 Hi everyone, my name is Jessica Toligan and I am happy to welcome you on behalf of Fairfield's Alumni Relations Office. With me this evening are Father Jerry Bloschek who is our Vice President for Mission and Ministry and Father Charles Allen who you all know was a beloved fixture on our campus for many decades and we miss him very much since he retired last May but we're so happy to have him with us tonight. And before we get started just a couple of housekeeping items really quickly. I ask that you please make sure you keep your microphones muted throughout the conversation just to minimize any distraction. And second I recommend that you use the speaker view rather than gallery view in Zoom just to make sure that our featured speakers remain the focus of your screen. And finally we encourage you to use the chat feature if you have any questions for Father Allen. We have a large group with us this evening he's a very popular man so I don't know if we'll get to all of the questions but we will certainly do our best to answer as many as possible in the time allotted. And now I will turn things over to Father Jerry. Thank you everyone and thank you Jessica and Charlie thank you for making time to be with us. Jessica you said that you miss Charlie and I want to echo that and I think probably I'm echoing the sentiment certainly of all of my Jesuit brothers and of all those hundreds of people literally hundreds of people who are joining us tonight. Charlie in the years that we were both at Fairfield you and I often were traveling or we had commitments that took us outside the community but I have to say that I was always so happy when I came home and if you were celebrating the liturgy I knew that the homily would not be too long and it wouldn't be boring and it would be three points and that even at the end of the day I'd be able to follow it and then even better Charlie if you were going to be at table and if I was lucky enough to be able to sit with you and be able to listen to your conversation which was always so warm so loving and if I think back Charlie and I can't say this of many people Charlie I don't think I ever heard you speak ill of anybody but I used to love to ask you Charlie your story I used to love to ask you to tell me more about your family and especially the Owens and so let's begin with if you're reminiscing with us a little bit about your family history. All right I always take great pride in the fact that I'm a by nature of Vermonter my grandparents we saw my father's side both come down from Vermont and my great grandfather my grandfather took great pride in talking about his relationship with Ethan Allen and I can believe it in fact I visited Ticonderoga and they had a sense of Uncle Ethan and his role in my family but the Owens were always rebels rebels I too carried on that tradition and that's why I joined the Jesuits I wanted to be a rebel and that what was rebellious about your becoming a Jesuit your family wasn't exactly enthused about your being a Jesuit oh no part of the normal course of things and go to BC high and BC and all that well I never went to BC high and I never went to BC I was supposed to go to BC but at the last minute I joined the Jesuits and so went to Shadowbrook but my rebellion came about I always remember telling my father don't get upset about my joining the Jesuits there's no tuition but that make him happen because it was all set to pay I think was $800 a year to BC at that time but there was no tuition and so I joined the Jesuits and they've taken good care of me ever since but you've taken good care of all of us too Charlie Charlie besides saving your father some tuition money what else motivated you to join the Jesuits far I've been thinking about that all too long and I would go back to my very early childhood on Cedric Street in Jamaica plain and I can remember going to bed at night just laying there feeling so blessed by God that I had such a wonderful family the people on Campion 4 will remember how much I loved the women up there and certainly I had the good fortune of a wonderful mother and three younger sisters now I say fortunate enough because they were younger and I could part of them around but I had my three younger sisters and they all took care of me so I got a lot of feminine attention and I was very grateful for that and grateful to God for having provided me with that kind of a family and so right from the earliest years on right from the time I was being four or five years old I knew that ours was a loving God who was going to take care of me and so it was that I joined the Jesuits wait wait wait since you had all these women loving you what made you think that you're gonna have a good life in the Jesuits that I'd finally have my own bathroom you must know what that's like Jerry I'm grateful Charlie I'm grateful Charlie what about now in your years everybody knows that the Jesuit formation is a very long process slash or deal for some when you think Charlie about your journey from Shadowbrook by Lenox and Western Mass and then where did you study philosophy at BC or no at Campion Center here I am in college right where you are now and then you did our regency that period of kind of internship where did you do that at Cranwell at Cranwell what was that like Charlie any memories of your time at Cranwell well I always like to put it this way when people say do you ever miss not having had a family I said when I was at Cranwell which was a boarding school I lived on a corridor with 20 teenage boys now that's the same thing as living with 20 boys for three four three or four years and I lived up there and had a wonderful time just love the kids and they seem to like me and I have a very wonderful rewarding experience did that did that persuade you that maybe you would want to do high school work later on not absolutely no I was certainly open to all kinds of other sorts of work and I've done all kinds of other different things over the years but certainly those years at Cranwell were very informative in terms of taking care of those kids in the dormitory Charlie then as I remember of course you went to Rome now I think most people have the impression that it's only the fair-haired boys and the people who were regarded as being the top of the heap who were sent to Rome how Charlie did you end up getting sent to Rome because Father General the great father of Rupe had just opened a new place of studies the J. Zoo in the city of Rome and it was to be for the young men who were studying for the priesthood and he was looking for people to come and so he wrote to the provincial and said would you please send us some good men well the provincial said well I don't have any good men but I do have Charlie Allen I know he wants to travel and so the next thing I know I got a letter from me was declaring saying would you be willing to go to Rome I said I'd be willing to go to Quincy I don't care where I go just as long as I go somewhere outside of Boston and so the next thing I know I got a letter from the provincial saying I'm missioning you to Rome and so off I went and had three of the greatest years of my life living in the eternal city Charlie tell us more you said it's the greatest years of your life I thought your Fairfield years were your greatest years but we'll let that go to later tell us about Rome what made Rome so wonderful for you well I've always had a passing interest in art and so to live in that city with so much art around so many wonderful museums and so many glorious places to visit that I was quite happy there so it was the art Charlie not the not the food oh the food I loved the food was great but I would put the art first what it knows can you remember what it was what was it the Vatican Museum was it the architecture was it the Borghese galleries anything stand out particularly among the pieces that that you remember well I remember my first days in Rome I had a wonderful rectifier the frank furlong now gone to God glorious man and he said hey Charlie I bet you haven't been to the St. Peter's Basilica I said I have never been to any of those places and he said well here I'm going to walk down there now let me take you for the walk and so we walked down I think it's the the victor Emmanuel monument victor Emmanuel Parkway we walked down that road and eventually ended up at the St. Peter's Basilica and I was seeing St. Peter's for the first time just being overwhelmed by the magnificence of it all it's just such a glorious place we may have lost half of Europe because of that we're trying to pay for it but it was certainly worth the effort Charlie while you were in Rome as I remember your stories you took good advantage of your summers to go to other countries and learn languages right didn't you go to Germany France Spain that's not not Germany I did go to France and Spain and because once you learned Italian I always say if you can speak Italian you can learn another language another romance language very quickly very poorly so I would go and live in Spain for a while using my Italian and live in France for a while using my Spanish and my Italian and my Italian and I got to be pretty good in those two languages and that was a that was a real joy Charlie what's then when you came back from theology studies did you come I mean obviously in our our focus and our can in our experience of you is primarily through Fairfield so did you come back to Fairfield immediately no I had hoped to go back to Fairfield prep I had loved Fairfield prep where I taught for three years and I thought I'd go back there but no the provincial wanted me to stay around Boston for a while okay province and so I was at BC high for a year or two there and I would come back to Fairfield prep and then you came to Fairfield prep what and what was your job at Fairfield prep were you teaching or were you an administration I was teaching mathematics and some religion because those were the two areas that I was interested in and had some background in so I taught math and I taught religion and found them very interesting and wonderful exciting years and what are your memories of prep from that time what stands out the people the situations the the experiences what do you cherish from those first years of prep all the kids were getting pretty rebellious by that point well you said you had been a rebel you should have understood them I should have but I didn't but they were you know challenging challenging I've stayed friends with many of them since then but they were a wonderful group of kids and very exciting to be with especially living with them in the dormitory and teaching them in the classroom so I was quite content there Charlie we always used to say that you know living with you we used to remark at how and all the people you knew in Fairfield all the families who were so fond of you and to which you really became an adjunct member and an integral member of those families and I remember you used to say to us that it was because of your years at prep that you knew so many families in Fairfield is that right we said that no priest should come to Fairfield University without spending a year or two at Fairfield Prep that's how you get to know everyone locally when you're at Fairfield University you get to know all the families from New Jersey but you don't get to know anyone from Fairfield well when I was at Fairfield Prep I got to know all kinds of Fairfield families and really love them they were wonderful wonderful wonderful people Charlie what was your adage that you used to offer us so often that the story of Fairfield was New England Boston Irish Jesuits do you remember that well vaguely and so far as if anyone said how can you describe Fairfield University I'd say it was when Boston Irish Jesuits came to educate New Jersey Italian teenagers many of whom are listening to you tonight yeah I saw that list of names and many of them are out there Charlie then so how long you say you were at prep as a teacher and then you uh then you worked as an administrator you were were you president or headmaster at prep for a while too not right away because I had to do internship and I kept saying the provincial I'd like to go someplace outside the country I became a Jesuit because I wanted to see the world said okay how's about going to the Philippines is a very good tertiary ship oh that's right Charlie that was a vanilla so I went and I did my year of tertiary ship outside of Manila all the time thinking I would be sent back to Fairfield which is what I wanted and uh no the provincial who always knew how to mix things up sent me back to BC High Charlie before we get to BC High let's go back to the Philippines uh for a boy from Jamaica Plain Jamaica Plains even though you had lived in Rome to be uh to be sent to the Philippines and to be living in a popular area outside of Manoa what was that like for you Charlie what what memories do you bring from that time wonderful memories I love the Filipino people and uh they seemed to like me uh and I had a very wonderful experience especially because tertiary ship should be a time when you get out and do a lot of apostolic activity and so I would go out and even down to the Sulu acapellago but you don't know where that is Jerry the Sulu acapellago uh it's where as a boy if I used to remember correctly used to be Terry and the pirates and that's where he came from was the Sulu acapellago it's a string of islands leading out from Borneo to the south and uh so I went down there and did a lot of parish work down there for a while as well as close to my own uh tertiary ship outside of Manila and it was a brand glorious experience of living with a very different kind of people people who uh taught me a lot about life and about the ways that people interact and then next move then Charlie after Tertian ship was back to Beastie High and you would hope to come rather back to Fairfield yes but as I say you can never trust a provincial haha but you when he promises you something and that promised me that somebody back to Fairfield and then at the last minute they asked me hey we need somebody at BC High would you go to BC High and I said okay if you need me there I'll go there but Charlie your boy from Jamaica plain you didn't mind going didn't you want to go back home have those three sisters take care of you again no because they'd all gotten married all right so there's no point really right right no point in showing any interest in them although mom and dad was still there thank god and good health and so I would see them was great frequency Charlie now you mentioned your father your father used to pass on words of wisdom to you when he was driving you as I remember he had a lot of adages about how to be happy and make the best of life didn't he yes he did did you remember any of those that you would share well give me one minute to think okay give me sure a few seconds just to think uh maybe the most important one he always said to me was hey if you're going to be a preacher never go longer than three minutes and did you stick to that your whole life pretty much so yeah that's why that's why you have 200 friends here yes yeah because I never kept them too long a church and your father was a wise man he was he came from that Vermont tradition of religion was nice let's not get carried away by it so Charlie then then I will yeah you somehow or other you cajole the provincial into sending you back to Fairfield well no it was the provincial of controlled uh if I remember I think I always get a little confused here I believe he controlled Al Kelly into bringing you back to Fairfield oh so he asked Al Kelly to depart if he could deposit you back here on at Fairfield yes okay because things had not been going well administration wise here at Fairfield prep and so oh okay he finally gave me the job that I'd always wanted namely to be the next to model the next principle and did you I so you are you are happy to be back at Fairfield prep oh immensely yes Charlie is that when you began to make the contacts that would later lead you to be chaplain to the fire department and the police department and God knows who else yeah those were all happening at that time but then I already had many contacts with families from my earlier years at Fairfield prep and then later on at Fairfield University so I kept building up the number of people that I knew in town and people used to say you should run for mayor and they said well if people like me now they wouldn't like me if I ran for mayor nobody likes a politician so I stayed away from the politics of it all but just got to know more and more people all the time Charlie another way was you got water here Jerry sure please having lived with you I know that that's not vodka or gin no that was nothing my mother taught me your mother taught you to be a tea toddler yeah let's the touch liquor will never touch mine oh my goodness oh my goodness so Charlie another way that you got to know so many people and I'm guessing that some of the folks here were people whom you got to know through your parish ministry wasn't enough that you were working at prep and then later at the university but even when I lived with you Charlie I don't know how many different parishes you were going out to how many I mean like can you can you even remember the number of parishes you worked with worked out it's well your your years here well obviously there was St. Anthony's right on the road where the people still remember you and ask for you and I used to go out to uh really into the Greenwich area to uh St. Michaels was it in Greenwich and uh then of course there was a couple of other parishes in Fairfield and Bridgeport that I would go to you went to St. Pious certainly yeah I'm sure you went to St. Thomas yes so long as I let me preach I was happy and St. Philip didn't you go to St. Philip and Norwalk too really because they already had a couple good Jesuit priests going there so assumption I think you went to in Fairfield I would go Holy Cross Holy Child the infant Jesus you remember them better than I do no because you know these are places Charlie where we're wherever we go there are people who will say you know hello father but how's father Alan and I'm thinking what the what am I chopped liver you know all they want to know is all they want to know was how was father Alan how was father Alan the good thing we love you Charlie what they liked about me was I could tell a funny story everybody but that's but that's always been kind of your approach and this this allows me to ask you a question one of your fans sent me an email knowing that I was going to have this role and said at least claims that this is a direct quote from you quote I always thought that if people could have a good friendly relationship with me they could have the same with God end quote and this person says would you please ask father Alan to elaborate on this so here's the asking well clearly the priest stands between the individual and God and he can do so much to help that individual reach out to God whether it be through retreats through mass through confessions just through private conversation and as I say I had fallen in love with God and I was maybe four or five years old so he realized how fortunate I was to have the family that I had the loving mother and father and so if I could bring God to other people give them that same sense of affection for the Almighty I was most happy I love doing it so it was all about falling in love with God Charlie back at four or five yes and wanting to introduce people to that same experience of affection and love but you said beautifully Jerry yes no I'm just repeating Charlie what you said and what you've done for us all and I think any one of us could affirm that Charlie I know that and this is maybe telling tales out of school that since I was director of the Murphy Center I would see you coming regularly for spiritual direction obviously you took spiritual direction very seriously why has that been so important to you what goes back to my early years as a Jesuit we obviously were provided with spiritual directors the great father John post and the men who followed him but then when I got out into the act of apostolate I had to go hunting around for a an advisor and every so often the provincial would call me in and he'd say who's your spiritual director and I have to say well I don't have one yet he'd say well you go out and get one and so just out of sheer obedience for no other reason I found myself going and looking for a spiritual director and having the Murphy Center right there was perfect apart from obedience what did you find that spiritual direction how did it benefit you well I think I'm a pretty well balanced person to begin with and so but you need those other sources of inspiration of balance talk to individuals about what you're going on in your prayer life what's going on in your spiritual life what's going on in your religious commitment and so often those Jesuits that I spoke with during those years and now more and more the women that I spoke with have been very very helpful to me in knowing who I am and where I should be thank you charlie charlie during your time here of course uh it seemed I think you pretty well always opted uh to live in the residence halls is that right that's correct once you were once you are I know certainly when you were at the university um what motivated you to want to live in the residence halls well I always like to say that you have a washer in your apartment yeah well I always used to say Jerry I love my brothers in price I just don't want to live with them I think you can understand that I think I can yeah and so I loved living in my well the room in which you are now living uh living there and then being enough going up but still able to go to the Jesuit residence for my meals and feel a part of that community I mean I think charlie a lot you know you will know you were notorious for being on the road doing weddings and baptisms and my guess is that a lot of those weddings were of young people with whom you had lived on these various corridors all your years is that right I have one last wedding coming up in the end of August don't say the last you never know that's right you never know charlie I know you know you mentioned in the very beginning that part of the lore of the Jesuits was that you wanted to travel well charlie when you were here it seems to me like you always had your bag packed and one of your favorite joints was with the alumni trips to Europe you want to reminisce well because again I'm pretty certain that some of our our guests this evening were your fellow travelers what were some of your favorite destinations and some of your favorite experiences on those trips well let's say I think it could break the the groups into three parts I would either go with alumni or I'd go with the glee club or I just go with just general student groups anybody who would take you yeah anybody who would take me right what does it father bob chaff used to say you play you pay the fare and I'll be there I suppose my favorite place of course has always been it I'm sorry charlie we're losing you charlie get close to the microphone okay okay I'm getting closer I'm pulling my chair that's perfect charlie thank you well not so perfect now okay so where were your favorite places Sicily was my favorite place because as I like to say the glory of Sicily is that everybody within a thousand miles has one time or another conquered Sicily and every group has left something of themselves behind in terms of the art the architecture the general spirit the way of life the food Sicily was an extraordinarily rich and interesting place to be and so I was so happy to go there with the glee club with the alumni as well as with the just general student groups of one kind or another I know you'd love to go to Rome too charlie when I was posted in Rome I met you in the glee club there had a good meal with you I remember that cherry because I don't know that you were that happy about being in Rome but no I was not thrilled charlie I'm right I warned you you would find it difficult charlie I remember you're coming back from Iceland and I think you enjoyed those thermal baths as you described them well what I loved about the thermal baths was you're in this bath with maybe a thousand other people and all of a sudden somebody cried out from another group my god look it's father Alan I always like to be recognized it was a group from eastern from the parish up there where I have done a lot of work and so uh is Janet still on the line there are you there indeed I am Janet do you remember what happened when in Iceland fill us in I overheard a group talking about uh there being from Connecticut and then we started chatting and I said I was from Fairfield and they asked me if I knew somebody by the name of father Alan and I said most definitely in fact he's with me and they thought I was kidding I said well you might not recognize him but if you look over there and they went waiting over to surprise him oh my goodness what other places charlie did you enjoy Sicily certainly Iceland well any of the places I went to certainly you know when I think back to the Philippines uh going out when I was working in admissions bc and that in admissions at Fairfield going out to California going out to other parts of this country to Mexico going down of course Janet help me up now we just read about the death of one of it was a Julia we knew in Nicaragua yes that was very sad news our guide in Nicaragua from the mustard seed organization and she passed away and that was a wonderful experience we went down to Nicaragua to work for a week in one of those uh what is it uh was it was a school for children with who have been abandoned because of usually because of some physical handicap they were suffering from oh we had a great time there I just loved it charlie there's another question that someone sent me earlier this week saying now clearly uh we're looking forward to this opportunity to celebrate father allen for everything that he gave to us but would you ask father allen to talk about the blessings that he feels he received from being here at fairfield well I always say one thing we all want is to be wanted and I certainly felt that when I was at fairfield prep and fairfield university that you were wanted by the people they deeply appreciated what you could do for them and I never felt that my life was not was lacking in meaning because of what these wonderful people asked me to do for them wow charlie charlie going now when you look back we talked about your many years here and I suggested that our formation program is so long were there Jesuits who particularly impressed you or were there Jesuits that made you feel like well I don't want to be like this one uh so what who are the Jesuits who stand out for you in your memory of your life here at fairfield because when you were here charlie there were with a 70 80 Jesuits at one stage when I first arrived in 1959 was it uh as I say I think it was like 75 Jesuits in the community but the people I remember most of all because I could almost go through it uh one of the wonderful things here at the champion center is the graveyard out in back that along to the graveyard I see the graves of so many wonderful men whom I knew I think a father uh I know he meant a lot to the women who he taught now is father t joe callahan jerry o callahan you remember him elaine I see I see tom and elaine out there nodding their heads yes we remember father o callahan so well such a kind and wonderful religion teacher big tall gerry o callahan but then there was gerry o callahan it was father john post it was father larry lingers there were many many men who uh whose names now are on on the buildings or can be found around here on campus or maybe in one of the graves in the graveyard just great great men now are there a few that I didn't like yes I could name a few that I didn't like but uh there were few at five between charlie one of the advantages of going back to campion centers not only the cemetery but the uh the the jesuit confers with who are still among the quick uh who you're living with now father pel used to always enjoy father pelatier used to like to go up to campion center because he got a good breakfast every morning I must be a delight to be back with father pel and and father realm writer what about what about your your being with your confers again who what's that like oh it's been wonderful especially you mentioned uh pel walter pelatier great man saintly saintly saintly man and I see him almost on a daily basis in fact I think I saw him at supper this evening and father gravid bronrother well there's of course a local boy he came from trombone went to fairfield prep and then joined the Jesuits and he's had a very interesting and exciting life since then and so uh I see uh see him all the time but there are many many other Jesuits that I feel close to that I have known in one place or another especially now that we have a number of new york Jesuits living with us charlie how did you manage getting through you charlie who were so much used to being on the road and having so many friends around you what was it like to be there during these last 14 16 months must have been quite solitary for you well it it was the first three or four weeks that I was here because because when I arrived I was immediately put in quarantine you're in quarantine yeah for the first couple of weeks and that was fine but since then you've had enough company I know that there are a number of these folks here uh who have made excursions up to campion center and have uh taken you out on the portico or in the front porch and had a chance to be with you yes see I've had some great groups I think Laura is is Laura inserto still on the line here Laura inserto she is Laura are you there yes I'm here so did you go up to see charlie what was that like how did you find him oh wow we made a recent visit two weeks ago and he is stronger than ever and telling great stories and missing everybody at barefield and most of all missing Laura yeah we had a wonderful visit father Alan thank you you're welcome thank you Laura we are ready to entertain this is your chance to ask charlie all those questions you've been dying to to ask him so please uh Jessica do you have any questions that you'd like to field or others of you please send them through chat I did get one question sent directly to me and it is how did father Alan manage to wear so many hats around campus and within the town itself he was everything from alumni chaplain to glee club chaplain and even chaplain to the fire department so father Alan how did you do that well I always remember my father's good advice don't work don't what don't work don't work hard don't work hard is that a vermont tradition I think so yeah yeah don't tire yourself out and so hey being chaplain to the fire department that was wonderful and exciting to the police department in the same way but I'd never had to kill myself and not do any of those jobs I just had to be there but that was always your gift charlie that you're being there was was what was the what people really cherished yeah isn't there a wonderful movie with uh is it being there I don't know who's the fellow he's the pink Panther guy Peter Sellers I think he has a movie being there and that's what life comes down to can you be there Jen Harding I think you wanted to ask something do I see you here Jen oh yes where and when is father Alan's upcoming wedding what's the what is this wedding that you're doing Jen Harding asks it's going to be on Cape Cod oh my goodness and the last weekend of august randon somebody or other is marrying Marcy what is her name Mary something or other and I forgot their names now charlie somebody else notices again somebody who's taken into account all of the weddings that you've done so many couples so many stag mates and even though you only gave them three minutes of homilies at those weddings if you look back at all of these weddings and all of these couples and families that you've gotten to know so well um what advice did you give to them then or what advice now with the perspective of age would you wish you had given them oh my god I've got to think about that one for a second I'd always tell them if nothing else try to know what the other person is looking for insofar as you have a sense of what your husband or wife is hoping to get from this relationship it allows you to respond accordingly and so that would be the first thing I would say the second thing would be what about his relatives what about his parents oh yeah the families what are they looking for and try to respond accordingly and the last thing would be what is god looking for and if you can answer that question god bless you I think you're well on your way to having a perfect relationship I see we're welcoming questions or comments to father does Mary Ann last have something that she wants Mary Ann wants to mention something Mary Ann is this mentioning it to father heart to heart or is this a public mentioning it is an amazing mentioning um father Allen was at the um St. Vincent's college graduation uh several years ago and he talked about his dad and he said whenever you asked how you were doing he would say wonderful it didn't matter how he was feeling but he would say wonderful and that has been really part of my life to say you know it's wonderful as long as you have your faith and your your family and your friends everything is wonderful no matter what else is happening just to clarify that a bit that was the graduation ceremony for st. Vincent's college and they gave me an honorary degree the only honorary degree I have yeah I'm very proud of this and my little talk I said my grandfather talked me so much I'm sorry grandfather yeah whenever I'd ask him how are you doing grandpa he'd always say wonderful wonderful wonderful and one time I said to him grandpa are you always that wonderful he said no but I'd like to tell people how I want to feel um that gives me a goal to work for yeah kept that in mind over the years yeah you're right yeah thank you for that that was a great moment in my life yeah it was Colleen Goble says that she loved going to your Christmas masses Charlie and hearing you that what you offered and how you were present made her and I'm sure other people so happy in fact she claims to have tapes of those stories of yours well I hope she puts them together and sends them to me no where's Colleen is her is Colleen on the screen are you on identify yourself Colleen if you dare she may be a modest friend of yours Charlie I wonder if she was the woman who taped my talk she says she taped them I taped him because his stories were so good she may have been the one who taped me when I gave the talk at the uh saint uh Vincent's college ceremony and was on television she worked for channels what is it the local channel there the we're not going to keep Charlie Charlie is now expecting his bowl of ice cream which comes around this time so we don't want to hold him back from his ice cream for too long it could be less than wonderful if we do so uh last chance friends for questions comments to Charlie there is one other question Father Allen did you have any babies that you christened that then they grew up and you married them when they were older yeah my nephew Christopher my sister's boy I always remember baptizing him and then he went to a fairfield university chiefly because because of Uncle Charlie he didn't have to pay anything but he graduated from Fairfield University and would eventually meet a very nice young woman and the two married and I did their wedding so that's great Charlie circle and I baptized his babies we have someone else that says Father Allen you have traveled so much and been so many places and done so many things is there one particular memorable moment that truly stands out one moment that stands out all right I think it happened one night first came to Fairfield I was living on campion four are there any other students here from campion four I was up on campion four I'm doing campion four oh Eileen which Eileen is that Ward oh yes Eileen are you doing good is Terry with you no she's at her house okay when I was living on campion four my first year this young woman knocked on my door and I opened the door and she came in and she said I need your help please and what it was was her father was dying and later on I noticed that I didn't see her any longer on the corridor when I asked they said oh no she went home because her father passed away and so I got about 10 of our students and we got into the van and drove up to I think it was Vernon Connecticut where she lived and we all went to the wake and I always you know when I walked in with those students the sense of joy that they exuded just meant so much to her not so much to her but to her mother because her mother was so worried about her now that the father had passed away and I always said hey if I did nothing else in this life at least I brought some happiness to that family so does that answer your question Eileen or was it was that Eileen Ward that answered that what asked that question yeah that was someone Father Ellen that sent directly to me it's Jessica okay what it sent that right to me I see the picture now Eileen Ward's picture is up there look at that picture of Eileen you can understand why I saw a lot of putting on camp here I have one other question that was just said to me what has been for you the greatest moment in the church during your priestly ministry the greatest moment in the church possibly the funeral of I gotta remember because there's been so many popes since I came here I'm going to say the funeral of Pope John Paul II because I got to be the narrator an NBC channel and oh it was just a beautiful moving moment so sad the death of a pope that has been so well loved and yet at the same time such a glorious man and he had been such so influential in the church Charlie you've been with us the way this evening the way you were always with us with generosity and good humor and wisdom and warmth so I think I can be pretty certain that I speak for all of us and saying thank you Charlie for this wonderful visit that you've allowed us to pay you it can't be in center and don't be surprised if the lot of us don't come bashing at your door or either by zoom or in person in the weeks and months and years ahead thank you very much Charlie I hope you'll come up and visit me the Jesuits live well God bless us thank you very much thank you father Allen thank you so much father Jerry thank all of you for being here this was the last of these personal journeys events for this academic year as we head into the summer I know we've had many of you who attended several of these throughout the year and we've loved being able to stay connected with all of you while we were all being apart and distant throughout distance throughout this last 15 months or so so thank you for being here tonight thank you for your support and stay tuned for more to come we hope you all have a wonderful rest of the night and a wonderful summer and we will see you again soon thank you father Allen thank you father thank you father Allen thank you God bless you father Allen thank you you heard father Jerry come on up and visit I will see you back