The Life of a Redemptorist: Fr. Carl Hoegerl, C.Ss.R.
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November 3, 2021Carl W. Hoegerl was born October 10, 1923, in Harmonsburg, Pennsylvania. He once fondly reminisced about his youth. When he was a boy in the 1930s, his father asked him to take a basket filled with apples and a bottle of Kimmel schnapps to the local convent as a Christmas gift. After the holiday, the German sisters asked the young man to tell his father that the sisters enjoyed the apples immensely.
In Harmonsburg, Pennsylvania, south of Erie, the sisters were part of a community where old-world German Catholicism was deeply ensconced and the cultivation of piety and respect for religious life was normative. It was not altogether unexpected therefore, that Carl would enter the Redemptorist high school seminary at nearby North East, Pennsylvania, and there he developed a voracious appetite for reading.
He was class organist and, in his last year, was valedictorian. After novitiate at Ilchester, Maryland, where he professed vows, he went on to further studies at Mt. St. Alphonsus Seminary. He was ordained a priest in the chapel at Mount St. Alphonsus in 1950. He later began graduate studies in medieval history at the Catholic University of America.
A long period as an educator ensued. Between 1953 and 1972 he was a professor in the Redemptorist minor seminary at North East and then at the major seminary at Esopus, where he also served as prefect of students. A fellowship from the American Association of Theological Schools allowed for study at the University of Münster where he expanded his knowledge of Martin Luther and Reformation history. He even passed through Checkpoint Charlie to East Berlin to attend a conference on the 450th anniversary of Martin Luther posting his 95 Theses.
From 1972 to 1978 he was master of novices for the three American Provinces of the Redemptorists. He incorporated contemporary theology grounded in tradition at a time when the residual effects of the Second Vatican Council were beginning to be felt in profound ways both in religious life and the wider Catholic world.
In 1978, he was appointed pastor of St. James and St. John Church, Baltimore. He enjoyed urban ministry—his only foray into direct pastoral work to this point—and used his brief pastorate to collect a large reservoir of information on Redemptorist history in Baltimore.After only two years, however, he was called to Rome by the Redemptorist Superior General, Most Rev. Joseph Pfab, who appointed Fr. Carl to the Redemptorist Historical Institute at the order’s general headquarters. In 1984 Father Hoegerl began work on the canonization cause of the Servant of God, Francis Xavier Seelos, C.Ss.R., and was appointed by the prefect of the Congregation of Saints Causes as an external assistant.
Father Hoegerl was able to canvas important archives around Europe for information on Father Seelos and this also broadened his knowledge of the history of the Baltimore Province as well. In 1987, Fr. Hoegerl began full-time work on the Seelos cause. It proved from documentary sources the heroicity of the virtues of Father Seelos and led to Seelos’ beatification on April 9, 2000. He was a concelebrant with Pope St. John Paul II at the beatification Mass in St. Peter’s Square.
Father Hoegerl was re-assigned to the Provincial House in Brooklyn to become archivist of the Baltimore Province. He became the unofficial province historian.
Among Father Hoegerl’s interests is his enjoyment of nature. He assisted in the greenhouse while a student at Esopus and later in life grew orchids. He is also renowned for his walks around Manhattan (where he chronicled every church visited) and earlier in life, for mountain climbing, particularly in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. In the Whites he summited nearly all the "Presidents” in that chain of mountains with elevations above 4000 feet.For his life-long service and accomplishments, the Institute forNorth American Redemptorist History presented Father Hoegerl with its 2013 Seelos Award.
Father Hoegerl, who was in residence at the Redemptorist residence of St. John Neumann at Stella Maris in Maryland, passed into the hands of God on November 4, 2021.
(Courtesy of Baltimore Beacon.)
