Msgr. Gilbert Rutz, V.G.

Msgr. Gilbert Rutz is celebrating the 40th anniversary of his ordination as a priest of the diocese this year.

It takes three pages to list his assignments during his decades of ministry, a paper record of the breadth of his contributions to the diocese and the Church.

Yet another sign of his long service and the years it incorporates is how the Church in America has evolved. Msgr. Rutz has been both observer of and participant in that evolution.

Msgr. Rutz was born and raised in Bellevue and attended Sacred Heart School and later Newport (now Central) Catholic High School. He grew up on a street where almost everyone was German Catholic. There were six priests stationed at his parish, Sacred Heart Church; 24 nuns taught in the grade school; the combined enrollment of the St. Anthony and Sacred Heart schools was 1000; the pastor, Msgr. Carl Merkle, was the only pastor Msgr. Rutz knew as a child and teenager. The environment of home, neighborhood, parish and school was thoroughly Catholic. Msgr. Rutz said he wanted to be a priest from the first time he remembers attending Mass at Sacred Heart.

Shift to 1990. To avoid mid-western winters and wanting to be close to his father and sister, Mary, who were living in Arizona, Msgr. Rutz takes a position in the Diocese of Phoenix at the Kino Institute of Religious Studies, offering adult education programs to a vast diocese. Many Arizonans are Catholic, but the institutional Church is still being formed. (The Diocese of Phoenix was created in 1974.) There was no Catholic college in Arizona or Nevada; the population, in the post- World War II decades, has boomed so fast that Catholic churches and elementary schools must be housed in trailers until the parish accumulates building funds. Msgr. Rutz's main duty during his nine years in Arizona (1990-99) is to travel the state teaching adult Catholics to be ministers and catechists or master's degree graduates. His experience seems a world away from the Catholic Church's deep history and roots in the Diocese of Covington and in Bellevue.

Now, in 2006, Msgr. Rutz is vicar general for the diocese, among other assignments. Part of his ministry is in yet another world, that of a secular college campus. Msgr. Rutz is the Newman Center chaplain on Northern Kentucky University's campus, the first Catholic priest assigned there in 12 years. He is assisted by Father Eamon Kelly, L.C. There have been challenges, Msgr. Rutz said, but "we've been able to do some things."

Perhaps 40 percent of NKU's students are Catholic. However, as Msgr. Rutz has observed, their ties to campus life — and thus to Catholic-sponsored activities and worship — are tenuous.

Few of the 14,000 students live on campus. Most students have jobs to help pay for tuition. Half the students are "non-traditional": they are older, employed full-time, perhaps married, and attend evening and Saturday classes only. Msgr. Rutz has noticed that many Catholic students have kept ties with their home parishes. (He also remembers when most of the land which NKU now occupies was farmland belonging to parishioners at St. Joseph Parish, Cold Spring, where he resided from 1969-73, while teaching full-time at Bishop Brossart High School.)

Two priests, he said, modeled priesthood for him. Msgr. Merkle, the Sacred Heart pastor, married his parents, baptized him and his sister, buried his mother, and assisted at his first Mass. The other priest was Msgr. John Hegenauer, principal of Newport Catholic High School while Msgr. Rutz was a student there (1954-58). Both shaped his concept of priesthood and, perhaps unwittingly, nurtured his vocation.

As he reflects on his 40 years, he said most important in his ministry have been religious education and the liturgy. That's why "I practically volunteered to be the diocesan director of religious education [1973-79] and director of the worship office [1981-86]." As worship office director, Msgr. Rutz helped create the annual diocesan Chrism Mass as it's celebrated today. When he returned to the diocese in 1999, he served as director of the diocesan deacon formation and pastoral ministry formation offices until 2004.

Also, "I've never intended it but I've spent most of my life in some form of education," Msgr. Rutz said, including teaching at Newport Catholic High School and St. Pius X Seminary. "And administration … I've always enjoyed it, for some reason. I don't mind sitting behind a desk."

Along the way Msgr. Rutz studied civil law at the University of Louisville Law School and became an attorney-at-law in 1995.

These are challenging times for the Church and the priesthood, but "any vocation, any profession, is what you make it," he said.

"You can probably make more difference as a priest than in any other profession – except for parents on their children. You can influence more people on a wider and deeper level. And people nowadays are spiritually starved, as far as I'm concerned."

"I encourage young people to think about a religious vocation," said Msgr. Rutz.

Another recent assignment, in a way a "return home," is as sacramental minister to Divine Mercy, Bellevue, and St. Bernard, Dayton, parishes. From 1999-2005 Msgr. Rutz served in the same capacity at St. Mary of the Assumption Church, Alexandria.

Father James Egbers, pastor, said, "What impressed me was his fidelity to the parish … he was so flexible in his schedule, so open and available to the parishioners."

Besides Msgr. Rutz's wit and humor, "I certainly appreciated his concern for the poor and his putting into practice his own deep commitment to social justice," Father Egbers said.

"Some of his most powerful homilies here were on social justice and respect and dignity for people and the consequences of not coming forward and standing up for the rights of all people. One of his favorite expressions was, 'when good people do nothing …"

Father Robert Henderson, a high school acquaintance and now a friend, noted Msgr. Rutz's sense of humor but said "there's a quality of seriousness, a spiritual quality about him."

"People like him and are open to what he as to say."

Another longtime friend is Father James Gerrety, now retired. When Father Gerrety was pastor of churches in the Bluegrass region of the diocese (now part of the Diocese of Lexington,), Msgr. Rutz served in the religious education office in Lexington. Father Gerrety often invited Msgr. Rutz for presentations, confirmation preparation and similar activities.

"I was always impressed with the content of his sermons – they were very good, very easy to understand."

"I find him to be a very down-to-earth man, very kind and generous. He's really a very personable person, with all kinds of people of all ages."

Father John Sterling, now pastoral associate at St. Joseph Church, Cold Spring, came to know Msgr. Rutz when Father Sterling was diocesan vocations director.

"He has helped me realize that one can handle pressure and not lose a sense of humor, and not let pressure affect spirituality. He shows me a balance."

Bishop Roger Foys appointed Msgr. Rutz as vicar general in 2004 and recommended him to be named a monsignor, an honor accorded Msgr. Rutz last fall.

"In each of his ministries Msgr. Rutz has shown his complete dedication to the Lord and to the Church," said Bishop Foys. "He has a keen sense of what we are all called to be as Church. He has been and continues to be of invaluable assistance to me as vicar general in addition to his duties as campus minister at NKU.

"He is a trusted confidante and advisor. He is a priest of integrity and good humor. It is obvious that he enjoys being a priest. I congratulate Msgr. Rutz on his 40th anniversary of ordination and thank him for his selfless dedication to the priesthood."