On the Hill

Fr. Damian ‘Damo’ Dietlein dies at Assumption Abbey.

He taught Scripture at Saint Meinrad for 47 years.

A longtime faculty member at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, Fr. Damian (Leo) Dietlein, OSB, died at Assumption Abbey in Richardton, ND, on December 30, 2022. He was 90 years old and had been a monk for 70 years, a priest for 65 years.

Born on June 16, 1932, in rural North Dakota, Leo Edward attended high school at Assumption Abbey. He then followed his older brother Francis into the Benedictine community, receiving the habit and the name Damian on June 25, 1951.

Adept as he was with farm equipment, it was clear from the outset that Damian was a man with a mind. As soon as he was out of the novitiate, he was sent to St. John’s College, Collegeville, MN, where he earned a double major in philosophy and English literature in 1954. He made simple vows in 1952 and solemn vows in 1955.

That same year he was sent off to Rome, where all classes were in Latin. In 1957, he received a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from Sant’Anselmo, and was ordained to the priesthood. From the Biblicum he received a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture in 1961. Returning to Assumption Abbey, he taught Latin and Greek in the high school and junior college, and Scripture and dogma in the Abbey’s seminary. He was appointed prior (second in leadership) in 1967.

In July of 1968, he took up teaching at Saint Meinrad, specifically Scripture. He eventually became a professional member of the American Academy of Religion, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the Catholic Biblical Association.

He never stopped being a farm boy, however, and returned to Richardton every summer to cut and bale hay on the Abbey farm. If he knew how to read books in Latin and Greek, he also knew how to repair a baler and swath hay, this in a day when priests did not soil their hands, and farm duties were handed off to the lay brothers.

In another assignment for Assumption in October 1975, he was doing promotional work for Brookside Winery – the Abbey’s source for altar wines – raising $80,000 for St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, and for that he was presented the keys to the city, along with Gordon MacRae (popular actor of the 1950s and ’60s). Fr. Damian did not know who Gordon MacRae was. MacRae was considerably irked by this.

Fr. Damian served as co-convenor for the Catholic Biblical Association for several three-year terms, and through the CBA he became aware of feminist biblical interpretation. He became a member of the CBA Task Force on Feminist Biblical Hermeneutics in 1989. Proof of his interest can be seen in the nearly 300 feminist books he brought home to the Abbey library.

Through the CBA, he attended sessions all over the country. At Saint Meinrad, he was, time and again, elected faculty moderator and served on many committees. He was associate dean and served as an academic advisor, faculty advisor for student self-evaluation, spiritual advisor to students, and dean-liaison for visiting Benedictine students. He developed a course on women in the Old Testament, another on women leadership roles in early Christianity, and mentored female students in the school.

To distinguish him from another Fr. Damian at Saint Meinrad, he was given the nickname “Damo,” which stuck with him throughout his teaching career.

In 1979, Abbot Lawrence Wagner asked Fr. Damian to return home to take charge of the Abbey Press, just when Damian – at the age of 48 – had gained tenure. When Fr. Daniel Buechlein, OSB, president-rector of Saint Meinrad Seminary, learned of this, he was flabbergasted.

He begged for Fr. Damian to continue. Abbot Lawrence granted him a year. And then another year. And another. In all, he taught 47 years at Saint Meinrad. He retired in 2015 at the age of 83. He was given emeritus status by President-Rector Fr. Denis Robinson, OSB, and the Board of Trustees.

Back home in Richardton, Fr. Damian became a pillar of the Abbey community, faithfully attending functions and offering well-wrought and intelligent sermons. In 2017 he became administrator of the Abbey when Abbot Brian Wangler died in office.

In September of 2022, a CT scan showed a mass in his chest. However, Fr. Damian refused chemotherapy and chose only palliative care.

The funeral Mass was celebrated on January 4, with burial in the Abbey cemetery.