I recently attended a reunion of my high school class. Most of the men I hadn’t seen in over a half-century. We reminisced about our high school experience, the great times, the great and not-so-great teachers, and the good and bad of attending an all-boys high school. But what we all remembered most was the wonderful academic environment created by the Vincentians who administered the school.
We attended St. John's Preparatory School, which at the time was located on Lewis Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. “The Prep” was established in 1870 by the Vincentian Fathers as an academic preparatory school for St. John’s College (now St. John’s University). The school initially catered to young men and was closely tied to the Vincentians' mission of education and service. In 1955, St. John's College moved to a new campus in Jamaica, Queens. Later, St. John's Prep relocated to Astoria, Queens, and that is where our class reunion took place.
The Vincentian legacy at St. John’s Prep
Now The Prep certainly had great lay teachers, men who had dedicated their lives and careers to forming Catholic boys into Catholic men. But the overarching guiding force was the Vincentian charism.
The Vincentians, also known as the Congregation of the Mission (CM), are a congregation of priests and brothers founded by St. Vincent de Paul in France in 1625. The Vincentians dedicate themselves to serving the poor and marginalized, often through education, health care and pastoral care. Their mission is inspired by the compassionate ministry of Christ and St. Vincent’s teachings on charity, humility, and service. They work worldwide in a range of settings, including parishes, schools, universities, hospitals, and missions, especially in impoverished areas.
A legacy of service
The Vincentian commitment to charity and social justice permeated the education we received at The Prep and, though unbeknownst to most of us, seeped into our psyches. That became apparent to me as I spoke to the men at the reunion. Many of those who attended had worked in some form or other of a helping, caring or service-oriented profession.
One man became a teacher working with special-needs students. Another worked for a charity serving the poor and disadvantaged. Another worked with the deaf, and yours truly became a social worker and a deacon. The fact that many others became priests, deacons, doctors, and mental health professionals indicates that the careers of our graduating class of 325 students exemplified the Vincentian commitment to charity and social justice.
But, the man who, in my estimation, best epitomizes this commitment is a man who graduated with my class, yet could not attend the reunion because he was in Haiti.
From Hollywood to Haiti
Gerald Straub wasn’t visiting Haiti — he lives there. He lives at and operates the Santa Chiara Children’s Center in Peguyville, Haiti, an impoverished neighborhood in Port-Au-Prince. Gerry’s staff of 44 Haitians includes three doctors, six nurses, a psychologist, two social workers and four teachers, all of whom care for numerous children ranging in age from infants to teenagers.
Gerry is also the founder of Paxet Bonum, an organization whose mission is “to produce and present compelling films that promote compassion for the homeless, hungry and marginalized while inspiring a genuine and respectful fraternity among all people.” Their focus is simple: “putting the power of the film at the service of the poor.”
The Paxet Bonum website states the following about Gerry: “Mr. Straub also had a long and distinguished career as a network television producer in New York and Hollywood; he produced dramatic television series that have aired on CBS, NBC and ABC, including the wildly popular ‘General Hospital’. He was the executive producer of ‘The Doctors,’ a long-running soap opera on NBC which was taped at Rockefeller Center in New York and featured a young Alec Baldwin. He was the supervising producer of ‘Capitol,’ which was taped at CBS Television City in Hollywood. After leaving network television, Gerry wrote and directed 24 documentary films, most of which explored global and domestic poverty”.
In addition, Gerry is a secular Franciscan who has written several books about spirituality. His books about St. Francis have achieved critical acclaim. So, how did he end up in Haiti?
An epiphany
Gerry Straub’s journey from Hollywood producer to living and working among the poorest of the poor began one day with what can only be called an epiphany. He was watching his name scroll across the TV screen at the end of a soap opera he had just produced, and he found himself saying, “Who watches this stuff?” Thus began the circuitous route that transformed him from a Hollywood producer to a secular Franciscan.
I can only believe that the Vincentian dedication to serving the poor and marginalized that he was exposed to at The Prep had no small part in Gerry’s metamorphosis.
The priceless value of Catholic education
And that speaks to a larger issue, the efficacy of a Catholic education. For hundreds of years, the Church has been providing education. The Church was a primary force behind the establishment of universities and religious orders, such as the Benedictines, Dominicans, Franciscans and Jesuits. All of those orders have established schools and universities worldwide.
St. John's Preparatory High School, which is still going strong and is now co-ed, is just one of a myriad network of Catholic educational institutions helping to form Catholic men and women of this nation and around the world.
You can’t put a price tag on that — Gerald Straub proves it.
Learn More About Gerry and St. John’s Prep Paxet Bonum Communications
https://paxetbonumcomm.org/
St. John’s Prep
https://www.stjohnsprepschool.org/
By Deacon Ben LoCasto