, our members serving in Texas were a sym-
bol to the rest of the province that we can go to the
margins but still be committed to nurturing com-
munity life through regular gatherings.
The second story reflects the hard part of commu-
nity life. In the late 1970 s , Fr. Larry wrote a letter to the
province about alcoholism. He named it as a disease
and called forth from the community an awareness
of those among us who might be afflicted with this
disease. With compassion and care, he called us to
strengthen the bond of charity by paying attention to
those who were struggling with alcoholism. One of
our former members who was working at the time in
the treatment field wrote Fr. Larry a letter thanking
him for raising awareness about the disease of alco-
holism and said it was one of the finest letters he had
ever read from a religious leader. In helping members
who were struggling with alcoholism into treatment,
Fr. Larry gave them a new lease on life to continue to
serve in ministry.
A Pastoral Spirit
When I would visit Fr. Larry the last few years here
at St. Charles, he would often reflect on how much he
enjoyed travelling when he was provincial. He spoke of
visiting most of the countries in Europe and of several
trips to Rome for meetings—he, of course, studied in
Rome as a young priest. But one of his favorite memo-
ries was his trip to the Holy Land and to Egypt where he
saw the Pyramids and rode a camel.
So, given his spirit of adventure, both personally and
as provincial, it is somewhat surprising that that he set-
tled down in one parish for 26 years! But even though
it may look on the surface like the pioneer became a
settler, in his 26 years as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in
Coleman, he sparked a renewal of spirit, of love, and of
service that the people of the parish remember vividly.
When I called the parish the morning after Fr. Larry
died, they had already heard the news of their beloved
former pastor’s death. Fr. Larry was deeply loved by the
people of Coleman.
As he explained in an interview in our province’s
New Wine Press in 2007, “I just loved it there. What I
treasure the most is the closeness to the people. They
were my family. Closeness to all the members of the
parish, not just a few. In some of the other places…I
only got to know a few of the people. But in Coleman, I
knew everybody.”
And everyone, Catholic or not, loved Fr. Larry.
He was very active in the ministerial allian ce and
brought the same quality of servant leadership he
showed as spiritual director, professor, and provin-
cial to the role of pastor. He sought to bring that
spirit of reconciliation to the parish and the people
of Coleman. As he said in that interview in 2007,
“One of my aims in Coleman was to get the Anglos
and Hispanics working together, and today they are.
continued on page 9
January 2018 • The New Wine Press • 7