{"id":8583,"date":"2012-11-29T12:30:43","date_gmt":"2012-11-29T20:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/?p=8583"},"modified":"2014-05-28T12:40:23","modified_gmt":"2014-05-28T19:40:23","slug":"backous-volunteer-job-leads-to-35-years-as-monk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/backous-volunteer-job-leads-to-35-years-as-monk\/","title":{"rendered":"Backous: Volunteer job leads to 35 years as monk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe all regret the fact that it happened because of the injury it caused, and I think the monastery is very determined to make sure that message is front and center.<\/em>\u201d – Father Timothy Backous – November, 2012<\/p>\n

Volunteer job leads to 35 years as monk<\/strong><\/p>\n

When he first came to visit St. John\u2019s University, Timothy Backous was a young man on his way to the University of Chicago, planning to become a lawyer. Little did he know that he was going to spend most of the rest of his life as a part of the St. John community.<\/p>\n

First, he enrolled as a student in the fall of 1971, then after graduation in 1976 (he likes to say he pioneered the five-year degree), he spent a year teaching English as a volunteer at a monastery in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that struck me was the natural beauty of those islands,\u201d he reminisced, \u201cI tried to get to as many as I could\u2026.I remember more than one bumpy trip flying in those mail planes, flying from one island to another.\u201d
\nAfter his time away, he came back to St. John\u2019s to teach at the prep school. It was during his year there that he decided to join the Order of St. Benedict.<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t sure, however, if this was the path his life would end up taking. \u201cWhen I got to college I was probably the most unlikely person to become a priest,\u201d Father Tim remembers, \u201cI was not a wallflower.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of decided I would give this lifestyle a chance,\u201d Father Tim said, \u201cI remember saying to somebody \u2018I don\u2019t expect that it will be a lifelong thing, but it would be fun to tell my grandkids that I had been a Benedictine monk when I was young.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he had found his calling. \u201cI liked the place,\u201d Father Tim reminisced, \u201cI liked the spirit of the community,\u201d<\/p>\n

Father Timothy has now been a Benedictine monk for nearly 35 years \u2013 serving in both the campus ministry at St. John\u2019s University and as the school\u2019s athletic director. He is presently the headmaster at St. John\u2019s Preparatory School.
\nThere he sees his role is to educate young people in a liberal arts prep school in the Catholic tradition, as well as to show them what the Catholic faith offers the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are modeling of the church itself,\u201d Father Tim avers, \u201cis openness and support of the other ways of believing. We would never ever think of telling our Moslem or Hindu students, or Jewish students, that theirs is a worthless faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, the school welcomes students of all faiths and religious backgrounds, as well as students of Catholic and Protestant backgrounds who are not active in their faith.<\/p>\n

The school is run under the auspices of the Order of St. Benedict, an order that came to Minnesota in 1856. Five monks, originally from Bavaria, came here to serve the needs of the German immigrants of this area.<\/p>\n

Still today, most of the area\u2019s Catholic Churches are served by Benedictine monks. \u201cOne of the most important works we do in the monastery is pastoral work,\u201d says Father Tim.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really think we are in a transition era right now, but if I read the tea leaves correctly,\u201d Father Tim opines, \u201cthis community is going to get much more serious about serving the poor, that\u2019s our next horizon.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, as the order\u2019s numbers decrease he sees changes ahead, such as a greater role by the laity, such as those who serve as Oblates, \u201cthey basically join the community and then they live the rule of Benedict to the best of their ability in their everyday lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, in an age where married Episcopalian, Lutheran, and Anglican pastors can become Catholic priests, he expects that eventually Catholic priests will be allowed to marry as well.<\/p>\n

One sad part of the history of his order is that of the sexual abuse scandal that has come to light in recent years. \u201cWe all regret the fact that it happened because of the injury it caused,\u201d Father Tim says, \u201cand I think the monastery is very determined to make sure that message is front and center.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just talking to somebody who was sexually assaulted as a young man here,\u201d Father Tim goes on, \u201cand he asked me what has changed now that makes you certain that this won\u2019t happen again?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we are mandatory reporters,\u201d Father Tim states, \u201cwe are obligated to report it and that is a good thing. [Also], kids nowadays are more likely to report this stuff, and to talk about it, the fact that it happened, rather than keep this terrible secret.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back, he has never regretted his decision to become a monk, headmaster and priest, but he does think of what other paths he might have taken. \u201cOnce in a while I think about whether or not I could have been a good spouse and a good parent,\u201d Father Tim wonders, \u201cand there are moments when I wonder what that would have been like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead Father Tim does not see himself slowing down, indeed he jokes that his retirement may well double as his wake, and while he likes his role at the prep school, he wouldn\u2019t mind a chance to teach a course in ethics as well.
\nHe would want to make it relevant to the outlook of students today. \u201cI think our culture is being more contentious,\u201d Father Tim states, \u201cthere is no sense of forgiveness, forgiving someone for doing wrong is weak, being tolerant is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s virtuous,\u201d he goes on, \u201cit seems to be money, power, self-righteousness, self-indulgence; those are the kind of messages that they [the students] are getting as being valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey live in a generation I think where the signals are that it\u2019s not cheating if you don\u2019t get caught,\u201d Father Tim says, \u201cI think that\u2019s prevalent and needs to be changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

View Entire Article\u2026 Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Volunteer job leads to 35 years as monk
\nNovember 29, 2012
\nBob Hare
\nSr. Perspective<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe all regret the fact that it happened because of the injury it caused, and I think the monastery is very determined to make sure that message is front and center.\u201d – Father Timothy Backous – November, 2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tim-backous","wp-image-borders"],"views":307,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8583"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8626,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8583\/revisions\/8626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}