October 30, 2009
Bruté Society acknowledges founder, celebrates Indiana saints
Tom and Shari Bacurin, from Good Shepherd Church in Evansville and first in line alphabetically, lead inductees into St. Benedict Cathedral. Click for a larger version.
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
The founder of the Bruté Society was among the new members of the society, inducted Oct. 25 at St. Benedict Cathedral in Evansville. And a hymn song by the choir was particularly appropriate to the faithful witness of Catholics in Indiana.
Justin and Shirley Clements were among the 138 inductees. Justin Clements, now retired from his position as diocesan director of stewardship and development, founded the Bruté Society in 1990, with the blessing of the then “new” bishop, Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger.
Bishop Gettelinger presides at the annual ceremonies.
The pewter medallion received by Bruté Society members was also the work of Justin Clements, who commissioned its production by Ade Bethune, a religious artifacts designer for the Terra Sancta Guild in Pennsylvania. The medal de-picts the three stewardship “T’s” of Treasure, Time and Talent in a triangle.
The first hymn was entitled “Come and See the Many Wonders,” using text written by Benedictine Father Harry Hagan, an associate professor at St. Meinrad Archabbey. The text has references to “Bishop Bruté’s witness” and “St. Theodora’s courage.”
“Those two people in some ways covered so many people who had contributed to the life of the Church here in Indiana,” Father Hagan said, in a telephone interview Oct. 27.
Matt Miller, diocesan director of worship and coordinator of the ceremony this year, contacted Father Hagan to make arrangements for using the hymn.
“Come and See the Many Wonders” was written in 2008 for the 175th anniversary celebration of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, and was intended to celebrate the many men and women who left us “wondrous gifts . . . in each church and school and place where the Church in Indiana comes to meet Christ face to face.”
The lines of the text “certainly fit all of Indiana,” Father Hagan said, “but with Vincennes in your diocese, they fit particularly well there.”
Bishop Simon Bruté was the first bishop of Vincennes, which included all of Indiana and the eastern third of Illinois.
St. Mother Theodore Guerin founded the Sisters of Providence at St. Mary-of-the-Woods and established Catholic schools throughout southern Indiana.