A funeral Mass for Father Curtis E. Van Del, SJ, was celebrated Dec. 21 in the chapel of St. Ignatius Hall, the Jesuit community at Garden Villas North in Florissant. Father Van Del died Dec. 15 in Florissant. He was 91 years old, a Jesuit for 72 years and a priest for 59 years.
Curtis Van Del was born Dec. 31, 1932, in Kansas City, Missouri, to Dwight T. and Gretchen Burger Van Del McClean. After graduating from Rockhurst High School in Kansas City and attending Rockhurst College for one year, he entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) at St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant on Aug. 17, 1952. He pronounced first vows on Aug. 22, 1954, and was ordained a priest on June 9, 1965, at St. Mary’s College in St. Marys, Kansas. He pronounced final vows in St. Louis on Sept. 9, 1978.
As a young priest, Father Van Del was missioned in 1967 to the newly opened De Smet Jesuit High School in St. Louis to teach religion and counsel students. He remained there until 1983. For much of this time, he was also the chairman of the religion department. After a sabbatical at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, from 1983-84, he returned to teaching high school religion at his alma mater, Rockhurst High School, from 1984-95.
Following another brief sabbatical and some time in pastoral ministry, in the summer of 1997 he took a position as chaplain to the St. Joseph Sisters at their Nazareth Motherhouse in Concordia, Kansas. He liked the work and remained there until 2006, providing ministerial and sacramental care to the sisters.
In 2006, Father Van Del moved to the Xavier Jesuit Center in Denver, where he did pastoral ministry until 2011.
Father Van Del was a conscientious and meticulous religious. He took seriously Ignatius’ mandate to “save souls,” and he taught and preached with quiet passion. For his Jesuit brothers, it is consoling to imagine his newfound freedom, safe in the arms of the Lord he served so well.
He studied philosophy at Fusz Memorial and earned a bachelor of arts in humanities from Saint Louis University in 1958. He studied theology at St. Mary’s College and was awarded a bachelor’s in sacred theology from Saint Louis University and master’s in liturgy from the University of Notre Dame, both in 1967.
In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by his sister, Sally (Raymond J.) Steele. He is survived by several nieces and a nephew. Burial was in the Jesuit plot at Calvary Cemetery.
