Just before Thanksgiving, 2003, the monastic community welcomed Fr. Kenneth Hein into their midst. Fr. Kenneth came to the Monastery of the Ascension in November, 2003, from Holy Cross Abbey in Cañon City, Colorado, which is closing because of lack of personnel and vocations. He is a native of the Intermountain West and wished to be part of a Benedictine Community in this region. He chose the Monastery of the Ascension because it is a place “where I could become fully immersed in the life of a religious community of men and their ministries in and for the Church. I am very pleased that I have been accepted into a very friendly and active monastic community. I look forward to getting more acquainted with Idaho and its people and with the Diocese of Boise.” Fr. Kenneth was born June 2, 1938, in Longmont, CO. He joined Holy Cross Abbey in 1960. He studied at St. Benedict’s College, Atchison, KS, and then at the Anselmianum in Rome and at the University of Tuebingen in Germany where he earned a doctorate in theology. Fr. Joseph Ratzinger, who was to become Pope Benedict XVI, was his thesis director. He was ordained a priest in 1969. Fr Kenneth has taught theology at the high school, college, and seminary levels. He has served as a chaplain in a prison, an abbey of nuns and a medical center, and was the associate pastor in a parish. Fr. Kenneth has many interests including painting, computers and camping; he also plays the organ. Fr. Kenneth is vocation director of the monastery and teaches a class on the psalms in the Benedictine Distance Learning program. He has his own website: www.amorchristi.org.

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