Mount St. Bernard Seminary, Dubuque, Class of 1956 includes then-Father William Franklin, top row, third from right; and Father Lou Leonhardt, second row, far right.
Fr. Lou Leonhardt
Guest Column
The fall of 1951 started as no other in our lives. In September, I met 24 people who would forever change my life. It was the beginning of the school year at Mt. St. Bernard Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. The four bishops of Iowa had agreed on a provincial seminary. Twenty-two young men from Iowa, plus one from Omaha, another from Fargo, North Dakota, and a third from Mobile, Alabama, met for the first time. After four years of seminary study, they would be ordained priests. They were housed in the old building their first year while a new dormitory was being built.
At the edge of the seminary property the Dominicans had a house of study for theology students. Some of us were fortunate to be able to study with them. Yes, Bill Franklin, and I, were among the “chosen ones.”
It meant the study of St. Thomas Aquinas in the original Latin. That would mean both dogmatic theology and moral theology would be taken right from the master himself — taught in Latin. Not only the lectures and the written tests, but the final exam, an oral exam, was done in Latin. I know the future bishop made it and, against probability, so did I.
It was Feb. 4, 1956, that the future bishop was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Dubuque at St. Raphael Cathedral in Dubuque. Nine of our classmates were also ordained to the priesthood. I was with our other classmates in the choir loft. The rest of us were ordained in May or June. Davenport Diocese ordinations were set for June 2 by Bishop Ralph Hayes. That was a great day for me and my brothers: Father (later Msgr.) Marv Mottet and Father Bill Stratman. (But this is a reflection on the future Bishop of Davenport, so…)
It was a pleasure to meet Auxiliary Bishop Franklin at seminary reunions. We can be grateful that some folks would arrange them. Thus the years passed until he had a new assignment to be bishop of the Davenport Diocese in 1994.
We rejoiced to gather in Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport while he was installed as our bishop. At that time in 1994 I was pastor at St. Bernadette Parish in West Branch. Yes, that West Branch —home of the only president of the USA born in Iowa.
Bill never accepted my offer to get away from diocesan work by hiding in my parish. But he became a more or less presence at the annual class gatherings when I hosted them at St. Joseph Parish in Hills. We kept those up when I moved to Lone Tree at the time of my retirement at age 80. Unfortunately, COVID put an end to in person gatherings.
In his retirement, I was happy to be his chauffer for reunions at Loras College. We would drive to Dubuque for the Mass and dinner. One trip, we stayed as guests with the archbishop in his house.
Visiting these last few years at the Kahl Home was altogether different. Toward the end of his life, it was just sitting there with him while he lived in his own world. It will be different when I join him and the other 23 classmates in the joy of eternal life. Ad multos annos.
(Father Lou Leonhardt is a retired priest for the Davenport Diocese living in Lone Tree. At 96, he is the oldest living priest in the diocese. Bishop Emeritus William Franklin, 95, died on April 10.)
