What makes an inspiring teacher? A brief obituary for Fr Walter Senner OP.
Originally posted to Facebook, 3rd July 2020.
Today I learned that one of my former professors, Fr Walter Senner OP, had died after a battle with liver cancer. Fr Senner retired after my first year in Seminary, but the more I have thought about him in the past three years, the more I have been edified by his example, so I wanted to write a few words in honour of him.
When we think about “inspiring” teachers the image that comes to mind is often something like Robin Williams in the Dead Poets Society; charismatic, enthralling, over-the-top energetic, a little bit quirky. Fr Senner wasn’t like that. He was a softly spoken priest with typical German reserve. In fact, his lectures were often a bit dry. But he was still an inspiring teacher.
Every semester he’d start class the same way; by telling a joke about a Garden gnome (which he called a Garden Dwarf) named Kitsch, and by explaining that he wasn’t a teacher. He would tell us every semester that (despite his long years teaching at the Angelicum) he wasn’t supposed to be teaching at all. He would say that he arrived in Rome to work on the Leonine Commission and to be a Librarian, and had been asked to teach by the Prior. This is the memory I have of Fr Senner; humble, obedient, and diligent. This is why he was inspiring.
It was well known among members of the Angelicum community that Fr Senner was one of the few people alive who was able to read the handwriting of St Thomas Aquinas. Yet, when the subject of Thomas’ illegible handwriting was raised in class, Fr Senner protested his own inability to properly read it without his "special instruments" and suggested to us the work of other scholars. Fr Senner preferred to sing the praises of others rather than blow his own horn, and always down-played his own abilities and importance.
He did not want to teach and did not believe himself equal to the task. Yet, when asked by his superiors, he took up the work put before him. His wasn’t an overly performative style, nor was he the easiest lecturer to follow, but he had an enormous dedication to his subjects and was diligent in putting together a course that he felt did justice to the subject matter. He didn’t complain to us, or approach the work he was given begrudgingly or lackadaisically (which cannot be said for every professor whose interests lie in research instead of teaching) but with a spirit of humble obedience: doing the best he could with the limited tools available to him.
He clearly cared about those of us placed under his care; his oft repeated maxim to his “dear students” was “the only stupid question is the one not asked.” He wanted us to engage and understand the material, not simply regurgitate the lectures. He explained that his courses were expansive and exacting, not because he wanted to inflict some kind of torture, but because he wanted to prepare us for our eventual responsibilities; to teach us to read and digest large volumes of material.
Little known to many students, Fr Senner, quite frail at almost seventy years of age and with numerous health problems, would frequently climb up a ladder to pick the fruit growing in the Angelicum courtyard and deposit it in baskets so we could enjoy it (without facing the dangers of ladder-climbing ourselves).
Most students’ enduring memory of Fr Senner will be from the course “Introduction to St Thomas Aquinas.” Fr displayed the encyclopaedic knowledge of the life and works of St Thomas that you would expect of an expert (to the point where he knew the names of his sisters and what happened to each of them), but he also clearly had a deep connection to the Saint. It is well known that, when Fr Senner’s class reached St Thomas’ death, Fr Senner would begin to weep as he described the saint’s final hours.
I wasn’t inspired by Fr Senner’s style or manner of delivery, or by his obvious intelligence. I was inspired by the example of a humble and obedient friar going about his work diligently to the best of his abilities. In that, I saw something rare and precious. I will always remember this example, and hope to live up to his instruction.
I pray, and seek the intercession of his beloved patron St Thomas Aquinas, that he soon enjoys the rest of the beatific vision which he so richly deserves!
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