Vatican honors local couple for service to Church

By Ambria Hammel, The Catholic Sun
April 5, 2007

When a tiny nun in a white habit entered an Arizona tire store 20 years ago looking for help, Bruce Halle responded.

He gave the Little Sister of the Poor money and assistance. On another visit, she needed tires. Bruce, founder of Discount Tire Co., provided those as well.

Now, he said, “They have a letter from us authorizing any of our stores in the company to give them a set of tires.”

Bruce and his wife, Diane, still serve Catholics in need wherever possible.

The Paradise Valley couple consistently strengthens the Church through practical and spiritual means, whether they do it from the office, at home, across the diocese or throughout the world.

“They like to do it quietly if they can,” said Franciscan Father Ray Bucher, former director of the Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale and a family friend.

Bringing the Mass home

The priest is right. The Halles donated more than $30,000 from their foundation to support the diocese’s weekly TV Mass on local cable stations, but they quickly pointed out that it was really a few friends who raised the funds.

Either way, the money will help bring the Mass home to Catholics unable to hit the road like the Little Sisters of the Poor.

The Halles know when churchgoers miss Mass, it’s often due to health issues.

This is “a wonderful way to help spread the Word at a time when people are in turmoil or crisis,” Diane said.

“We’ve gotten some big checks, but usually not as large as what we got from the Halle Foundation,” said Jim Dwyer, director of the diocesan Office of Public Information, which produces the Mass.

It costs $250,000-$300,000 each year to broadcast the Sunday liturgy live.

The Halles’ friends decided to donate to the broadcast after seeing Church leadership honor the couple last fall at the Vatican for their service to the faith. That’s when the Holy See inducted the local couple into the invitation-only Papal Order of St. Gregory.

Bruce said they were in awe and humbled by the honor, although Diane admitted they hadn’t heard of the order.

“We had to look it up and Google it,” she said.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, who recommended the couple to the order, said the Halles have a true sense of being Catholic.

“They think of the Church locally and they think of the Church around the world,” he said. “And they engage in the Church’s mission in both.”

Serving the Church

More than two years ago, the Halles supported the global Church by contributing to the restoration of Michaelangelo’s last frescoes, which adorn the pope’s private chapel. It’s here, surrounded by two 445 square-foot murals, that the pope strengthens his spirit to lead Catholics worldwide.

“They are painstakingly going through the renovation of these murals with lasers and they have experts from all around the world coming in to put this together,” Diane said. She expects the project to last at least another two years.

Even though the papal chapel will remain closed to the public, the Halles’ donation means they can use it for any family sacrament.

They may not need to though. Bruce and Diane have their own private chapel at home where a family priest blessed their children and grandchildren and presided over the renewal of their wedding vows.

“It fits the whole family with a few close friends. It’s just what we had wanted it to be: a quiet place from daily life to stop in,” Diane explained.

Outside of the chapel, they keep themselves busy.

They have been involved with the Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale for more than 25 years. They helped fund a couple of buildings at the center and its friary.

“I think in their heart they realize that in giving, they receive,” Fr. Bucher said. “They want to give back something to a place where they have received so much.”

As longtime members of the diocese, the Halles have furthered other Catholic efforts, including seminary scholarships and K-12 schools.

They donated tires and wheels to St. John Vianney in Goodyear for its parish and school vehicles.

They have also donated to Dignity House, a Catholic Charities Community Services program that diverts women from prostitution.

They discover such needs when traveling the country for work. Outside the diocese, the couple has contributed to a Franciscan retreat center in California as well as the  construction of two school gymnasiums, an electric lift for a home for the elderly, a building on a reservation, and a Mexican mission.

“It’s important to us to make certain that every place we do business or that we reside, we make an impact,” Diane said. She wants to “help leave an imprint on this world that somebody did some good along the way.”

Bishop Olmsted said they follow St. James’ decree to humbly welcome the Word and act on it.

“If all you do is listen to it, you are deceiving yourselves,” he quoted from Scripture. “The Halles put their faith into action.”