Kenneth Baker (Jesuit)

Baker was born on November 12, 1929, to Catherine and Kenneth Baker Sr. in 1929 in Tacoma, Washington. who instructed Baker and his fellow students in their studies and in the Catholic faith. At this time Baker showed no signs of developing a vocation to the priesthood and at one point when the Sisters asked the boys in his class which of them would like to grow up and be priests, Baker was the only one who did not raise his hand. The young Baker got into "various kinds of trouble like other boys his age" and making use of the Catholic sacrament of confession officiated by Fr. Augustine Krebsbach. Baker had intended to the Catholic parochial school Bellarmine High, but circumstances prevented this. Baker's grandfather had suffered a stroke and was no longer able to work and his grandmother made the only income for the family, bringing in $6.00 a week as a restaurant cook. Rather than force Baker to attend public high school his uncle, who owned a restaurant, offered to pay the first year of the Jesuit Bellarmine high school's tuition of $80. His uncle also offered Baker a job so that by working weeknights and weekends he could earn the money to continue going to Catholic school. Baker began as a dishwasher and moved up to fry cook. Baker was able to earn enough to buy a 1938 Dodge four door sedan at the age of sixteen. Three different US military branches had bases in Tacoma and when World War II was being fought many servicemen came into the restaurant, some of the waitresses made money on the side by engaging in prostitution using the job as a contact point for customers. To Baker this worldly behavior was a sharp contrast from the way the Jesuit scholastics teaching at Bellarmine high comported themselves. Baker spent much of his spare time in student activities including dances and parties, sometimes taking girls from two nearby Catholic girls' schools out for a movie and a hamburger with rootbeer. With his junior year in high school Baker became a serious student as he began to consider joining the navy to become a pilot or being the first in his family to attend college. At this time he also became more serious about his faith, attending Mass daily as devotion for Lent. Baker in an attempt to get elected to the school council paid five dollars to a friend who flew an airplane to drop leaflets on the school yard in support of his election. A strong wind blew the leaflets away from the school and onto the football field where the principal made Baker collect them. He did not win the election. As a high school senior Baker began regularly dating a cheerleader named Pat from a rival school. To Baker's surprise that same year the chaplain at Bellarmine high suggested he consider joining the novitiate of the Society of Jesus. While unaware of any priestly vocation Baker wanted to learn more about the Jesuit way of life. After informing his girlfriend (who was unhappy but supportive) Baker began a two-year trial period as a Jesuit novice on August 15, 1947. ==Jesuit training==

In the monastic framework of the novitiate, Baker grew to enjoy the regular regimen of prayer, instruction, and work. After the two-year trial period ended, Baker was committed to join the Jesuits and on the Feast of Assumption 1949 he took the perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in the Society of Jesus and began an eleven-year program to become a priest. In accordance with Jesuit training Baker took two years of classical study and then three years of philosophy. He then went on to teach Latin and Greek as a scholastic at Gonzaga Preparatory School in Spokane. Baker enjoyed teaching and pictured a future serving in that role. Aware of Baker's interest in teaching his Provincial offered him a chance to study theology at the Austrian Jesuit University of Innsbruck. Although Baker's focus had been the Classics he accepted the offer. Living in the Austrian highlands Baker soon became fluent in German and became an expert skier. Within a year at Innsbruck he was passionate about his new focus studying theology and became deeply interested in theological matters and movements within the Catholic Church. On July 26, 1960, Baker was ordained a priest at Holy Trinity church in Innsbruck. In 1961 Baker completed his formal study of theology and received the Licentiate degree. Returning to America and Washington State, Baker was prepared to enter the period of tertianship, where young Jesuit priests are placed in pastoral situations to prepare them for the future. His tertianship was placed on hold, however, when the Jesuit Provincial asked him to fill in temporarily as a philosophy professor for Gonzaga University. For two years Baker taught logic, philosophy of man, and philosophy of God and then entered his tertianship (which he completed in 1963). Desiring to study more about Christian Scripture Baker received permission to pursue a graduate degree at Marquette University. In 1967 he earned a Ph.D. and then was sent to Gonzaga University to serve as an assistant professor of the theological faculty. ==Teaching at Gonzaga University==

Returning to Gonzaga, Baker felt that a change had overcome many of his fellow priests and the nuns working there. Some among the nuns were removing their habits and placing less emphasis on their religious identity. Baker also felt disquieted by priests, seminarians, and nuns gathering for informal "beer parties" on campus. Investigating such parties, Baker felt that they were leading to an "unhealthy spirit, a breakdown in the commitment to a complete and exclusive following of Christ, a haze dimming the witness to the reality of eternal life." Advocating for a stricter obedience to the papacy, Baker became chairman of the theology department for Gonzaga in 1968. His position was ""Both arms around the Pope, that's my principle." In the summer of 1968, Pope Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae, reaffirming the Catholic doctrine against the use of man-made birth control. While a wave of dissent arose throughout Catholic universities across North America, Gonzaga's faculty remained loyal and gave a series of lectures in support of the encyclical. Baker supported the document by preaching from the pulpit of Spokane's Jesuit Church. With a growing experience in academics and administration, Baker fine-tuned his ideas on what was required to restore and emphasize Catholic identity within Catholic educational institutions. While many Catholic educational institutions were seen as "secularizing" by turning over control to lay boards of directors, Baker advocated the opposite, defending the preservation of ecclesiastical affiliation and the Jesuit spirit of solidarity and service. Baker's sermon during the opening Mass of the Jesuit University of Seattle drew special attention for its emphasis on this subject, and he was instrumental in assuring that Jesuit control remained in the revised charter of Gonzaga. ==President of Seattle University==

In late November 1969 the Jesuit Provincial called Baker into his office and informed him that the president of Seattle University was being replaced and that he, then forty-years-old, was being appointed to the position.). University leaders had projected the increased enrollment of the 1950s would continue. Loans were taken out to fund the construction of buildings to handle these projections, such as the student residency building Campion Hall (which required a loan of 3.6 million dollars). But the projections proved wrong and rather than the forecast enrollment of 6,000 students in 1969, a decline in student numbers occurred, resulting in a student body of 1,076, which left the university saddled with near empty buildings and in dire financial trouble. In addition to financial problems at the university, Baker had to deal with student unrest. During the early stages of the Vietnam War, the majority of Seattle University students had been supportive of the military endeavor. After the 1968 Tet Offensive, the majority of student opinion swung against the war and protests on campus rose drastically. By 1970 hundreds of students were taking part in rallies and teach-ins. The protesters took especial issue with the presence of ROTC on campus. Later when the student government refused to increase the BSU's budget the group threatened a boycott in which black basketball players would refuse to play. The boycott did not take place, but on January 19, 1970, weeks before Baker took office a bomb exploded between the Liberal Arts and Garrand buildings causing costly structural damage, but no injuries or loss of life. He was the fifth man to hold the title President (between the school's founding in 1891 to 1936 the job's title was Administrator). Interviewed by the local media Baker told reporters that he would remain firm and not let the protesters “break SU so we’ll have to turn it over to the state and make it a black university,” he promised he would “not tolerate anarchical activity on campus. This is not a return to the jungle." Resignation Baker's stance against the agitated students did not receive universal support, some school benefactors and other people of influence demanded he be fired and replaced by someone with a more conciliatory approach. Feeling his drive to implement his vision of Catholic education would be unachievable in the current climate Baker resigned the University Presidency on November 1, 1970, after having served nine months. The percentage of Jesuit faculty continued to decline, and at the end of Sullivan's tenure had fallen to 10%. Baker's stance against the radicalised students was noticed by conservative commentator William F. Buckley, Jr. who invited him as a guest on his television show "Firing Line" that filmed in New York City. ==Editor of Homiletic and Pastoral Review==

While in New York in December 1970 Baker accompanied fellow Jesuit Daniel Lyons (who was later laicized in 1976) to a restaurant. Lyons suggested that the nearly bankrupt Homiletic and Pastoral Review be purchased and Baker should serve as its Editor-in-Chief. The Jesuit Provincial gave his approval and Lyons made a company that bought the magazine on a payment-plan that extended for three years. Baker moved from Washington state to New York to take up his new position. The first issue under his editing was issued in April 1971 with an editorial by him titled "Catholic and Proud of it", and Baker's principle for the magazine was that they "came out four square in favor of the Pope and the magisterium." After 2010 Baker continued as Editor Emeritus with the magazine writing a monthly editorial and book reviews. ==Bibliography==

In the late 1980s Baker started two community television stations to promote Catholicism. In addition to televising EWTN, the stations were created to make original programming as well. In 1987 Baker as President of Catholic Views Broadcast Inc started a community television station at Blue Island, Illinois airing to the Chicago area on UHF channel 54, with the call letters W54AP. In 1989 he started another community television station on UHF channel 53 under the call letters K53CH in Minneapolis, Minnesota. With the FCC analog to digital conversion, the Illinois station in 2004 moved from channel 54 to 48 and its call-sign became W48DD. The station was sold in 2005 and switched from Catholic to ethnic programming, changing its call-sign to WFBBT-CA. The Minneapolis station, also due to the analog to digital conversion, was moved from channel 53 to 19 under the call letters of K19ER in 2003. In 2010 the station moved to channel 16 - its new call letters became K16HY-D. In 2009 Baker turned over the Minneapolis station to St. Michael's Broadcasting and its president Michael Bird who continued to broadcast Catholic programming. Baker has appeared on "Mother Angelica Live" and hosted a thirteen-part series on the Bible for EWTN. He has also recorded video lectures on Catholic theology concerning the doctrine of the Trinity and the Catholic exegesis of the Old Testament which are distributed by International Catholic University. ==References==