Father Ed Obermiller, C.S.C.

He left The Bluff this summer, after eleven years in ministry, to be vocation director for the Indiana Province of the Congregation of Holy Cross, which is crucial work for the health and growth of his order, but still there is wailing and gnashing of teeth at the University, for Ed was a great gift — patient, generous, humorous, prayerful, gracious, and a really terrific chef.

His only request, as he moved to Notre Dame, was that he be allowed to live in a residence hall, for he loved living among students in Villa and Corrado halls, and he knows hundreds of students, so many of whom came to him with broken hearts, hilarious stories, spiritual crises, and a yen for cookies. “Exhausting, invigorating, humbling, gratifying, confusing, funny, crazy, holy,” he said of life as a pastoral resident. “I mean, what sensible adult lives in the same house with 200 teenagers? You don’t get much sleep, but you get your computer fixed instantly by geniuses, and you get a relentless education in modern music.”

Father Ed also expanded the campus ministry program, chaired all sorts of committees, said Masses everywhere, created new hall chapels, created a University prayer book, led volunteer service tours abroad, and often served as the University’s face and voice in the community, but the campus community will miss the priestliness of the man first and foremost. His ear and his heart were open for everyone, always. Is there a greater gift we can give each other?

“The one job I couldn’t say no to is the one I’ve been asked to do,” he says. “It’s crucial. I joined Holy Cross for the vitality, the passion, the commitment. We try to devote every fiber of our being to the holiness in everyone; to helping people find and shape and share their gifts. We try with all our might. It’s extraordinary work. It’s our unique work. I’ll need help. I’ll need the help of many people who read this. The men of Holy Cross have been central to University; now, more than ever before, the University’s alumni and friends will be central to Holy Cross in ways that are hard to see. But we will find them, by God’s grace.”