[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 6 (Tuesday, February 1, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 1, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                  TRIBUTE TO THE REVEREND COLMAN BARRY

  Mr. DURENBERGER. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to the 
life of Father Colman Barry, former president of St. John's University 
in Collegeville, MN, who passed from this life on January 7.
  Father Colman was President of St. John's University, my alma mater, 
from 1964 to 1971. At that time, St. John's Abbey and University was 
the largest Benedictine community in the world. Father Colman brought 
to that leadership responsibility a vision and creativity that he has 
enhanced the lives of everyone in Minnesota, and initiated greater 
understanding among people of all faiths.
  Father Colman Barry was a historian who illuminated the past so we 
could have a better vision of the future. His ministry was education, 
and he used the gifts he brought to his ministry to enlighten hearts 
and minds. He was an initiator, an inspirer of ideas, and a host who 
brought people together to understand and celebrate each other's 
diversity as well as our similarities.
  During his years as president of St. John's, the Center for 
Ecumenical and Cultural Research, a residential center for religious 
and social study, was founded. Today, that center brings together 
people of all faiths.
  Father Colman created the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, which 
holds a microfilm collection of the rich and treasured monastic 
manuscripts from around the world. The library grew out of his belief 
that St. John's could bring treasures of antiquity to enlighten the 
minds and lives of people far beyond our time.
  And Father Colman's vision and commitment to the arts and culture led 
him to cofound Minnesota Public Radio. MPR has created a sense of 
community statewide as it broadcasts news, information, public affairs, 
world events, classical music, and ``The Prairie Home Companion'' 
across its 23 stations.
  Father Colman had faith that ideas will live longer than the mortals 
who initiate them. It is part of the Benedictine tradition of nurturing 
ideas and projects.
  Mr. President, Father Colman was also my teacher, my mentor, and my 
friend. He guided me through American history and church history. He 
prepared me for a life in which today and tomorrow need not be 
addressed without the guidance of yesterday.
  Father Colman blessed my first marriage and was there for my wife's 
burial service--while students engaged in 1970 protests occupied his 
presidential office. He counseled me on my political opportunities and 
helped put adversity in perspective. Father Colman always lifted me up 
with his ``don't you think?'' or his ``imagine that''--particularly 
good for a politician.
  Just 4 days before his death, Father Colman's updated edition of 
``Worship and Work,'' the history of St. John's, came off the press. It 
was like a final gift from Father Colman, one that we can hold in our 
hands--and one that will remind us of the great positive influence St. 
John's has had in the lives of all of us who learned there.
  Mr. President, Father Colman was a remarkable leader. His life among 
us will be remembered because of the ideas he nurtured in us. I ask my 
colleagues to join me in paying tribute to this great man and to the 
example he set for so many.
  I ask unanimous consent that the homily preached at Father Colman's 
funeral by Abbot Timothy Kelly, O.S.B., be included in the Record at 
the conclusion of my remarks.
  There being no objection, the homily was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

       Homily for Father Colman Barry's Funeral, January 10, 1994

                    (By Abbot Timothy Kelly, O.S.B.)

       When we celebrate any liturgy we listen to the Word of God 
     who reveals what God has done in the past, that we might know 
     what God is doing in the present, and have genuine hope for 
     what is yet to come. Through the prophet Isaiah, God has 
     said: ``Do not fear, or be afraid; have I not told you from 
     of old and declared it? Is there any god besides me? There is 
     no other rock; I know not one.''\1\ The servant of God is the 
     one called by God in righteousness and God has taken him by 
     the hand and protected him. ``I have given you as a covenant 
     to the people,'' God says, ``a light to the nations, to open 
     the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the 
     dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness . . . See, 
     the former things have come to pass, and new things I now 
     declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.''\2\
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     \1\Footnotes at end of homily.
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       Those hear the word of God who act upon that word and shape 
     their lives and their ministries in accord with it. These are 
     the ones who will, at the coming of the Lord, hear the longed 
     for words: ``Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit 
     the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the 
     world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty 
     and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you 
     welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing . . .''\3\
       The Spirit of Jesus brings forth many ways of ministering 
     to the needs of people in this world, and all good gifts are 
     directed to the upbuilding of the Body of Christ, the Church, 
     that God may in all things be glorified. The ministry of 
     education for the enlightenment of minds and hearts is a 
     powerful example of a gift that brings light to the nations, 
     opens eyes that are blind, brings prisoners out of the 
     darkness of ignorance, feeds the hungry, gives drink to the 
     thirsty, welcomes the stranger, and clothes the naked. 
     Education is hospitality par excellence, for it not only 
     gives of the wisdom acquired but listens to the wisdom 
     present in the guest.
       The historian and the monk have much in common, and when 
     the two meet in one man a dimension of this discipline is 
     revealed that produces a wisdom much needed in the world 
     today. Father Colman Barry was a man of that wisdom, a man of 
     vision who could read the present because he knew the past so 
     well, and this gave him great insight into what will be or 
     could be. As teacher and as administrator he was the 
     listener, as every good monk should be. But he was also the 
     initiator, the one who inspired others, the man of gigantic 
     and myriad ideas, many of which found expression 
     institutionally in ways that will not soon be forgotten. One 
     admirer said: ``Father Colman has so many ideas that some of 
     them are bound to turn out well.''
       His great respect for history and tradition meant that he 
     could discern the living voice of God that wanted to continue 
     to be a living voice. He vigorously promoted the Hill 
     Monastic Manuscript Library, a project very dear to his 
     heart, and kept a lively interest in it right to the end. But 
     he did not believe that monasteries, universities or churches 
     should be museums for antiques, bur rather places where the 
     life-giving Spirit could bring forth the old and the new 
     bring life to people enslaved by ignorance, fear, and 
     insecurity. For Father Colman, to hang on to the past as 
     though God no longer lives would be to creat idols in the 
     present, not to re-present what was good from the past but to 
     control what is feared in the future. The living God cannot 
     be idolized because an idol can only be blind and deaf, 
     unable to walk or talk--and therefore wholly predictable. The 
     living God continues to hear and see and move and speak a 
     word that enlivens, that gives hope and promises what an idol 
     cannot. God speaks in the past a living word for us now: 
     ``return to me, for I have redeemed you.'' All of creation 
     has been redeemed and by directing itself to the creator 
     shows forth the glory of the living God.
       One of his proudest involvements was in the founding of 
     what would become known as Minnesota Public Radio. His 
     support of this project came because he could see how 
     important a role it would play in the ongoing education and 
     cultural development of the thousands who would benefit from 
     it over the years.
       As president of Saint John's University he was led by a 
     principle he articulated later in an interview:
       ``The philosophy at St. John's University and Abbey [he 
     said] was built on the Benedictine tradition of nurturing 
     ideas and projects, based on the faith that these ideas will 
     live longer than the mortals who initiate them. This allowed 
     us the freedom to take risks, to develop ideas and then let 
     go of them to see where they would go. Supporting arts and 
     culture was also an integral part of the Benedictine 
     philosophy.''\4\
       His work in the university found him to be a man of many 
     interests who could be concerned about the school of 
     theology, fund raising, the building of a library, and the 
     success of the football team. His sense of humor emerged in a 
     letter to Abbot Baldwin who was at Vatican Council II in Rome 
     at the time. In talking about a championship football game he 
     said:
       ``First half and [St. John's] 6-0 (almost a pattern this 
     year), and then in second half they scored and scored. Wave 
     on wave of student Ostrogoths and Visigoths, Huns and 
     Moabites, left here for the Parade Stadium in Mples. A 
     championship fever has struck.''
       His spirit of hospitality drew him into the field of 
     ecumenism, not as a theologian which he was not, but as the 
     historian who knew the importance of God's movement at this 
     time. He again wrote to Abbot Baldwin at the Council in 1965:
       ``The news from the Council about your vote on religious 
     liberty is wonderful? . . . Nothing will help more in the 
     years ahead in easing misunderstanding between Catholics, 
     Protestants and Jews.
       He supported dialogue between churches in very practical 
     ways: by his support of the Institute for Ecumenical and 
     Cultural Affairs, the various meetings held on-campus or 
     elsewhere to foster understanding between churches and 
     faiths, and his backing of the project of exchange professors 
     between St John's and Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He 
     expressed his thinking on the subject in an article published 
     in 1977:
       ``If the current movements of internal spiritual renewal 
     coalesce with the ecumenical movement for a shift away from 
     outdated division and creedal discord, a rich variety of 
     religious experience could open up in society during the 
     century ahead. Christianity, so often decried as outworn, 
     reveals in its history a series of pentecostal renewals which 
     have never been stereotyped in advance nor in their eventual 
     development. A community of communions could emerge as an 
     acceptable integration of moral force and spiritual 
     awareness, not as just an impractical dream.''\5\
       Evidence of the impact Father Colman has had in ecumenism 
     came to me yesterday in a letter from Jaroslav Pelican. He 
     said:
       ``As a President of Saint John's in a time when it was 
     coming into the modern Academy, he guided it with just the 
     right mixture of boldness and tradition. And as, above all 
     else, a living embodiment of the Benedictine ideal, he 
     exhibited to many who had never seen a monk before how rich 
     the vow of poverty can make someone, how passionately loving 
     a devotee of the vow of chastity can be toward all precisely 
     because no one person can claim that passion, and how free of 
     coercion the vow of obedience can make him.''\6\
       Father Colman's love and appreciation of history made him 
     the visionary he was. When asked his vision for the church in 
     the 1990s he wrote this:
       ``American society continues to open steadily to the 
     spiritual dimensions of life in our age of individualism, 
     mobility, new technology, mass communication and over-
     stressed sexuality. More hospitable places will develop in 
     American Catholic religious centers for people of no or all 
     faiths who want to seek, listen, read the Hebrew and 
     Christian Scriptures, be silent or converse about God.
       ``There will be a need to confess our blindness and 
     deafness before the unending wonder of God's creation, as 
     well as the folly of our prideful personal and institutional 
     infallabilities; and a request that we might see, hear and be 
     faithful stewards and witnesses in our place in the time 
     given to us.''
       There is with us today a sense of loss of someone very 
     precious to us, and at the same time an understanding of 
     ongoing life. We will miss the kinds of quips he might 
     address to Msgr. Yzermans when he said, ``we need his 
     prelature presence!'' But who cannot be reminded of Colman 
     with us when looking at the Alcuin Library? We'll remember 
     his puckish humor when after telling a story he'd add: 
     ``Isn't that awful?'' and then laugh. Or we might know 
     Colman's influence remains in the Hill Monastic Manuscript 
     Library, and still miss his frequent comment: ``Imagine.'' 
     His great appreciation for benefactors that is embodied in 
     the Ecumenical Institute will always remind of us of his 
     words: ``Isn't that good of him?'' And even as we tune in to 
     MPR, a living monument to his memory, we'll miss that mellow 
     voice that would state a truth to us and then inevitably add: 
     ``don't you think?''
       Yes, Father Colman, we'll miss you, but we'll also know 
     that so much of what we are today as a monastery and an 
     educational community will continue to carry who you are, 
     simply because in you took root so much of what we are. You 
     took seriously the words of St. Paul to the Romans when he 
     said:
       ``Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what 
     is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one 
     another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in 
     spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in 
     suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of 
     the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.''
       May God receive you now into eternal union where one day 
     we'll all enjoy the heavenly hospitality you worked so hard 
     here to anticipate.


                               Footnotes

     \1\Is. 44:8.
     \2\Is. 42:6-7, 9.
     \3\Matt. 25:34-36.
     \4\``Minnesota Monthly'' January 1992.
     \5\The Catholic Historical Review, Vol XLIII, No. 3, July 
     1977.
     \6\Letter to Abbot Timothy from Jaroslav Pelican, 8 January 
     1994.

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