MONDAY DIARY: ALMOST EXCRUCIATINGLY TRUE STORIES: FROM RETIRED TO RETREADED

My sister called today to tell me that she has just THREE MORE DAYS until she retires.  My other sister is already retired and entering that phase where she is more busy now than when she was working.  They want to know when I will be able to play.  I have a feeling my retirement will be pushed back a little later than theirs.  

Tip of the biretta to S. S.

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: PARISH HISTORY: 1943 WAS THERE EVER "ENOUGH" PRIESTS?

This year hailed the beginning of Scouting at St. Sebastian, a relationship that has been intact to the present day.  40 boys joined the Boy Scouts (Troop 96) and a healthy 70 girls made up the Girl Scouts.  An additional 45 boys were signed up for the Cub Scouts and 35 girls joined the Brownies.

Due to the war, the parish was also down to two priests again.  One of the priests left the parish with the bishop’s permission to become a chaplain in the war raging overseas.  Apparently, the previous April of 1942, Bishop McFadden made a promise to Fr. Zwisler that one of the newly ordained priests would be assigned to St. Sebastian to take his place.  Father was taking no chances.  He wrote to the Bishop to make sure that he remembered his promise.

In a letter dated January 6th, 1943, Father took no pains to hide the fact that he was upset a new priest had not already been assigned to him.  During the war years, ordinations were taking place twice a year instead of the customary once at the end of the school year.  This was done to move men more quickly through the system.  Being that an ordination was right around the corner, a newly ordained should be assigned to St. Sebastian.  “This is as it should be,” wrote Father, “In fact, in anticipation of giving of one of my assistants for the Service, I should have been assigned one of the newly ordained last year.

“The amount of work I have engaged in this parish would warrant three assistants.  Working twenty four hours of the day I could not do the work adequately with only one assistant.  Two assistants are indispensable.”

Father pulled no punches in his letter.  “There are glaring inequalities in the Diocese, which we know are not a fault of yours.  The Cathedral and St. Thomas’ have a superabundance of priests and choose and dismiss whom they please.  The priests of the Diocese all know the reason why.

“Here, in our own neighborhood, St. Peter’s (Akron) with only about a hundred and fifty families, has as much help as St. Sebastian, an organized and complete city parish.”  The letter goes on to explain the difficulty of obtaining Sunday Mass help and then mentions, “Besides, this parish is always the first in the Diocese in it’s support of the Diocese and Diocesan institutions.  This should merit consideration.

“. . . Having waited nearly a year thus far, I want to wait the remaining weeks, with the assurance that St. Sebastian will obtain one of the efficient and zealous young priests about to be ordained.

“With most fervent wishes and a prayer for your health and happiness during the New Year, I remain, Respectfully Yours, Hilary Zwisler.  Pastor.  Feast of the Epiphany.

SERENTY PRAYER

As a presbyterate we are about to embark on a planning session to decide what we are going to do about the number of parishes we have vs the number of priest we will have in the future.  There will be those who stand up and give an imploring speech that we should have married priests, female priests, and so forth.  Whether I agree or not, these things are not going to change within the next couple of years and we need to start taking control over those areas in which we can have some immediate effect.  

Another topic that will come up (again) is that priests should be relieved of all “business” responsibilities.  They should be able just to focus on sacraments (and the accompanying paperwork) and leave everything else to lay people.  That way the priests are freed up to do more of what priests are ordained to do and lay folks can take a stronger leadership role in the Church.

The only problem with this model is that it is not what Vatican II envisioned.  It would require more than changing the policies of a diocese, it would involve reworking international canon law, Church teaching, and the documents of Vatican II.  When a Catholic is baptized, he is also anointed priest, prophet, and king.  When a priest is ordained, it is understood that he too will fulfill all of these roles.  Administration is not just an extra tacked on to being a priest, it is a part of who he is called to be.  As “Father” and “pastor,” he is called to this role as much as is a father of a household is called to help manage the affairs of the family.  

A dad, ideally, not only supports his family, but offers himself in love, teaches, leads, and brings to Christ.  When one of these are not present we usually see a path to divorce or the result of divorce.  So it is with the Father of a parish.  These are his roles and so our focus on solving our problems will have to lie elsewhere.