Top photo caption: Brother Ralph flashes a wide smile during a commencement ceremony for Christian Brothers Academy students. Christian Brothers Academy courtesy photo
By David Karas, Correspondent
Growing up, Christian Brother Ralph Montedoro recalls admiring the lives of service led by religious sisters while he was a student at St. Rose, Belmar, from third grade through high school.
“I had the influence of the good Sisters of St. Joseph until I graduated high school,” said Brother Ralph. “I think they were a very, very important and influential part of my life.”
He credits their example with inspiring his own vocation to religious life, which reaches the 60-year milestone this year. “They seemed to be very happy, loving, caring women, and that is probably what fostered me (and my vocation),” he said. “Seeing them and seeing what they did … I just thought it was something I would like to pursue.”
Monmouth County Son
Brother Ralph was born in Long Branch and grew up in Bradley Beach, the son of the now late Anthony and Dina Montedoro. He has two siblings, Andrea and Gary, as well as a niece, nephew and cousins, most of whom grew up in the Bradley Beach area.
His interest in pursuing a religious vocation was supported by the now late Msgr. Samuel Carl Constance, who was parochial vicar and then pastor of Brother Ralph’s home parish, Ascension Parish, Bradley Beach. Brother Ralph was connected with the nearest religious order for men – the Christian Brothers in Lincroft – and he spent a weekend visiting their Novitiate in Barrytown, NY. The Bradley Beach native liked what he saw and made the decision to enter the order, receiving the habit in August of 1966.
Brother Ralph went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from The Catholic University of America, Washington, as well as a master’s degree in education from Monmouth University, West Long Branch. He began his ministry teaching at St. John’s College High School, Washington, before first joining Christian Brothers Academy, Lincroft, s a teacher of Spanish and religion in 1971. After teaching at several other schools, he returned to his religious order’s all-boys school in 1986 as CBA’s vice principal. He spent more than three decades there, later serving as principal and vice president leading up to his retirement in 2020.
“I enjoyed myself here,” he said. “I enjoyed working with the people, and I enjoyed living in community – sharing, praying and being with one another.”
In Service of Others
In a recent interview with The Monitor, Brother Ralph highlighted his creation of a service program at CBA as one of his proudest achievements during his time at the school – and something that came from his own experiences growing up and helping with his parish religious education program.
At CBA, he wanted to introduce the young men to service – not through organized, school-based activities, but in their own neighborhoods. Through his leadership, the school instituted annual service hour requirements, which increased each year as young men moved through their high school experience. Participation could involve acts like helping an elderly neighbor with shoveling snow or volunteering at a local charity.
“This had to be some kind of service that they did by themselves, for themselves,” he said, noting that the students often gained more from the service than those they were helping. Even some parents got involved in the service alongside their sons, Brother Ralph recalled.
That program also inspired his own volunteer service to the Missionaries of Charity Soup Kitchen, Asbury Park, where he continues to serve regularly even in his retirement. “I felt if I was requesting the students to do this type of service, that I should be doing something myself,” he said.
As he celebrates his 60th jubilee, Brother Ralph encourages young men with an interest in serving others to consider religious life. And while he acknowledges that the challenges facing the world today are different from when he began his religious vocation, such a path still requires the same foundation of faith.
“You have to be strong, you have to be willing to believe in God and know the direction you are going is the right direction – because it is,” he said. “You have to have an open heart. You have to be willing to roll with the punches and know that at the end, there is a God and you are there to work for him, with him and to do whatever you can to help others – to spread the joy, to spread the love, and to spread the Gospel message.”
