Tag Archives: bishop

I got the call

24 Mar

Paintings6-09004_edited

My stomach was messy. By the end of the day there would certainly be the expected and violent reaction of my innards. I’d better stay close to my bathroom.

Yesterday I was waiting for a call from the bishop. 

Fourteen pastors are being appointed to take up new assignments this summer. Since I am retiring at the end of June, one of them is to be assigned here to St. Andrew. Someone else will live in the house that has been mine for fourteen years. Someone else will sit in the presider’s chair at church where I have sat during Mass all these years.

Why was my stomach messing with me? I am not the one being re-assigned. I have chosen to leave.

I was told to be accessible by phone from 12:30 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. The call would come from the bishop sometime within those five hours.

Getting testy and snippy with a couple people in our office, as I do when I am frustrated or when something is in my charge but out of my control, I went to church. Yes, taking my cell phone with me.

My ringtone, named “Bulletin” on my new iPhone, sounded. It was from “Chancery Archdiocese.” I did not have to ask whose voice that was on the other end.

The bishop gave me the name of the priest who will be coming to the parish, asked me not to tell the staff for several days, suggested that I make an announcement at all Masses this Sunday, and requested that I call the priest. Repeat: keep the name to myself for several days, in order to let all the people of the parish hear the message at about the very same time, hence the reason for waiting until Sunday Masses.

I really, really, really want to tell my staff who their new pastor (their new boss) will be. But I will follow the protocol given to me by the bishop.

My leaving is all the more real for me now, knowing the name of the priest who will have his future in Milford and at St. Andrew. Maybe that is why my stomach was messing with me. I am actually leaving. And I do not usually keep things from my staff that are significant to their work and their working relationships in the parish. Maybe that is why my stomach was messing with me.

A week from now this will not feel so big. But for now …

my stomach is messing with me.

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not smart, holy or confident (enough)

2 Mar

Cardinal Pope election

What do you hope we will find in our new Pope?

When people tell me that I would make a good bishop, I realize that many parishioners of many parishes say the same thing to their pastors. People love their parish priests. Period. Then I am quick to add, “I am not smart enough, not holy enough, and not confident enough. ” I mean it. I am not.

So, I guess I think that the new Pope should be smart, holy and confident.

When I asked a parishioner what he thought the Cardinal-electors should be looking for, he said that they should keep everybody in the whole world in mind, not just the Catholics. Charlie said the Pope needs to be a Pope for all people and good for all people, not just for us Catholics.

Father Peter Daly writes a good article (translate: one with which I agree) about what his hopes are for the next Pope. Just in case you don’t click your way to the entire article, here is some of what he says. Be aware that his article in printed in the National Catholic Reporter, known for its (far) left-leaning editorial slant.

Father Daly, himself a parish priest, hopes we get somebody who:

–       has at least some experience as a parish priest

–       is from a big family

–       has a niece who has married outside the church and a nephew who has come out to him as gay

–       has several strong-willed and outspoken biological sisters who have more than a streak of feminism

–       has old friends who can remind him of the stupid things he did or impetuous statements he made in his youth

–       has a sense of humor.

So do I. What do you hope for in the next Pope?

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