Mary Philip Wurth, R.I.P.

Mary Philip Wurth 1925-2008

Martin Philip Wurth was born 22-May-25 in Phoenix AZ, to a postal worker Felix Martin Wurth and his wife Mary Christine (née Mueller). The Wurths had moved to Arizona from Paduca Kentucky in 1910. In 1913, Poppa Wurth built a new brick house at 314 E Roosevelt St. on a unpaved street on the outskirts of Phoenix. Felix and Christine moved in with their two children Kathleen and Joseph. Then four more children came: Marguerite, Angela, Elizabeth, and finally their youngest, Martin Philip. This family photo was taken when Philip returned home to Phoenix to offer his First Mass after being ordained priest. [l-r: Christine (Mother), Fr. MP, Joseph, Felix (seated), Elizabeth, Angela, Kathleen] They lived only eight blocks from St. Mary’s Catholic church. Philip’s parents walked to church every day. The children were enrolled in the parochial school. Philip had just begun high school there when his sister Marguerite died at the young age of 25. The next year was 1941 when the country went to war. Philip graduated from St Mary’s in 1943, and tried to join the navy. They rejected him as not strong enough for the regular navy, and drafted him into the naval Seabees. He served three years with the US Naval Construction Battalions [USN CBs] in the Pacific. After the flag was raised on Iwo Jima, the CBs came in to set up a port where supply ships could come in with materials to build air bases. During the War years, his sister Angela married a Ronan, who also served in the Navy; and his sister Elizabeth married a Scott. Both settled in “the valley” of Phoenix.

Meanwhile Philip, on being discharged from the navy at the port of Oakland on the east shore of San Francisco bay, enrolled on the G.I. bill at St Mary’s College of Moraga in that area. He chose St Mary’s because he heard they had a good business school with a course in library science. While enrolled there, the Paulist Fathers in San Francisco encouraged him to consider a religious vocation. In 1948 (his junior year in college) he applied to enter a Trappist monastery in Huntsville Utah. The Trappists soon discovered their new postulant suffered from post-polio syndrome, and sent him home as unable to lead their austere lifestyle. “Their loss became our gain,” said Fr. Sam Morello, at Philip’s burial Mass. So Philip returned to college in Moraga and got his degree magna cum laude, in economics and business administration. With that accomplished he began working for the Crown-Zellerbach Corporation, and moved to San Francisco.

When the Paulists at old St Mary’s recommended he try the Carmelites, Martin wrote to our Provincial in Oklahoma City, but Fr. Evarist was busy trying to move our novitiate from Texas to Arkansas, and didn’t answer for six months. Philip learned that a Carmelite named Pascal came from Sacramento, and asked to meet Pascal the next time he came home. They met at the SFO airport, and Philip was accepted as a postulant into the first novice class at the newly established novitiate of Marylake in Arkansas. He finally was allowed to receive the full novice’s habit in March 1953 after spending nine months of postulancy while we decided what to do with this Trappist reject.

Philip kept his middle name when he was clothed, but added the Trappist custom of Mary before it to replace his baptismal Martin. His initials remained the same MPW. So when he was professed on 01-May-54 at Marylake, Martin became Mary Philip of the Holy Family OCD. “In this unique man I have always seen an interesting combination of La Trappe and Carmel,” said Fr. Sam in his eulogy. “This good man joined the austerity of the Trappist life with some very distinctive traits of our Discalced Carmelite Saints. Curiously, I think that in this man the Trappist soul added energy to Carmel’s own Elijan spirit.”

Brother Philip was then sent to our House of Studies in San Antonio, where “by special dispensation” he was allowed to be ordained at the end of his third year of theology. He was ordained a priest by the Auxiliary Bishop of San Antonio in St. Mary’s church on 30-May-59. Notice the recurrence in Philip’s life of St. Mary’s: parish church, parochial school, college, church of ordination. There was also a recurrence of anniversaries. All Philip’s anniverseries were in May: birth, profession, ordination. In June of 1959, Philip returned to Phoenix’s St. Mary’s to celebrate his first Solemn Mass. He was joined by his first prior, Fr. Felix DaPrato OCD, and his cousin Fr. Cornelius Snyder OFM. Their picture was taken at Philip’s reception in St Mary’s auditorium on 07-Jun-59. The reception lasted from 3-5 pm that Sunday afternoon. The young priest’s mother [between Felix and Philip] shows a proud smile for her son. Philip’s father Felix would die the following March.

In 1963, Philip was elected 2nd Provincial definitor under Raymond Donoho. This was quite an honor for a young man recently ordained to be elected to the third highest office in our province. This chapter photo shows Raymond and John Emmanuel in the middle. Raymond was the new boss; John the old. First Definitor Pascal sits left, and 2nd Definitor Philip on the right. During this triennium Philip was also placed in charge of our young students (of which I was one) studying in San Antonio. Here he gained a nickname. Fr. Helladius called him “Padre Papelitos,” that is, “Father of all the little notes.” Philip was a frugal man. Even if there were such a thing as Post-it notes back in 1964, he would never have sprung for the money to buy them. Although he would have been one of their best customers. Everywhere you went in our large Carmelite complex in San Antonio, you’d find a little piece of paper posted by Philip. If you were asked to change a light bulb in a ceiling fixture, on the outer glass you’d find a note with instructions on the proper procedures, steps 1-5 detailing which direction to unscrew the screws and where to put the screws once you had removed them, etc.

He was a man of minute detail. Once we asked if we could go see a movie. Philip checked the newspaper to see when and where the particular movie we wanted to see would be shown. When we got back from class, we found a note on the student bulleton board: The students may go see a movie this evening if they fulfill the following conditions: 1. finish your magazine article for the Apostolate, 2. complete your homework, 3. mop the kitchen floor, 4. You may leave in the Oldsmobile at 5:52 after vespers, and 5. be back home by 8:23 pm. In 1977 I prepared a curriculum vitae on Philip for our provincial archives. I gave it to him to check for errors and asked him to jot down anything I had missed. He handed it back to me a few days later. One of my entries was, “Houston 1971-72.” He wrote after that, “I arrived Friday Sept 10, 1971 at 2:58 pm. I vacated or left Houston house for last time at 11:15 am Feb. 6, 1973.” Of what dubious interest it might be to some obscure historian in years to come to know that Father arrived at 7907 Bellaire Blvd in Houston at 2:58 in the afternoon, and left the place at 11:15 in the morning, it certainly reveals the heart of a meticulous man. He used his attention to minutiae to good advantage when researching the Wurth family tree. I want you to know that the photograph above was taken on 21-Nov-75 at 12:07 pm. You can see how the student learned from his master. How Philip must have rejoiced to see the dawn of the digital age when the time the photo was taken is now imbedded in the picture down to 100th of a second.

Philip was elected to our Provincial council five separate times, serving under four different Provincials, first under Raymond, then from ’72-75 under Herman, ’84-90 under Ralph, and ’90-93 under Aloysius. Those last two times he was 1st Definitor which made him the vicar provincial in charge of the Province when the provincial was away. His talents were widely recognized. He was in charge of our Provincial finances from ’84-93, and was house procurator in practically every house of our province to which he was assigned.

When he was only two years old, Martin got polio. It was a disease that would shape his life. Anyone who knows someone with post-polio syndrome, sees how much effort it takes to do the slightest things like holding one’s head up straight or walking down a ladder or keeping from being run over by a tractor. Things the rest of us take for granted, became a life long struggle for Philip. He was always exercizing, even if it was to stretch the only muscle in his whole body which he could move. After paralysis set in, that one hand was always in motion. That he could move; that he would exercise.

Philip was man of responsibility. His devotion to being responsible for whatever project he was given was total. Every report would be finished and handed in on time, even if it meant staying up all night to complete. One might not have noticed how totally responsive he was until you lived with him for awhile. When he was in charge of our house records at Marylake when I was superior, I noticed Philip would only give periodical financial reports even though he was supposed to do so at each community meeting. Once I examined his books, I realized that the only time he’d give a report was when our expenses exceeded our income. It was when we made more than we spent that he’d give no financial report. He knew if we knew we had money, we’d spend it. He once reprimanded Father Sam at Mt Carmel when Sam had written the monthly newsletter while Philip was away. “You were far too positive,” Philip told Sam. “If our readers think we’re doing fine, they’ll cut back their donations.” So we began to call Philip’s newsletters, “the lamentations.” Every busted water pipe, sputtering motor, broken chair or flat tire was reported in vivid detail.

Philip became a political force in west Dallas when the water department raised our fee. He phoned the Catholic High Schools, both Catholic and Episcopal dioceses, Cisterian Abbey, Baptist College, and even SMU to protest the new fee to the City council. Some were not affected, and the others thought it was not worth their time to buck City Hall. So Philip reluctantly signed up to speak to the City Council the day they voted on the new fee. The Major’s office had already told him it would easily pass. He was told to come to City Hall at 1:00 pm with a prepared talk of no more than 3 minutes. Then the political maneuvering began. The Mayor moved the water fee hearing up to the first item on the morning agenda. Any protests would have to be presented by 9:00 am. Philip rushed downtown with his talk unprepared. When he got to City Hall the opposition was concluding, and the council was about to move onto the next item on the agenda. One business man protested that he had not been called. “While he was speaking I checked to see if my name had been called before I arrived,” Philip said. Someone had “accidentally” moved Philip’s name to another item to be covered later on. He protested, and was called up immediately.

“I did not have a prepared paper to read. I finished before the 2-1/2 minute bell rang. Briefly I mentioned that as they were having difficulty getting sufficient income to run the city so too the people and businesses in the poor areas of the city, West and South Dallas, were struggling to survive with the loss of jobs, income, and sales. We continued only by keeping our expenses low. We in this area of the city could not afford to pay the same high fees that North Dallas could easily swallow. Please take that into consideration when assessing us. There was more that I had intended to say but it slipped my mind at the moment.

“After I sat down, one person near me in the audience told me that at least I had every council member paying close attention to what I said. A few moments later a woman from the Water Dept came to tell me that they had reduced our estimated fee from $272 to $50.” This would be the first of many appearances Philip made at City Hall. Today if you drive south on Dallas’ Loop 12 freeway, as you approach the Jefferson Avenue exit, you see a sign announcing “Davis St.” That’s the street where Mt Carmel Center is located. Philip is responsible for the highway dept. putting up that sign.

He became a political force to be reckoned with. And every maneuver the Mayor or City Hall politicos made to avert his intervention, Philip always managed to out-maneuver them. Because he was always there. And he was always prepared. Even when he didn’t think he was.

In 1984, Philip celebrated his 25th jubilee as a Carmelite priest. He was stationed at Marylake at that time, and his three sisters came in from Phoenix for the joyful occasion. Kathleen Pemberton is on the left, Elizabeth Scott/Garth in the middle, and Angela Ronan on the right. They visited our nuns on 32nd Street in Little Rock, and one of the cloistered nuns took their picture from the other side of the grill in their parlor.

During Philip’s 54 years as a professed Carmelite, he had been stationed in each of our major foundations. He was professed at Marylake in Little Rock, then sent to San Antonio to study for the priesthood and be ordained. In 1966 he was sent back to Marylake for five years. In 1971 we was sent to Houston, then in ’73 on special provincial assignment to close down our houses in Houston, in Hartshorne OK, and Mt. Carmel Seminary of Dallas. I once mentioned to him that I did not think he was ever stationed at our traditional motherhouse in Oklahoma City. He responded, "In Nov '73 they sent me to OKC. I was there for a month. Then I was sent to San Antonio from Sept to June '74, when I came to Dallas." From ’74-81 he was Fr. Sam’s right hand man in establishing our province’s house of Spirituality in the old seminary building in Dallas. This wore him out, and in ’81 he asked to retire back to Marylake. But in 1986 Fr. Sam was called to Rome. The one man in the province Sam trusted would keep the Center going until he returned was Philip. Sam confessed to me that in 1986, “I stole Philip from you.” He had been my right hand man at Marylake. This was when Philip became superior in Dallas. When Sam returned from Rome he served under Philip until 1999 when Philip asked to be stationed in a warmer climate, like Phoenix for instance! Well we didn’t have a house there, but San Antonio served him well for the remaining eight years of his life.

Father's burial service can be found at http://okfriarsnewslet.blogspot.com