A place of peace

Divine Word as it looked when it was a seminary high school. The building at left front (and also in the photo above) and the white lakefront assembly building are all that remain today. At top left is the roof of the school’s gymnasium, while the chapel roof can be seen at top right. (Photos submitted)

 

Divine Word has been located on the pristine shores of Lake Beulah for 92 years

By John Koski

Editor

A simple sign with just two words marks the entrance. “Divine Word” is all it says. To get there requires traveling down a narrow road flanked by dense woods on one side and a field of tall corn on the other.

After about a mile, the forest and fields suddenly disappear and a spacious vista of manicured lawns and stately oaks appears. It is the campus of Divine Word.

Driving along a winding road to the parking lot, a flock of six Canada Geese saunters casually past as a squirrel bounds toward a tree in the distance.

It is this idyllic setting – perched atop a hill overlooking Lake Beulah – where Divine Word Missionaries has been located for nearly 90 years.

The Rev. Ed Peklo SVD, stands in the entrance of the main building at Divine Word, located on the south shore of Beulah Lake. The acronym after his name stands for “Societas Verbi Divini,” which is Latin for “Society of the Divine Word,” the original name of his Roman Catholic order, now known as Divine Word Missionaries. (Photo by John Koski)

“We came to Lake Beulah in 1921,” said The Rev. Ed Peklo, rector and retreat director of the order’s facility in East Troy.

“We came up here because our headquarters in Techny, Ill., were becoming too crowded,” he said. “At the time, we needed a place for men in their novitiate year, which is the year before they take their first vows.

“We started out almost directly across the lake from where we are now,” Peklo said. “We had 80 acres and a farm. They lived in the summer houses that were already there. I don’t think they did much building. They just lived in the summer houses.”

Within a few years the property became too small, so the order purchased 214 acres on the south shore of Lake Beulah.

“In 1925, the new buildings were done and ready to move in into,” Peklo said. “So they simply waited for the lake to freeze and carted everything across the ice.”

The new buildings remained as a novitiate until 1934, when the novitiate moved back to Illinois and the property became a seminary high school, which it remained as until 1991.

“A seminary high school provides a basic high school education,” Peklo said. “However, it was for high school boys who had some inkling that they might want to be missionary priests or brothers.”

Peklo, who is originally from Omaha, Neb., graduated from Divine Word High School in 1960, when the school was at its peak and had about 120 students.

The high school not only helped young men who were discerning a call to become priests, it also trained brothers some of whom were going into the trades.

“We had trade-school training here,” Peklo said. “We had a carpenter’s shop, automotive shop and metal-working shop.”

He was quick to point out during a tour of the facility the exquisite woodwork one the order’s members had made for the building’s chapel.

“By 1991, there was a lot of  questioning about seminaries for high school-agers,” Peklo said.

“We could have continued as a regular Catholic high school, and probably could have sustained it, but that really wasn’t the purpose of our order,” he said.

As a result, the high school closed in 1991.

“Our order tried to sell or rent the school buildings for two years,” Peklo said. “After two years, they decided they couldn’t afford to heat and insure empty buildings, so they tore them down.

“They razed most of the high school complex – classrooms, dorms, we had a huge chapel and a wonderful gym – all of that was torn down.

“The only building left standing is the current three-story building, which was the faculty wing,” Peklo said.

 

Retreats and vacations

“We use the current facility for two purposes: It is a residence for Divine Word Missionaries,” he said. “There are currently six of us here. Two are full-time retired and the other four are still very active.

“We are also a retreat center and a get-away place where our priests and brothers who come back from missions can get away for a couple of weeks. It’s a perfect spot for that,” Peklo said.

“We also do a lot of retreat work. We don’t advertise ourselves as a retreat center, but by word of mouth we get a lot of people who want to come here for a retreat,” he noted. “For example, we have college students, seminarians, sisters and parish councils that come here for retreats.

“We have four people in the house right now who are on retreat, and two members of our order who are on vacation,” Peklo noted. “So that’s really the purpose of this place right now.

“We’re blessed to have this piece of property. We try to take care of it and try to be good stewards of the land and of the lakeshore,” he said.

“By and large we have a good relationship with the people on the lake,” Peklo said. “We allow the LBPIA to store its weed-eater on our property, and Gerry’s Pier Service stores its equipment on a corner of our shoreline as well. In addition, we allow the DNR to launch their patrol boats on our boat landing.

“We’re grateful for the beauty of this place and for the relations we have with our neighbors, and the way we have been treated, and hopefully we have been a good neighbor as well. We have no intentions of moving someplace else.”

 

How the order began

Divine Word Missionaries was founded in Holland in 1875 by Saint Arnold Janssen, a young German Catholic priest. The order’s original goal was to take the Gospel to places where it had never been preached.

The order is officially  known as Societas Verbi Divini (Latin for Society of the Divine Word) and its members today have the initials SVD after their names indicating they are members of the order.

“In this country, we work mainly among minority populations, such as African-American, Hispanic and Asian, doing mostly pastoral work in parishes,” Peklo said.

“In this house, we also have one priest who is a chaplain at the Walworth County Jail and at Aurora Lakeland Medical Center, both in Elkhorn. That’s his full-time ministry.

“In this country we work primarily in minority situations in poorer parishes – a lot of it is inner-city work,” he said. “It’s basically running a parish, but it’s also being involved in housing and anti-violence work and advocacy with local organizations.

“We’re also very interested in working in parishes with three or four different cultural groupings because part of our commitment is to give witness to the fact that people from different cultures can learn to live with each other in peace. If we can’t understand one another we’ll never be able to achieve world peace.

“Even in our own communities we try to be inter-culturally mixed. That’s an important value for us,” Peklo said.

“What I have enjoyed the most about being a part of this order is that we are international and we work internationally. I’ve worked with and lived with people from all over the world in day-to-day life. I think that has been the most enriching part of this for me.”

10 Comments

  1. Thank you for the excellent article about Divine Word. I went to Divine Word Seminary from 1966-1970. I am class of 1970. Father Ed Peklo told me about your article on Sunday when I was visiting. Finally, the long winding road will be fix this week.

    • Hi Jim! Remember me? Redheaded, Class of ’71. I remember the sem well. It’s a shame it’s gone now.

  2. Thank you for the excellent article. Class of 1988.

  3. It was a great place to learn both about yourself and about others. I can not begin to thank all of the priest, brothers and teachers that helped me to become what I am today. Also the town and it’s people were very supporting to us. I still visit there a few times a year. I can say still today I consider this home. Thanks to all both at the “sem” and the town for allowing me to be part of the area. Great article should send it to all the alumni

  4. Thank you for sharing Fr. Peklo! DWS and the SVD’s will forever be a part of me. Dang T. C/O 1991

  5. I continue to be very blessed by the formation and continued association with many great priests and brothers of the Divine Word missionaries. The high school was a true home in every sense – the place where my friends and I grew into who we are today. The last weekend each June is an all-alumni gathering at the boathouse. You’ll always see the biggest group from my class of 83. See you there in 2014!

  6. Great article!! Make me miss DWS! I was there for 3 years 1986 – 1989. It was a great experience for a lot people who went through there. I made a lot of friends who til this day still kept in touch. I miss the camping, the swimming, the cleaning, the teachers (Mr. Lou, Br. Ron, Fr. Bill, Fr. Bob, Br. Ken, and so many more) and all the antics that we as students did. It was our “Wonder Years”

    Joseph Tri Nguyen, almost class of ’90

  7. Thanks for this. I remember the seminary being an integral part of my spiritual development. I went there in the late 70’s and early 80’s. My brothers, Phil and Chris went there, too. SVD traditions run strong and deep.

  8. Sorry to read that Divine Word is no longer helping young men find their spiritual path in life. I will always have fond memories working on the farm, interacting with the students and staff ie. Br. Bob, Br. Tony, Lou Whapell, and for the old friends John Mc, John H, Issac, Algea. This was a great opportunity for me that has helped me through my life. Patrick Burns 1980

  9. sorry to see its fate. went there in ’79 My freshmen year and think about it all the time. Had a lot of good mentors and made a lot of good friends. Lou ,Bob, Br. Burney. Thank You!