Divine Word Missionaries

Fr. Raymond Quetchenbach, SVD

Fr. Ray Quetchenbach, SVD was born in Rochester, New York. He joined the high school seminary the Society of the Divine Word operated in Girard, PA in 1943. Father professed First Vows as a Divine Word Missionary on September 8, 1949 and Perpetual Vows on the same date in 1956. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1957 and has served the Society and the Church for 50 years. Below, Father Ray recounts his calling, service and joy of being a priest.

Fifty Years of Priestly Service

When I was about twelve years of age, we boys were playing one evening under the street light at the corner of Jay and Ames Streets in Rochester, New York. In the excitement of play, one of the boys used a bit of crude language and another spoke up: "Don't say bad words! Ray is going to be a priest!" That is my first memory of a call to the priesthood.

I grew up in a practicing Catholic Family with an uncle, Fr. Charles Erb, a Divine Word Missionary. Among my first cousins were Fr. Francis Erb and Fr. Charles Francis Adams, OFM and Sisters Helenmarie Yockel and Gertrude Erb, nuns in the Mercy and Holy Spirit congregations. In the seventh and eighth grades I was graced with a wonderful priest friend, Fr. Charles Bauer, and understanding Notre Dame sisters who gently encouraged me to think of the priesthood. So that when a recruiter from the Society of the Divine Word came to the school prepared to speak to the graduates about the missionary vocation, I jumped to respond to the invitation.

With the application papers in hand, I first approached my mother thinking her an easier sell (than Dad) and asked if I might go to the seminary. She said I should speak to Dad. When I spoke to Dad, he said sure, if Mother approved. And so the die was cast.

Thus began a course of preparation that lasted fourteen years: four years of high school, two years of novitiate, four years of college with emphasis on Philosophy, and four years of Theology. Carrying me along all those years were members of the Society of the Divine Word, an international group of men motivated by a desire to serve the Church around the world. In a sense the process seemed endless and yet at the same time it seemed to fly by quickly.

On June 9th, 1957 Bishop O'Brien ordained me and the members of my class of 15 to the priesthood in the seminary chapel at Techny, Illinois.

What a privilege it has been to be led by God to the priestly-missionary vocation. My wish to serve in the Philippines was granted. I spent the first 21 years of my priesthood there involved in educational work.

My first assignment for six months was to a diocesan seminary in Palo, Leyte. Some ten years later I was assigned to a university in the nearby capital city of Tacloban. There one of the teachers invited me to be the sponsor at the baptism of her baby Raymond. Raymond is now Father Raymond and teaches in the Palo Diocesan seminary where I began fifty years ago.

When I returned to the States it was to serve as president of the Society's seminary college in Iowa. Then I spent seven years in Italy at the headquarters of the Society. Much of the rest of my priestly life, aside from a stint in Appalachia and a year as chaplain at the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, has been spent here at Techny raising funds to support the missionary work of the Society of the Divine Word around the world.

As a priest for fifty years, I have been privileged to offer the sacrifice of the mass over eighteen thousand times. For fifty years I have been privileged to tell people their sins were forgiven. For fifty years I have been privileged in my own limited way to preach and unfold the Sacred Scripture to hungry Christian Communities.

How unique is my privilege of reaching fifty years was impressed on me when I realized that of the five boys, who started the high school seminary course with me and persevered to ordination, three have already been called to God.

Currently my assignment is to serve a chaplain at the Techny Towers Conference and Retreat Center where I was ordained fifty years ago. Since the first ordination in 1924, eight hundred and forty priests have been ordained in the sanctuary of the chapel.

On my memorial card I had printed the remarks of St. Leo the Great who lived about the year 450 in Italy. He wrote: "Dearly beloved, it is not with bold presumption that we, mindful of divine goodness, honor the day on which we accepted the office of priesthood. For we confess in all gratitude and truth that, whatever good we may do in the exercise of ministry, it is Christ himself who works in us. Hence, we rejoice not in ourselves who can do nothing without Him, but in Him who gives us the possibility of acting for him." These are my sentiments.

Rejoice with me for the gift of fifty years of priestly life. And please do keep me in your prayers.

Highlights in Fr. Ray's life:

July 30, 1929 - Date of birth - St. Mary's Hospital, Rochester, NY

August 11, 1929 - Baptism - Holy Family Church, Rochester

May 2, 1937 - First Communion - Holy Family Parish

August 1943 - Entered Girard, PA - Minor seminary

September 8, 1947 - Entered Novitiate - Techny, IL

June 9, 1957 - Ordination to the priesthood

June 10, 1957 - First Mass and Reception of Mission Cross

November 1957 - Arrival in the Philippines

January 1, 1958 - Taught at Junior seminary - Palo, Leyte -- Philippines

August, 1959 - Transferred to Bangued, Abra - High School Principal

June 9, 1963 - Graduate with Master degree from Notre Dame

May 1968 - Graduated with Ph.D. from San Carlos, Cebu - Philippines

June 1968 - Dean Graduate School, Divine Word University - Tacloban, Leyte

September 8, 1978 - President Epworth Seminary College - Epworth, IA

July 1982 - Rome, Secretary General - 5½ years

September 1990 - Transferred to Techny, for work in the Annuity Office

March 2004 - Began work at Techny Towers as Chaplain

June 9, 2007 - 50th Ordination Anniversary

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