The Father-Son Banquet is back. After two years of alternate iterations of the event, it has returned as a banquet with Mass, dinner, and a guest speaker. Sunday night, Jr. Bills and their fathers made the trip down to Oakland Ave. for a night of bonding.

“It's important to have this event for the simple reason that it is a long standing tradition that we have here at SLUH,” Director of Alumni and Parent Giving John Penilla. “It's a great opportunity for dads and sons to get together and have some focused time, to start the evening off with Mass, to have dinner, and then listen to a great speaker.”

The evening began with Mass in the chapel celebrated by Fr. Ian Gibbons SJ, alongside co-celebrant Ralph Houlihan SJ, in one of the last Masses in the chapel before renovations begin this March. 

Following Mass, attendees moved to the Commons for dinner and a speech from motivational speaker John O’Leary. 

O'Leary is a St. Louis native who grew up in West County and attended De Smet. Although he was the main speaker, the talk began with an introduction by O’Leary’s lifelong friend and SLUH dad Mark Fessler ’95. Fessler shared a story about the pair’s time traveling to baseball stadiums, and O’Leary playing Wayne Gretzky in a national bubble hockey championship. He expressed gratitude for  O’Leary’s friendship and noted that, despite his major setbacks, O’Leary has accomplished great things that are truly remarkable.

O’Leary was introduced onto the stage and prefaced that he would tell three separate stories from his lifetime that defined who he was and how he overcame his struggles to become a man. As a boy O’Leary attempted to pour gasoline on the ground and light it, in spite of seeing older boys do it, but instead an explosion occurred and O’Leary was burned on 100 percent of his body. O’Leary talked about how important masculinity is, but also how vulnerable it can be. He told stories from his recovery and his life that defined masculinity for him, ultimately allowing him to become who he is today. His goal was to have the young men in the room look at their fathers and see the man they want to become.

“The message that he had was something that isn’t spoken a lot about,” said Penilla. “The way he defined ‘masculine’ and how it’s vulnerable and it's loving. It's something that is not necessarily prevalent in the culture at large. The opportunity for the students to hear that message, and ultimately the message from their dad made that night really powerful.”

In the middle of his talk, O’Leary took a minute to pause and had the fathers turn to their sons and have a moment together. He instructed the fathers to tell their sons why they love them unconditionally, giving them all the reasons that their sons make them proud.

“A lot of the time, I have so much on my plate so I don’t get to spend as much time as I would want with my family,” said junior Miles Rittenhouse. “It was really special for me because I got to slow life down for a moment and be able to tell my dad that I do love him and it's something that I just do and not think about that often. I definitely don’t tell him enough and that was much needed in my life. I'm thankful that I got the chance to say that to him.”