|
Born in Castroville, Msgr. Rihn grew up on his grandfather Rihn’s farm five miles south of the town. Here he watched the Southern Pacific railroad trains go by and dreamed of driving one someday. Later, after he began attending St. Louis School in Castroville (initially riding to town in a horse-drawn gig driven by his older brother), his vocation goals took a different turn.
While his parents had never directly suggested to him the idea of becoming a priest, the young Roy Rihn observed their devoutness as Catholics, recalling that the family never failed to drive into town for Mass on Sunday, no matter what the weather. He also observed their reverent attitude toward the German-born pastor, Father Jacob Lenzen. “They seemed to have great respect for this man,” said Msgr. Rihn, noting how he admired Father Lenzen’s preaching and his work with the parishioners.
Thoughts of a career as a train engineer were forgotten and, instead, the future monsignor entered St. John’s Seminary in San Antonio in 1931, where he completed his high school and college courses. In 1938 he left for Rome to study at the Gregorian University and remembers the funeral of Pope Pius XI taking place during his time there and seeing the white smoke go up when Pope Pius XII was elected. “It was one of those things you never forget,” he recalls.
The winds of World War II were stirring in Europe, however, putting an end to his time in Rome. “It was obvious that Italy was going into the war on the side of the Nazis,” said Msgr. Rihn. The American bishops decided to call their students home, early exams were given and the North American College, where the seminarians lived, was closed. He completed his final two years of studies at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.
Ordained on June 4, 1942, in San Fernando Cathedral, the young priest’s first assignment was as parochial vicar for six years at St. Cecilia Parish. Here, he worked primarily with the young people — Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, the Youth Club and the Sodality.
One of the more memorable events he recalls from his St. Cecilia days was the terrible hurricane that hit San Antonio one Sunday morning, shortly after the 6 a.m. Mass. He had planned to leave, following the Mass, for his father’s birthday in Castroville. Instead, with 100 miles per hour sustained winds and torrential rains, he helped the pastor, Father Gus Staff, as the church was turned into a shelter for stranded victims of the violent storm. He can remember the church’s piano floating in the flood waters that swirled in their basement hall.
From 1948 to 1950, he served as notary of the archdiocesan tribunal, then at the old chancery office at 230 Dwyer. His next two years were spent as director of Catholic Action for the archdiocese, followed by five years as the archdiocese’s first fulltime vocation director. During this time he visited every school in the archdiocese and was constantly on the road, preaching on vocations in a different parish every Sunday.
He was still serving as vocation director when he was assigned as the first pastor at the new St. Pius X Parish in 1957, where he jointly celebrated his silver jubilee and his despedida 10 years later in 1967. At that time the Vincentian priests ended their administration of Assumption Seminary and Msgr. Rihn was appointed its rector, a tenure of slightly over a year that he describes as, “distinguished by nothing so much as its brevity.”
This position ended abruptly in the fall of 1968, during a time of great internal upheaval in the archdiocese. Then Archbishop Robert E. Lucey, whom Msgr. Rihn still describes today as “almost a second father to me, a great man,” was in his late 70s and Msgr. Rihn was elected president of the newly formed Priests Association of the Archdiocese of San Antonio (PAASA). Seeking to improve communications between the priests and the archbishop, it instead became a catalyst for estrangement.
It was a painful time for all involved, with an exodus of a number of priests from the priesthood. In the unfortunate turmoil that ensued, Msgr. Rihn, along with three fellow administrators at the seminary, found themselves without a post. Eventually, he served briefly as assistant at the Catholic Student Center at the University of Oklahoma, returning to San Antonio in 1970 at the invitation of newly installed Archbishop Francis J. Furey.
He was appointed pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Bloomington, then a part of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, followed by 10 years as pastor of St. Mary Parish in Victoria. When the new Diocese of Victoria was formed, he received permission to return to San Antonio, where he served for a while as parochial vicar at St. Paul Parish, before being named to head the Office of the Continuing Education of the Clergy (later called the Office for Priests) at the chancery from 1989 to 1991.
After that, he was appointed by Archbishop Patrick F. Flores as the first vicar for priests in the archdiocese. “I tried to visit every priest in the diocese at least once a year,” he said, noting he served in this capacity as “pastor to the pastors.”
In 1995 he retired to Casa de Padres. It could hardly be called a retirement, though, as he continued to minister in the archdiocese, doing volunteer work for a year at the county jail and for several years with the San Antonio AIDS Foundation. Originally celebrating Mass every Sunday for the retired Sisters of Divine Providence at their convent center chapel, he has had to reduce these visits to town to twice a month in recent times.
He has also filled in regularly for the past 12 years as the “substitute pastor,” whenever needed, at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church adjacent to Casa de Padres, but “retired” from that job this past June 1. Approaching his 89th birthday, he holds the distinction of being a diocesan priest longer than any in the archdiocese.
A golf enthusiastic in his younger years, Msgr. Rihn’s hobby these days is his computer. “How did we get along without it?” he muses.
Certainly, he has always been a man of words, having authored and contributed to several books during his lifetime. His book, The Priestly Amen, a collection of his lectures at the many retreats he gave over the years for diocesan priests throughout the United States and Canada, was published at the insistence of noted author Father Andrew Greeley. He also was a contributor to The Parish in a Time of Change, taken from a symposium he participated in.
His light-hearted little collection of stories contributed by priests in the archdiocese, Our Stories, published in 1999, related memorable incidents — primarily humorous — which occurred during their years in the archdiocese or had been handed down from or about their predecessors, revealing the wonderful humanity of their subjects.
“There are some great stories,” says Msgr. Rihn of the book, “and if you don’t put them in print, they forget them.” The same may be said of Msgr. Roy Rihn’s life — a great story, but definitely not forgotten. |