Memoirs

From Pat Mower '64

After a year at Loyola University in Chicago, on 8 June 1965 I joined the USAF.  I had no intention of making the Air Force a career, but I did and I traveled the world. Basic training was a breeze. I had been in military boarding schools since second grade and knew about marching and facing movements, so the instructors left me alone.

I spent 17 of my 21 years in the Air Force overseas as a Persian and Russian linguist. I was on the ground for ten years and in the air for another ten plus. My first assignments on the ground were Pakistan, then Turkey.  In Pakistan I was an “intelligence analyst,” since they had no need for a “Persian/Farsi linguist.”  When it was drawing close to time to move on, I talked to a friend who was a Russian linguist. He advised that if I wanted to stay in the Air Force, I’d have more choices in assignments as a Russian linguist; and who knows, I might even fly!  I wanted to go back to the Monterey CA Language School where I had learned Persian, but he told me to go to the University of Syracuse, where they really knew how to teach Russian. I did, and he was right. By the way, whenever we finished Russian language schools, Radio Moscow would congratulate us by name and rank - LIVE on the air!

When I finished at Syracuse, I was sent to Karamursel, Turkey on the Bosporus. But right away I got word our class at Syracuse was being invited to return and take Intermediate Russian. I put in for it, and the day I received word that I got it, my new wife was enroute to join me in Turkey for what we expected would be a 3-4 year tour. Friends came with me to meet her flight just so they could see her reaction when I told her we would be returning to Syracuse. But she was happy! Her mother and father lived there.

My next assignment was West Berlin. I took “Advanced Russian Transcription” for high level communications before my wife and I flew to Berlin for our four-year tour.  While over there, I worked across the table from another Russian linguist who saw my class ring and asked when I graduated from Campion!  He was George Eastman, Class of ‘65!  Later, his wife, who was a Colonel and retired AF nurse, helped me through my eye surgery.

I was in Berlin only six months when they started cutting people short and sending them to Turkey. Two co-workers and I had been in Turkey, and we didn’t want to return, so we paid close attention to postings notices. One was for people with our special qualifications, but it didn’t say where. All it said was 6931st Security Group. We applied. It turned out to be Heraklion, capital of Crete!  But first we had to fly back to NSA for a special course.

From then on most of my service was in the back of an airplane. During one mid-shift flight (11pm-7am) a couple of years later, I got a message that a Senior Master Sergeant named Joe Gerrard wanted to speak to me on teletype. He announced he was my NEW BOSS in Rimbach, Germany. He didn’t know where I was, and I had NO idea where Rimbach was. His instructions for getting there were to find your way to Bari, Italy any way you can.  Drive north on the Autostrada and Autobahn until you get to Regensburg, Germany.  When you see the sign going east to Furth-im-Wald, take that road.  About one kilometer from the East German Border, you will see a sign pointing south for Kotsting. Take that road. In ten kilometers you will come to a village called Rimbach. When you see the church on the left, the one with the gold domes, the orderly room is in a “Gaste Haus” across the street. The Army occupies the lower floor, the USAF the upper floor.  Just come in.  And that was how I got my orders for my next assignment, the first where I actually served the full tour! While stationed in Rimbach on the Czech Border, I was a mere thirty-five kilometers from my ancestral home!  Of course, it was communist territory so I couldn’t go there.

My next assignment after survival schools was Offutt AFB, Omaha, NE. While at Omaha I flew missions with Spanish linguists. On one of these in 1979, I identified a Soviet regiment in Cuba. This was when the Shah was being forced out of Iran and the Russians decided to stir up trouble again in Cuba. I was sent on temporary duty (TDY) to Key West FL with a “mobile” unit to keep track of the Russians. Enroute I was in the Miami airport when Secretary of State Vance came on TV and told the Russians exactly what we are going to do! Naturally, the Russians stopped using the radio and went to landline.

I received another TDY to Mildenhall in the East Midlands of the UK.  To get to Mildenhall, we had to land at a Scottish fighter base.  It was a rough landing, and we blew all eight main tires and one of the two under the nose. The holes in the main tires were big enough to put your head through!

The remainder of my AF career was spent on smooth flights and the other kind. Postings were to Okinawa and Athens. I survived many bad landings and one midair collision with a KC-135 tanker while on a TDY AWACS flight out of Saudi Arabia.

Overall, I served with great people doing useful, interesting work. I did get to see the entire periphery of the Soviet Union and its East European republics. I learned Farsi and Russian because Uncle Sam wanted me to, and I acquired Japanese and fluent German, which I had flunked in college. I also picked up some Greek, Turkish, Arabic, Dary (Afghan Persian) and the King’s English. Not bad for a kid who couldn’t learn Czech from his grandmother! ~ ~

From the desk of John Duskey '63

The news media, after the death of Pope Francis, has been filled with comments and speculation about the new Pope, Leo XIV. (I live in the south suburbs of Chicago, and have taught at a grade school in Dolton.) There are many videos/articles on Youtube, and it is important to distinguish legitimate stories from fiction. I always look for any narrative to mention the name of a bishop, especially if the bishop’s position in the Church is mentioned. It is easy to look up the name of any real bishop in catholic-hierarchy.org , a neatly organized website that lists bishops, living and dead, throughout the past several centuries. There are other blogs that I watch: Rorate-Caeli, Father Z, and Anthony Stine’s “Return to Tradition.” Some of the stories paint a picture of what may be about to happen in the coming months.

First stage: Eucharistic celebration controversy

1. One such story relates to the canonization of St. Carlo Acutis, a boy in Assisi who had taught catechism to children. He spelled out his ‘kit to become a Saint’ which included such suggestions as going to daily Mass, receiving Communion, praying the rosary, reading from Holy Scriptures, spending time each day in meditation before the Blessed Sacrament, and making your Guardian Angel your best friend. Carlo had been approved for canonization by Pope Francis earlier this year, and recently Pope Leo went ahead with the ceremony to make it official. In the meantime, Andrea Grillo, a professor at Pontifical Athenaeum of Saint Anselm university in Rome, posted a strong criticism of Carlo Acutis, saying that he had an incorrect attitude toward the Eucharist. Grillo’s university has distanced itself from his position, and, toward the end of his life, it appeared Pope Francis was no longer willing to adopt whatever Grillo suggested.

2. I was familiar with Prof. Grillo’s ideas several years ago. He was generally known to be the man behind Traditiones Custodes, issued by Pope Francis on July 16. 2021. This document eliminated the effectiveness of Summorum Pontificum, a document that Pope Benedict XVI had issued in 2007, which allowed wider use of the Traditional Latin Mass, i,e, the Mass according to the 1962 missal. Later in 2021 I wrote to Prof. Grillo and suggested that Traditiones Custodes presented some real problems for priests like those of the Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) who offer the Masses according to the 1962 missal exclusively. In February 2022, Pope Francis received priests from the FSSP in an audience and told them their status was unchanged.

3. A noticeable number of Catholics who had regularly attended the Latin Mass, were hopeful that the hostility of Pope Francis toward that ritual usage would be changed when Pope Leo was elected. Instead, a number of bishops began to shut down masses according to the 1962 missal almost immediately, particularly in Charlotte, N.C., and in Detroit, Michigan. This was done without waiting to see what the policy of the new Pope would be.

In July 2020, Pope Francis had ordered the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) to send a survey to the bishops, asking about Summorum Pontificum. In July 2021 Pope Francis issued Tradiiones Custodes and said in an accompanying letter that he felt constrained by their requests to revoke Summorum Pontificum. As this controversy stirred, on July 1, 2025, Diane Montagna (a respected journalist who has covered Vatican news for years) released previously undisclosed information which raised some questions. This included the report of CDF that the majority of bishops who responded to the 2020 survey, expressed satisfaction with Summorum Pontifium, and that, in many cases, the situation was completely pacified. The report stated that making changes to Summorum Pontificum would cause more harm than good.

My own opinion is that a bishop should be able to grant permission for the use of the Mass according to the 1962 missal in religious houses. We had a successful experience with the Carmelite Fathers in Munster, Indiana for over 28 years. But the celebration in this usage should only be permitted in local parishes where the laity request it, and where the local pastor, who knows the situation in his parish, has determined that this celebration will have some support, or, at least, not draw hostility. In rare cases, such problems have existed in the past. We will have to wait for an announcement from Pope Leo to see what happens next.

Second Stage: Doctrinal/Moral issues

1. Doctrines of the Faith have been clearly understood by faithful Catholics for centuries. However, some of the statements of Pope Francis appear to have caused confusion. One example is the fact that divorced Catholics who attempt another marriage (without an annullment on the original marriage) were not to be admitted to Holy Communion. The Church needs clarity, and should be supportive of those who have followed the long-standing rules on this. Likewise, the Church should be supportive of all married couples who experience the temptation to violate their marriage vows. Yet some people oppose this, with the feeling that the Church should welcome everyone who would like to join. Situations like this are a matter for confession, and should reference Jesus Christ’s statement “Go now, and sin no more.”

2. Another situation has already been explored by Anthony Stine on a source he calls “Return to Tradition.” The Internet vehicle he uses does not allow him to use certain words-- like the expression with five capital letters followed by a plus sign. Therefore, as Jesuit Father James Martin advocates for people with that habitual sin, Stine refers to it as “the James Martin sin.” I would not want to have any one person’s name associated with that, as it represents a scandal. This was aggravated by the recent meeting Pope Leo had with Fr. Martin, and by some recent celebrations at the Vatican. The Church should welcome sinners, with the admonition of “sin no more.” Those who fight that temptation deserve the support of the Church. It doesn’t look like that is happening right now.

3. This whole situation, the above and several other moral questions, are probably the greatest problem in the Church today. It certainly is a problem for the Jesuits, and we should pray for all of them and hope they can deal properly with it. It affects the whole Church. At Mass, I am never comfortable hearing the words “Let us call to mind our sins.” I would rather have us simply pray the Confiteor and receive a blessing from the priest. There are also some prayers to be said before communion ,which are optional now, but which should be said openly to invoke God’s help.

I don’t see any need for this idea of synodality in the Church. Over the past forty years, every response I have received from a bishop has made it clear that my message was heard. If a synodal structure were in place, voices from the laity would come from lay persons selected by some bishops, who may have little interest in the questions I would ask.

With some sadness I have read of the continued decrease in vocations to the Jesuit order. We first saw the effects of this at Campion in 1961. In fact, many (though not all) religious orders been facing the same crisis. Most of us Campion graduates completed our years at Campion before things got really bad. I have had a number of conversations with Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, former bishop of LaCrosse and St. Louis, and former Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura. He was born in Richland Center, not far from Prairie du Chien, and was definitely aware of what unfortunately happened at Campion.

Previously, the Jesuits had a good reputation of educating students who would become the leaders of society. That was one of the purposes of Campion High School. This seemed to be ignored during and since the time of Fr. Pedro Arrupe, who served as Superior General of the Jesuits from 1965 to 1983. Yes, the Church should care for the poor. Still, her first mission is the salvation of souls, not just those of the poor. If other people in our society are ignored, the results will not be, and have not been, good. The Church, as broad and diverse as she is, needs the Jesuits and other religious orders as well as the diocesan clergy to work for the restoration of moral order, and for the salvation of souls. Let us pray for Pope Leo as he takes up this challenge.