Oblates of the West

The Living Stories

More Characters of the West

The stories of any community will honor those men who are larger than life, whose stories grow into legend. We hear more about the Founding Provincial, Father Charles Burns and a new Oblate name, a Spanish missionary, Father Anders De Anta.

Famous Spanish Oblates

There were two great characters in this Province both originally from Spain, Father Anders De Anta and Father Jess Alonso. They were both members of the mission band. Father De Anta would call me his grandson. He was known as the best Spanish speaker and preacher in the USA.

Confessions all night long

He began in Texas and became a powerful preacher, one of the most powerful in his time. They used to have mass in the morning for a parish mission and then in the evening, two conferences or sermons and devotions and that was always followed by confessions. I remember in one mission with Father De Anta that we began confessions after the evening sermon and we didn’t come out till it was time for the morning mass and there were still people waiting for the sacrament. The pastor would be supplying coffee to the Oblates in the confessional to keep them going.

Conductor of the choir

Father was real character, a polyglot who could speak five languages and sing opera and he had his own portable organ that he would use in church and teach people to sing in two and three part harmony. He’d turn to one part of the church and ask them in song,"Who can sing an A?" and then to the middle and do the same on a lower note,"Who can sing A?" and the other side, "Who can sing A?" And he’d have the whole church singing like some mass choir. Often he would compose and teach his own music.

"Bruno" would go everywhere with him

He would never trust the microphone and speaker system in any church. `He would always take his own system and he called it "Bruno." Whenever we would arrive at a new parish to start a mission, he would leave his bags at the door and go immediately to the church to test out the acoustics and set up his system to its optimum affect.

Whose Preaching here?

We once went to a parish that was in the desert, about two hours drive and we met this Monsignor whose parish it was. Now this Monsignor believed that the Holy Spirit wouldn’t come down on his people unless he as pastor preached at every mass. So he told Father De Anta that for the start, he would preach the sermon at all the masses and then, at the end of mass, he would invite the Oblate to step up and advertise the mission and invite people to come. Father De Anta said,"Come again?" When the Monsignor made himself clear, Father turned to me and said,"Father take my luggage to the car. We are leaving this very minute." The Monsignor was flabbergasted. Father De Anta told him,"If I came here to preach a mission, then let me preach it. But if you want to preach, then you preach the mission yourself." Needless to say, the Monsignor gave in and the mission went off as normal.

Preaching to the whole neighborhood

He liked to put up a speaker in the church tower so that the neighborhood could also hear what he was preaching. It wasn’t exactly legal but he got away with it. In the barrios, you will usually find that close to the Catholic church, there are two or three small Protestant churches. Father was famous for the way he would challenge these Protestant people and their pastors to come to the mission. He was famous for these sessions where he would invite the Protestant pastor to dialogue with him in front of the people.

A Yes or a No

He would ask them,"Now promise me that you will answer my questions honestly with either a Yes or a No." He had a routine and it would go on,"Suppose that you are in your house and someone knocks on the door and you open it to find a 50 year old man. He says to you,'Good Afternoon sir. Let me present myself to you. I am the son of George Washington, the first President.'

"Now, can he be the son of George Washington?No. And why not? Because a 50 year old isn’t old enough to be George Washington’s son. Isn’t that right?"

Having got the pastors consent to the first question, he would move in for the kill."Now you go with the Bible in hand and you knock on a door and someone opens it and asks you,'Who are you?' and you reply,'Let me introduce myself. I am the true Church of Jesus Christ.’ And the man asks you,"Tell me how old your church is?' And depending on your denomination, you might say 50 years or 100 or if you are from the reform tradition, you might say 200 or even 500.." When he realizes that  Christ and his church began 2000 years ago, he asks you,"How can you be the true church of Christ if you are not 2000 years old?'

They wouldn’t know what to do in reply and the crowd would love it. He was famous for the way he openly challenged and debated with the Protestant ministers.

Suffer the Little Children

One day he was preaching to a church full of school children and one little boy was making a nuisance of himself. So Father came down the aisle to this little child and grabbed him by his ears and hauled him to his feet and said to him, "I am going to take you by your ears and lift you right to the very top of the bell tower and then I am going to drop you and you will hit the floor with a very definite Plop. Would you like me to do that for you?" Needless to say, that threat usually cured the problem.

Chas Burns-Time is Precious

Father Charlie Burns was what you would call a character in a cast of characters- we had 6 men here from Spain and 12 from Ireland, and he stood out.

He would always wear this white hat and suit. I remember when we were on retreat, he asked some of us "Who wants to see the sequoia?" which are the huge redwood trees. He used to wear his watch on the inside of his wrist and be always looking at it. We drove for one and a half hours until we got to the top of this hill. He said to us pointing into the distance,"See those sequoia" And we could barely make out the tops of some tall trees way off in the distance. "You see one, you’ve seen them all." And he turned the car round and proceeded to drive back an hour and a half. We had used up all the time that he had allowed for the trip.

A Golfing man

He asked me once,"What do you do for recreation?" And I said,"I go bowling or I go to a movie." He murmured,"No,no,no." and left. He came back later and asked me if I had ever played golf. I told him I had never played in my life. So he said that he would teach me and we went our to the course and he gave me a set of clubs.

A Funny Set of Clubs

It wasn’t until after a few holes that I noticed something funny. I would address the ball with my club face pointing one way, and he would have his club facing the other way. I don’t remember what he told me but he had given me left handed clubs. At the time, I thought that was no big deal. I played with them and got used to them even though I am a right hander. I played left handed for three years before another friend asked me if I was a leftie or a rightie and suggested I try the right handed clubs which I did and changed to them immediately. I am a fanatical golfer now.

Golfing in the Rain

I was in Wilmington at the time doing mission preaching and he came to me and said that he wanted to play golf. I looked out the window and it was pouring with rain. He was not to be deterred. He said 'Lets go to Anaheim,' but it was raining- lets try Riverside-it was raining-Lets try Palm Springs- which was a three hour drive. When we got there, it was cloudy and threatening but we began our game anyway. It wasn’t long before the heavens opened and we got drenched. As we walked off the course, he said,"Dios myu Grande," which means God is great.

Alzheimer's claimed his memory

In his later years, he got very sick with Alzheimer disease. One day, we were on the Oblate retreat and after a talk, I found him wandering the corridors looking for his room. When I offered to help him, he said to me,"Remember how we used to drive 100 miles just to find a gold course to play on. And now I can’t even find my own room." I said,"I’ll take you to your room." And he said "Dios myu Grande." He later lost an eye and contracted shingles and he was in agony, but whenever you’d ask him how he was, he would always say,"Dios myu Grande." When he was having a beautiful time and when he was having a terrible time, that’s what he would say.

Captain Smith omi

We had a Father Smith who was in the navy and we called him the Captain. We would go to navy places and he had the captains rank on his car so that when we would drive through the gates, the naval guards would be all salutes. He would take me for a drive and go to a base and tell me that he did it to make me feel important. "You like people saluting you," he'd say to me.

Saying Compline in a Police Car

One day, he was out at a reception and he had dinner and some drinks and as he was driving home, the police stopped him and of course recognized him. He was in no fit state to be driving. The policeman very kindly asked Father to step out of his car and get in the police car and the officer said he would drive Father’s car home and the police car would follow them. As Father sat in the back of the police car, he leant over to the policeman driving and asked him,"Officer, would you mind putting on the light so I can complete saying  Compline. I have to finish my office."

Recognized at the Casino

There were two great buddies in the Oblates here, Father Ray Knapp and Bill O’Brien and one was chaplain to the Veterans hospital and the other a pastor and they would always go together for vacations, and always wear sloppy casual looking clothes. They loved to play the slot machines and one day in the casino, this sexy girl comes over to them to offer them drinks. Ray was at one machine and Bill was close by. The girl came up to Ray and said, "Father, do you want another drink?" "You know me," he blurted out in horror. She said," Father, by the way you are dressed, you just have to be a priest." Ray hurried over to Bill and shouted,"Let’s go. They know us here."

"A Bird in time saves..."

I was sitting at my desk here around 8am and they were doing the building next door, putting on the new roof and making repairs. I could hear the knocking and the hammering. I opened the window about two inches because it was a bit stuffy and as soon as I had turned my back, this bird flew right through the gap and into the room. I got up to catch it and it flew to the opposite corner, and as I went to grab it. It fluttered in this corner which was near the door and away from the window and desk. As I leant down to grab the bird, all hell broke loose and three steel girders about 21 feet long suddenly came through the wall and crushed the desk and the computer and everything around it, and missed me by a matter of inches. If I had been at the desk still working, I would have been killed instantly.

It was written up in the local newspaper here under the title of God takes care of the Bird and the Father. Three beams that the workers had been working on got loose and they fell through the roofing. They were being lifted by a crane and something had broken away. We never found out whose fault it was but the workers rushed in to see if I was still alive and their company made sure I got a new office with a brand new computer and desk. I caught the bird, and we set it free grateful that it had saved my life.

Father Kelly omi and the housekeeper at the door

Father Kelly used to be pastor of this parish and there are many stories about him. One is told about when he first arrived and he knocked at the door and after some time, the housekeeper who had been there for years, came to the door and looked down her nose at this stranger and asked,"And who may I ask are you?" He replied "I am the new pastor and you are fired."

Broken windows

He went to see the Cardinal about having the church fixed up. It was a gym turned into a church and the windows were in a sad state of repair. He asked the Cardinal for some money to fix the windows. The Cardinal was trying to be sympathetic and asked him,"So I guess the kids hurl rocks from the street and break the glass.?" Father Kelly replied,"No Cardinal, in Pacoima, the windows get broken from the inside."

A Lifetime to tell

We met a parishioner coming into the church. When I was introduced as an Oblate who was collecting stories, Father remarked,"Now here’s a man who has been so long in the Oblate parish that he would have the stories for you." The man said,"I’d need another lifetime to tell them all and I still wouldn’t get finished."

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[ Day One ] [ Day Two ] [ Day Three ] [ Day Four ] [ Day Five ] [ Day Six ] [ Day Seven ] [ Day Eight ] [ Day Nine ] [ Day Ten ] [ Summing Up ]

If you recall other stories associated with great characters, legends of the province, you can share them by going to the Living Stories Discussion Page and post in your additions or comments under Oblates of the West.