by Barbara Stinson Lee
Intermountain Catholic

Return to special coverage of Bishop Wester's Installation

MENLO PARK, Calif. — A lot is said these days about the value of mentors and mentoring. But few mentoring relationships have the depth and the longevity of the one between Sulpician Father Eugene J. Konkel of St. Patrick’s Seminary and University and Bishop John Wester. Fr. Konkel first met the young, eager seminarian John Wester when he was attending the minor seminary when he was high school age. He then taught Bishop Wester English the seminary.

“We are best friends, I think I can say,” said Fr. Konkel during an interview with the Intermountain Catholic Feb.27 in his office at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park.

Of Bishop Wester’s English prowess, Fr. Konkel said, “I think he knows a few poems.”

But of the humanness, the deeply spiritual Bishop Wester, Fr. Konkel knows a great deal.

“Bishop Wester is basically a lover,” Fr. Konkel said. “He listens to people with compassionate wonder, and he has a profound pastoral sense.

“A lot of people have attached themselves to Bishop Wester, and it’s no wonder. He’s at his best when he’s meeting people’s needs. He’s very balanced.”

Fr. Konkel recalls trying to teach the bishop how to play tennis.

“Let’s say he plays golf quite well. Actually, one good golf shot keeps him coming back to play more. He is a good sportsman who loves to compete. He also loves puzzles, crossword puzzles cryptograms and Sudoku, anything that offers him a mental challenge.”

Fr. Konkel said the kidding around, the tongue-in-cheek ripostes, Bishop Wester’s well known sense of humor is the human part, the balanced part of the man revealing itself.

“He was always a good student. When Archbishop Quinn selected John as his secretary, in his spare time he earned two graduate degrees, one in counseling and one in spirituality. He spent a summer in Mexico learning Spanish. He’s always been intellectually curious. At the same time, he’s happy putting in electrical plugs and pounding nails.”

Fr. Konkel didn’t think it the least bit odd that Bishop Wester’s famed color blindness doesn’t get in the way of his electrical work. “He drove a cab in San Francisco one summer. I think he watched the positions of the lights, not the colors. But I don’t think he made very much money because he would pay people’s fares when they were going to the hospital or were a little short of money.”

Fr. Konkel, a native of Wisconsin, once took a young Father Wester home to visit his family at Christmas time. “He didn’t believe he could actually walk on water or an iced-over lake, and he was a little afraid until he saw cows and cars and trucks, even airplanes using the ice as a roadway.”

Fr. Konkel said Bishop Wester’s spirituality is grounded in his faithful observance of a daily holy hour. “Regular prayer offers us a lot to draw on, and he draws on that to write homilies and to counsel people.”

Despite all the changes in store for him, Fr. Konkel said he is convinced Bishop Wester loves where he is. “He is really wonderful anywhere, but you in Salt Lake City are really blessed to have him.”

Planning to be a frequent visitor to his mentee, Fr. Konkel said he expects Bishop Wester to sleep on the floor so he can be guaranteed a comfortable bed.

Earlier in February, Fr. Konkel took part in a roast of Bishop Wester, which he said the bishop took with his usual good sense of humor.

“At the roast, I said I’ve known the man more than 40 years, and there is nothing I wouldn’t do for him. There is also nothing he wouldn’t do for me. So, that’s what we’ve done for each other for 40 years - absolutely nothing. Of course, that isn’t true, but it got a good laugh.”

Bishop Wester, Fr. Konkel said, is “about the best friend you could ever have. He’s committed to his friends, and he’ll always be the same.”

Sulpician Father Eugene J. Konkel of St. Patrick’s Seminary and University (left) and Bishop John Wester have such a close relationship that they talk by phone daily. Since Bishop Wester was studying in the minor seminary, Fr. Konkel has watched the transformation from eager high school student to devoted bishop. The two are seen here at the farewell dinner for clergy following Evening Prayer at St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park.