Father Thomas Kaiser is remembered with a guardian angel

Photo courtesy of Mark Long

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Father Thomas Kaiser will be honored with with a guardian angel named after his angel, Pete.

SALT LAKE CITY - The late Father Thomas Kaiser is remembered most for talking about his guardian angel, Pete, and his love for children. So its fitting that the Knights of Columbus Council 13297 from Saint Vincent de Paul Parish and Saint Vincent de Paul School will honor Fr. Kaiser, who died April 5, 2008, with a statue of a guardian angel.

"We wanted to commemorate his involvement with the school," said Ed Effner, a Knight of Columbus and St. Vincent de Paul parishioner. "Fr. Kaiser always talked about his guardian angel, Pete, who was going to talk to everyone else's guardian angel to pray, to be attentive, or any other need."

"Originally the Knights planned to raise funds to purchase the angel and put it in the school to honor Fr. Kaiser," said Mark Longe, St. Vincent de Paul School principal, but because Fr. Kaiser was loved by the parishioners, we decided to put the angel statue in our pavilion between the gymnasium and the church for everyone to see. We will build a flower bed to put the statue in and a plaque there with the name, Pete, after Fr. Kaiser's guardian angel. We will dedicate the statue at our parish picnic in August."

Longe participates in an exchange with a school in Guadalajara, Mexico. This year while he was there he found an angel for the memorial.

"I knew there were a lot of craftsmen in Mexico who make statuary," said Longe. "We were looking for a concrete outdoor statue about four feet tall. I found the statue we were looking for in Tonala, Mexico. It is of a teenage boy."

Among those with fond memories of Fr. Kaiser KUTV is newscaster Brian Malehy, who recalls the priest as a man who was a great witness to Christ and Christ's love. Malehy met Fr. Kaiser in 1995 as a parishioner at St. Vincent de Paul when his children were in St. Vincent de Paul School. "Fr. Kaiser had a simplicity that was remarkable. He also had a soft and beautiful wisdom, was a very good listener with a good sense of humor. He radiated holiness and joy at the same time, but it was a quiet and peaceful joy," Malehy said.

Fr. Kaiser also started the detention ministry in the Salt Lake City Diocese and recruited volunteers to visit the young people at the detention centers and the jail. "That is where I met him," said Illa Wright, coordinator for the diocesan detention ministry. "Fr. Kaiser touched the lives of so many young people and their families. Fr. Kaiser started to get families to go to church and become baptized. The detention ministry volunteers learned so much from him and that is why the program continues today."

One example of Fr. Kaiser's ministry was when he baptized a young man a few days before he was released from jail, and three days later the young man was killed in an automobile accident, said Wright.

For his ministry, former Salt Lake Bishop George Niederauer of San Francisco, proclaimed Jan. 28, 2001, as Fr. Thomas Kaiser Day. The detention ministry holds its volunteer appreciation banquet every year in January in Fr. Kaiser's honor, and Fr. Kaiser was our the first recipient of the detention ministry award.

To donate to the statue fund in Fr. Thomas Kaiser's memory, contact Diane Dowd in the parish office at 801-272-9216.