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A TIME TO BUILD
1946 - 1956
When Fr. James Kievel, OMI, was called upon to found the Oblates' new novitiate in Godfrey, IL., Fr. Stanley Sergot, OMI, was appointed rector of St. Henry's. During this third decade the sound of construction trucks and carpenters' hammers was familiar background music. In the summer of 1947 Oblate Scholastics gave up their vacation time to help build a new dining hall for the seminary.
The increased building witnessed to the increase in enrollment. World War II was horrible enough that it seemed to cause many people to reconsider their values and give God His rightful place. Perhaps that reshuffling of values explains why the decade after the war was a period of expansion and vocational boom at St. Henry's College. Many ex-G.I.s turned from their marches and drills to Latin grammar and seminary discipline.
A great deal of the credit for the increased enrollment during these years must also be given to the beaming and buoyant personality of the Oblate Vocation Director, Fr. Orville Munie, OMI. Besides his splendid achievements in the vocation department itself, Fr. Munie is credited with the initiation of the summer vocation weeks, an asset to the Oblate Vocation Department, and an insight for other dioceses and orders.
The post-war years also saw a number of St. Henry's alumni leave their native land for the foreign missions. Fathers Maurice Heman, OMI, and Clarence Bertelsman, OMI, were among the' early missionaries who received a send-off from their alma mater as they left for Asia in September of 1951. One of the seminary teachers, Fr. Charles Prass, OMI, after seven years on the staff of St. Henry's, left in 1955 to take up teaching at the Oblate College in Mindanao, Philippine Islands.
The last year of the third decade began with a record enrollment of 221 students. The future looked bright and the Lord seemed to be saying again that He would not leave His Church as orphans. Both the Diocese of Belleville and the Oblates would have many new priests in the years to come.
