GIVING JESUS A HAND

I will admit to you that I never understood the Infant of Prague and lately He seems to be determined to make His way into my life. A couple of months ago Fr. O brought by this statue for use in the rectory chapel most recently approved for use by our bishop. I remember a small Infant of Prague statue in my Grandma’s house. He sat on a shelf on the wall over the television. He was small, with a chip in his crown, and wore red. There were also statues of Him in all of the classrooms of my home parish school building much like the one pictured above as well as one in the church. On Saturdays I made about $20 a month as a kid for being one of the weekend janitors at the parish. We would mop floors, clean windows (at which I was very inept), and various and sundry other chores. One of my responsibilities was to make sure that the Infant of Prague statue was wearing the liturgical color of the day. The purple cope of lent would give way to the gold of Easter along with the matching material in His crown. But I had no idea why there was this odd and interesting depiction of the infant Jesus.

This past month a friend of mine vacationed in Prague and actually saw the church and the statue itself. He and his wife saw a priest in the church and greeted him. The priest took them on a tour and told them to help spread devotion to the child Jesus again – the Infant of Prague – for devotion was waning. He told them the story of the Infant of Prague, they told me, and now I tell you.

I guess it would not be inappropriate to say that this image is to my grandma’s day what the current Divine Mercy painting is to many people today. It is found in many homes and older churches so it seems appropriate to figure out exactly what the interest in this statue is. To begin it is simply the infant Christ dressed in royal clothing to show is dignity and kingship over creation even in infancy. It was actually crafted in Spain and brought to Prague and kept in a modest Carmelite monastery.

Apparently Bohemia, of which nation Prague was the capitol, was under constant attack from its various neighbors and so life in Prague was not a bowl of cherries. But with the arrival of the statue attacking armies withdrew, the sick recovered, and the city experienced a kind of Renaissance. This was attributed to the Christ Infant and his great love for His faithful people. Then a particularly cruel attack came to the city, killing its inhabitants and ransacking and destroying its riches and buildings. Even the monastery was not spared with everything of value being carted off except for the Infant of Prague statue which was seen as “a silly doll.” The soldiers chopped of the hands and tossed it into the trash.

The Carmelites were able to return to the ruins but the city met with one raid after another, further exasperated by the Black Plague that was sweeping the area. One night, it is reported, one of the brothers was praying in the church alone and heard an infant crying. Not seeing anyone else in the church he began to look around. Eventually, in a pile of rubble behind an altar he found the Infant statue sans hands. The statue was again put on display but the ills of the city did not vanish. In a vision the Child told the brother that He needed His hands back so that he could bless the city once more. This request was a matter of concern since the brothers barely had enough money to eat.

One day an old soldier came to pray and noticing the handless statue and being reminded of the children he had seen maimed in war left money for the hands to be restored. Now, apparently artists were found to make hands. But when hands were made and attached, the next day they would be missing. This happened a number of times. (They did not have security cameras back then as we do now apparently) until one day a young man came and asked to have a go at it. It is said that he examined the statue carefully and delicately like a doctor and patient and new hands somehow miraculously appeared, one now raised in the familiar sign of blessing. The next morning the hands remained and did so ever since and the brother was told in a vision, “The more you honor Me, the more I will bless you!” The infant Jesus has since not ceased to perform miracles and give graces the world over.

If nothing else, now at least now you know the story if you did not before.

WILL THE REAL MARY PLEASE STAND UP

Happy Feast of the Queenship of Mary!  It struck me the other day how many depictions of Mary that we have in the rectory and in the church.

 

I did not dare go into the school or this presentation would have doubled with all of the classroom statues and what not.  The one above is a plaster statue that sits outside of the chapel in the rectory.  It doesn't actually belong to us.  We are "storing" it for another priest.  But why not have it out and appreciated.  The tapestry below is in the rectory chapel and is a souvenir of mine from our choir's concert tour in Italy.  I take it to the church on feast days.

I remember being somewhat young and going to a parish that had Mary depicted as an African woman.  My initial (private, thank goodness) reaction was, "That's not Mary."  Of course it was a ridiculous thought because we have not the slightest idea of what Mary looked like.  She was most certainly not the porcelain skinned woman we most often see her as. 

 

The object is not to get the picture factual, but to portray some truth.  That, in large part, is what icons are all about such as the one above.  Not much attention is even given to correct proportions of facial features but to suggest theological truths. 

 

What should our depictions of Mary lead us to?  Not to appreciate a particular face but to fall in love with who she was.  It does not really matter what she looked like.  What is important in liturgical art is that it leads us to what made her special and to what (and to Whom) she leads us.

 

For some reason there are about a half a dozen pictures that will not transfer to my blog.  Maybe it is for the best.  The above which hangs in the rectory is one of my favorites.  It is so simple.  It provides a moment of rest to a busy day whenever I pass it.  

 

 

The statue below has an exact replica in front of the rectory (one of the pictures that did not turn out.)  Legend has it that someone once stepped on the gas instead of the break and took Mary out.  She was repaired but the driver insisted on replacing her.  So below is the new statue and the old with some barely visible cracks through it now sits in front of the loggia of the rectory.

Things could not get more different than the statue above.  Mary is relative of Mr. Goldfinger. Ra ra ra ra ra.  It is a nice enough statue and goes well with the church.  I do not find it particularly enticing as a focal point for devotion.  Perhaps that is why Mary is so widely depicted.  She is the universal saint, a saint for everybody.  Could one depiction really capture her uniqueness and universality?  Perhaps there is a Mary depiction out there for everybody.

 

And above is Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Certainly here is a different depiction of our great saint.  But the Church universal has come to love her in this depiction yet Mary certainly was not an Indian looking woman.  But I wouldn't disguared this depiction of her for anything because it does tell us something about her and more importantly about God.

The finaL picture below is of the Cosmic Madonna, a signed print by Salvadore Dali that hangs in the rectory.  The strange cross between Mary and a what appears to be church architecture and perhaps some elements of the cosmos is not a warm fuzzy.  This is not a Mary to be crowned or have flowers set in front of.  Yet it tells us of some aspects of Our Lady that are none-the-less compelling.

 

May Mary, our Queen and Our Mother bless your day and her depictions bring you peace, joy, and insight into God, her, and you.



TASTE IS DEBATABLE, BUT IT IS NOT INFINITELY DEBATABLE

Do you remember the old air fresheners that looked like a cone? When you lifted up the plastic cone a bit from the base, there was a waxy substance that gave off a “pleasant scent.” Did you ever look and see what the waxing bar on the inside looked like after using the air freshener for a couple of weeks? It twisted and deformed, holes forming through the body of it. Keep this image in mind for a moment.

There is a beautiful Romanesque church in the heart of downtown Akron. When I was in college at the University of Akron someone donated a piece of art for their sanctuary. It looked a whole lot like the inside of that air freshener accept that it was white, was a water fountain, and was HUGE. It sat right up in the sanctuary. It was considered appropriate for church use because of its title, “The Holy Spirit.” But is all art, even good art, appropriate for church use or does liturgical art have further qualifications?

At my last parish there is a very large statue of Mary. It is well loved by a few, but most either hate or ignore it. Personally I think it an interesting piece worth contemplating as art, but am not so sure that it qualifies as liturgical art. The statue depicts a bloated woman with few features holding a child against her shoulder who appears to be in a jump suit. Because of this she gained such nicknames as Tundra Mary and Stay Puffed Marshmallow Mary. The artist purposefully made the face bland so that one could impose on it any person he desires. I think those who dislike the statue are reacting to their inability to relate to her not as art, but as a person. In other words, this statue lacks “the personal”.

In similar fashion is another piece in the diocese that has earned the title, “Tinfoil Jesus.” The crucifix for one of our parishes looks as though someone crunched up a bunch of tinfoil and formed it roughly into the shape of the crucified body of our Lord. It is actually a much nicer piece than that. It is carved linden wood which was then painted silver. Once again the artist’s intent was to allow us to impose upon it our own image of Jesus.

The problem is, we do not impose images onto pieces like this well. If tinfoil and marshmallows are presented we tend to see tinfoil and marshmallows. Now, it could be argued that most of our images of Mary and Jesus look more unlike them than like them. (Or take poor Saint Thomas Aquinas, how many fair representations are made of his ample girth? Or Saint Augustine? There is the thought that he was actually a man of color. See that often?) But still, we are less irritated by these specific yet erring images than by the less specific images that allows us to imagine the “essence” of a person. Why? Because it is ultimately the most personal that becomes the most universal. We are far more moved by the suffering of a specific mother at the death of her son than at the concept of “mothers mourning sons”. That is why we depict God the Father as an old man with a beard. It is difficult to love “a distinct mode of being.” (Boff)

For these reasons it is rare that the Church has ever commissioned art for art’s sake. First and foremost she uses art to teach and inspire. Because of this, a language of symbols has developed over the centuries that clue us in about the various persons being depicted whether in glass or paint or what have you.

The only thing about the Mary statue that clues you into the fact that this is Mary and Jesus is the title of the piece and the fact that it sits to the left of the sanctuary. The wood relief of Saint Joseph and Jesus in the same parish has the same deficit. If it would be stored away in a basement and drug out some day in the future by someone who was unfamiliar with it, there would be no clue as to whom it represents. Is it Joseph and Jesus? Is it Abraham and Isaac? Is it just two anonymous people?

“Beauty, unless she is wed to something more meaningful, is always superficial.” – Donna Tart

“The one, the true, the good, and the beautiful, they come together and they go together.” – Fr. Benedict Groeschel

Liturgical art is always about something more than beauty. It must convey truth, it must lift up, and it must give glory to God. When any one of these are neglected we end up with some odd creation that while it might attract our attention will fail in its primary duty to touch and instruct souls in the manner we intend as Church.

Liturgical art at its best then is instructional, personal, beautiful, and inspirational to the fullest extent that the community can muster. Do I believe then that Fr. O is a liturgical art snob? No. The windows in question may be of artistic value and they do seem to be somewhat useful for instruction. An argument could ensue as to whether they are inspirational or not (you may guess my position on that.) But where I find them (and much of modern liturgical art) most lacking is in the personal. The figures are so abstract (and I do think somewhat scary) that they fail to inspire an affinity with the persons they intend to portray. They are distant figures of another race and therefore have no relationship to me. They are untouchable.

What a shame.

HAPPY 160th BIRTHDAY DIOCESES OF CLEVELAND!

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: DEFINING YOUR PARISH III

Statues should not be that difficult to identify. If it is not well known in the parish or of there is not some sort of name plate, blue prints will help. “Shrine to Saint Clare” it would read. In any event it is unlikely there will be an unknown saint in your parish. If there is and there are no “old-time” parishioners who can be contacted for an interview, a book on symbolism or saints will be needed to help you do research. A book on symbolism would be the best place to start since you could indentify objects with the statue and see to whom they are commonly attributed.

In any event, why a statue is who it represents is far more interesting than just that a statue represents who it represents. In this way not only do you increase the interest of your research, you enable others to recognize the same saint elsewhere. For example color is important. Martyrs always where red. This will people narrow down a statue that they see elsewhere. “Red. I read in my parish handbook that martyrs where red. At least we know that this is a martyr.” Joseph almost always where a yellowish gold, sometimes with some purple added. At different points in Jesus’ ministry (if the artist knows what he is doing) he might wear different colors. (White with a god sash is teaching, red is Passion . . .)

The clothing is important. Of course it will tell you right away if the person was clergy or religious or lay or royalty . . . Sometimes it will give you a country with which to identify them. It will also provide an opportunity to discuss some of the various clothing. Why do bishops carry a crosier – what does it mean – where does it come from – does it mean something different when it is facing out or in . . .”

Objects are very important. So is there location. Objects at the feet often mean something that has been overcome. Instruments of Christ’s Passion are often at the feet of the resurrected Christ. The dragon (devil) is at the feet of Saint Michael or Saint George. Things in the hand are objects for which the saint is well known. Martyrs might hold the instrument of their torture (giving you the opportunity to tell their story) or a church building (showing that they built a particular church or helped build up the Church in general . . .)

On rare occasions where the saint is looking is of importance. At our cathedral St. John holds a pen and book in his hands as his gaze turns toward a wall on which is painted the visions of the Book of Revelations which he wrote. But such innovation is rare since most statues are bought “off the rack.”

So far, between the windows and the statues you begin to see why Catholic Churches are called catechisms in stone for they are very full of information about the faith and the life of the Church.

MONDAY DIARY: DONKEY UPGRADE

So, I was sitting in our lunch room enjoying a midday repast and reading the news when Ed, one of our ever vigilant and talented staff members, came in and said, "Jesus is here."

"Oh?" I responded in a droll manner.

"Yep."

"Pray tell."

"He just pulled up in the back of a truck."

"HE DID?" This was great news! We were expecting Him! He is the new statue being installed in the new plaza at Saint Sebastian. The statue comes from St. Procop Parish, which was part of the closings that took place in the Diocese of Cleveland.

The funny part was seeing the statue inside the truck. It looked a bit more like Jesus was being kidnapped. As you can see here from a picture taken from on top of Zwilser Hall, the seating wall for the plaza has been under construction for the past week and we have been anxiously awaiting the image of Jesus as the centerpiece of this area.

As we came around the corner we saw this scaffolding set up which the workers used to gently place the statue where in needed to be.

As the image of Jesus lifted up into the air I said, "Can you guys come back and do this on (the Sunday closest to) Ascention Thursday? We can have a reenactment and have a festival. The men politely laughed and said, "Yeah, you're a real side splitter Father." Hardy ha ha. . .

It is the last six feet of the journey and it is the most difficult. Houston, we have lift off.

The Eagle has landed! There He is to stay - the Sacred Heart! May He continue to inspire the people of West Akron as he did the Bohemian people of Saint Procop.

WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME?

For years I have taught a class on symbolism. When invited to a parish I generally begin by spending time trying to locate and interpret all of the symbols used in a particular church building, develop a booklet for them, and at the end of the class offer tours of their church unlocking the many secrets these grand buildings contain. Some are easier than others.

By and large, Saint Clare is pretty straightforward. The majority of the symbols used in the building are in the stained glass windows. The Phillips’ Stained Glass Studio created the windows for the parish beginning in the 1960’s. In this commission Douglas Phillips, a native Clevelander, used traditional Christian symbolism. However, some things are just plain difficult to symbolize and I would have had no idea what some of the windows represented if Mr. Phillips’ widow who is still in the business had not been so kind as allow us to see the original plans that gave the title of each window. But nowhere was there a key explaining what the symbols themselves are.

Some are pretty straightforward and clever.

1. This window in a set of eight representing the Beatitudes is, “Happy Are the Pure of Heart for They Shall See God.” The snowflake comes from Psalm 51:9, “Cleanse me of my sin with hyssop, Oh wash me and shall be whiter than snow.” In the heart of the snowflake is the alpha and omega symbol that represents Jesus. The pure of heart are the sinless who see God. Clever.


Some after you are told what they are you think, “Well, of course that is what it is.” See if you can guess what these are before you read the caption.

2. From the corporal works of mercy here is “Bury the Dead.” The object in the background is a coffin and I believe the object in the foreground is an oil stock for the anointing of the sick. It looks like the inscription reads “O.T.” but I think that it is supposed to be “O.I.” for Oleum Infirmorum (Unless someone can enlighten to what O.T. would be!)

3. The title of this is not so difficult as is identifying the object in the background. This is “Give Drink to the Thirsty.” But why does there seem to be a skinned animal carcass in the background? On one of the tours someone finally identified it. If you are not so clever like me, be prepared to slap the palm of your hand against your forehead. It is a wineskin.

These last three examples I can tell you the titles of the windows but other than that I have no idea what the objects are supposed to represent. If you can figure it out I would appreciate hearing from you. The first two come from a set of windows depicting the four cardinal virtues.

4. This is “Prudence.”

5. This is “Temperance.”

6. This, from the Corporal Works of Mercy, is, “To Bear Wrongs Patiently.” Well, the hourglass is pretty obvious but what is with the rake? An instrument of torture?

Lastly, the answer to yesterday’s question about the Mary and Joseph shrine. It isn’t a horrible thing, just confusing and incredibly annoying to those who are in the know and sensitive to such things. After Vatican II when renovations were made to the church, the Saint Joseph Shrine was destroyed to make a “chapel” for the Blessed Sacrament. Having a statue on their hands they plopped it down next to the statue of Mary and declared it a Holy Family Shrine as many parishes were want to do. Unfortunately the symbolism, posture, and title of the Mary statue tell us that this is a depiction of Our Lady of Sorrows. She gains this title during the passion of her Son. That means Saint Joseph is long dead. These statues should not appear together unless we are saying that she is having a vision of her departed husband in her grief . . .(?!)

THOSE WHO IGNOR THE PAST ARE SUSCEPTIBLE TO MANIPULATION

Before you read this I want to make very clear that I am proud of my seminary, recommend it, and have great faith in what is happening there.  These events clearly happened in the past and were limited and are only used as an example.

When I was in the seminary, our entire, official exposure to the Mass as it was celebrated before Vatican II was a videotape played in fast forward by a professor who spent the entire three minutes making fun of the Mass with witticisms such as, “Look how funny they look taking off and putting on their hats.”  The clear message was, “Old is bad, only the new is good.”  I seethed with anger.  This was the Mass my parents, my grandparents, well . . . all of my historical family (and the majority of saints) celebrated and grew in sanctity through.  But we stayed silent.  Even attendance at one of these Masses were possible grounds to be removed from the seminary.

Fortunately things have changed.  The problem with this is the ignorance and error that it promotes.  By removing history and our connection to the past, the sole authority becomes the person in power.  As proof of this, even the Vatican II documents were called into question.  If there were something that directly opposed what a particular professor was saying, the answer was not in debating what was said but a justification was made that the portion of the document in question was clearly a “compromise” (RE: the Holy Spirit was definitely not present in this part of the document) and so it could be ignored - not dealt with - ignored.  From there, a person with power can lead you in all kinds of directions in line with or not in line with the Church and their position would be valid until someone with more power would take their place.

However, a Catholic steeped in history, mired in Church teaching, braced by the hermeneutic continuity can only be set adrift so far before the disharmony of his spiritual life and that of the Democracy of the Dead (as G. K. Lewis spoke our 2,000 year shared history of the practice of the faith) helps correct his course.

This concept is not just handy, it is of vital importance and here are two reasons why:  Say a set of parents has a child and they have decided not to “force” any religion on their child but rather let them decide for themselves what faith they want to be.  Statistically they will choose either nothing or a hodgepodge of convenient things.  This is because they have no ground on which to stand in order to judge all other positions.  It is all just soup.  There is no traction.  But as Archimedes said, “Give me a firm place on which to stand and I will move the earth.”

The same thing could be said of a study of Western culture.  It is vital that we hand on the culture that has been given to us to the next generation.  As much as it may need “fixing” it has gotten us somewhere.  It is not a marble statue to be handed on and preserved exactly.  It is rather like a clay statue to be improved by every generation.  If it is not handed on, then every generation must start from scratch.  Instead of being handed a clay statue, they are given a formless lump of clay.  This leaves them vulnerable to persons of unchallenged and perhaps unproven power to come along and shape their clay for them and not having anything to which they might compare it, allows for manipulation in the extreme.

History and culture are not weights to be discarded so that we might be free to have a better future, they ARE the very tools we need to create a better future.

TUESDAY QUOTE OF THE WEEK CDXIX

FINDING TRUTH WHEREVER IT MAY BE FOUND:  "Reincarnation is not really a mystical idea . . . Reincarnation need only extend experiences in the sense of repeating them.  It is no more transcendental for a man to remember what he did in Babylon before he was born than to remember what he did in Brixton before he had a knock on the head."  from G. K. Chesterton's, "Everlasting Man"

QUOTE II:  "Simple secularists still talk as if the Church had introduced a sort of schism between reason and religion.  The truth is the the Church was actually the first thing that ever tried to combine reason and religion.  There had never before been any such union of the priests and the philosophers."  same source.

IN OTHER NEWS:

I did not think I would be posting to you today but my flight was cancelled and I am sitting here in the airport for 5 hours.  Yuck.

Of course nobody sent in anything this week but here is some news just the same:

St. Bernard Parish had the dedication of their rebuilt pipe organ.  It was a glorious affair!  The church was PACKED.  Fr. Reed, the pastor, graciously allowed Fr. Simone and me to sit in the sanctuary.  The Director of Music at St. Sebastian, Lynn Steward, was the guest organist and put the organ through its paces.

 This is Fr. Reed blessing the rebuilt Schantz organ:

My class was ordained on the feast of St. Joan of Arc.  My classmate has a little statue of her and I wanted one like it to begin developing my relationship with this saint a little better.  I found something I liked on Etsy though it was a little more than I wanted to pay.  But I've waited almost two decades to find something I liked and thought I better just go ahead and dive in.  Unfortunately this 104 year old statue from France arrived heavily damaged.

The person selling it was sad and very understanding and we worked out a deal that slashed the original purchase price.  Now it is matter of a lot of glue and patience.  Perhaps she already worked her first favor me.  I no longer feel like I spent to much money!

Here is a new Theology on Tap Akron:

Here is a vide about contemporary art that is not the usual diatribe.  I don't think it redeems the current situation but it does help me understand it a lot better.  I hope you get something out of it.

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: PARISH HISTORY: THE MAN, THE LEGEND, THE MONSIGNOR

There is no doubt that Fr. Zwisler loved the parish and its people.  And it is important to point out that Fr. Zwisler, though a determined man, was well loved by most in the parish.  There are plenty of stories about his generosity and kindness.  While in the seminary, writing a report for the History of the Diocese class, Fr. Christopher Trenta, who grew up in the parish, wrote, “Children were of special concern for Fr. Zwisler and he made determined efforts to care for them.  He insisted on Catholic education for each child of the parish and worked to make this possible for as many families as he could . . . He wanted children to attend daily Mass, especially during Lent, and be exposed to Catholic hymns and devotional prayers” and always included the children in the devotional life of the parish.  

“He also had a knack for creative pastoral care.  He had several personal touches in his pastoral care for children on special days.  For Christmas he would give little Cracker-Jack boxes and hold an annual Lenten essay contest, announcing the topic on Ash Wednesday which would send all the students scrambling to check books out of the library.  He would distribute a blessed Easter egg to each child at the Monday morning Mass of Easter Week and would give them the rest of the day off for school.  On the feast of St. Hilary, he would hand out a small chocolate candy and on the Feast of St. Sebastian, each child would receive a peppermint arrow to honor the martyr.

There is also the story of an unusual gift that Father gave a child in the school.  The parish once owned two Pattarino desk statues of St. Sebastian.  One still exists in the rectory.  The other was given away by Father to a girl in the school who won a spelling bee.  Upon bringing it home, her father, convinced that there was no way Fr. Zwisler would just give away such a valuable statue, demanded that she return the statue and apologize.  Fortunately Father Zwisler cleared the matter up quickly.

There are also stories of Father Zwisler visiting parishioners who had not been to Mass in awhile and of becoming great friends with the tepid Catholics, regularly enjoying their company and coaxing them back to the practice of the faith.  Often told are reports of his compassion for those who found themselves in hard times during the depression.  One example was his paying for two girls to attend summer camp.  Their mother was widowed during the depression and could ill afford to send them.

Fr. Wendelken, son of the parish, telling of how Fr. Zwisler cared for those in need, was able to witness to this by personal experience.  His father had gone to the hospital for a simple tonsillectomy and unexpectedly died in surgery.  Fr. Zwisler presided at the funeral and later sent his mother a bound leather booklet with a typed copy of his funeral sermon and a page of dedication addressed to each of her four boys describing their father.  He wanted them to know how valued their father was when they were older.  “And this was common,” Fr. Wendelken said. 

But his head strong ways that proved so beneficial in founding and building a parish from scratch could also, in other areas, cause problems.  Again, from Fr. Trenta’s report, “Probably owing much to his early formation in Rome and his years of military chaplain service, Fr. Zwisler was known to be a stickler for ritual, order and cleanliness.  He insisted on good behavior by all, children and adults alike.  He would wait during homilies until crying or noisy children stopped or were taken out of the nave by parents.” 

Although Father Zwisler and Fr. Murphy got along famously, such was not the case for other parochial vicars.  The parish was singularly pointed out in the History of the Diocese class at our diocesan seminary taught by The Rev. Thomas Tifft, then historian for the diocese.  Legends abound about the parish that was known by many, and not jokingly, as a penal colony for priests.  His expectations were high, his micromanaging intense, and his manner gruff.  At night the refrigerator would be padlocked shut to prevent hungry curates from snacking.  There was a strict curfew after which the doors to the rectory would be dead bolted and the late priest forced to find other accommodations for the night.

One legend tells of the parochial vicars discoving that Father Zwisler was out past the prescribed curfew time.  They dead bolted the doors and pretended to be asleep when he came home and began pounding to be let in.

There was certainly a lot of work to do at the quickly growing parish but it appears that none of the succeeding parochial vicars could meet Father’s expectations the way Fr. Murphy had.  This was a cause of constant tension among the priests.  There were a number of investigations into this friction from the diocese spurred by letters from Father Zwisler and by the vicars.  The letters outlined accusations and disappointments from both sides.