“You are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world.”
(Matthew 5:13-16)
It is fitting to begin our celebration of Brother Charles Warthen’s life with the words he himself identified as the inspiration for his life. In a personal note he entrusted to the Congregation, Charles wrote: “I was daily inspired to be ‘salt of the earth’ and ‘light of the world,’ as Christ asks me to be.” Many of us experienced Christ as light through Charles’ life and witness as a Xaverian Brother for seventy-four years.
Brother Charles was born on November 17, 1933, in Baltimore, Maryland, to John and Dorothy Warthen. He was one of three children. He is survived by his sister, Sue Samilton, and his niece, Susan Fitzgerald (née Warthen) of Catonsville, Maryland. He was predeceased by his beloved parents and his brother, J. Lawrence. Charles first encountered the Xaverian Brothers as a freshman in 1947 at Mount Saint Joseph High School in Baltimore. After graduating, he responded to the call “to live a life of love and trust as a follower of Christ in the Congregation of Xaverian Brothers” (Fundamental Principles). He entered Sacred Heart Novitiate in Fort Monroe, Virginia, where on March 19, 1952 he received the religious habit of the Xaverian Brothers and the religious name Brother Dean. When Charles professed his vows, he committed himself to follow Christ’s example of self-giving love by sharing his gifts with all whom he would meet, wherever the Xaverian mission would lead him. Through prayer and reflection he came to see that becoming Christ’s “salt and light” for others requires a lifelong commitment to conversion.
Charles continued his formation at Xaverian College in Silver Spring, Maryland, and at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish in 1957. He later earned a master’s degree in Spanish from Middlebury College in 1962 and pursued further studies at Saint John’s University in New York and at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Charles served the Church’s mission of Catholic education as a teacher in several Xaverian schools: Saint John’s Preparatory School in Danvers, Massachusetts; Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, New York; Mount Saint Joseph High School in Baltimore; and Ryken High School in Leonardtown, Maryland, where he also served as an administrator. There is no doubt that Charles loved the Congregation’s educational ministry. He was a masterful Spanish teacher. Though demanding of his students, he made learning engaging and joyful. His message that students mattered was constant. His care extended well beyond the classroom, and he maintained personal relationships with many young people for decades. For many of them, Charles was a light in their education and in their lives.
Charles was also a lifelong learner. Around the time of his twenty-fifth Jubilee in 1976, the Congregation invited Brothers to consider ministries beyond education. Through prayerful discernment, Charles felt called toward pastoral and social ministries. In 1979 he completed a Master of Social Work degree in Gerontology at The Catholic University of America. With his characteristic openness and sense of mission, Charles allowed his vocation to lead him in new directions.
He founded a program for senior citizens in collaboration with the Richmond Area Agency on Aging. He later served as Pastoral Associate at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Staunton, Virginia, coordinating parish educational and social programs. During these years he also taught visually impaired students at the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind. His ministry expanded further as Executive Director of Valley Mission for the homeless and as a teacher and therapist working with homebound youth.
From 2001 until his retirement in 2010, Charles ministered primarily to senior adults of limited income. As a resident of Russell House in Virginia Beach, he continued to be “light of the world” and “salt of the earth” for the many seniors who became his friends. Even in retirement, Charles remained committed to the work of justice. He volunteered with Tidewater Sowers of Justice, advocating for social justice issues in southeastern Virginia. He also became involved with the Norfolk Catholic Worker community and supported efforts toward prison reform, maintaining personal contact with incarcerated individuals.
In one of his final personal notes, Charles wrote that his friends and coworkers were the “yeast” that helped him grow spiritually. He also cited these words of Jesus as the source of his motivation: “For whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)
Another passage from the Gospel of Matthew captures something essential about Charles’ heart: “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)
Charles was childlike in the deepest Gospel sense. He spent his life learning how to become like a little child. Like a child who trusts completely, Charles placed his life in God’s hands and followed wherever Christ seemed to lead him.
Like a child who is simple and open, he chose to live humbly among the poor, seeking friendship rather than recognition. And like a child who loves without calculation, he gave his life to quiet service, convinced that the most convincing way to preach the Gospel was through kindness, presence, and love. Today we give thanks for the life of Brother Charles. And today we join the refrain of heaven as we sing him into eternity:
Rejoice and be glad, blessed are you; holy are you
Rejoice and be glad, yours is the Kingdom of God
May our Brother Charles rest in the peace of our Lord.
Prepared by Brother Edward Driscoll