About Us
Deacon Robert and Mrs. Ruth Kusenberger HOMI
Robert and Ruth Kusenberger were made Honorary Oblates in May 2011. Their Oblate roots run deep in the soil of their south Texas lives. It was in an Oblate parish established in the late 1800’s in Del Rio, Texas that Bob and Ruth grew up and it was there they were married and raised their 4 children, Robert Jr, Anthony, Jacob and Helen. For the Kusenbergers, life in an Oblate parish meant sharing their home, meals, lives and values with a large and diverse cohort of Oblate personalities. To maintain that tradition, it was particularly important to Bob that he be ordained to the Permanent Diaconate in his home parish by an Oblate Bishop. Over the years, Oblate friendships grew and deepened as Bob and Ruth engaged in an increasing number of Oblate programs, activities, Boards and committees in San Antonio and other parts of the US Province and its Missions.
Oblate School of Theology (OST) and the Missionary Oblate Partnership have been hallmarks of the mutually enriching Kusenberger-Oblate relationship. Most of Bob’s Diaconate theological education, done with Ruth at his side, was provided by OST. He and Ruth have participated in numerous international Oblate visits and pilgrimages to Rome, Aix-en-Provence, Africa, and the Holy Land.
Kusenberger generosity is not characterized by any one activity. In addition to establishing OST’s Oblate Chair of Oblate Studies as a resource for the whole Congregation, they have served on countless fundraising committees and events, supported the construction of a church for the new Oblate parish in Livingstone, Zambia, participated in classes and conferences of OST and the Oblate Partnership, provided transportation for Oblate missionaries and for Oblate national meetings. Their visit to Assisi, as part of a Roman Oblate Partnership meeting, led Ruth to becoming a 3rd Order Franciscan and a grace-filled amalgamation of Franciscan and Oblate spirituality in the family. Bob’s visit to various Oblate missions in Zambia watered the seed of missionary interest planted when he was a young Oblate seminarian. His reminiscences of his time in the Oblate seminary, are often put in the context of his current family life. He loves to say, “I have 14 grandchildren… I didn’t leave the seminary for nothing.”
To know Bob and Ruth Kusenberger is to know concretely the depths to which Oblate Mazenodian Family Membership can shape values, relationships, and lives. And, to know of the enduring and empowering friendship between the Oblates and the Kusenbergers is to see how mutual this relationship is.