Tower Topics ~ Summer 2002

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A Tradition of Philanthropy

Father Walter Heeney, who died April 20 (see Father...), was many things to Conception Abbey – devoted monk, talented architect and artisan, former business manager, spiritual advisor and parish priest. But he is perhaps most warmly remembered for his passion for the history of Conception Abbey and of the nearby rural communities. The following article is the result of a final interview with Father Walter.

In 1945, just weeks after being appointed Conception Abbey’s business manager, Father Walter Heeney was called to the front doors of the monastery.

He was met by a man in bib overalls who solemnly stood before an old farm truck loaded with oats. The oats, Father Walter learned, were for the Abbey, in exchange for some saving grace.

“At that time, a lot of people were losing their farms,” Father Walter recalled. “The idea was that the farmers would bring their crops to us, and we would pay on their bank notes to help save their farms.”

Within the decade following the Great Depression, this philanthropy program established by Abbot Stephen Schappler and Father Gilbert Stack, Father Walter’s predecessor, would help save from bankruptcy the property of numerous families.

The Abbey had scholarship money it was required to invest, Father Walter said.

“Abbot Stephen figured the best way would be to invest it in people. They were the mainstay of the Abbey’s parish.”

While most financial consultants would not agree, the monks saw their assistance to farmers as a sound investment.

“We were investing in people and families,” Father Walter explained. “For us, that was more important than the bottom line. Some business people may find that strange, but we are in the business of helping people.”

The investment has paid off. Some of the largest and most active Catholic families in the Conception area are descendants of those farmers.

Conception Abbey's partnership with the local community has been friendly and fruitful. This photograph shows a parish celebration from the 1890s.

Helping post-Depression farmers was simply one chapter in a tradition of philanthropy at Conception Abbey.

In the earliest days, when Abbot Frowin Conrad arrived here from Switzerland, he and seven novices ministered to the Irish and German immigrants who’d come to Northwest Missouri to work on the railroad, and invested their monastic community’s resources in a school to educate local young people.

In return, local farmers helped build the Abbey’s church and prayed for the monks’ good works.

Today, the tradition of philanthropy lives on. The monks give thousands of dollars and a great deal of their time each year to prepare the seminarians of Conception Seminary College for priesthood. The monks open their doors daily to guests and retreatants from every state in the nation and several foreign countries. The abbey is a major source of jobs to the region, through the Printery House, the seminary and the Abbey’s grounds department and administrative offices. And the monks continue to offer their services as pastors and chaplains in parishes, convents and hospitals.

But, as Father Walter stressed, the monks recognize philanthropy as a mutual relationship. Nothing they have accomplished for the good of community and church would have been possible without the generosity of friends who fund endowments, support annual appeals and contribute to capital campaigns.

But for the monks of Conception, philanthropy is more than simple donations and fund-raising. It is a resonant example of God’s love in the world. For every act of generosity performed by a monk, Conception Abbey has received tenfold in return.

Perhaps Father Walter said it best: “Our philanthropy efforts are simply payback. From the farmers who helped build our church to the donors who support our seminary, so many people have blessed us with their generosity. It’s only natural and right that we give back as much as we can.”

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