Three thought patterns have locked into position as I take my daily health walk among trees and around a lake. One is from the JOURNAL, Corpus Canada’s yellow page report on our brother married priests up North, the second WEORC, Chicago’s Marty Hegarty's brain child that helps priests and sisters in transition, the third the reform silence among my peer married priests in California. The first two blend well and the last is a sore thumb; Terry Dosh at one time had a thriving group of married priests in Santa Clara County. I need be cautious for lack of communication among us Westerners has complicated reform to a point where no one knows where the other stands. I read with pleasure the vitality of the Canadians as they pioneer ahead and am envious of that Chicago bunch who holds days of recollection and renewal retreats. 

I had a birthday e-mail from classmate Frank Maurovich, now with Maryknoll Magazine, reminding me of a basketball game in 1940, in which he recalls me bouncing the ball so hard in anger that it hit the ceiling.; boys who grow up without a father often have fierce tempers, a psychological tool that covers over sorrow and painful loss. My having sought father figures in bishops and clergy was my biggest mistake; fathering two sons, now young men themselves, has helped me to grow up and manage my hostility.

Angry today? Yes, at the silence of the hierarchy as the people continue to suffer, poorly educated and the bishops taking a war- only- stand in spite of Bishop Tom Gumbleton's plea to follow the path of Jesus.

Angry at my local married priest peers? Perhaps, yet more mystified that these very men who broke from the apron strings of Holy Mother Church remain silent as our institutionally active brothers carry enormous burdens because the bishops are so cowardly. I often think of my class mates who now in their seventies bolster the sagging numbers of mass priest clergy 2001. I am interested in their health and morale. They are treated like pack animals not like human beings.

Now to these Canadians and my envy at being a twelve year seminary man who put in twenty six ordained institutional years I reflect with awe on their spirituality. Men and their wives with one foot in the old world of pre-Vatican Two and the other in space age spirituality they shine forth from the pages of the JOURNAL as never having lost their love of God and people. service is their game. I just posted to Fintan Kilbride in Toronto recalling my meeting this Irishman in New York years ago; the Kilbride family volunteered to go into Eskimo country when the local chiefs requested the Roman church to vacate the pedophile priests, leaving the rural parishes without pastors ( maybe for the best ). To name just a few the reflections of Arthur Menu, François Brassard, and Chris Diamond ( their wives too should be mentioned ) give me ample spiritual food for thought on my long train trips to a cancer study. The spirit of these Canadian Corpus priests pours out of the pages of their JOURNAL; I am aware the fervor of their ordination day is alive, channeled now by Vatican Two into the direction of the modern world. In my California loneliness I am envious.

I read with intensity the simple four pages of WEORC. I ll never forget meeting Marty outside the Notre Dame football stadium, along with Tim Unsworth; we were to meet and here we were standing ten feet from each other,not knowing who the other was at first.. With the number of old timers either having left ministry already and/or the field of men and women needing help and jobs in transition from "religious life" having dried up ( today's seminarian and priest who leaves after ordination is a new breed of cat, often already into a second career before coming to seminary ) the direction of WEORC is changing; the emphasis seems to be, e.g., helping out an orphanage in sri Lanka run by a married priest couple. They also bring to our attention Dave Corcoron, incarcerated for acts of nonviolent civil obedience; Marty speaks of Dave’s ministry to the inmates and the support help offered to Dave's family. I have a great deal of admiration for these men who continue to follow the way of Jesus. Rome would deny David is doing ministry.

Throughout these paragraphs there is a brotherhood theme that harkens me back to seminary days; my first Christian community was my san Francisco family of the 1930’s, followed in the 40’s by what I now call the Marine corps of the Roman Church, twelve years of unquestioning seminary "yes, sir/Father" and constant nose to the grindstone; I survived because of my brotherhood community which exists today in some of the greatest fellows I have ever known. I have been blessed with membership in the Menlo Men of 54, a pre Vatican Two class, that is heavily supplied with humor, humbleness, love of people and God; we are one of the few classes of st. Patrick's seminary, Menlo Park, Ca. who have always made welcome our married brothers at reunions and celebrations. The funerals of our deceased are glorious celebrations of life. We mourn 13 of an original 33.

I imagine the men of Canada, Chicago, Menlo Park often ask that old question so frequently encountered in pre-ordination days - QUO VADIS, DOMINE? Little did we realize in those days around World War Two that we would, in the age of space, travel in so many diverse directions. The spirit seems to have little regard for the Roman rule book and each has followed the mystery of his call. Brotherhood and community had woven their way into our early lives, so too human kindness, service, and an ancient boyhood dedication that still rings true in these men who once offered to God their Dominus Pars “The Lord is my portion and my lot.” I can hear it, see it, feel it, ever alive as they work the crowds in a thousand different places and worldly pulpits. LaCordaire said it well when he prayed out what a glorious life this Jesus priesthood is all about.

In tribute to men who have followed their diverse calling and have not given up the cause of Christ, whether in parish or home, orphanage or prison, among the rich and the poor, among women and men and children & ah the mystery of it all! Our God has great humor! And to you all " ad multos annos!" and good health.