Priest Profile

When parishioners of St. Margaret Mary Alocoque Church in St. Louis talk about Father Kristian Teater, their 29-year-old assistant pastor who arrived in June 2001, they don't fumble for expression.

That's not to say the priest needs a crash course in homiletics. Au con-traire, Conder says. “When he came to the parish, he described himself as ‘Two-Minute Teater,’” Conder recalls. “His presentation is dynamic. He takes one aspect of the Gospel and challenges us to live in a Christian way. A week later, you can still remember what he said.”

Longtime parishioner Kathleen Gau concurs. “He's not afraid to speak from the pulpit on issues we need to hear,” she says. “Yet he's a very gentle man.”

When the occasion calls for it, Father Teater takes on the tough issues of the day, Conder says. “He felt it was important to talk about the fallacy and dangers of homosexual unions. He really challenged everybody to take a stand and get involved.”

Bob Gau considers Father Teater “a priest's priest — he's very caring, into people and a brilliant guy.”

Father Teater came to St. Louis with his mother in 1985, when he entered sixth grade at St. John the Baptist Grammar School. He was a transplant from Temple, Texas — where, he notes, practically everyone's Baptist.

That included some members of his own family, though most around him weren't what he would describe as devout.

“I lived in the usual, secularized American family,” he says. “Here [in St. Louis], God was the center.” The personal witness of his grandmother and great-grandmother showed him how life-changing faith could be to those who paid it more than lip service.

It wasn't until sixth grade that he went to Mass every week, he says, reflecting on the one-on-one catech-esis he received from the priest so he could make his first confession and first holy Communion.

“It was so new to me — discovering all this for the first time, finding my Catholic identity,” he says. “The whole thing about religion attracted me from the start.”

By seventh grade he had begun thinking that God might be calling him to the priesthood. His next thoughts often went to the resistance he'd likely encounter.

“When I got that grace of sure-ness that God was calling me to this, I prayed the rosary a lot,” he says. He had become zealous for the devotion through the witness of a teacher and EWTN. And, he recalls, “my great-grandmother gave me my great-grandfather's rosary. He was a St. Louis cop and he prayed it every day.”

One day at Mass, St. Matthew's Gospel struck him with special force. He had the strong impression that Jesus was calling him to leave all and follow him, and telling him that he would be rewarded “a hundredfold.”

“That was pretty much a sign to me,” he says. “I thought, ‘Even if my family does reject me, I want to do what God is calling me to be.’ Otherwise, I knew I couldn't be happy.”

Father Teater remembers well his first big experience of what priesthood means. As a seminarian at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, he took part in the Corpus Christi procession in Orvieto.

“It was amazing to walk through the town and have the military and police stand at attention — and men, women and children leaning out of medieval buildings waving handkerchiefs, bowing their heads and making the sign of the cross, and seeing the respect for the Eucharist and the priesthood.” That same weekend he participated in a Eucharistic procession led by Pope John Paul II.

Asked about his modern-day role models, Father Teater cites the Holy Father, Archbishop Timothy Dolan (who was rector of his seminary) and Archbishop Justin Rigali (former bishop of St Louis). What about those three made an impression on the young priest? Their deep devotion to Christ in the Eucharist.

“The primacy of the Eucharist is supposed to permeate everything” in the priest's life, Father Teater says. “Above all, priesthood is about service to Christ and bringing him totally — body, blood, soul and divinity — to his people.” This explains his championing of Eucharistic adoration at his parish.

Father Teater's interior life is marked by an abiding love for the Blessed Mother — a dedication that started when he was a child. The image of the Blessed Mother taking care of her children seems to have strengthened him ever since.

It's a strength he's quick to share with all whom God places in his path, brother priests included.

“The thing that stands out the most about Father Teater is that he's a man of great faith and fidelity in a way that's attractive to people,” says Father Eugene Morris, teacher and director of worship at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis. “If I had to go into battle with him, I'd be very comfortable with him by my side — or in front of me, or in back of me.”

Of course, so would the people of St. Margaret Mary. “As a newly ordained priest” of exemplary fidelity and holiness, says Kathleeen Gau, “he gives us hope for the future.”

Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.