August 12, 2011
St. John the Apostle, looking back and looking ahead
Joseph Dulin is greeted by Ron Glass. Click for a larger version.
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
“We were a village,” said Claudette Middlebrook Young of Indianapolis, reflecting on her formative years at St. John the Apostle Church in Evansville.
The parish continues to evangelize and enhance the quality of life of others, according to a featured speaker, Joseph Dulin.
The comments from participants and speakers were made at the seventieth anniversary celebration of St. John the Apostle Church, held at the Clarion Inn in Evansville, Aug. 7.
Claudette Young was among the 200 students, parishioners and friends who attended the celebration.
She said her own mother was a Baptist, and later a Methodist, but she wanted young Claudette to go to St. John and became a Catholic “because of the good stories she heard from her friends.
“It was a village,” affirmed John “Billy” Young. He recalled that in the early 1950s — 1952 or 1953 — “we had one of the largest Baptism classes [at St. John]. We had a full choir, an organist, the school was flourishing.”
Special guests were Ron Glass, the actor, and Dulin, an educator who achieved national prominence for his successes in inner city Detroit and Ann Arbor, both former parishioners of St. John.
Among the memories shared, by Dulin and by others who had come to celebrate, was the impact of an early parish pastor, Father Herman Mootz.
“My mom was a single mother,” Claudette Young said. [Father Mootz] was our papa. He included us in his life.”
She said Father Mootz would often pile a bunch of kids into his car and take them to Indianapolis, for a summer program at St. Rita Church. On the way back, he would take them to Santa Claus or to Lincoln City, to broaden their experience and education.
She also praised the religious sisters who served the parish.
John Young recalled the kind of society that once existed — where the parents knew all of the kids — and what they were doing at all times.
Ron Glass laughs with an acquaintance from school days. Glass and Dulin grew up at St. John Church in Evansville. Click for a larger version.
At St. John Church, he said, there “was no distinction between families who lived in the projects and those in single family homes” and “Father Mootz was so instrumental in helping all of us, many with limited incomes, to get a decent education.”
Anne Marie Marx came from Vincennes to the celebration — and quickly met with Glass to get his autograph on her anniversary program.
“I saw him at the University of Evansville in a Shakespearean play,” she recalled. “And I also watched a lot of Barney Miller.”
Marx — at that time from Elberfeld — had gone to Mater Dei High School in Evansville; her sister was in class with Irving Glass, Ron’s brother. Joe Dulin’s sister Barbara was in her class.
“I was an eyewitness to that part of history,” Marx recalled, remembering the segregation of those years. “We at Mater Dei knew that it was wrong.”
Glass and Dulin both spoke to the assembled classmates, parishioners and friends.
Dulin became known to a larger audience, in part be-cause of the documentary film, “Bridging the Gap.”
According to a web site for the documentary, Detroit’s “St. Martin DePorres Catholic High School was on the verge of bankruptcy after the Riots in 1967, as Dulin took on the unenviable task of transforming the faltering school into an educational success story by using his unique blend of cha-risma, discipline and unconditional love for his students.”
The school “amazingly achieved a 78 percent college enrollment in a city where the dropout rate is at 79 percent (in 2006).”
Blessed Sacrament Sister Jane Nesmith, pastoral life coordinator of St. John Church since 1996, introduced former parish pastors, Father Bob Nemergut and Clark Field. Bishop Charles C. Thompson, who was seated with Glass, Dulin and the former pastors, gave the invocation.
Following dinner, Glass and Dulin spoke to the group.
“Ron Glass was quite casual in his approach, talking about how it’s always good to be home and sharing his early hopes and dreams as a child,” said Sister Jane.
“As he walked around the center of the room, mike in hand, it was very clear that he set an atmosphere of warmth and friendship. He apparently enjoyed sharing his delight that one of his dreams, to be an actor, came true as he launched into his various TV and movie roles.
“He was humbly honored for this opportunity to come home and to just be with childhood friends. He enjoyed sharing stories of some of his movie acquaintances and their impact on his life.”
Sister Jane also related her impression of Dulin, who “too, presented a very casual but, as an educator, more didactic approach as he shared how grateful he was for his sacramental life at St. Johns which was, during his day, a place where the Blacks could be in full acceptance as Catholics and as Christians.
“It was there that he felt his own growth, culturally, socially and spiritually. He was hap-py to see that St. John continues to be a hub of outreach from the heart of the community, at-one with the people.
“His presentation was not just about the past but about future as he thanked all those who gathered in support of this great parish and encouraged them to help the parish move into the next 70 years to continue to evangelize and enhance the quality of life of others.”