The death of a faithful Priest; the Rector of St. Louis Cathedral

Monsignor Crosby Kern, rector of St. Louis Cathedral, dies at age 73

By John Pope, NOLA.com | The Times-PicayuneThe Times-Picayune
on November 30, 2012

Monsignor Crosby Kern, the New Orleans-born priest who served as rector of St. Louis Cathedral since 2003, died Friday of cancer at the Old Ursuline Convent, where he had been living. He was 73.

In October 2011, Monsignor Crosby Kern, rector of St. Louis Cathedral, blesses Archbishop Philip Hannan during the archbishop's funeral.at the cathedral. David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

“He had a passion about everything, and he had a vision for what would be good for the church,” said Peter Finney Jr., editor of The Clarion Herald, the archdiocesan newspaper.
“If he thought it was good for the church, he went at it with a tunnel vision,” Finney said. “He didn’t stop until he accomplished what he wanted to accomplish.”
And whatever Monsignor Kern decided to take on, “he always thought he was right,” said Barbara Taylor Windhorst, who worked with him on two projects: the renovation of St. Anthony Garden, behind St. Louis Cathedral, and the establishment of the Catholic Cultural Heritage Center at the Old Ursuline Convent.
“He had the conviction that what he was doing was the right thing to do -– not to tell people how wrong they were but because he was sure he was right,” she said.
Monsignor Kern attended Incarnate Word and St. Dominic elementary schools and Jesuit High School. He studied at Maryknoll College and graduated from St. Joseph Seminary College and Notre Dame Seminary, and he was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 1965 by Archbishop Philip Hannan.
In 1988, he was given the title of monsignor, a title of honor denoting devotion to faith and work.
Before becoming the cathedral’s pastor, Monsignor Kern had served at parishes throughout the New Orleans area, including St. Angela Merici in Metairie, Our Lady of the Rosary in Hahnville and St. Leo the Great in Gentilly. He also had been the archdiocese’s vocation director and the director of the permanent diaconate, and he was involved in a study of the Catholic school system, Finney said.
For the opening of the Catholic Cultural Heritage Center in 2006, Monsignor Kern persuaded the Vatican to part with ancient and contemporary mosaics for a four-month exhibit. It marked the first time that those works of art had traveled.
At the cathedral, Monsignor Kern increased the number of concerts there, and he started a program with the National Conservatory in Paris, in which he brought in organists for six to nine months to play for Masses and conduct classes.
He established a prayer room at the cathedral honoring Venerable Henriette Delille, a New Orleans nun whose canonization he was advocating. Delille founded the Sisters of the Holy Family, an order of nuns, in New Orleans in 1842.
Monsignor Kern was a diehard Saints fan. On the day that the Saints played in the 2010 Super Bowl, he celebrated Mass at the cathedral wearing a Drew Brees jersey. After the service, he led worshippers in a “Who Dat?” chant outside the church.
Survivors include a sister, Kay Varisco of Lafayette, and his mother, Mary Kern. Funeral arrangements are incomplete.