Fr. Roger J. Landry
National Review Online
November 7, 2020
On November 1, All Saints Day, Andrew Walther, President and Chief Operating Officer of EWTN News, returned to the God who created and redeemed him. Andrew was a good friend with whom, while he was Vice President for Communications and Strategic Planning of the Knights of Columbus, I collaborated to host several events bringing the plight of persecuted Christians to the United Nations. We also collaborated on various other tasks.
I was honored to be asked to submit a short tribute to him for National Review Online. Words don’t do justice to who he was, and certainly 300 words can only scratch the surface, but I did the best I could not just to give thanks to God for the gift of Andrew’s friendship but also for the enormous good he was able to accomplish in his 45 years:
==================================
Andrew Walther made those around him better.
He was a courageous man who made others bolder.
He was a brilliant man, rich in practical wisdom, who made others smarter and more strategic.
He was a humble man content to do things behind the scenes who taught others to do things for the cause rather than for credit.
He was a leader comfortable in guiding from the front, the back, or the side.
He was a faithful man, whose love for God and the Church made him strive to rectify the Church’s weaknesses and prosper her mission.
He was his brothers’ keeper, even those persecuted in far off lands, and inspired others to similar solicitude.
His work for and among the heroic Christians of the Middle East, Nigeria and elsewhere gave him a heroism in ordinary life, seen not only in his intrepid perseverance never to give up for the causes he was shepherding but also in the focus he brought to his fight against leukemia. He asked questions. He studied. He prayed. He found reasons for hope, however small, and tenaciously pursued them.
He suffered with the manliness worthy of a Knight the painful side effects of his medicines without complaint or self-pity. He resolutely refused to let life be “taken” from him, but freely continued to “give” his life to the end (Jn 10:18), caring for his wife and young children of whom he was so proud, advancing the work of EWTN news, building the Institute for Ancient and Threatened Christianity. That Christian and personal maturity is one of the reasons why he was able to accomplish so much in 45 years.
I will deeply miss our occasional dinners, frequent phone calls, and unforgettable collaboration on different projects for the Church or in defense of persecuted Christians. I’m so grateful I had the chance to know him on earth and I pray that we’ll have a chance to get together again for a banquet without end.
==================================
I was also very honored to be able to attend his wake and to be asked by his wife Maureen to preside at his funeral Mass. Because of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, few of the thousands who would have wanted to be present were able to. In order to honor Andrew, to make possible for others who were not present to participate in some way by sharing in the words given about him, and to keep his example alive for those who might one day do a web search for him, I append here recordings taken of the four main addresses: his brother Stephen’s words of remembrance at the Vigil, his and Maureen’s good friend (and Godmother of their daughter Sabina) Kathryn Lopez’s remarks at the Vigil, the words of the Supreme Knight of Columbus Carl Anderson’s words at the Vigil, and finally Fr. Jonathan Kalisch OP’s homily at the funeral Mass.
To listen to Stephen Walther’s Nov. 6 words of remembrance, please click below:
To listen to Kathryn Lopez’s Nov. 6 words of remembrance, please click below:
To listen to Supreme Knight Carl Anderson’s Nov. 6 words of remembrance, please click below:
To listen to Father Jonathan Kalisch’s Nov. 7 homily at his funeral Mass, please click below:
==================================
Here is the text of Father Kalisch’s superb homily:
“Come you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt 25:34).
The life of our brother Andrew should be viewed – as all of our lives will one day be revealed to be – as the story of God’s pursuit of him; of the loving Father’s Presence & Goodness to him, at every moment of his life.
Andrew’s oldest sibling was lost in pregnancy and it was on a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe that Nancy and Chuck turned to the Blessed Mother to beseech the gift of another child. When Andrew’s own life in the womb was under threat, he was ‘spiritually adopted’ by the German Claretian Father Thomas Matten, whose prayers ushered in Andrew Thomas’s healthy birth on the feast of St. Andrew, the First-called of the Apostles and patron of the Eastern churches.
Andrew was conformed to Christ in the saving waters of baptism administered by Fr. Matten and the Venerable Servant of God Claretian Father Aloysius Ellacuria. As a boy of 6, Andrew was held and blessed by St. John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square, on May 6, 1981, one week before the attempted assassination of the Pontiff.
Growing up in Sherman Oaks, CA as the oldest of 10 children meant that Andrew learned early on, the reality of the Gift of Self – that we only become who we are made to be by giving of ourselves – as he often had to step in and help with the younger children. Trips to daily Mass, the family Rosary, and regular “15 minute visits” to various oratories, monasteries, and churches were combined with volleyball, camping, Dodgers baseball and surreptitiously watching the “A Team.” Andrew’s own extraordinary intellect and voracious ability to read, led him to excel at Speech and Debate, where he Captained and Coached the team at Notre Dame High School and earned a full debate scholarship to USC.
Inspired by the Ven. Holy Cross Father Patrick Peyton and his large Rosary Crusades – with their pioneering use of mass-media and communications for evangelization, Andrew began his own communications work covering the Apostolate of the Holy Relics, working with College Students promoting the Dignity of Human Life, and a ground-breaking national Pilgrimage of a piece of St. Juan Diego’s Miraculous Tilma of Tepeyac.
Coming of age as member of the “JPII Generation,” Andrew readily joined the Holy Father’s call for an evangelization that was new in its “ardor, methods, and expression” – all of which took shape in the whirlwind of activity, publicity and strategic thinking Andrew threw himself into. As one friend said, “If you had to get something done, you went to Andrew. The harder the project was, the better he relished the challenge.”
Praying at the tomb of Fr. Peyton for vocational guidance, Andrew saw a small K of C flag fluttering nearby. With the Knights of Columbus, Andrew’s vocation found its mission. As a close collaborator of the Supreme Knight, his work took on a global dimension. Think of the thousands of families who rededicated themselves to the faith through an encounter with Our Lady Star of the New Evangelization during the Guadalupe Festivals in Phoenix and LA? Or the tens of thousands of young adults who experienced the stirrings of their own vocation to faithful marriages, missionary discipleship, religious life, and the priesthood through the catechetical programs Andrew oversaw at the Love and Life Center for World Youth Day Madrid!
It was through their work at the Knights, that Andrew and Maureen met and committed themselves to a partnership for the whole of life in sacramental marriage. The gift of Frederick, Raphael, Gregory and Sabina is a particular sign of God’s loving presence in their lives. I invite all those here to commit to spiritually adopting and praying for each of these children.
“Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me”(Mt 25:40).
A man of immense gifts and magnanimous drive, Andrew understood that the basic human drama, as Karol Wojtyla pointed out, was to live each day in the gap “between the person-I-am and the person-I-ought-to-be,” and to never, ever settle for anything less than spiritual and moral greatness (G. Weigel). Keenly aware of the tremendous opportunity to effect the world around him, Andrew threw himself into disaster-response, work with the Latin American Bishops Conference, organizing the K of C Pilgrimage Fields in Rome for John Paul’s canonization, the academic rehabilitation of St. Junipero Serra’s missionary work, pro-life public policy efforts with the Marist Polls, the Leave No Neighbor Behind response to the pandemic and countless other projects for the mission of the Church. Andrew and his wife Maureen not only authored a New History of the Knights of Columbus, but his behind the scenes efforts were instrumental in developing the charism of the Knights of Columbus for the 21st century.
Andrew understood that to be a Knight meant standing in the breech against every evil, power, and principality of this world. How often did he have to combat the Father of Lies in his regular media work on behalf of the Church? And yet, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31) the confidence of St. Paul was also Andrew’s, burnished as it was by his own brush with the Enemy. “Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones?” (Rom 8:33) Andrew could scoff at the enemies of the Church because he personally knew the power of the Lord Jesus and of his guardian angel to intercede for and defend him.
For Andrew, to be a Knight of Columbus meant to be a man imbued with a mission of solidarity engaged in the battles of our time. A quick study, he clearly saw what was at stake – even in the smallest issue – and courageously acted – defending the Holy Father and the Faith at every turn from a global perspective.
Andrew, the Knight, was always ready to serve and fight, even at the cost of personal and reputational harm. For him, the charge “to bear one another’s burdens” and “to overcome evil with good” were personal. One friend described him as a “mine sweeper” who went ahead clearing the dangerous areas, so that you could protectively follow behind. Perhaps nowhere was this more evident than in his efforts to preserve and defend the religious liberty of the Persecuted Churches of the Middle East, where the Gospel was first preached. Andrew had a very strong sense that this mission of the defense of the Christians of Syria and Iraq was a particular call for which he readily risked his own life. The presence of Syrian Eparch Habash and Maronite Eparch Mansour, on behalf of their Patriarchs and brother Bishops and lay faithful – is a testament to the work of Andrew and the K of C there.
“Chastised a little, [the just] shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As Gold in the furnace, he proved them” (Wis 3:5-6).
Andrew’s first response to treatment for leukemia was by all accounts pretty miraculous. Those months charged Andrew and his family with an intense awareness of the beauty and gift of each day. Even as he was being treated, he continued to work 14-hour days with great haste and urgency in his new position at EWTN.
Conformity to Christ took odd turns – cut off from the daily reception of the sacraments during the pandemic – it was a difficult burden not to receive Holy Communion very often and spiritual warfare increased. To his beloved spouse, Andrew confided: “We have to be perfect so that we don’t give the Devil an opportunity.” They prayed a psalm together each night. The reality of the spiritual realm became more profound and more direct. “Tell God about it,” Andrew would counsel when the trials began to take their toll. Suffering offered a new perspective.
As the Leukemia came back, it was no longer a battle of what he could do, but of what he could bear. As the Beatification of Fr. McGivney approached, Andrew was on his Cross. He asked Maureen to help him make a “perfect Act of Contrition.” The words of Fr. McGivney’s farewell homily to the parishioners of St. Mary’s echoed, “I’m sorry if I was too hard… ‘whatever he had done had been in the interests of morality, in justice to religion, and for people’s spiritual welfare.’”
In the Book of Revelation 3:19-21, the Lord says: “I am the one who reproves and disciplines all those he loves: so repent in real earnest. Look, I am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to share his meal, side by side with him. Those who prove victorious I will allow to share my throne, just as I was victorious myself and took my place with my Father on his throne.”
The victory of our brother Andrew can be seen in the poetry of the sufferings he bodily endured – difficulty in breathing, medical restraints on his arms and legs. A Warrior after battle, his body bore scars of his fight: blisters and cuts from the restraints. He suffered so much and so well – a man who conquered so much was literally tied down and silenced. All ability was taken away from him; the utter inability to speak to anyone – and a pool of blood in his hands.
God knew that. It was the Feast day of All Saints. His beloved accompanied him to the end. The presence of priests. Blessed McGivney spiritually and physically present along with the Mother of God.
“What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution” or suffering? “No, (these are the trials through which we triumph) in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us” (Rom 8:35-37).
A priest who labored with Andrew reminded me of God’s mercy towards Andrew – which I suspect Andrew’s own sense of humor would enjoy: it is the lucky laborer who only has to work half a day, but still gets the full day’s wages. May our brother Andrew soon hear these words: “Well done, my Good and Faithful servant. Enter into the Kingdom prepared for you from all eternity.”
Given by Fr. Jonathan Kalisch, OP
St. Mary’s Church, New Haven, Ct
Nov 7, 2020
==================================
Andrew’s obituary
Andrew Thomas Walther passed away Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020 — the Feast of All Saints — at the age of 45.
Born Nov. 30, 1974, his passing comes at the end of a short but hard-fought battle with leukemia.
He is survived by his loving wife, Maureen, and their four young children: Frederick, Raphael, Gregory and Sabina.
He is also survived by his father, Charles Walther; his mother, Nancy Walther; his nine siblings: Konrad (Jessica) Von Walther, Stephen (Mary) Walther, Anna Walther (Julio Gandara), Gabrielle-Marie Walther, Nicholas Walther, Johanna Walther, John Walther, Julia Walther, and Mark Walther; his sisters- and brothers-in-law: Samantha (Sean) Donkin, Ryan (Patricia) Hough, Mark (Faith) Hough and Patrick (Cassandra) Hough; his many nieces and nephews; and numerous friends.
Andrew touched countless lives through his brilliant career — which included over a decade as a communications executive with the Knights of Columbus. In June of this year, Andrew began as president of EWTN News, a tenure cut short by his sudden and untimely passing.
Though his work was often quiet and behind the scenes, he brought life-saving aid and attention to the plight of persecuted Christians, especially in the Middle East. This work — dearest to Andrew of all his labors — has left an enduring impact. He has been heralded as the “greatest friend” for persecuted Christians by Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, Iraq.
Vespers service with time for prayer and reflection will take place on Friday, Nov. 6, at 5:00 p.m. in St. Mary’s Church, 5 Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven, CT. A period of public visitation will be available from 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Words of remembrance and Compline will be offered at 7:30 p.m. Due to current Covid-19 restrictions, a maximum of 100 people will be allowed in the church at a time. All in attendance must wear a mask and adhere to social distancing guidelines.
A private Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Nov. 7 with burial following in St. Agnes Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, support of Andrew’s work with persecuted Christians would be welcome. Checks can be made out to “Institute of Ancient and Threatened Christianity” and sent to 5 Darcy Road, York, ME 03909. The Iovanne Funeral Home, Inc. is in care of his arrangements.