Father Hank Lemoncelli OMI
Superior of Washington DC Oblate Community

Summary of Main Presentation

Being up here as part of this illustrious group makes me feel like a pork chop at a Jewish banquet. To share the early influences on my life, I would have to say my family first of all. They took their role very seriously in bringing up us kids. I have two sisters, one younger and one older, and one is adventurous and the other is more reserved and I fall somewhere in between. I was born in a little town in Pennsylvania, but at three years old, we moved to Buffalo, New York, and to the parish of Holy Angels.

I was raised in that Oblate parish and they, along with the Grey nuns, played a big part in my life. I saw the mission band in Buffalo and grew up knowing so many of the Oblates.

The second influence on me was my eccentric grandmother. She wasn't one to bake cookies and stay at home. She was a world traveler and she fostered my interest in foreign languages.

We have all shared what you call "formation of origin stories" and I have them too. I studied in Rome, lived at the international scholasticate and got to appreciate the Oblates and who they are.

In my years of ministry, my assignment to Florida "where God lives," and my involvement in education and the parish and teaching and my work with the Hispanic communities- these have all been a great influence on me.

I have always loved to teach. I think back to my grandmother who taught me poems, and me as a six year old, teaching a French poem to my class at school.

I was selected to be a I-Squared R-Squared facilitator for our province, which was a program to help people get focused, to listen and share and to hear what the issues are at the grass roots level. 3

Most of my ministry has been involved in schools. Since I was 5 years old, I have been somehow always going back to school in some way, except for this year. I was Dean of Oblate College, and head of Formation in more recent years. I have been on the Provincial Council for 9 years, and part of the Administrative Team for 6 years, and am Superior of 391, Washington DC's Oblate community.

My experience of the amalgamation has been very positive. Back in 1970, I was part of the national novitiate that was shared with all the provinces, and with OCUS, I have attended the last 3 meetings. I have experienced the process as getting more co-operative and collaborative. At the beginning, it felt like each was guarding their own turf, but that has lessened tremendously. I once told a fellow Oblate who was in high places that I enjoyed meetings. It was a crazy thing to say, I know, but I liked to watch the different dynamics that go on at meetings. Since then, I have been on 6 regional Committees in 8 years, so I have had my share of meetings. 1

What I see as the role of the new Provincial is that he is head of the Administrative Team, and that he is a team player. He has to work out what is the realizable mission for the province at this time. He needs to find out what talents we have and what talents we need to get. He should move around, to get out there, and be familiar with the local Oblate scene. He will identify the most viable apostolic commitments and give our personnel the resources they need. Like the process we used at the leadership discernment meetings with the colored dots, there are only so many dots to go around. So the question as I see it for him is where should we be at this time? Where can we form apostolic communities at this time?9

It requires those in ministry to be able to respond to present and future needs. To do that, we need to have new tools to be able to respond to new needs. The provincial should help the men get the tools they need. He also needs to accept the personal and team limitations of the leadership. He can expect some rough spots up ahead, but he will still go with it.
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Finally, I have two hopes for the new leadership, and that is that the hopes of the restructuring be realized and the fears of those who don't like it never be realized.

Additional excerpts from Hank Lemoncelli's answers to one small group’s questions:

"Not being a provincial is a disadvantage in that I have not been on OCUS but it is an advantage in that I don't bring any baggage to this job...."

"By retooling, I meant that we need to become computer literate, or those who can, and be media literate, and that we learn what techniques we can use to reach youth, and how we can more effectively preach to lay people. We used to have a book club in our province where everyone was sent a book that was chosen as helping keep the men up to date. How do we evaluate our work? We are probably the only professional group where we do not have as a requirement that we keep up to date in order to keep our license..." 10

"How can we renew religious life? What helps me to answer that question is my folks and their 25th wedding anniversary. All the family gave my parents silver, and that looks good for a while and then gets tarnished and my Mom takes it out from time to time and takes off the tarnish and brings it back to its first shine. I think we can do that with our Oblate life, take it out and clean off the tarnish. It is important to think why we joined the Oblates in the first place, but what is even more important is to not just ask, why we came, but why we stay? That is the crucial question..." 6

"I have read a book by Don Aslett  called Clutter's Last Stand which is not a religious book at all, but which basically says that we all have too much stuff. Its a book that makes me go and throw something out of my room, every time I read it. It moves me to action. That's what I feel we need, to motivate action, and call people to accountability, that for too long, people have been doing their own thing, that there are no lone rangers in the Oblates..." 9

"I see my leadership style as being more directive than non-directive..."

 Responses to Concerns from afternoon groups:

"My own love for the Hispanic people means that I appreciate the personal touch and want to address the question whether the new structures will mean we lose it from our leadership style. I hope not. I don’t think we have to sacrifice that, with the use of easy communications and our mobility. Once the new team is named in May, they should be able to hit the ground running and be present to the men especially in times of crisis and at their gatherings and congresses and celebrations, jubilees etc. But it is going to take a great deal of time and effort...." 9

"As for the decision making process, I think it starts with information gathering, talking to the people who know and how they see the needs of the mission from where they are. I don’t think we can impose priorities on others. There is an important role of the regional superior also to know what is going on..."

Final Words:

"I would like to say finally that this whole leadership selection process was not meant to be a campaign for votes but more as a discernment. My hope is that we keep it as a discerning moment. Also, I would appeal to us all that we help those whom these changes are hurting, and the ones who for whatever reasons, did not attend." 10 -- Father Hank Lemoncelli OMI

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