Father Peter Paul Forrestal, C.S.C.

"Pete does more ministry before breakfast than a lot of people do all day."

    Peter Paul Forrestal was born on June 29, 1889 to Patrick Forrestal and Johanna Murphy in County Wexford, Ireland.  He was baptized at the parish church in Ballindaggin, Enniscorthy.  At the age of eleven, in 1900, he came to live with a cousin in St. Bernard's Parish in Watertown, Wisconsin.  He was one of six children, three of whom stayed in Ireland and three of whom came to the United States.  At St. Bernard's he came in contact with the Congregation of Holy Cross; Rev. Patrick Condon, C.S.C. was the pastor at that time.

    He entered Holy Cross Seminary at Notre Dame one year later at the age of thirteen.  He was received into the novitiate on June 30, 1906, one day after his 17th birthday.  He took final vows on July 9, 1910 and graduated from Notre Dame in 1911.  In his senior year at Notre Dame he was the editor of Scholastic Magazine.  After studying theology at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., he was ordained at Notre Dame on June 25, 1915.  He offered his first Mass at St. Brendan's Parish in Chicago where one of his brothers was living.  Father Thomas Irving, C.S.C., superior of Holy Cross Seminary, preached.

    His first assignment in the Congregation was to teach at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas.  He remained for twenty years (1915-1935) at St. Edward's, with the exception of time studying.  He was, for a while, the Prefect of Discipline.  While working at St. Edward's, he became in helping out parishes and missions in the Austin area and became, for the first time, involved in ministry with Mexican-Americans.  It was during these years that Holy Cross first began serving the Mexican-American community in Austin at Guadalupe Parish.  Father Patrick O'Reilly, the pioneer in this work, was pastor from 1906--1917.  He was succeeded by Father Walter O'Donnell (1927-1920) and Father Angus McDonald (1920-1924).  Father Forrestal knew all of these men.  He, himself, became an American citizen in 1925.

    He received a master's degree from St. Edward's and earned a doctorate in literature from Loyola University in Los Angeles in 1929.  During 1929-30 he studied at the University of Madrid in Spain.  Those studies were cut short by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.  From 1935 until his retirement in 1962, Father Forrestal taught Spanish and Spanish literature at Notre Dame and served as a hall prefect and rector.  He was also the author of articles in a number of historical journals, including Catholic Historical Review and Records of the American Catholic Historical Society.

    Father Forrestal was well known as a translator.  His translations were often of the journals of the early Spanish explorers to the southwest United States.  His translation of Fray Alonso Benavides' 1630 report to King Philip IV of Spain regarding the Franciscans in New Mexico was described in this way:

    Father Peter P. Forrestal, C.S.C. of the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Notre Dame, presents Benavides' memorial of 1630 in an eminently readable English version.  In producing this translation he has consistently preserved the delicate balance between slavish literalness and wordy interpolation.  Clear and smooth-flowing, the text yet retains much of the flavor and feeling of Fray Alonso's seventeenth-century-Spanish (Cover jacket on book)

    Besides his academic work, Father Forrestal was, for years, the rectory of Sorin Hall.  He is remembered as a kindly grandfather--moderately stern towards his charges, protective of them and their hall against the world.  There is still memory of a song his students at Sorin sang referring to some of his restrictions.  The song went: "We can't whistle.  We can't sing.  We can't do a goddam thing."

   He is remembered as very sensitive about any comments which he considered uncomplimentary regarding Ireland, Texas, Spain, Sorin Hall and baldness.

   His zeal for South Bend's migrant workers was noted many times.  Someone commented that, "Pete does more ministry before breakfast than a lot of people here do all day."

   Father Leo Ward in his 1981 address to the Province Assembly quoted John J. Cavanaugh, "Look at Father Forrestal, an old sick man, still going out, a pastor seeing his people and the people still coming to see him."

   Father Raymond Cour relates that Father Frank Cavanaugh thought that one of life's greatest mysteries was this: how self-interest and the will of God coincide in so many community arrangements.  Frank always ended his comments on this mystery by saying, "You don't see anyone angling for Forrestal's job."

   He retired from Notre Dame in 1962 and entered the community infirmary at Notre Dame in 1968.  He suffered from very painful arthritis in his spine.  He died on July 15, 1973 at the age of 84 after 66 years in religious life in Holy Cross.  Throughout his life Father Forrestal retained his Irish brogue and spoke Spanish fluently.

   At a Legion of Mary meeting in South Bend, probably in 1947, Father John Sabo of the Diocese of Fort Wayne mentioned that there was a growing number of Mexican families coming into the area as migrant workers.  He was concerned that no one in the church was paying any attention to them.  From the Legion group at St. Joseph Parish in South Bend, some lay members took up the challenge and began to visit the families they could find along Western Avenue, Mayflower Road, Peach Road, State Road 23, southwest of town and on Gumz farm.  Especially involved in these early efforts were two young men, the sons of Joseph and Margaret Ruetz.

   They approached Father Forrestal at Notre Dame for help.  Many of the people they were contacting did not speak English, thus the local parishes were not equipped to serve them.  Father Forrestal readily agreed and thus began a ministry that lasted form 1947 to 1968 and, actually, until his death in 1973.  When we see later what this work exacted of Father Forrestal, it is amazing to remember that for fifteen of those years he was also teaching and in hall ministry at Notre Dame full time.

   When his sons were drafting in the early 1950's during the Korean War, Joseph Ruetz himself took over this ministry to which he generously dedicated the rest of his life.  The story of Joseph Ruetz and Peter Forrestal and the Mexican-American apostolate in South Bend is well worth the telling.  What has gone before in this paper is all preface to this story.