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St. Patrick Family Has 3
Sons in Service, 6 at Home
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 "St. Patrick. -- Three sons serving in the armed forces
and six younger sons still at home is the record of Mr. and
Mrs. Joseph O'Konek, St. Cloud, RFD No. 1.
They have reared 12 children in their farm home and although the three older boys have enlisted,
two of them in the army and one in the marines, they still have no shortage of help at home.
Mr. O'Konek has managed to keep his farm at full production this year
and when his boys attain military age he is willing to let them go, although the younger boys all have
their tasks in helping to keep the farm in operation.
"Mr. and
Mrs. O'Konek have taken more pride in their large family than
in their farm equipment and machinery. Theirs is a plain, old-fashioned farm home with the pioneer
spirit where making a living has at times been hard, but never so hard that any of the family has
ever been in want.
"Three or four of the boys are servers in St. Patrick's
church and there are seldom fewer than four or five children of the family attending the parish instruction
classes. They are all bright-eyed, happy youngsters and their manners reflect the Christian training
they received in the ideal atmosphere of their happy home.
"Mrs. O'Konek
has been an invalid for several years. Two of her daughters manage the house for her as she gently
directs from her bed or chair. Photos of the three boys who are away in the service of their country
are lined up on a table near her in the neat little living-room where she sits with her rosary in
hand many hours each day.
"'If America had but ten million such Christian farm
homes, it would be hard to imagine anything like conscription when the nation has to go to war,'
commented the Rev. F. C. Faique, pastor of St. Patrick's parish in which the O'Konek
family live. 'We have had too many farmers more proud of their big barns, automobiles, trucks, tractors,
and modern conveniences and not enough of them proud of their families of boys and girls. The result has been that many of
them today are raising a clamor because their one and only sons are called to war and the big tractors
are minus hands to operate them.
"'Happily there are still families like the O'Koneks giving
the nation the man power it needs. And they do it without whimpering and complaining. They are
the glory of America and that they still exist is not a fact to be credited to the advanced social
agencies of the nation with their birth-control clinics, theories of economic planning, and modern
indifference to the need of religion.
"'We still have families that are a credit to America, because God's laws have been held
sacred by the parents in them. Let any one ask what are the results of the Church's work in the nation
and the answer can be found in such families. They are seldom to be found in regions where no church spire pierces the sky. They are
a testimony to the truth that real patriotism is a combination of serving God and country.'"
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