by Barbara Stinson Lee
Intermountain Catholic

Return to special coverage of Bishop Wester's Installation

DALY CITY, Calif. — Helen Wester’s home in Daly City, south of San Francisco, the home the Wester family has lived in since their oldest son, Bishop John Charles Wester was six years old, sits on a quiet street. Little on the outside of the neat, blue and white split-level hints at the excitement going on inside.

Helen, who turns 80 just days before Bishop Wester is installed as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, is a study in calm as she settles to talk in the sunny living room of the home. She is calm, but she is also intensely proud of her oldest son, as she is of all of her children and her nine grandchildren. Mixed in, of course, are the emotions that go with watching Bishop Wester move hundreds of miles away.

The excitement of Bishop Wester’s new appointment marks a new chapter in the close Wester family, but it doesn’t overshadow the memories Helen Wester has of him as a child.

“John was very outgoing and friendly, even as a child,” said Helen. “He began playing the piano at the age of 8, and he took to it immediately. His music has been a great source of pleasure for him and for us. He was thrilled to find out there will be plenty of room in the bishop’s residence in Salt Lake City for his baby grand piano.”

The baby grand was one of young Father Wester’s first purchases after his ordination to the priesthood in 1976.

In elementary school, John Wester’s favorite subjects were English and history, interests he picked up from his late father, Charles, the vice president of a company that sold insurance to transportation companies.

Helen and Charles Wester met as young people when Charles returned from World War II. Both members of Epiphany Parish in San Francisco, they met at a meeting of the parish’s Magi Club. Helen said she took to Charles immediately. They dated for two years, and were married in 1948. Charles Wester died in 1999; a year after his son was named auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Bishop John Charles Wester was born in San Francisco in 1950. Two-and-a-half years later, his brother, Barry, was born. Barry, a lawyer, has three sons, Jeffrey, 24, Bryan, 22, and Andrew, 18. Three years after Barry was born, Nancy came along. Nancy Barbi and her late husband, Stephen, had three children, Robert, 22, Jennifer, 19, and Stephen, 14. Kathy Wester was born five years after Nancy. Kathy and her husband, Terry O’Sullivan have three children, Michael, 19, John Eric, named after his uncle John, 17, and Sarah, 13.

“John has always been very loving, even when he was little, and the other children were born,” Helen said. “He was a good first child, and the other children felt lost when he entered the seminary. But it was different then, he could come home on weekends and vacations, and we spent a lot his time home on the Russian River. They grew up fishing, camping, and planning picnics.”

Helen Wester said she began to see signs of John’s vocational call to the priesthood early. “He wanted the serve Mass at Our Lady of Mercy Parish, and he learned to serve Mass just the way Msgr. (William) Powers liked it served.

“When he was in the eighth grade, so young, he took the test to enter the seminary. We knew it was what he wanted to do. At first, we wanted him to go to St. Ignatius High School, but Msgr. Powers said if John was not meant to be a priest, he would leave the seminary. But he didn’t, and he became a marvelous priest and bishop.”

There are religious vocations in both Bishop Wester’s mother’s and his father’s families, so Helen said she wasn’t too surprised at their son’s decision.

As demanding as seminary study was, Bishop Wester always has remained closely involved with his siblings and their children. When Kathy graduated from high school, John came home from the seminary to take her to a Neil Diamond concert – all she asked for for graduation.

“John has always been very good at doing things with the family,” Helen said. “He’s always been on the right track, but he’s never been a ‘goody-goody.’

“He sees the best in everyone,” said Helen, who has heard Bishop Wester plays practical jokes on his friends, but has seen no evidence of it at home. “He has earned the love and respect of everyone, and his brother priests have been so good to him.”

Helen said John’s ordination to the priesthood and his being named auxiliary bishop, “were proud days for my husband and me,” and the Westers made a point of being active in the parishes Father, then Bishop Wester served when they could.

“He was first assigned to St. Raphael’s Parish as an associate pastor,” Helen said. “We followed him there.”

Since her husband’s death, Helen has depended on John and Barry to help her keep up the house. She has always been delighted that Bishop Wester shares his father’s love of carpentry. He’s also solved minor plumbing problems.

“He’s very handy,” Helen said with a smile. He putters around to help him relax. His grandfather on his father’s side could build anything. John and his father built cabinets in the garage and a shed in the back yard.”

The Wester family had pets – dogs mostly, and as a deacon, Bishop Wester had a German shepherd that lived with him at St. Augustine Parish.

The family still spends as many enjoyable vacations as possible at the family cabin at Pollock Pines on Jacobson Lake in the High Sierras, where Bishop Wester enjoys kayaking, hiking, and swimming.

As a teacher, then an administrator at Marin Catholic High School, Helen said Bishop Wester developed great rapport with the students.

“He eventually married a lot of them and baptized their children. He loved that sacramental part of his ministry, and he still loves it as a bishop.”

Bishop Wester moved from school administrator to the archdiocesan chancery as assistant superintendent of Catholic schools, then was named assistant to Archbishop John R. Quinn, emeritus archbishop of San Francisco.

“John worked very closely with Archbishop Quinn,” said Helen. “He considers the archbishop his mentor, and they are still very close. Archbishop Quinn has had a great influence on John’s life.”

Even watching Bishop Wester’s rise in the archdiocese, neither Helen nor his friends to whom the Intermountain Catholic spoke saw him as being on any kind of a “fast track.”

“John has always done what was asked of him,” Helen said. “Whether it was us, his parents, or the Catholic Church. He always has answered the call of God; gone where he was asked to go, and done what he was asked to do. There has never been any ambition to it. He has many gifts, one of which is sincere humility. He’s very accepting to anything that comes his way.”

Helen enjoys Bishop Wester’s dry sense of humor, which seems to run through the entire family. “When he was at Marin Catholic (High School) he found that joking with the students was often better than heavy discipline.”

Helen was in the car when Bishop Wester took the call from Archbishop Pietro Sambi, papal nuncio to the United States, offering him the Diocese of Salt Lake City. Bishop Wester and his mother were driving home from Los Angeles.

“He pulled over and took the call away from the car,” Helen said. “He was sworn to secrecy, of course, but I knew something was up. I was suspicious, but I didn’t know for sure until the formal announcement was made. He called me from Salt Lake City just before the press conference.

“I’m glad he’s going to Salt Lake City,” Helen told the Intermountain Catholic. “As much as I hate to see him leave, Salt Lake City isn’t that far away. And I’m glad he’s walking in the footsteps of Archbishop (George) Niederauer, who is a lovely man.”

Helen is gracious and welcoming. In her it’s easy to see where Bishop Wester got his ease with people, even in difficult situations, and his diplomacy. When asked where she sees her oldest son in 10 years, Helen is philosophical.

“I don’t project myself into the future,” she said. “If he’s happy, I’m happy. We only have the present. The past is gone, and we don’t know about the future. All we have is today, and I’ll trust in God for that.”

“Not since Bishop (William K.) Weigand’s mother was alive has the Diocese of Salt Lake City had a First Lady,” Diocesan Administrator Msgr. J. Terrence Fitzgerald said. “Helen Wester will be our new First Lady.” Helen Wester speaks with the utmost pride of all four of her children, of whom Bishop John Wester is the oldest.