Rev. Matt Menger, OMI, born in San Antonio, Texas on January 25, 1929, died at Oblate Madonna Residence in San Antonio, Texas on August 19, 2017, at the age of 88 years.  Fr. Menger professed his first vows as a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in May 1947.

His advanced philosophical and theological studies were taken at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, 1974-54.  He was ordained in 1954 at the Basilica of St. John Lateran by Marcello Cardinal Micara, Vicar General of Rome.

After ordination he was assigned to the Oblate Generalate in Rome to work on causes of canonization, one of which was for the Oblate founder, Saint Eugene De Mazenod. Fr. Menger received his missionary assignment to Laos in 1956, making him the first American priest to be stationed in that Indochina country.  Fr. Menger worked in the area of Laos where six Oblates were martyred, including Blessed Mario Borzaga, OMI, with whom he shared living quarters. Fr. Menger's first pastor was Fr. Joseph Boissel, OMI, also martyred and beatified.

Later Fr. Menger was stationed in the capital city of Vientiane where he built and directed the first orphanage in the country, Our Lady of Hope, and the first village girls' training center, Dara Som Vang. He was National Director of Catholic Relief Services, and of Caritas Internationalis. He assisted various groups seeking information on American military missing in action in Indochina.

He authored two books on Laos, Valley of the Mekong and Slowly climbs the Sun.  In 1975 Fr. Menger and all the Oblates were expelled from Laos when the communist military captured the nation.  He was assigned to San Antonio where he was the Director of the Office of Mission Development and Information. Prior to his retirement at Madonna Residence in 2012, he was a staff psychologist at the VA Hospital in Dallas specializing in the treatment of PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.)

Fr. Menger is the son of a pioneer San Antonio family, Henry and Eleanor Lange Menger.  He had one brother, Fr. Henry Menger, OMI who was stationed in Mexico City where he was killed in an automobile accident with his mother in 1956.  His father, Henry J. Menger, Sr. was the publisher of the Southern Messenger, Texas' first Catholic newspaper.

Fr. Menger is survived by several cousins and will be remembered with respect and esteem by his Oblate brothers and all the people who were recipients of his pastoral care.

FUNERAL SERVICES