3 May 2024

Michael Charles Ruthenberg was born on September 9, 1947, in Detroit, Michigan, and adopted by Willard (Bill) and Marcella (Maley) Ruthenberg. He had one younger sister. Michael attended grammar school at St. Isaac Jogues in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. He received his high school diploma from Brunnerdale Seminary in Canton, Ohio, in 1966 and entered the Society of the Precious Blood. He was first incorporated into the Society as a brother candidate on August 15, 1969, and definitively incorporated on May 30, 1970. In 1972, he requested and received permission to study for the priesthood. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Theology with a minor in Philosophy from St. Joseph College, Rensselaer, Indiana, in 1973. He then moved to Chicago, Illinois, to continue his studies at Catholic Theological Union. At his request, Michael was released from his commitment to the Society on in December of 1974.

From 1974 to 1978 Michael worked in childcare and then as a railroad carman until 1982. He considered a return to the Society of the Precious Blood which was not to be. In high school seminary, Michael had considered discerning with the Order of Preachers (which his formator noted in his application to the Order). He resumed that discernment and, on August 23, 1982, entered the novitiate of the Province of St. Albert the Great in Denver, Colorado, where he received the religious name Michael Becket. He professed first vows on August 21, 1983, at St. Dominic Priory in Denver and began studies for the priesthood at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. He professed solemn vows on August 30, 1986, and was ordained a priest at the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France, on May 14, 1988, by Archbishop John May of St. Louis.

Fr. Michael began his priestly ministry at St. Vincent Ferrer Parish in River Forest, Illinois. In 1990, he moved to Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, to serve as a chaplain at the motherhouse for the Dominican Sisters. In 1994, he moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he was an associate pastor at St. Jude Parish. In 1995, he moved to St. Clair Shores, Michigan, to be an associate pastor at St. Gertrude Parish. From 1997 to 1999, Fr. Michael was on exclaustration in Winona, Minnesota. He returned to the Province and was assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas Priory in River Forest, Illinois, where he performed parish supply work and hospital chaplaincy until 2001. From 2001 until 2019 he was chaplain at Little Sisters of the Poor Center for Aging in Chicago, Illinois. In 2019, due to post-operation heart surgery complications which resulted in a permanent tracheostomy, Fr. Michael went into Limited Service at St. Pius V Priory.

Fr. Michael maintained an interest in historical research throughout his Dominican life. During his studies in St. Louis, he helped to identify the grave of pioneering Dominican John Alleman (d. 1865) and raised funds to purchase a tombstone. In 1995, organized an expedition with Great Lakes Maritime Institute Underwater Research Team which discovered St. Felicity Cemetery, confirming the existence of a mission Church which had been built on the shores of Lake St. Clair and abandoned in 1855 as the lake rose and subsumed it.

After a bout with pneumonia that further compromised his breathing, Fr. Michael was placed on hospice care. His sister, Mary, visited him before passing. Fr. Richard Litzau and Fr. Daniel Davis, prior and subprior of St. Pius V Priory, sat with him before his passing on May 3, 2024, at Rainbow Hospice Ark (Ascension Resurrection Hospital). Office of the Dead and Mass of Christian Burial were held at St. Pius V Parish on May 9, 2024. Very Rev. Louis Morrone, O.P., Prior Provincial, presided and Rev. Brian Bricker, O.P., preached. Fr. Ruthenberg was laid to rest in All Saints Cemetery, Des Plaines, Illinois.