Remembering Fr. Bill McKee, C.Ss.R.

By Fr. Gary Lauenstein, C.Ss.R.

When they were novices, Bill McKee and Bill Morgan took their novice master, Fr. John Zeller, C.Ss.R. to some convent to give a talk. "When will you be back?" they asked him. He said it would not be until late afternoon. The two novices made use of the opportunity to go to a relative’s home, "borrow" some money and then went off to a movie – all totally illegal.

When they got back to De Soto, they discovered that the novice master was already home, waiting for them. They had to explain their activity. "Come back to my office in three days," the novice master said, "and I will give you your penance." When Bill McKee went back to Fr. John three days later, John said, "As a penance, Billy, you may not go to your sister’s profession ceremony."

This was a cruel blow, since he had been counting on attending this special family occasion. But Bill McKee at the time reasoned that it was better than getting kicked out of the novitiate. A few weeks later, Fr. John caught Bill McKee out in the corridor.

"Billy, remind me of the penance I gave you."

"You said I could not go to my sister’s profession," the novice honestly answered.

Fr. John responded, "You can go" and walked away.

He was always appreciative that I had called him when his brother Ray was dying so that Bill and his sister could be at Ray's bedside at the hospital. Whenever he saw me, he brought that up.

He was always appreciative of the fact that we had invited him to Holy Redeemer in Detroit to show us how to administer his program for alienated Catholics. He preached at all the Masses there one weekend.

We repeated the program a la Bill McKee (in his style) for many years thereafter, with great success.