Father Ken Vavrina (born 1936) is a
Roman Catholic priest and activist in
Omaha, Nebraska. He has been involved in many events in
North Omaha since returning to Omaha from various mission work abroad in 1993.
Vavrina was born into a Czech family in
Clarkson, Nebraska. After being ordained in 1962, he served in Omaha,
South Sioux City, and on the
Winnebago Indian Reservation. He decided that his mission should go abroad in 1977, and after meeting with
Mother Teresa's
Sisters of Mercy in
Rome, he flew to
Yemen to work with lepers. After four years in
Yemen, he was jailed and subsequently deported. He then went to
Calcutta,
India, to work directly with Mother Teresa. From 1993 to 1996 he headed the
Catholic Relief Services mission in
Liberia
Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...
, a period which brought him into contact with Liberian President and Dictator,
Charles Taylor. He returned to the United States in 1996, and became pastor at St. Richard's Catholic Church in 1998. In 2007, he was transferred to St. Benedict The Moor Church and St. Therese of the Child Jesus, where he served until his retirement in 2011. All three are located in
North Omaha.
Early priesthood
Vavrina was ordained in 1962, and his initial posts were on the Winnebago Indian Reservation in northeastern
Nebraska, with the Hispanic Catholic community in South Sioux City, and at Sacred Heart in predominately black North Omaha. In 1973, he gathered donations of medicine from Omaha's
Creighton University and brought them to the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in
South Dakota, where members of the radical
American Indian Movement were holed up in a standoff with the
FBI in what is known as the
Wounded Knee Incident. Ken remained at Wounded Knee until the shooting was ended, helping treat the wounded and administering religious services to the Native American Catholics there.
Global mission
His mission turned global when he visited the slums in
Bangkok, Thailand. While there, he and reflected on a recent speech he attended given by Mother Teresa at
Boys Town, Nebraska, and decided that his mission to be to serve the poorest of the poor. On July 13, 1977 he flew to
London to meet with the Sisters of Mercy, then to their headquarters in Rome. His first posting was in Yemen where he worked in a leper village and said mass for the Sisters living there. He then joined the Catholic Relief Services in
Italy as a part of the group giving aid in the wake of an earthquake there. In 1986, he went to Calcutta, and he eventually became the head of the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) mission there. In 1993, he left Calcutta and went to Liberia. He headed the CRS mission in Liberia until 1996, when bouts with malaria forced him to return to the United States.
Back to Nebraska
Upon returning to the United States, he worked in the small town of
Silver Creek, Nebraska. In 1998, he was called to St. Richard's where Priest Daniel Herek was removed after being convicted of sexual assault of a child.
Mission in Omaha
He is very involved in the Omaha community. He has invited African refugees in Omaha to take part in a Catholic African mass he helped set up at St. Richard's, and to attend St. Richard's Catholic School. This has put him in close contact with the
Sudanese refugee population in Omaha (which totals approximately 7,500 and is largely black Christians from
Southern Sudan), and prominent Sudanese peace activists such as Bishop
Paride Taban Paride Taban (born 1936 in Opari, Eastern Equatoria) is a South Sudanese Emeritus Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church and was the first leader of the New Sudan Council of Churches, which was founded in February 1990. he was auxiliary Bishop of Juba ...
have worked with Vavrina and St. Richard's .
Most of the students at St. Richard's Catholic School are African American, and Vavrina has been a part of that community in North Omaha as well. He is a member of various North Omaha minister's organizations, and has been outspoken in his attempts to calm
racial tension in Omaha. When Albert Rucker shot and killed Omaha policeman Jason Tye Pratt, and was himself killed in the shootout that followed, Vavrina invited Rucker's children to attend school at St. Richard's, saying that these children are innocent victims.
[McCord, Julia. ''Parish offers Rucker kids free schooling '' Omaha World Herald (October 2, 2003)]
Vavrina has also been vocal in
Omaha media, frequently writing letters to the
Omaha World Herald
The ''Omaha World-Herald'' is a daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, the primary newspaper of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area. It was locally owned from its founding in 1885 until 2020, when it was sold to the newspaper ch ...
newspaper and the Omaha Catholic Voice news-monthly calling for peace in
Iraq, forgiveness of
terrorists and criminals, and openness of the church towards
homosexuals.
References
* Kelly, Michael. ''On a Mission School to Stay'' Omaha World Herald (October 25, 1998)
* Franke, Warren. ''Kissing Lepers''. Omaha Reader (January 18, 2007) (accessed on March 20, 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vavrina, Kenneth
1936 births
Living people
American people of Czech descent
American Roman Catholic priests
Czech-American culture in Nebraska
Clergy from Omaha, Nebraska
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha
Religious leaders from Nebraska
People from South Sioux City, Nebraska
Catholics from Nebraska