It all began when a friend intercepted my walk with a hand signal that directed me into her kitchen. She was excited.  There on the back page of Catholic New Times was a “Small But Beautiful” ad by some group called CORPUS.  The name, the ad explained, was an acronym for Core of Reserved Priests (1200) United for Service.  They were inviting inquiries to an American address. 
The year was 1987.  In our diocese small groups of laity, my friend and I included, were buzzing about the impending priest shortage, and daring to voice our opinion in diocesan discussion groups.  Our diagnosis was simple.  Celibacy was indeed the issue.  And suddenly there was this ad.  
I responded with a letter which said, in part: 

I believe in your cause. I believe that Judges 5:9, “My heart is with the leaders of Israel”, is a word for you more than it has been for anyone at any other time in history.  I believe you are still very much “leaders of God’s people Israel”.  I believe 1200 leaders (that figure reads 100,000 worldwide today) together with their wives and families, are an incredible force for the re-creation of the Catholic Church and the world…I believe you are a witness to the glory of marriage.  I believe that you have paid a price to proclaim the truth that if union with Jesus Christ is to be found in celibacy, it is also to be found in the marriage embrace.  I believe you are men with God’s vision of marriage: “…but for Adam there was not found a suitable partner…and God made a woman and brought her to the man…now both of them were naked…but they felt no shame” Gen: 1 and 2
I believe that through you God can restore marriage itself.

No doubt about it, we were passionate about this cause.  We received an embracing reply from someone in Illinois whose name was Frank Bonike. We immediately subscribed to their two-page Corpus newsletter, which today is their journal, Corpus Reports.  That connection helped us feel in touch with whatever new breath the Spirit was blowing through the People of God. The seed for a Corpus group in Cape Breton was planted.  

2  Our contact with an organization that was bringing married priesthood out of the closet and making it a reality was almost more than we could take in. 

The next event of evolutionary significance was my attendance at the Fourth National US Corpus Conference in New York in 1991.  Being in the presence, for the first time, of priests interacting with their wives and children was overwhelming.  I was witnessing an impossible phenomenon, but a very significant one.  It was reaching a very deep part of me.  I think it addressed the rejection I automatically receive as a person who is female and thereby defined as unclean and unfitting for a priest partner or for priesthood. The actual flesh and blood reality of the union of marriage and priesthood was a powerful one at the time.  It still is.

Somewhat of a Lone Ranger at the Conference, I was soon adopted by a team of, yes, Canadian married priests (well, almost; Jim’s big day was just around the corner).  Jim Noonan, Jack Shea, Alex Campbell, Fintan Kilbride, Joe Dietrich and I did our country proud, I was launched into a new relationship with Corpus Canada, and Corpus Cape Breton began to crystallize.
Corpus Canada leaders have been intensely supportive of the “laity” group ever since.  Visits to CB from Eleanor and Emil Kutarna, and later from Sheila and Jack Kirley and Lucille Nuyrons, widow of Emil, warmed us and cheered us and buoyed us in our local renewal work, the highlight of which was being there for priests who were transitioning out of ordained ministry.  Then and now encouragement and financial support made possible our attendance at national gatherings where we received infusions of insight, direction, grace, nourishment, camaraderie.

3  For me personally, Corpus support has come in additional ways.  Emil Kutarna was the first person to encourage me as a writer, and the present editorial team hasn’t dropped the torch.  And I have to credit Art Menu for gently ushering me into the twenty-first century by suggesting that National Coordinating Team members get a computer and become e-mail savvy.  So glad I did, although I’m convinced that it was only my devotion to Corpus that got me past my mid-life techno-phobia.  As a result of the combination of these two factors, writing and computer literacy, I am now seriously exploring a freelance writing career.
The issues for Corpus Canada ten years ago were relatively straightforward: do whatever it takes to affect change in the Church laws governing mandatory celibacy.   I can remember the debate that had ensued over whether or not including women’s issues under the Corpus banner would impede the married priesthood cause.  Some locals ceased their support of Corpus because they were convinced that to entangle us in any other issues, especially one as unsettling as women’s ordination, was to move in the wrong direction.  And thus the journey has been, then and now.  We evolve as individuals and as organizations. And because organizations are made up of individuals who are evolving at different paces, often in what can appear to be different directions, the resolve on the part of Corpus leadership to proceed not by majority but by consensus is a powerful witness for all faith communities.  It is a heroic stance and it seems to be underlined with a determination to make it work. Because Corpus struggles to understand its own evolution, and to honor the differences among its members, it is providing leadership in the most just form of communal interaction.  

4  There is one last way in which Corpus has ministered and continues to minister to me.  I don’t think you should ever be too old to have a role model.  People who have the courage to follow their heart are mine, and the Corpus organization is full of them.  I read somewhere that you need to be able to stand on your own spiritually and be able to hold your center and not need other’s approval of your choices in life.  A dark night is a journey away from the powers others have over you and a connecting to the powers God has within you. I am in the midst of that inner experience at this moment, and it is a consolation to be able to draw in to a circle of those who have already made the journey.

One of my foundations is Joseph Campbell’s description of the admonition to follow your heart.  On one of his tapes he expounds a little on his now famous “follow your bliss”.  There he says:
“Bliss is that deep sense of being at the very center of yourself.  Following it is doing what the push is out of your own existence.  You follow that and doors will open where there were no doors, where you never thought there were going to be any doors, and where there wouldn’t be a door for anybody else.  There is something about integrity --- when you move toward it the world moves in and helps.”

Corpus priests and their families have led the way for me along these paths.  As Corpus Canada moves forward, may it too find a way to discern and follow its bliss.