Today I attended funeral services for Msgr. Jacques Wenting. Msgr. Wenting taught me French and Latin while I was in High School. He was one of the hardest instructors I've ever studied under, which is probbaly why I liked him so much. I hated going to class, and feared what would happen when I inevitably fouled something up linguistically. Fr. Wenting (he was appointed a monsignor in 2000, after I graduated, so I am accustomed to calling him Fr. Wenting) gave me my first formal training in foreign languages, which lead to my eventual understanding of the English language. I graduated with an English Degree from Columbia College, so I would say Fr. (Msgr.) Wenting helped laid the foundation for that. I never really "enjoyed" French or Latin class with Fr. Wenting, this is not meant to sound disrespectful; however I did have a decent advantage over my classmates at Conception Seminary College when I took Latin with Br. Jerome. I thoroughly enjoyed Br. Jerome's class and that's eventually where I got the idea to start going by "Marcus" because it's the Latinate form of my legal name, Marc.
I think that Msgr. Wenting's influence, direct or indirect as it may be, is pretty substantial on me. I realized today that St. Thomas guys are now officially a dying bread (again, no disrespect intended). Since the school is closed, the number of of us who attended will only decrease over the years. Likewise, the number of faculty who tought us can only decrese. That's kind of what prompted me to write this today, because in the future, people might not know how much of an impact they had on me, and I'd like to make a note, not so much that they will know, but so I will remember.