"FATHER HETTINGER"
(Chaplain Of St. Vincent's Orphanage)
1928 - 1945


At Mass,
or
Benediction,
in processions
or
the Stations of the Cross,
whatever the liturgy be,
deep piety marked the essence
of Father Hettinger,
chaplain of St. Vincent's Orphanage
for seventeen years.

Heavily laden,
as chaplain of the orphanage,
pastor of St. Margaret of Cortona Church,
and
director of diocesan cemeteries,
he could only be
an at-the-altar figure
for the children
in the orphanage.

The only face to face encounters
happened at the middle
and
the end of grade periods,
when he would enter classrooms
for the passing out
of grade cards.

Sitting forward
of the window row of seats,
he'd call the names
from "A" to "Z",
surname first,
followed by the given one.

Yet,
he meant the best,
as one time
on the playground
did attest:

Dressed as usual
in black cassock,
he came into the area
of the swings,
a rubber ball,
soft-ball size
beneath his arm.

Smiling all the while,
as boys edged all around him,
he repeatedly made the ball
roll up and down the underside
of his outstretched arm,
then flipped his arm
to make it roll up and down
the other side.

One morning as I was walking
through the quadrangle
of the orphanage,
I suddenly heard a voice,
high up on my right.

"Virgil! Virgil!
How are you?
How is everything going?"

Standing at the open window
of a cloister two floors high,
Father Hettinger was he
who called to me.

Astounded,
I looked toward him.
His hair was black,
his face Italian-like.

For a fleeting moment,
I thought he was my father.



(August 14, 2001)
By Virgil Gelormino





(Father Hettinger, then Monsignor Hettinger, was elevated)
to auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio
in 1942.