Stephen Aloysius Leven (April 30, 1905 – June 28, 1983) was an American

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Minister (Christianity), Christian clergy who is an Ordinary (church officer), ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which me ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. He served as Bishop of San Angelo from 1969 to 1979.

Biography

Early life and education

Stephen Leven was born in

Blackwell, Oklahoma Blackwell is a city in Kay County, Oklahoma, United States, located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 177 and State Highway 11 along Interstate 35. The population was 6,085 as of the 2020 census. Blackwell was established following the Sep ...

, to Joseph J. and Gertrude (née Conrady) Leven. One of nine children, he was raised on farms around

Ponca City Ponca City () is a city in Kay County, Oklahoma, Kay County in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The city was named after the Ponca tribe. Ponca City had a population of 24,424 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 25,387 at the tim ...

and Newkirk, where his father was a

sharecropper Sharecropping is a legal arrangement in which a landowner allows a tenant (sharecropper) to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping is not to be conflated with tenant farming, providing the tenant a ...

. He received his early education at St. Mary's School in Ponca City and St. Francis Academy in Newkirk. He then attended St. Gregory's College in

Shawnee The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language. Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...

, and later St. Benedict's College in

Atchison, Kansas Atchison is a city in, and the county seat of, Atchison County, Kansas, United States, along the Missouri River. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 10,885. The city is named in honor of US Senator ...

. He studied for the priesthood at St. Mary's Seminary in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, for a year before entering the

American College of the Immaculate Conception The American College of the Immaculate Conception, or the American College of Louvain (, ) is a former Roman Catholic theological seminary in Leuven, the Kingdom of Belgium (Belgium) in Europe. Founded in 1857, it was operated by United States Con ...

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

in 1922.

Ordination and ministry

Leven was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

a priest for the Diocese of Oklahoma on June 10, 1928. At age 23, he was below the age requirement for

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

but was granted a dispensation by

Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XI (; born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, ; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939) was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 until his death in February 1939. He was also the first sovereign of the Vatican City State u ...

. His first assignment was as a

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...

at th
Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

, where he remained for four years. During that period, he also served as secretary to Bishop

Francis Kelley Francis Clement Kelley (October 23, 1870 – February 1, 1948) was a Canadian-born Catholic bishop. He was the second Bishop of Oklahoma City, as well as an author and diplomat. He was a Catholic priest for 54 years, and bishop for 23 year ...

for two years. He served as a

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

in Bristow and Drumright from 1932 to 1935. In 1933, he began a

street preaching Open-air preaching, street preaching, or public preaching is the act of evangelizing a religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctif ...

ministry based on the work of the Catholic Evidence Guild. On one occasion, the KKK burned a cross as a personal threat at a corner where Leven was accustomed to preach. From 1935 to 1938, Leven served as vice- rector of the American College at Louvain. Following his return to Oklahoma, he was appointed a pastor in

Tonkawa The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe from Oklahoma and Texas. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct language, extinct, is a linguistic isolate. Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the Federally recognized tribes, federally recognized Tonkawa ...

and his native Blackwell in 1938. From 1939 to 1940, he served as director of the National Center of

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine The Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) is an association established in Rome in 1562 for the purpose of providing religious education. In modern usage, it refers to the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., which owns the copyright on t ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he was the official representative of the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

to nine German POW camps in Oklahoma.

Auxiliary Bishop of San Antonio

On December 3, 1955, Leven was appointed

auxiliary bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

of the

Archdiocese of San Antonio The Archdiocese of San Antonio () is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the United States. It encompasses in the U.S. state of Texas. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio had a self-reported 2018 population of 796,954, ...

and

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of ''Bure'' by

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

. He was consecrated on February 8, 1956 by Bishop Eugene J. McGuinness, with Bishops

Thomas Kiely Gorman Thomas Kiely Gorman (August 30, 1892 – August 16, 1980) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as the first bishop of the new Diocese of Reno in Nevada from 1931 to 1952 and as the fourth bishop of the Latin Catholic Di ...

and James A. McNulty serving as

co-consecrators A consecrator is a bishop who ordains someone to the episcopacy. A co-consecrator is someone who assists the consecrator bishop in the act of ordaining a new bishop. The terms are used in the canon law of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churche ...

, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. As an auxiliary bishop, he assisted Archbishop Robert E. Lucey in performing confirmations and ordinations. Between 1962 and 1965, he attended all four sessions of the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

in Rome. At the Council, he defended non-Catholics by saying, "It just is not bearable to hear them talked about as some kind of strange entity or freak." He also spoke in favor of the increased participation of the

laity In religious organizations, the laity () — individually a layperson, layman or laywoman — consists of all Church membership, members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-Ordination, ordained members of religious orders, e ...

Bishop of San Angelo

Leven was appointed the third Bishop of San Angelo on October 20, 1969. His installation took place at Sacred Heart Cathedral on November 25 of that year. Credited with making the Diocese of San Angelo financially solvent, he resolved several long-standing financial problems that were burdening the diocese. He also initiated the permanent

diaconate A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Catholi ...

program, which trained and ordained more than sixty men to serve as deacons in parishes and missions across the diocese. Leven resigned as Bishop of San Angelo due to poor health on April 24, 1979. He retired to his native Blackwell, Oklahoma, and died there at age 78.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leven, Stephen Aloysius 1905 births 1983 deaths People from Blackwell, Oklahoma St. Gregory's University alumni Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of San Antonio Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni American College of the Immaculate Conception alumni Participants in the Second Vatican Council Religious leaders from Texas Religious leaders from Oklahoma Catholics from Oklahoma