Rev. Michael Beck: a silver jubilee

Title

Language

English

Year

1965

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

Rev. Father Beck during his jubilee thanksgiving Mass at the Santo Rosario Parish Church. REV. MICHAEL BECK: zl Silver Jubilee ON SUNDAY, August 15, Rev. Michael Beck, S.V.D., said a special mass at the Sto. Rosario Church at four-thirty in the afternoon. The occasion was his Sacer dotal Silver Jubilee and the many friends who came shared with him this joyful celebration. At 7:00 in the evening, the S.V.D. com munity tendered a banquet in his honor on the roof garden of the Fathers’ re sidence. Father Beck, a b:g man with stern looks, was unusually happy as he greeted one invited guest after another. A native of Bavaria, Father Beck speaks English with a heavy, accented drawl. He is the fifth child in a family of nine. Two of his six sisters have joined the sisterhood, the rest are married. One brother is a judge, the other manages the parental farm. Father Beck was born on October 10, 1910. Like any other child, he attended 7 years of elementary school and, for the next 3 years, once a week, a kind of vocational school, both of which were compulsory. During vocational school days, and afterward for some time, he worked on the parental farm. During the winter months of 1928-29, he attended one of the famous agricul tural training centers run by the Bene dictines, the sons of St. Benedict. He lived with the monks, watched them pray, contemplate and work; he felt, somehow, that he was one of them — an experience that was a rallying point in the choice of his lifework. But always life is not an easy matter of choice followed by instantaneous rosiness. For choice en tails sacrifice and hardship, patience and a responsible will. In late spring of 1929 he announced to his unexpecting family his decision to become a priest. This meant that Father Beck, as a candidate for the priesthood, had to undergo 9 years of high school and college work in the Gymnasium before he could study for priesthood proper, Philosophy and Theology. It was exhilarating, therefore, “Vere dignum el iustum est... nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere .. for him to persevere through a compress ed program of 4 years’ private instruc tion and one more year at the Gymnasium to finish the 9-year course. He passed the government exams in March, 1934, and upon graduation, entered in the same year the Society of the Divine Word at St. Augustine, Rhineland. In 1935, he was sent to Marienburg, Switzerland, to continue his novitiate and to take up the study of philosophy. He finished his novitiate there in 1936 and completed his study of philosophy in St. Gabriel, Vienna, in June of 1937. Later in the year, he was sent to the United States to take up theological studies at Techny, Illinois (near Chicago), the S.V.D. headquarters then in that country. He was ordained on August 15, 1940, by His Eminence, the late Samuel Cardinal Who cracked the joke so as to cause such mirth? — From left to right: Father Rector John Vogelgesang, Msgr. Esteban Montecillo (Vicar General), Father Michael Beck (the jubilarian), Msgr. Manuel Salvador (Vicar General), Father Rudolf Rahmann, USC President. At the back Father Hoeppener (Head of the Chemistry Department). Stritch, archbishop of Chicago. As soon as he finished his theological stud.es in 1941 he was appointed for missionary work in the Philippines but, on account of the war, was prevented from leaving the country. Meanwhile, he was station ed at St. Elizabeth, a colored parish, where he served 6 years. His reappoint ment came in 1947. After a memorable voyage across the Pacific, wondering what the Philippines was like, he arrived in January, 1948. He soon found out that the Filipino people were undergoing a painful process of post-war reconstruc tion. In Manila Father Beck studied Taga log for about 3 months under the late Father Henry Demond. Then he had a 6-rronth stint in Mindoro before he was assigned to the University of San Carlos in November of the same year. Except for 1-year home leaves in 1953 and 1963, he has never left USC. Father Beck was formerly Curator of the USC Audio-Visual Center. As Di rector of Athletics, he coordinates intra mural sports. He handles religion classes and for many years now has been help ing out in the Sto. Rosario Parish. Aug.-Sept., 1965 THE CAROLINIAN Page Nineteen

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