Students in Father Jim Neilson's Introduction to Studio Art class at St. Norbert College learn about line, shape and form through the construction and effectiveness of paper airplanes.

Teacher Preachers

by Rob Kaiser

Norbertines are celebrating their 900th anniversary with an ongoing international jubilee scheduled to culminate on Christmas Day.

The ancient religious order’s time in the United States, which dates back to the 1890s, may seem short by comparison, but it’s consequential. A big reason for that is the order’s U.S. education apostolate, which effectively began on the October day in 1898 that an immigrant priest from Holland named Father Bernard Pennings gave two students their first Latin lesson around a kitchen table at the St. Norbert Priory.

“Pennings’ push for educational apostolates was rooted in a very practical reason: to encourage young men to join him and his fellow Norbertines in a life dedicated to Roman Catholic culture and service to the local community,” says Father James “Seamus” Neilson.

“Blessedly, and not without the assistance, encouragement, and contributions of the local community, the work and dream of Abbot Pennings evolved and expanded to include a much larger and inclusive gathering of young men and women in a shared pursuit of truth, beauty, knowledge, wisdom and grace.”

Perhaps the best way to understand how Norbertine teaching changes lives may be to explore the lives and influence of individual educators from that order. What follows are profiles of three Norbertine educators, Neilson included. The lessons they taught, sometimes from the front of a classroom and other times from the byways of life itself, range from appreciating Trappist beer to making marriage work to standing strong when everything around you goes haywire.

The Greatest Lesson: The Joseph McLaughlin Story
During a philosophical rift in the Norbertine community in 1996, a strange thing happened.

The split thrust a highly regarded priest, the slender and mild-mannered Joseph McLaughlin, into the unaccustomed position of being the center of controversy.

The rift occurred when members of the order were unable to resolve differences over leadership and community priorities. Until then, Norbertines who taught and lived at the highly regarded Archmere Academy, in Claymont, Delaware, were affiliated with Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, Pennsylvania. During the mid-90s philosophical split some Norbertines left Daylesford and moved to Archmere, though they had no connection to the school. But McLaughlin, then the headmaster of Archmere, remained connected to Daylesford and therefore was removed as headmaster.

But the very steadfastness that drew McLaughlin into the vortex of a controversy leading to his ouster also makes him one of the more revered and unifying figures in Archmere Academy’s history. His removal set off an uproar among alumni and many of those at the school, and a few years later he was restored as headmaster, having taught the students there perhaps their greatest lesson of all: stay the course, even in a howling storm.

In January 2019, the current Archmere headmaster, Michael Marinelli, '76, presented McLaughlin with the Carl Campion Service Award, which recognizes a current or former faculty or staff member for devoted and exceptional service to the Archmere Academy community.

The award is an opportunity to acknowledge an individual whose work ethic, humility, integrity, and spirit have made the Archmere community a better place over time. During Father McLaughlin’s first term as headmaster, he was instrumental in forming a long-range planning committee that created a blueprint to guide Archmere into the twenty-first century.

A Philadelphia native, McLaughlin attended St. Aloysious Grade School in Bryn Mawr and St. John Neumann High School in Philadelphia. In August of 1962 he entered the novitiate of Daylesford Abbey, Paoli, to begin his priesthood studies. Having received a bachelor’s degree from St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, he studied at both St. Norbert Abbey and Daylesford Abbey. He holds a Master’s in Religious Studies from Villanova University and a Master’s in English from the University of Wisconsin.

Prior to coming to Archmere, Father McLaughlin’s assignments included teaching at St. John Neumann High school and serving as the master of novices at Daylesford Abbey. After his ordination on May 1, 1970, his first assignment was teaching English at Archmere Academy.

Finding God: The Sebastian Walshe Story
The first turning point in Sebastian Walshe’s life came when he was a child.

The Norbertine priest was 10 years old the October afternoon he came home from school and found his mother dead.

After Walshe called 911, as he was waiting for the paramedics to reach his house, he sat in the living room pounding his fist on the floor and asking God why.

“When the paramedics arrived, they had me wait in the ambulance,” he recalls. “As I sat there, I made a prayer to God which could only have been inspired by the pure grace of the Holy Spirit.”

“It’s alright that you took my mother,” Walsh told God. “You can even take my father. But don’t let me ever lose You.”

To this day, Walshe says, this prayer surprises him. “I do not remember being so devout that it would have been natural for me to say such a prayer,” he says. “Yet at the time I made it I was completely sincere and serious.

“I believe it was that prayer which merited for me the grace of conversion to the Catholic faith.”

Today the Pasadena, California, native, is a Norbertine canon of the Abbey of St. Michael in the Diocese of Orange, California, and a philosophy professor in the seminary program there. He’s also the author of Understanding Marriage and Family, in which he defends the traditional Catholic view of marriage. And he’s a regular guest on the radio program “Catholic Answers Live.”

Walshe’s vocation is a big departure from his first job out of college. With a degree in electrical engineering, he landed a plum job at an intellectual-property law firm, mostly writing patent applications. He made good money. He had his own secretary. He had an office overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

“And yet deep within my soul,” Walshe recalls, “I was unsatisfied.

“I knew that I would have to look elsewhere if I wanted to be truly happy.”

So came another turning point in Walshe’s life, one that would work in concert with the first to nudge him toward the priesthood. He went back to school, this time at St. Thomas Aquinas College.

“Father Sebastian is a very kind, intelligent man,” says Father Chrysostom Baer, prior at St. Michael’s Abbey. “He's of a happy disposition, always cheerful and sociable. His preaching is very clear and linear, simplifying sometimes complex issues. And so he resonates well with the faithful.”

Life as Art: The James “Seamus” Neilson Story
St. Norbert College art professor James “Seamus” Neilson isn’t one to gulp life down. Rather, he savors it, gives himself over to it, like he does a stained-glass window he’s viewing or a Norbertine beer he’s sipping.

Neilson teaches students about the latter using a PowerPoint presentation that reads:

“Never, ever drink straight from the bottle!”

“There’s an etiquette involved in correctly enjoying something so thoughtfully and carefully created.

“There’s SPECIAL GLASSES that allow the fragrance to circulate and enter the atmosphere (and our noses!)”

In this slide show, in Neilson’s own words, is a portrait of the artist by the artist. Faith. Art. Education. A boundless sense of wonder. At the confluence of these can be found the essence of one Jim Neilson. Here’s someone who stops to smell the beer, a man to whom life itself is the ultimate work of art.

A couple of months ago, a reporter told Neilson his syllabus for an art class suggests he “must have fun” teaching. Neilson, himself a mixed-media artist, responded with characteristic enthusiasm. “I've only, ever, and always taught,” he said, “so it’s the air I breathe.”

Neilson liked teaching even during the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced professors to hold class on Zoom.

“Online education has been more than a bit of a challenge,” he says, “but technology is a marvel, for sure. Every episode of my favorite boyhood cartoon, The Jetsons, has come true now.”

Neilson, a 1988 graduate of the college, has served on St. Norbert’s faculty since 1993. His own art can be seen in private collections as well as at the college.

One of the courses Neilson teaches explores stained-glass windows, of which he is a joyful connoisseur. (“Not to be missed at the abbey church of St. Foy in France,” he says, “are the amazing glass windows by Pierre Soulages.”)

Neilson’s passion for life and his capacity for savoring it are reflected in the alternate first name he gave himself years ago. It happened when Neilson arrived at St. Norbert Abbey 37 years ago to find himself in the company of seven other men named James. He decided to distinguish himself and celebrate his Tipperary roots by using the Irish version of James, Seamus.

“I like this name,” Neilson says. “A lot!”

July 31, 2021