Diederich, Everett A.

Father Everett A. Diederich, S.J., died the evening of April 20, 2011, at the Fusz Pavilion in St. Louis, Missouri. He was 91 years old and a Jesuit for 71 years. Born in Greenleaf, Kansas, on January 5, 1920, Ev entered the Society of Jesus at St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant, Missouri, on September 1, 1939.

He completed a B.A. in Latin and Greek and a Ph.L. at Saint Louis University and taught as a scholastic at Campion High School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Ev was ordained to the priesthood on June 19, 1952, at St. Mary’s College in Kansas.  After tertianship in Decatur, Illinois, he completed an  S.T.D. in Liturgical Theology at the Gregorian University in Rome and did a post-doctorate at the Liturgical Institute of Trier, Germany.

In 1957 Ev began teaching Dogmatic Theology at St. Mary’s College. He continued this work at Saint Louis University when the Divinity School moved there in 1967. He taught many Jesuits how to put liturgical theory into practice in the celebration of the Eucharist and the other sacraments. During those years he provided his expertise to the province, helping with summer seminars on the liturgical changes of Vatican II and arranging and overseeing ordination Masses.

After the Divinity School closed, Ev continued teaching Theology at Saint Louis University for a short time before joining the faculty at Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he taught Liturgical Theology.

In 1980 Ev began fifteen years of pastoral ministry in a variety of capacities and locations. He served as pastor or associate pastor at St. Francis Xavier Church in Kansas City, Missouri; St. Francis Xavier (College) Church in St. Louis; St. Mary’s Church in Salina, Kansas; St. Matthew’s Cathedral in South Bend, Indiana; and Holy Trinity Parish in Trinidad, Colorado. Between 1988 and 1991 he served as the Director of Liturgy in the Diocese of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

In 1996 Ev returned to St. Louis where he joined in the work of the Stroble Center for Liturgy at Saint Louis University and served as a pastoral and sacramental minister at St. Francis Xavier (College) Church.

Ev is preceded in death by two sisters and three brothers. He is survived by several nieces and nephews. May this gracious and gifted man rest in peace.