Stories and Photos

Rev. Carl Moell, SJ

THE "COMICS" ARE NOT ALL BAD!

The town of Wapakoneta (shortened form of the original Waughpaughkonnetta) is the center of Ohio's pure-bred livestock industry. Founded in 1833 it was named for an Indian chief, Waughpaugh, and his squaw, Konnetta.

Although I was there, I have absolutely no memories of the event. But the records show that Carl Joseph Moell was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio (in Auglaize County, Duchouquet Township) on 29 March 1921, eldest son of Laura Elizabeth (Wahl) and Carl Jacob Moell, first in a line of fourteen children, nine boys and five girls. Three brothers have already preceded us in death, one of them in infancy, two in their early fifties. At the time of my arrival on this planet, my parents live on a farm outside Wapakoneta, but before the time for me to begin school, we had moved nearer to town, where my father worked as a stock buyer for a local stockyard.

I attended St. Joseph School in Wapakoneta, both elementary and high school. One day in the seventh or eight grade, when the weather was bad and we could not go outside for noontime recreation, one of the Sisters asked me what I intended to do in life after I graduated from high school. I said without hesitation, "I'm going to be a priest."

"What kind of priest," she continued, "Precious Blood?" (Our parish priests belonged to the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, founded by St. Gaspar de Bufalo, and the Sisters who taught in the school were Precious Blood Sisters.)

"No," I answered. "I am going to be a Jesuit."

"A Jesuit!" she exclaimed. "But you don't know any Jesuits!" That was true. I never met a Jesuit until I applied to enter Milford Novitiate some time later. But I confidently explained: "I read the life of Francis Xavier in the 'funny papers' (our name for the Sunday 'comics'), and I am going to be a Jesuit." I referred to a more serious comic called "Highlights of History" which occasionally had the life of a saint.

And so it was. Without ever knowing a Jesuit and with great difficulty finding out where the Jesuits were (I answered an ad for "Jesuit Missions" in the now defunct "Messenger of the Sacred Heart" published in New York), I eventually found and entered Milford Novitiate sixty years ago on 31 August 1940.

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