JACK OF ALL TRADES - MASTER OF FEW

“I’m starting to get a taste of what’s involved with being a pastor.”

This was a line from a newly ordained priest for the Diocese of Cleveland.  He had visited St. Sebastian on Monday night to talk to our confirmation candidates, their parents, and sponsors about being on fire for God.  Afterward in the rectory he made that comment about being a pastor.  He was “Home Alone,” his pastor being on his annual retreat.  “I’m not running the parish,” he was quick to clarify, “but I’m discovering there is a lot more to it than I originally imagined.”

Besides being an “expert” (as much as anybody is) on matters of faith, God, and people’s souls, there are budgets and roofs and counseling.  Art, education, tax laws, city ordinances, Increasing federal laws, and being able to play the politician (you can’t say yes to everything but try to keep people involved and happy) and more are all nuances of a pastor.

 
“I had to say, ‘No,’ to someone today,” he said.  “Gosh was that difficult.  It was something that the person really wanted and I knew the pastor (who was away) didn’t.  I had to find a way to say no without getting this very enthusiastic person upset.”  It is a very difficult thing.

That was an interesting lesson to learn for such a recently ordained priest.  

Then the next morning tragedy struck his parish.  One of the school children had died.  Pulled away from Mass, he had to run out to scene to pray and comfort.  But Mass could not be left unfinished and so he had to returned to finish Mass after witnessing this as duty called him to do.  But things would not end there.  This is something with which they will be dealing for a long time.  

Fortunately the pastor was able to hurry home and assist with his wizened and time tested years dealing with all kinds of things and together, along with a wonderful, faith filled community, they began the process of coping and healing.

This weekend is Priesthood Sunday.  Imagine how different things would have been if there was not a priest on hand at the parish that morning - if there were not someone living at the parish that could handle emergencies around the clock - if there were not someone free of familial obligations so as to be able to be that representative of Christ (however imperfectly we do so) whenever and for as long as needed.  Please pray for vocations.  Suggest to a young man that you think he might make a good priest.  Be a part of the solution of making sure our Catholic community is well tended in the future.

MONDAY DIARY: ALMOST EXCRUCIATINGLY TRUE STORIES: WHEN IN DOUBT, THROW IT OUT.

Another danger in being a guy and never being married is that, unless you were a cook in a working life before ordination, your kitchen skills pretty much end at a college level.

I used to argue at the seminary that they should have classes on such things as cooking.  And if you see what horrible things happen when I am in charge of laundry, it might not be a bad idea to a class on that too.

We are extremely, wonderfully, absolutely blessed to have a small army of people who cook for us at St. Sebastian.  I know, I know, I know - believe me my Father used to read me the riot act.  I should grow up and take care of myself.  But if I were left on my own in the wild, every meal would consist of a salami sandwich.

A seminarian came over recently and gave me a dressing down for having some meat in the refrigerator that was ending its life span before he left after Christmas vacation.  I pointed out to him that we were still well within the 5 week rule.  He kindly pointed out that it is actually a 5 day rule.  Who knows this stuff?

Anyway, shouldn't microwaves kill anything bad?  Nothing goes through a microwave and lives.  Right?

TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE: HAPPY RETIREMENT GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT & RANT/COUNTER RANT - GOOD THING YOU ARE NO LONGER IN SCHOOL

Today at 2:00PM we will no longer say, “Benedict our pope . . .” at the Mass.  I tried practicing that part of the Mass today skipping that part and blew it right away.  (One would think it would be so, so easy.)  I said, “together with Richard our pope . . .” who is our bishop.  Glad I made the goof now instead of at the weekend Masses.

 

I told the 400-some-odd children at the Mass today that this is a historic moment.  They were attending the last Mass at this parish in which Benedict’s name would be mentioned as pope (unless the next pope takes the same name of course) and that after such time, the Church will be without a pope until the next one is elected.  It has been so long since a pope retired (around 6 centuries) that nobody even remembers what to do.  This will be a remarkable thing for the history books for some time if not forever and we were alive to see it.

 

Of course the pope cannot just retire – at least not in the United States.  I spent much of yesterday driving around in the car and listening to various NPR stations.  Half of the reports I heard of Benedict’s retirement were absolutely salacious.  At some points stunning in their viciousness and outright misleading statements (from stations that claim to present the unvarnished truth for educated people by educated people) to other stories that were quite good in which the person interviewed would equally tell of Benedict’s great achievements, acknowledge that at which he was not particularly talented, and refusing to give in to the interviewer’s obvious desire for unsubstantiated dirt.

 

In any event, one interviewer stated that the media had an obligation to speculate on motivations of the pope when information is not available.  Funny how it invariably has to be negative.  The most obvious motivation – he wants to retire – is never one of them. 

 

In a way it is kind of a back handed compliment.  They are paying attention even if it is, in many cases, in a negative fashion.  Is there leader besides the president of the United States that gets this much attention in the U.S.?  (Possibly English royalty on a really good day.)

 

Today was meant to be a fond fair well post for the pope.  I am afraid I got sidetracked by paying too much attention to the news.  Actually, today there was a lot of decent and balanced coverage.  Thank you Pope (for a few more hours.)  I hope your first day after your prayers you have a good glass of wine, play the piano, and take a nice long nap.

 

IN OTHER NEWS:

 

I couldn’t let this one go though.  Yesterday in the Beacon Journal, they found it timely and necessary to run an op ed piece about priestly celibacy from the New York Times by Frank Bruni.  The crux of the article is that the next pope should rethink the whole priestly celibacy thing.  Fine.  After all it is only a discipline, not a dogmatic teaching essential to the priesthood.   I think it would be a mistake to get rid of it (I know, shock) but the Church would not end if that teaching changed.

 

However, the reasoning that he used is not tenable and uses poor science and reasoning to draw his conclusions.  Take the following points:

 

“The church’s (sic) leaders preach a purity that its own clerics can’t maintain.”

 

This is partly true.  It is a bit sensational to make it sound as though every single priest in the world fails at this, but it is very true that there are dramatic failures – and even many of them.  So by his reasoning, we should stop teaching about charity (love the Lord your God with all your heart, your neighbor as yourself, and your enemies) because if we can’t live it, it must be done away with.

 

He also maintains that it keeps too many men out of the priesthood who would fill dwindling ranks.  “It renders the priesthood less attractive, contributing to the shortage of priests.”  It is similar to the possibility of getting shot by going to war.  First, we want men who are willing to sacrifice to serve.  Second, if this would really be a solution, then mainstream non-Catholic Churches that have married, male ministers/priests should have PLENTY of men willing to serve.  Such is not the case.

 

Bruni also alleges that all sexual misdeeds in the Church can be attributed to the unnatural state of a sexless existence.  I am glad he cleared this up for us!  Now all we have to do is let all priests get married and have sex and there will be no more cheating on spouses, no child abuse, no divorce, no remarriage . . . wait . . . then . . .  why doesn’t that sound true?  Maybe we should stop preaching about marriage and fidelity too.  (Touch of sarcasm there.)

 

Now what might be true is that some men go into the priesthood to get away from sexual desires that they (and society) consider impure.  Bruni may be right about this.  On the other hand, even if priests are allowed to be married it would revert to the ancient customs where by celibacy is optional, not done away with.  There would still be a celibate tradition in the Church and these men of whom Bruni is afraid would still be there.  Further, a marriage would have to take place before ordination, the man would be barred from the episcopate, and he would not be able to remarry.

 

The rest of the article is full of antidotal evidence, conjectures, and “people have told me,” type writing that if it were turned in as a paper for a high school class, it would receive an “F” for failure to make an informed opinion that could be backed up with actual evidence.  The lesson to take away here is to remember to think critically when an “expert” is being presented to you.

MONDAY DIARY - THE HE-MAN PRIEST ONLY CLUB

About ten years ago I was invited with another priest friend to a rather swank reception. Someone had the horrendous idea to have assigned seating (something that should only be done by the most seasoned of professionals) and so we were two priests separated from people we knew and loved and forced to sit with three couples who were the best of friends but, for whatever reason, had not seen each other since high school. They had a lot of catching up to do. A lot. A whole lot. Before the cake was cut we knew how dilated each woman was with her first child and how to control your husband after he has just tarred the driveway.

Glancing over at my comrade in arms he gave that ever so slight crinkling of the eyebrows that signaled, “Help!” and so I glanced at my watch and exclaimed, “Oh my! Look at the time! We’ve got to get back to the parish!” I wonder if they even noticed if we were gone.

I met three leaders of congregations this week. Two were married and one was a visiting priest. Now that I sit back and reflect on the conversations I laugh at how different each one was. One was non-Christian and we talked much about his family and how the particular congregations that he has served effected his family. (That was interesting in and of itself. I often think of the effect of a minister’s family on a parish, not the other way around. Guess there can be lots O’ stress.) The second was a non-Catholic clergyman and our conversation came much closer to that which I would have with fellow celibate priests but still much of the conversation was about family issues and how it effects ministry.

Then I met an out of town priest. Our conversation was typical of that which I have when meeting another priest. I suppose it would be equivalent to normal conversations of, “What do you do for a living.” It was more along the lines of, “So what is your ministry? How did you end up there? What is your vacation story?” And then from there it went on to topics that I am sure would be as fascinating to the three couples mentioned above as theirs was to us.

There is no value judgment here, just something interesting enough to mention. However it may give insight as to the reason that sometimes priests want to relax with other priests. It is not that they (necessarily) are cliquish or secretive; it is simply that there are things that only another priest would be interested in or that it would be appropriate to talk about. This is especially true in these days when more and more rectories are lucky to have one priest let alone three or four. Priestly community is important as fellowship is for any given group of people. It is not absolutely necessary but it does make life a lot easier. That is not to say that a priest does not cherish being with other people and talking about what is important to them. It is, simply, from time to time, a treat that is becoming more and more rare (until there is this great influx of seminarians that I am predicting will come soon and after ordination take care of me in my old age.)

SURSUM CORDA!

Four men were ordained for the diocese of Cleveland today in a beautiful ceremony at St. John's Cathedral. Thanks be to God!

Here is the tail end of the procession going into the cathedral. In a beautiful act of humility at the end of the mass, Bishop Lennon begged the pardon of the congregation, knelt down in the sanctuary and received blessings from the newly ordained after which he kissed the palms of their hands which had just been consecrated for the work of God.

Here is what the those who were about to be ordained saw just before they entered the cathedral: