Rev. Janeck hailed for a life of accomplishments

By Rebecca Jones, Special To The News

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Father Thomas Janeck charmed people with his prized pies.

The Rev. Thomas More Janeck's official biography glitters with accomplishment: one-time head of the Capuchin Order of Friars; honored by Pope John Paul II for his work with migrant workers in Colorado; college president; a priest for 62 years.

But the thing most of his brother friars at Denver's St. Francis friary remember him best for is his pies. "He'd bake a whole slew of them, and they were highly sought after," said the Rev. Blaine Burkey, spokesman for the St. Conrad Province of Mid-America of the Capuchin order.

Father Janeck, "T. More," as he was often called, died June 8 at the friary in northwest Denver. He was 88.

His fellow friars credit Father Janeck with helping to steer their order successfully through the challenging years after Vatican II, when the life and liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church began changing dramatically. He was elected provincial minister, the head of the order, in 1964 and held the job for seven years.

"It was a tough time, a time when a lot of priests were leaving, and things were changing radically with the Catholic liturgy," said the Rev. Charles Polifka, current provincial minister and a onetime student of Father Janeck's when he taught physics at a Catholic military school in Hays, Kan. "He had to hold together the conservatives and the liberals. He did it by listening to both sides. That was one of his gifts, to be able to listen and make you feel you were really understood."

Born June 1, 1920, in Salem, Ohio, Father Janeck was the ninth of 11 children. He was named George, but eventually gave up that name when he entered the novitiate. When he was in the third grade, his family moved to Aliquippa, Pa., where his father worked in the steel mills.

At 14, he went to St. Fidelis Seminary, 50 miles away in Herman, Pa. After six years there, he entered the Capuchin novitiate in Cumberland, Md. He studied philosophy at St. Fidelis Friary in Victoria, Kan., then spent eight years studying first theology and then physics at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. In the middle of earning his master's degree in physics, he was ordained a priest on June 11, 1946.

After graduation, he went to St. Joseph's College and Military Academy in Hays, Kan., teaching physics and math. He was also chief disciplinarian at the school.

"He was a very fair disciplinarian," said Father Polifka, who credits Father Janeck with steering him into the priesthood. "The thing I remember most about him is that he was a very great leader. His presence commanded attention. I always felt he'd have made a great general."

Father Janeck left Kansas to assume the presidency of St. Fidelis College, his alma mater, from 1962-64.

After completing his tenure as provincial minister in 1971, he became assistant novice master at a friary in Annapolis, Md., then took the post of associate pastor of St. Conrad's Church in Ponce, Puerto Rico, from 1972-75. It was there that he learned to speak Spanish.

He came to Denver in 1975 as pastor of Annunciation parish, a predominantly Spanish-speaking parish. From this grew his ministry with migrant workers.

"He decided to go out into the fields himself, to help these people, to find out what their problems were," said Burkey. "He would go from field to field, spending time with them. And after the season was done, and they'd go back to Texas or down to Mexico, he'd go there with them."

For 22 years, until he retired in 2004, Father Janeck collected and distributed food and clothing to migrant workers, said Mass for them, organized groups of lay volunteers, and served on countless boards trying to provide housing, health care and education to migrants.

He received numerous awards for his work, and in 2000, Pope John Paul II honored him with the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, the highest award given by the church to someone other than a head of state, Burkey said.

He became chaplain of the local order of the Capuchin sisters, the Poor Clares, in 1988. "He loved them very much," said Polifka. "He felt solidified by their lives and their prayers for him." In order to better identify with the Poor Clares, Father Janeck began sleeping on a hard bed, just as they do. "He slept on that hard bed from 1988 until he died," Polifka said.

Memorial contributions may be made toward the completion of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America's new administration building at West 36th and Wyandot Street, P.O. Box 40575, Denver, CO 80204.