Understanding Priests: Their Stories and Example

[Gabriel]

This article is from a few years ago, but the problem and the special service of these priests continues each year. Bless them!

Priest-volunteers bring Christmas Mass to rural Alaskan Catholics

By John Roscoe
Catholic News Service

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNS) -- The Anchorage Archdiocese's chronic shortage of priests means that about a third of its 28 parishes and missions do not get to celebrate Mass every Sunday.

But thanks to a group of priests from around the archdiocese and beyond, every Catholic church in the archdiocese was expected -- weather permitting -- to have a priest for Christmas.

Every year as far back as anyone can remember, the archdiocese has assembled a merry medley of men to spend Christmas with a rural Alaskan parish. This year priests were coming from Boston, San Antonio and Portland, Ore., to join the archdiocese's faithful standbys, the "supply priests" who fan out throughout the year to cover priestless parishes.

"It's so special to have a priest for Mass through the Christmas season, to fully celebrate the Eucharist when we celebrate Christ's coming," said Holy Family Sister Marie Ann Brent, pastoral director of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Valdez.

Both Anchorage Archbishop Roger L. Schwietz and his predecessor, retired Archbishop Francis T. Hurley, "have been so good as far as making sure we have a priest here to celebrate the great feasts of the church," she said.

Sister Brent's remote community on the northern shore of Prince William Sound has been without a resident priest for 17 years, but never without Mass on Christmas and Easter during that time, she said.

In Unalaska, the Aleutian Islands fishing community 800 miles southwest of Anchorage, St. Christopher by the Sea Mission Parish survives without any resident pastoral staff.

"It's all volunteer," said Sandra Sandness, a 19-year member of St. Christopher. But the archdiocese has always come through with a priest at Christmas and Easter, she said, although a few times the priest was delayed by spring storms and showed up partway through Holy Week.

The weather "increases the anxiety," she told the Catholic Anchor, the archdiocesan newspaper. "Especially closer to the date, the phone starts ringing and people ask if the priest is here yet."

So who are these men who forgo a relaxing Christmas surrounded by family to travel to a rural Alaskan community to celebrate Christmas with, in many instances, complete strangers?

Father Tone Svetelj is a Slovenian Jesuit who is studying for his doctorate in philosophy at Boston College. He learned about the archdiocese's needs from another Jesuit with Alaskan connections.

Father Svetelj spent several weeks in Valdez this summer and was a huge hit with the people, according to Sister Brent. Father Svetelj said he appreciated the opportunity to take a break from his studies and "act as a priest" for Christmas. He wasn't planning to return to Slovenia for the holiday anyway.

Holy Cross Father LeRoy Clementich, an Anchorage-based supply priest, was slated to spend the Christmas season in Unalaska. For the past several months he has been spending two weekends and the week in between with parishioners, and has started to bond with them, he said.

Father Clementich, who recently received the highest honor for missionary activity awarded by the Catholic Church Extension Society, has been a supply priest in the archdiocese since 1993, when he heard about the need for priests and volunteered to help.

Now the 81-year-old coordinates the effort to get priests for Christmas and Easter. He recently invited his fellow Holy Cross priests in the West and several priests sounded interested. One, Holy Cross Father Jim Kelly of Portland, will be coming to Alaska for the first time.


Before his retirement earlier this year, Father Kelly taught sociology at a seminary in Jinja, Uganda, where the year-round temperature ranges from about 60 to 80 degrees, he said. The 74-year-old planned to borrow a coat from Father Clementich in Anchorage before shipping out to the fishing town of Kenai, where he was to spend a week with Our Lady of the Angels Parish.

Like Father Clementich, Archbishop Schwietz also netted a volunteer from his religious order, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Oblate Father Jim Brobst, now a doctoral student based in Chicago, was to head north of Anchorage, to cover the churches in Willow, Talkeetna and Trapper Creek.

"It's a sacrifice," he said of the Christmas assignment. "But when you join a missionary order you have to consider that as part of your life."

Sulpician Father Jim Oberle, vice president of Assumption Seminary in San Antonio, volunteered this past summer in Homer, Ninilchik and Valdez and had a "great experience," he said. "Then when I was leaving this summer they said, 'Could you come back for Christmas?' and I said, 'Why not?'"

Father Oberle and other visiting priests praised the people they have met in Alaska's rural parishes. Families invited them on adventures to fish, go sightseeing and enjoy meals together.

"People really opened their hearts to me, and not so much to me personally but to the church," said Father Oberle, who was to cover Homer and Ninilchik for Christmas.

In addition to the visiting clergy and Father Clementich, one of the archdiocese's active pastors and two other retired (yet quite active) priests were serving priestless parishes this Christmas.

[Gabriel]

Reported by: Mark Hiller
Thursday, Jan 14, 2010 @10:32am


SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY - A priest with ties to northeastern Pennsylvania is due to arrive in Haiti, Thursday. Father Rick Frechette, a previous guest homilist at the annual Saint Ann's Novena in Scranton, will minister to more than just the spiritual needs of earthquake survivors. He's been a priest for more than 30-years -- and a doctor for more than ten. He answered the later calling while doing mission work in Haiti -- and seeing the desperate need for medical help years ago in the poor island nation. Fr. Rick has worked in the slums of Haiti's capital, Port-Au-Prince, for more than 2-decades. He helped steer money and manpower for a hospital and an orphanage, there. "He built a hospital which I believe is severely damaged." said Fr. Ed Buchheit, CP of St. Ann's Basilica while reflecting on Tuesday's 7.0 earthquake "The orphanage, everybody's okay. That's a great blessing. Imagine all the children in there." Fr. Ed has known Fr. Rick for decades -- a friendship that began in the 1970s. "I knew Fr. Rick when he was s seminarian and played basketball with him. I remember him when he rode a motorcycle as a youngster." Fr. Ed says Fr. Rick was in Connecticut this week to be at his dying mother's bedside. When news of the Haiti earthquake broke, she gave her son an order. "She said, 'Son, go back to Haiti. They need you even more than I do' so it must have broken his heart," said Fr. Ed. Fr. Rick is on the minds of many at Saint Ann's as he heads into what many describe as something that looks worse than a war zone. Fr. Ed celebrated Thursday morning mass -- with his thoughts focused on his friend and getting help to victims of the earthquake tragedy. "So pray for the people, but pray for the international aid to go and assist that. And, of course, we keep Fr. Rick in our prayers." His fellow passionist priests are eager to hear how he's doing. They also encourage everyone to support Fr. Rick's work in Haiti in any way they can.
http://pahomepage.com/content/video/?cid=120791

This following video is seven minutes, but guaranteed to move you. He plays guitar and sings also! God bless you, Fr. Rick!!! God bless mom too!
Gb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydrm45Y63vM

[Gabriel]

Dear Friends

I have been home with my dying mother, as a son and as a doctor and as a priest. Daily mass, managing her pain medicines, helping in any way I can. I was determined to stay with her to the end, especially since my whole adult life I have been far from home in the foreign missions.

I have to tell you, every day at mass, when I ask mom if she has any special intentions, she says, “for you, for God to keep you strong, and for your mission in Haiti.”

Now we have this huge sadness in Haiti. I told her I have to leave for a while. She said to me, “you have to go. The problems there are worse than mine.”

Tonight I will drive to Kennedy Airport in New York with Conan Conaboy. We cannot fly to Haiti tomorrow, so we will fly to Santo Domingo. Kieran and Vern Conaway will meet us there, and Robin from Chicago. We will drive to Haiti together to see how we can help.

I know there is extensive damage at our new hospital, that the perimeter walls of all three of our Tabarre programs have fallen. I know there is damage to the hospital walls.

I also know there is severe damage at the old hospital in Petionville.

Lets pray everyone is alright.

I have heard that everyone at the orphanage in Kenscoff is OK.

I will not arrive until Thursday morning, since the border between Domican Republic and Haiti will be closed when we arrive tomorrow. We will find the best way to keep you informed and let you know how you can help.

Let’s stay bound together in friendship and prayer.

God bless us all. especially the suffering people of Haiti, and my dear mother, Gerri Frechette.

Fr Rick Frechette

Please consider a donation to help Fr. Rick help the people of Haiti:

Passionist Missionaries Inc.
526 Monastery Place
Union City NJ 07087-3398
Tel: 888/806-6606
E-mail: DLisotta@cpprov.org

Donate on-line by clicking the button below.
The link for our Donate Now will redirect you to Caring Habits, Inc. (CHI) which is the credit card processing company for The Passionist Missionaries website.


"Button" found after the published note here:
http://thepassionists.org/whats_new/201 ... gods-help/

[Gabriel]

Archbishop William D. Borders is not a man given to celebrating his own courage. He doesn't talk much about the year he spent as a chaplain with an infantry regiment in Italy during World War II. He recounts with terse modesty the story of how he earned the Bronze Star for Valor.

During an attack on a German position, he recalls, an American was hit and lay wounded on the battlefield.

"I was in pretty good physical condition and I managed to run and pick him up and put him on my shoulder and pull him out," the archbishop says, during a conversation in his office at the Catholic Center as the 60th anniversary of V-E Day approaches tomorrow.

"Oh, yes, I was under fire, and it was machine-gun fire."

Not everyday priestly duties, it seems.

"Oh, the priestly duties were there. But the circumstances were different," he says.

He never learned the wounded man's name.

"After I anointed him, they sent him to the rear, and I never saw him again."

Do you think he lived?

"Well, he had a chance," he says.

Borders has never considered himself particularly brave.

"You didn't even think of it," he says. "It didn't enter your mind one way or another. You're too busy. You're involved all the time. When you're involved, you're thinking about what you're doing, not am I brave, or am I not brave. It just doesn't enter your mind."

You're decorated, he says, because someone else calls what you do valorous.

"Another person says you're courageous. You don't think of it," he says. "The motivation is somebody needs help, pure and simple."

He was somewhere near Florence when he rescued the fallen soldier. He was a battalion chaplain with the 362nd Infantry Regiment, of the 91st Infantry Division. His outfit had crossed the Arno River, going north, in September 1944. He was not quite 30 years old.

Borders is 91 now, and he's been retired a bit longer than he served as leader of the Archdiocese Of Baltimore. He succeeded Cardinal Lawrence J. Sheehan in April 1974 and retired in 1988. He moves a little laboriously around his office on Cathedral Street these days - he's recently had a pacemaker implanted - but he's delightful to talk with, vivid in his recollections, amusing, thoughtful and reflective, and more than occasionally ironic. He's got a fine, square face. He smiles often and he speaks plainly.

"Hell of a man," says Fred Booth, an 87-year-old Minneapolis adman who was L Company commander in the 362nd, in an e-mail to The Sun. "I remember him because he was a memorable man. ... And he was like no other chaplain I ever knew.

"Sometimes, he was up with our company at daybreak when we were about to jump off in an attack," Booth says. "He would talk with our men, and often we came under fire almost immediately, so he was in some danger. No other chaplain ever did that.

"I remember when we broke through the Gothic Line at Futa Pass, a terrible day, a bloody day. When our company finally cleared the enemy out of the pass, German bodies were all over the place, plus many of our men.

"Suddenly, there was Chaplain Borders with the little case he carried. He opened it up and took out a white, lacy kind of garment, put it on and went around, I guess, blessing all the dead. Then the Germans counterattacked, and he was in the middle of all that."

When the 362nd pulled back into deep reserve for a few days rest behind the fighting line, Borders joined Booth and his officers for a drink.

"He would take a stout shot of bourbon and a splash of branch water from his canteen and drink along with us," Booth says. "We had great conversations with him, and he never talked religion. No other chaplain ever did that. ... Once in a while, we would get a poker game going, and he loved to join in. Tough player, too. "

Borders was an associate pastor at Sacred Heart parish in Baton Rouge, La., when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He was born in Indiana and had studied for the priesthood at Saint Meinrad's seminary there. He was ordained in 1940 at Saint Louis Cathedral in New Orleans.

"I was working with young adults," he says, "and so many of them were drafted and volunteering I thought, 'Oh, by golly, if they do, I better, too.' ... It was an easy decision. None of us realized what we were going to get into, though. Nobody can anticipate combat. ... The reality is much worse than the imagination."

He received a month's training at Harvard University, but not much preparation for work as a chaplain in an infantry regiment.

"Nobody prepares you for battle," Borders says. "You can't do it. How do you prepare for someone dying?"

"Three weeks later," he says, "the 91st Infantry Division, in Oregon, received orders to go to North Africa, and they were short a Catholic chaplain. I was reassigned to the 91st. So after two months in the Army, I was already in North Africa."

The 91st trained in Africa for the Italian Campaign. The division landed in Italy below Naples in June 1944 and slogged north with Gen. Mark Clark's 5th Army. Borders was in Italy more than a year.

Borders wore an Army uniform, a cross on one collar, insignia of rank on the other. But no Roman Catholic collar.

But he never carried a gun: "Too dangerous," he says.

He traveled with the medics.

"That's where you're needed, really," he says.

Medics basically moved with the combat troops, setting up forward aid stations close to the front. Borders ministered to these men, comforting the wounded and anointing the dead.

"That's right," he says. "If they were conscious, I talked to them, gave them counsel, administered the sacraments of penance [confession] and the Holy Eucharist and anointed many people who were dying. ... I don't have any idea how many. You don't keep statistics."

"It wasn't constant, of course. Combat is never constant. It comes and goes."

His outfit was on the line in the Apennine Mountains on Christmas Eve, 1944.

"We thought that was where we were going to be on Christmas Day," he says. "But by the luck of Army logistics, another division replaced us, and we were pulled back about 15 to 20 miles to a little town that was pretty well bombed-out."

He found the skeleton of a church with all the windows blown out. He called his first sergeants together and told them that if they could clean up the church, he could say midnight Mass. He spent the day and evening hearing confessions from the soldiers.

"In the meantime, this crowd of volunteers had cleaned up that church," he says. "And by the time I got there, the place was packed. Not only clean, but they had cut some leaves and things and decorated it. And without question, that was the most memorable offering of sacrifice in the Mass I ever had in my life. You never forget something like that.

"It was a long time ago," he says.

Archbishop William D. Borders, retired leader of the Archdiocese Of Baltimore, earned the Bronze Star for Valor during World War II.

Copyright © 2005, The Baltimore Sun



Moon Bishop refers to this:
http://jesusindisney.blogspot.com/2009/ ... -moon.html

[Gabriel]

]Priesthood is a life marked by compassion, pope tells Rome clergy
VATICAN, Feb. 18, 2010-- Priesthood isn't a job that one fulfills a few hours a day, but it is a way of life focused on serving as a bridge between God and suffering humanity, Pope Benedict XVI told priests of the Diocese of Rome.

Priests are called to live not just "in blessed contemplation," but "to enter like Christ into human misery and take it up, going to the people who are suffering" and sharing their pain, the pope said Feb. 18 as he led the clergy in "lectio divina," a prayerful reading and meditation on selections from the Letter to the Hebrews on the mystery of priesthood.

Priests are called to be "real mediators between humanity and God," he said, and in order to do so they must be totally dedicated to God, yet fully human and deeply compassionate in the face of the concerns, anxieties, joys and sorrows of others.

The pope, speaking without a prepared text, reflected at length on the New Testament letter. He explained the possible meanings of some of the words in their original Greek and referred to other Scripture passages, liturgical texts, the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Socrates, the seventh-century St. Maximus of Constantinople, St. John of God, the German Scripture scholar Adolf von Harnack and Cardinal Albert Vanhoye, a specialist on the Letter to the Hebrews.

The pope said the letter's description of Christ as the high priest makes it clear that Christ offered God the perfect sacrifice by willingly giving his life for the sins of humanity, but he also offered God his tears for the sorrows of the world.

As humanity cried out, "God, help us, hear us," Jesus carried the cry of humanity to God and "in this way realized his priesthood, the function of mediator, transporting and taking on the suffering of the world," he said.

"Our priesthood, too, is not limited to the act of worship of the holy Mass in which everything is consigned into the hands of Christ; offering all of our compassion, the sufferings of this world so far from God, is a priestly act," the pope said.

"Priesthood is not something that involves a few hours, but is realized through our whole pastoral life with its sufferings, weaknesses, sadness and also joy, naturally," he said.

The pope ended his meditation by praying that God would help him and all priests continually deepen their understanding of the mystery of priesthood, "to live this mystery better and better and, in that way, help the world open up to God so the world would be redeemed." (CNS)
Vatican News

[Gabriel]

This is the story of Jaideep Singh, who recently became a Maryknoll missionary, a societies of apostolic life founded in the United States in the early 1900s. Today he is Fr. Stephen James Taluja.

Born in 1981, the youngest child of an important Indian Sikh family, the only male eagerly awaited by his parents after three daughters. Fr. Stephen talks to AsiaNews about his unique and personal story that revolves around his discovery that Christ is the Mighty God "in weakness" and the certainty that "God is faithful."

"My mother was a very devout woman who introduced me to the teachings of the Guru Granth Sahib educated us at home in the prayer and recitation of the hymns of the sacred scriptures. My father accompanied me to the Gurdwara, the Sikh temple, and he raised me in the faith of the almighty. My parents instilled in us children love for God and a sense of service to the community".

The young Jaideep studied at St Stephen's School in Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab. Harold Carver, dean and founder of the institute remembers the young Sikh who "excelled in sports and played in the under 19 national soccer team of the state, loved music and sang in the school choir".

Because of the quality of his singing the little Jaideep was invited to sing at midnight Mass on Easter Eve in the local church of St. Sebastian. He was 13 years old and attending the 7th class. It was the first time he had set foot in a Catholic church making the unusual occasion even more special for the young Sikh. Today, he says: "In that night I have vivid memories of the crucifix hanging on the wall and all the people on their knees praying. I did not understand how people could pray to a weak and dying God. For me, God had to emanate strength and power. And that God was just the opposite. " Fr. Stephen remembers "the charm of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, common prayer and the unveiling of a totally new way for me." He left the Mass with the image of "the cross and crucified Lord" in his head as well as "emerging questions about the meaning of life."

After that night Jadeep began a long journey. "My mother had noticed that there was something new in me and caught my initial interest in Christianity, but did not say anything." Jaideep turned to the rector Carver, putting his questions to him. Which become more insistent, even after the events in the family life of the boy.

The sudden death of his mother made even more urgent the need to understand the meaning of life and death. Fr. Stephen speaks today of the "darkness of soul" recalling that time. "I wondered where God was in all that was happening to me, what was the meaning of life." The patient company of Harold Carver marks the "days of torment" of the young Sikh who recalls: "At some point I began to see the connection between life and death, realizing that Jesus died and rose was the model for us."

The memory of that period, in which anguish was followed by the emergence of faith, is for Fr Stephen motive for "pride and gratitude". "My family had planted in my soul the seed of religion, dean Carver the seed of Catholicism and of a life spent in witness of the Gospel."

Jaideep decides to speak with his father about becoming a Christian. "All hell broke loose. He was annoyed, angry and offended. He called my sisters to ask them for information about my new faith". The young priest now says: "They were really heavy and unsettling days for the whole family ... thus began my personal participation in the passion and crucifixion of Christ."

On March 1, 1999 Jaideep was baptized and chose the name of his school Stephen James. "I became a Catholic in secret and for 3-4 years my family knew nothing. I did not want to hurt them even more, because my father loved me so much and yet did not understand my choices".

The year after Stephen leaves for the United States to study computer science. He lives in New York. To earn some money he works at night at a gas station. Every morning he goes to Mass in the parish named after St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Shrub Oak. Even there, he sings in the choir and one day the director Patti Copeland introduced Stephen to the Maryknoll missionaries. The young man remembers: "Their stories of aid to the poor around the world were impressed on my young 20 year old mind".

"For some time I felt emerge in me the innate desire to communicate with God, to devote all of myself to contemplation." Stephen believes the roots of this impulse lie in the education he received in his home: "Being Indian, and having received from my mother and our culture a deep sense of divinity I was fascinated by the mystical life in the early days of New York and I had thought of becoming a Trappist monk?.

In 2001, the young Indian was invited to an Easter spiritual retreat and he realises he is being called to consecrated life. Stephen enters the seminary, but does not say nothing yet to his father and sisters, "worried about the pain and stress that the decision might cause to my family."

"It was a period of anxiety in my life," says the boy. "I knew that my father and members of my family were mocked, scorned and humiliated for my decision to become Catholic." Sikh culture attaches great importance to the one male in the family circle. "You have the responsibility to carry on the name of your race, to take care of parents when they grow old - said Stephen - all this and I could no longer do so because of the decision I had taken."

The days of priestly formation pass accompanied by the torture of hurting his loved ones and especially his father. "But God is faithful," says the young man. "I suffered, but I knew that God would give my father a reward far greater than I could hope for."

Stephen studied at St. Xavier University in Chicago, attended the Maryknoll's Language Institute in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and for two years lived and worked in the mission of Aymara, on the Peruvian High Planes.

On 30 May 2009 he was ordained to the priesthood. Stephen's three sisters arrive in New York: Anu, Manpreet and Jaipreet, who live in Europe and America. U.S. authorities will not grant a visa to the father. "But it was one of the happiest days of my life," says the young priest. "My dad wanted to be with me and through my sisters gave me his blessing and the sign of his support for my choice. He wanted me to know that he was proud of me and he had reconciled with my vocation. "

On becoming a priest of the Maryknoll missionaries (in the photo on the day of his first mass), the young priest began a new life and on the day of his ordination, officiated by Msgr. Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, he received messages of congratulations from hitherto unknown people who had learned of his story through friends or other missionaries. "They wrote that they prayed for me, as I became a priest during his Year for Priests - says Fr Stephen - and I felt honoured and privileged to be a Catholic priest, blessed by the prayers of so many people around the world. All this has made me all the stronger in my desire to be a holy priest and a missionary who serves God by serving his people".

http://www.hisprayerhouse.org/changelife1.html

[Gabriel]

From his earliest days growing up in New York, Father Stan Fortuna has lived a life of passion and purpose. When he was in the 2nd grade, his father gave him a Christmas present that was to define his destiny – a red Gibson electric guitar. It was quickly discovered that Fr. Stan had an ear for music and a knack for musical expression and composition. This talent was obvious especially when he started playing the bass.

Through disciplined and fervent practice Fr. Stan became a skilled and noted New York area performer and studied for a time with the late jazz legend Lennie Tristano. Fr. Stan was often enlisted to play sessions and in venues such as Birdland and Lincoln Center with the likes of Warne Marsh, Sal Mosca, Peter Scattaretico and Peter Prisco. With the latter two, he formed Scola Tristano, and the trio has produced a number of jazz albums – one of which was released by Universal Music. Fortuna continues to perform with them today when time permits.


However, it was also in early adulthood that Fr. Stan began hearing his true calling in life. He is one of the eight original members of the Community of Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and a Roman Catholic priest. He has been involved with community development and the implementation of various social programmes in his neighbourhood of the South Bronx for over two decades when the religious order was established by John Cardinal O’Connor in 1987. That same year, Fr. Stan founded his non-profit company, Francesco Productions (http://www.francescoproductions.com), mixing music and message with proceeds going to help poor and impoverished families in the area. From Contemporary Christian to Jazz, Folk, Reggae and Rap, this incredible musician and composer continues to produce music for the enjoyment of all, using it as a powerful means to reach deep into the heart and soul of both young and old throughout the world.

Although Fr. Stan lives in the South Bronx where he serves needy families, he is internationally known for his music as well as for his powerful preaching. With his preaching apostolate, Fr. Stan travels extensively having been invited to perform his music and proclaim the Gospel at conferences, retreats, rallies and festivals in the US, Canada, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. He was invited to preach and perform at the 1999 St. Louis youth rally during John Paul II’s visit, at World Youth Days in Sydney and Toronto, is often a featured speaker at various Franciscan University Youth Conferences, Youth 2000 events and has also appeared numerous times on EWTN.

He released his third rap album – Sacro Song 3: The Completion of the Trilogy – in 2007 and just completed his third book “U Got To Love” to be published in Fall 2009. His other books “U Got To Pray” and “U Got To Believe” along with all of his other 20+ dvds and cd’s can be ordered through his website http://www.francescoproductions.com. A documentary, “Sent”, detailing his life and showcasing his work is now in production to be completed by 2009. All proceeds from Fr. Stan’s concerts, tours and merchandise sales go to Francesco Productions’ and the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal’s hands-on work with the poor. Francesco Productions recently started FILO – Francesco International Outreach to help the underprivileged abroad including Uganda and Poland.

http://www.francescoproductions.com/gallery.asp

Fr Stan has many videos on Youtube... a sample for Holy Week:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWH_6NY4 ... En0rYSoyZo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNCTV4gT ... re=related

[Gabriel]

The Diocese of Buffalo is doing a monthly feature called "Local Priest's Stories"
Here is the link:
http://www.buffalovocations.org/my-stor ... t-stories/
Here is an interesting example:
Bless you, Fr. Noonan for hearing and reponding to the Spirit.

While there is no typical “road to the priesthood” story; some involve more miles than others. The journey of Fr. Mark Noonan is both extraordinary and inspiring and the road he followed was filled with twists and turns winding through Belize in Latin America and Rome, Italy before returning back to the Western New York area.
One of eight children, Mark Noonan grew up with five sisters and two brothers in Cheektowaga, NY. His family belonged to St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parish and he attended school there for grades K-8. He went to St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute for high school and graduated in 1994. In 1998 he graduated from the University of Buffalo with a dual degree in Political Science and Philosophy.
As a child, he thought of becoming a priest. This, he believes, was a consideration of many young Catholic boys at the time. Around the age of 14 or 15 years, young Mark’s thoughts tended away from the priesthood and towards girls. During those years he played music and sang at church on Sunday with a group of guys he grew up with, which he credits with keeping him close to God. In high school and college he dated a lot but never quite found the girl he was looking for. After graduating from UB, Mark decided to try law school. He entered Cleveland-Marshall Law School right after college but would end up spending only one year there. Although he was quite successful as a student, God had other plans. When one opens himself up to the will of God, one must be ready to change course mid-stream.
While living in Cleveland, Mark joined a Catholic young adult group and found himself attracted to one of the girls in that group - a beautiful, happy, and deeply committed Catholic; just the type of person he thought could be the one for him. Some people mentioned that she attended Perpetual Adoration at the church they belonged to. They advised Mark that she usually showed up later in the evening to pray. Thinking he would run into her there, he began to go to that chapel late in the evening in hopes of meeting her, even though he did not yet believe that Christ was truly present in the Eucharist. However, every time he went there with hope of meeting her, she was not there. As time passed, and he spent many late nights praying in that chapel, he really began to grow in faith. The more time he spent in that Adoration Chapel, the less he came in hope of finding the girl and the more he began to believe that Christ was truly present before him in the Eucharist.
Just after Easter, during his second semester at law school, he went before the Blessed Sacrament late one evening and felt that it was truly God who was calling him to be a priest. For a moment he thought, “What about law school?” but when the moment passed, he thought, “I’m done with law school; it is over.” Mark commented that, “It was really my belief in the Eucharist that led to my vocation. Once I started to believe what the Church professes, namely that Christ is truly and substantially present in the Eucharist, I knew I could do whatever he was calling me to do. And it was clear at that point that God was blessing me with the call to the priesthood.” Over the next year, as he worked to pay off his student loans, Mark became familiar with a religious order called the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (S.O.L.T.) and decided to join them. In May 2001 he entered SOLT, a missionary community made up of Priests, Sisters and Brothers. He spent his first year with SOLT teaching in Belize at the mission of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel High School. In 2002, SOLT sent him to their seminary in Rome. He and the other SOLT seminarians studied at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (The Angelicum), which is run by the Dominican Fathers. While there he had many incredible experiences including the opportunity to sing in one of the Papal Choirs, to meet Pope John Paul II, and to attend the canonization and beatification of many Saints and Blesseds; including Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. He was there when the Pope passed away, and following his death, Mark waited in line for seven hours to view his body. Upon finally approaching the casket, he spent an hour praying there in the middle of the night. A week later he and his brother seminarians slept on the street in order to attend the Pope’s funeral. Fr. Mark was also present in St. Peter’s square on April 19, 2005 when the white smoke blew from the Sistine Chapel and Pope Benedict XVI was elected and introduced as our Holy Father. During those years Fr. Mark explained that he received countless blessings through the help and guidance of many saintly priests. In June of 2005, he graduated from the Angelicum.
During his time in Rome, Fr. Mark discerned that he was being called to serve as a parish priest. Although he loved the missions and missionary work, he did not feel at that time that he was being called to religious life. He decided to return to Buffalo in order to become a priest for our Diocese. Because of all the training he had already received during his years with SOLT, he only spent three semesters at our diocesan seminary, Christ the King, in East Aurora. During his time there he was inspired yet again by the priests he encountered in our diocese, particularly Fr. Paul Seil as well as the current rector of the seminary, Fr. Peter Drilling – whom Fr. Mark credits with helping him transition to the diocesan life, and into the priesthood. Fr. Mark loved the great fraternity he found amongst the Buffalo seminarians, particularly his friendship with his only classmate, Fr. David Baker. He describes the relationship amongst priests and seminarians as one where “iron sharpens iron.” He spent the summer of 2006 at St. Joseph’s Parish in Albion and beginning in January 2007 he spent a year at Queen of Heaven in West Seneca. He was ordained a Transitional Deacon on April 20, 2007 and ordained to the priesthood on December 1, 2007 by Bishop Edward Kmiec. Fr. Mark was assigned first to Nativity of our Lord, Orchard Park and then to St. Amelia in Tonawanda where he currently resides.
In thinking about the priesthood, Fr. Mark mentions that being a priest is far better than he thought it would be; yet more challenging as well. He relates, “The day I was ordained a priest I just meant every promise I made so profoundly. I thought of all the great priest-saints who have inspired me, like St. John Vianney, St. Louis de Montfort, St. Edmund Campion and others on their ordination day, and resolved to follow their example and give myself completely to our Eternal Father. As the Second Vatican Council taught, ‘A man cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself’, so I strive to give everything in myself to God, and in service to his children on earth as a spiritual father. As priests, we belong to Christ so deeply. I just cannot imagine myself not having that depth of relationship with God. My heart is His forever!” Fr. Mark particularly loves celebrating the Sacraments as they pour out God’s graces on His people. When he says Mass at a nursing home, he sometimes just anoints all the participants when it is over. “They are all so elderly, sick and frail, it just means so much to them. They really love it!” he exclaims. Whenever he preaches on the benefits and importance of going to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, he inevitably finds that people thank him in the weeks that follow, telling him outside of the confessional that they had not been to confession in years, but feel their life has been restored to grace and peace through that Sacrament. Above all, Fr. Mark is thankful for the opportunity to be a conduit of God’s grace.
The priesthood is a challenging life as well, one that involves trying to juggle many responsibilities. Fr. Mark feels that there are so many demands placed upon priests today and most people cannot imagine how much they are. He prays daily, and encourages others to pray that more and more young men in our diocese will answer “Yes!” to the call to serve as a priest.
An avid sports fan, Fr. Mark enjoys keeping up with his favorite professional teams including the Sabres, Bills, and Red Sox as well as playing a few sports himself. He likes to golf and he became a pretty solid soccer player during his years in the Seminary in Italy. He enjoys hiking and driving to places that are secluded so he can pray. In Italy he used to enjoy praying in the beautiful churches when no one else was there. He would often pray by the tomb of the patron saint of his home parish, St. Aloysius Gonzaga. He truly believes that prayer is the fuel that keeps him going. He prays a Holy Hour every day and is happy to live the promises of his ordination by praying the full Liturgy of the Hours each day. He commented that “if your prayer life is neglected, your identity will soon disappear and for a priest, nothing could be worse.”
“Guys have no idea how glorious a life it is to be a priest; to be so close to God!” exclaims Fr. Mark. He explained that if a man feels called to the priesthood, he can be assured that it will be the pathway to the greatest happiness. “God’s will always coincides with the deepest desires of our heart, even if we do not initially recognize it. So if you want to be truly happy in life, then seek out God’s will and do it!” However, Fr. Mark is clear to relate that, “men should only make the decision to start out on the path to the priesthood in freedom and without pressure or coercion. Indeed, all of us are free to choose and follow God’s call wherever it leads. Our task is to seek it with a sincere and generous heart. In order to discover God’s plan, you must really look into your heart, and ask the deepest questions. God will not fail to answer.” Fr. Mark invites all to join him each day offering the following centuries old prayer for vocations that more young men in our diocese will respond to the call:

O God, Who wills not the death of

a sinner, but rather that he be converted

and live. Grant we beseech

you, through the intercession of

the Blessed Mary, ever Virgin, and all the saints, an increase

of laborers for your Church,fellow laborers with Christ to spend

and consume themselves for souls

through the same Jesus Christ Your

Son, Who lives and reigns with You,in the unity of the Holy Spirit. One God forever and ever

[Gabriel]

GOD IS LOVE: A CLARENCE RIVERS TRIBUTE
by Ken Canedo

The legendary Father Clarence Rivers died November 21, 2004. Attending Catholic school in Cincinnati in the late 1930s, he grew to love the church and its liturgy and traditions, and his parents consented when he asked to be baptized. In 1956 he became the first African-American priest ordained for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

That alone was a major breakthrough in an American society that was still very much racially segregated, but Father Rivers had more gifts to share, most notably his love for music. He was a seminarian and priest during the most fertile time in the history of modern Catholic liturgy. He dared to dream of the possibility that Catholics could worship in a style indigenous to the American musical soul: the great African-American spiritual.

While the liturgy was still being celebrated in Latin, Father Rivers began composing original songs in English that empowered congregations of all cultures to embrace a more soulful way of singing. His American Mass Program was released as an LP record in 1963, roughly a year before the official promulgation of the new rite for Mass in English in November 1964. Radical yet unpretentious, this recording featured only Father Rivers and a parish assembly singing his songs a cappella – no organ, no guitars, no piano. In fact, the first "Folk Mass" had not yet been celebrated.

How groundbreaking was Father Rivers? The first official Mass in English was celebrated at the 1964 Liturgical Week at the Keil Center in St. Louis. The repertoire of conference participants was limited to singing English chant and a smattering of Protestant hymns since there were few Catholic hymns in English. Electricity filled the air when Father Rivers stepped up to the microphone and sang what would become his signature song:

"God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him,"

Blues notes! Spiritual song structure! Idiomatic English lyrics! Passion in vocal interpretation! This was largely unheard of in the Roman liturgy. The American Catholic church would never be the same.

As the 1960s unfolded, the songs of Father Rivers stood out among the guitar-based music that emerged at the close of Vatican II. He continued to compose and record new songs, and a whole generation of folk musicians was exposed to the beauty and wonder of the African-American style of singing.

As a teenager soaking up new music like a sponge, I remember playing through that, great Rivers repertoire: "God, the Father," "Glory to God, Glory," "There Is None Like Him," and, of course, "God Is Love." I studied those songs over and over again, taking note of the composer's way with rhythm, with melody, with blues notes, with scriptural lyrics and, most of all, with simple accessibility. I could never hope to sing as beautifully as Father Rivers, but I dreamed of one day composing like him.

Father Rivers came to Los Angeles in the early 1970s, and a group of classmates went over to see him. There was Father Rivers, young and in his prime. This was my first exposure to live gospel music. It was a treat to hear him sing his own songs and to experience his dynamic speaking presentation, his rousing choir and the most exciting piano player I had ever heard. It was also my first experience with live jazz piano. I couldn't take my eyes off that piano player -- the way he comped those chords and bent those blues notes, along with his walking-bass left hand.

After the concert, Father Rivers was gracious and engaging. When I told him I played piano for Mass he encouraged me to continue studying music and praying the liturgy.

It would be almost 20 years before I was able to compose something that was halfway decent. In 1989, I shared the beginnings of “Alleluia! Give the Glory" with my friend Bob Hurd, who had already begun brainstorming on what would eventually become the Mass of Glory. Throughout our composing of this work I often asked, myself, "What would Father Rivers do?" I am a Filipino-American composer but l consider it the highest compliment when people meet me for the first time at liturgy conferences and tell me, "I thought you were black!" Such is the influence Father Rivers had on me.

Father Rivers' music will live on in my heart and in every gospel-style song that I compose. I am a better person for having met him and for singing his beautiful music.

Glory to God, Glory!


Additional:
http://www.freewebs.com/mrivers/biography.htm

[Gabriel]

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Bishops’ Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations is initiating a new website on April 25 to be a resource for both laity and clergy in the promotion of vocations. The launch date is the World Day of Prayer for Vocations and Good Shepherd Sunday.

The site has two goals:
To help individuals hear and respond to the call by God to the priesthood or consecrated life, and

To educate all Catholics on the importance of encouraging others through prayer and activities to promote vocations.

The Vocations Website can be found at www.ForYourVocation.org. A Spanish-language site will be available this fall at www.PorTuVocacion.org.

Site elements include discernment resources for men and women, respectively, aids for promoting a vocation culture within the home, and a range of tools for educators, youth leaders and vocation directors including prayers, videos, best practices, lesson plans and vocation awareness programs.

In response to Pope Benedict XVI’s 2010 Theme for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Witness Awakens Vocations, the site also hosts videos of priests and religious men and women giving witness to their vocations, as well as testimonies from family members.

ForYourVocation.org exemplifies the Vatican’s embrace of new communications media. In his message for the 44th World Day of Communications, Pope Benedict XVI challenges clergy to employ the “latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites)” to put the media “ever more effectively at the service of the Word.”

The launch of the site will be promoted through social media forums. Facebook users can become “eVangelizers” for the cause. By becoming an eVangelizer, one can connect others to the Website’s blog posts.

Dioceses and organizations may link to ForYourVocation.org by following the instructions at http://foryourvocation.org/web-resources.cfm.
---

[Gabriel]

By Tony and Andrea Assaf

On June 3, 2007, a Chaldean priest and three deacons were shot and killed in front of Holy Spirit Church in Mosul, Iraq. The murdered priest was Ragheed Ganni, a 34-year-old who had studied in Rome from 1996-2003 at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, the "Angelicum," and who had resided at the Pontifical Irish College. Though he was but one among the many innocents who are killed in Iraq each day, Fr. Ragheed’s brutal murder was nevertheless a shocking and cathartic event that sent reverberations around the world.

The death was noted by the Pope and the Irish president, and in hundreds of newspaper columns, magazine articles, and websites; protest demonstrations were held in the U.S., Sweden, Germany, France, and Rome. Well-traveled, highly-educated and known for his holiness and charisma, Fr. Ragheed was a "costly sacrifice" for the Chaldean Church, in the words of Benedict XVI.

In a way, Fr. Ragheed was a typical representative of all the Iraqi Christians who have become persecuted victims of the violence that has been unleashed in their country, but in another way he was quite exceptional. Fr. Ragheed gave a rare and inspiring witness to the faith through his death, a death he well knew could be his and a death he accepted.

Born in the predominantly Christian city of Mosul in northern Iraq, Ragheed Ganni obtained a degree in engineering in 1993 and then entered the seminary. Sent to Rome by his bishop, he received a licentiate degree in Ecumenical Theology from the Angelicum and was ordained a priest in Rome in 2001. He often spent his summers in Ireland, working at the shrine of Lough Derg in Donegal. The year he was finishing his degree in Rome the Iraq war began. In a prewar interview with this magazine, Fr. Ragheed expressed his opposition to the invasion, one of the reasons being that Iraqi Christians would be targeted and persecuted by Islamic fanatics. Yet despite this prophecy, Fr. Ragheed never doubted that he would return to serve the country and people he loved.

The gravity of his decision was almost immediately felt: in 2004 Fr. Ganni was accosted by armed Islamic militants who took him from the residence of the archbishop of Mosul and made him watch as they set off bombs they had placed within the building. Later, Fr. Ganni received several death threats, and his Holy Spirit Church was the scene of several attacks. Less than a month before he was killed, the church had suffered damage from bombing.

After Fr. Ragheed’s death, Fr. Philip Najim, the procurator of the Chaldean Church to the Holy See, declared the slain priest a martyr of the Chaldean Church, which is suffering and has shed its blood in what Benedict XVI calls the Church of the Living Martyrs. His martyrdom, Najim added, "should be a dawn for the life and peace of Iraq, giving room to Christian hope. We need the Holy See to encourage the Church in Iraq and all Christians to unity."

Benedict XVI was deeply saddened by the senseless killing of Fr. Ganni and his friends. In a telegram that Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone sent to Fr. Ragheed’s bishop in the Pope’s name, Benedict said that "Ragheed’s sacrifice will inspire in the hearts of all men and women of good will a renewed resolve to reject the ways of hatred and violence, to conquer evil with good and to cooperate in hastening the dawn of reconciliation, justice and peace in Iraq."

The Irish president, Mary McAleese, wrote, in a letter read at the Requiem Mass for Fr. Ragheed at the Irish College, that "Fr. Ragheed Ganni’s death challenges us to work for reconciliation between faiths and to create a world in which each human life is revered... Fr. Ragheed lived his life by a commandment to love. In our sorrow we remember his willing sacrifice in service of his faith."

Fr. Robert Christian, one of Fr. Ragheed’s professors at the Angelicum, the university he would have returned to for his doctoral studies had he survived, gave this moving tribute to his friend and student during a Requiem Mass held at the university: "We are used to teaching future leaders of the Church. When we hear about one of our former students becoming a bishop we rejoice. But having taught a martyr is something else entirely... There is the awareness that we are before a person who was prepared to pay the supreme price; a person ready to shed his blood for the life of the faithful."

The source of Fr. Ragheed’s uncommon fortitude was the Eucharist. He himself said during the Eucharistic Congress in Bari, Italy, in May 2005: "The terrorists want to take our lives, but the Eucharist gives it back to us. Terrorists try to kill our bodies, but because of the violence of the fundamentalists we have discovered that the Eucharist gives us life, and this is the source of our hope."

Tony and Andrea Assaf are contributors to Inside the Vatican and were friends of Fr. Ganni.

http://www.insidethevatican.com/newsfla ... 4594405105
http://www.culturalcatholic.com/FatherR ... zGanni.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPDIwcJO ... re=related

[Gabriel]

http://www.worldpriest.com/home/rosary_relay.php
Gb

[Gabriel]

After 27 years of forced labour, Fr Matteo Chu is now a priest in Taiwan, happy to be in Rome to celebrate the end of the Year for Priests. He appeals and prays for priests in the People’s Republic of China.


Thursday, June 17, 2010
Asia News


Rome – "Follow me!" Jesus said. Such words were enough to motivate Matthew, a tax collector sitting at a booth, to get up and follow Him. Sixty years ago, I graduated from high school and had the same thought and determination as Matthew did to follow Jesus. So I entered the Xujiahui Seminary in Shanghai and studied there. After three years, as a seminarian never involved in politics, I got caught up in the political turmoil caused by the incident of September 8, 1955 (when Bishop Ignatius Kung Pin-mei of Shanghai and 200 priests also from Shanghai were taken into custody). Hence, I was imprisoned for Jesus Christ.
During my 27 years of imprisonment in reform-through-labour centres, I had to do planting, reaping, picking up mud, pushing carts and keeping bees in the vast farms. God's plan was to test my vocation. He was looking at me and said, “Now you are in jail. Do you really want to follow Jesus?”

In the last 10 of the 27 years of labouring in fields, I gained some degree of freedom. In those days, I could secretly listen to Vatican Radio’s Mandarin programmes. My whole spiritual life, my knowledge of Church teachings and news about the Church all depended on the radio, which helped nourished my spirituality. It became my greatest spiritual strength. How I acquired it is a secret.

Lord Jesus! My will was steadfast. I would get out of jail some day. I would still follow you closely. The Lord's hand gradually led me to the United States, to accompany Bishop Kung for one year, where I assisted him in his Masses and chatted with him. At that time, I also took up some classes on Church liturgy.

Matthew got up and followed Jesus. I decided to go to Taiwan, where I entered the Faculty of Theology at Fu Jen Catholic University. There, I studied theology for four years. I was ordained a priest at the age of 60 at Holy Family Church in Taipei. My 95-year-old mother and five sibling brothers from mainland China (on opposite side of the Strait of Taiwan) came to take part in my ordination. It was miraculous for all of them to come—no one was absent. It was God's greatest grace and care for our family. We gathered at the Holy Family Church in Taipei. At the ordination Mass, I expressed my heartfelt thanks to God, and promised Him I would be loyal to my ministry, and live it out during my priesthood.

Today, at the conclusion of the Year for Priests, I was honoured and blessed to be in Rome to be together with 15,000 priests for the three days of activities (of the International Meeting of Priests), which we spent with the Holy Father and prayed together. The Holy Father said, "Do not look at your ministry as a profession. The priestly ministry is not a job, but a witness of love. A priest's mission is to be a witness of love, and prayer is the primary task of pastoral work." During the three-day activities, we concelebrated with the Pope, and were filled with joy and blessings.

On June 11, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the conclusion of the Year for Priests with a solemn Mass. At St Peter's Square, the Mass saw the participation of 15,000 priests who came from 97 different countries, each in a white alb and a stole, just like the portrait of parish priest of the holy Curé d’Ars St John Vianney, concelebrating with the Holy Father. This way, the whole of St Peter's Square was turned into a large altar. In his homily, the Pope entrusted an important task to the weak, which is to make mankind aware of His presence and love.

The pope’s homily was enriching and filled with emotions. He touched upon the heart of priestly vocations. Not only did he explain the sacred source of priestly vocations, but he also did not conceal the weakness and limitations of human beings, thus revealing the darker side of humanity.

The Pope said, “God makes use of us poor men in order to be, through us, present to all men and women, and to act on their behalf. This audacity of God who entrusts himself to human beings—who, conscious of our weaknesses, nonetheless considers men capable of acting and being present in his stead—this audacity of God is the true grandeur concealed in the word “priesthood”. That God thinks that we are capable of this; that in this way he calls men to his service and thus from within binds himself to them.”

Then, the Holy Father said that the priesthood’s new radiance will not please the “enemy”, who “would rather see it disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven out of the world.”

By reflecting, meditating and praying during this Year for Priests, priests should do good, and live out the priestly ministry. That is our determination.

During this Year for Priests and at this great gathering of priests, we chatted, talked and exchanged information about our experiences. I remembered our fellow priests in mainland China because that is where I came from. Although I am now freer than you are, I know your situations, I know your hardships, and I know how difficult it is for you to do evangelisation work.

For all this, I can be silent, and kneel before the Blessed Sacrament to tell Jesus Lord! Jesus! Almighty Son of God, you are almighty, may I plead with you to give mainland priests strength and hope. Please let them, priests of the mainland, be entrusted in the hands of Father Matteo Ricci and Paul Xu Guangqi who are in Heaven, and whose cause of beatification is now starting in Rome.

Some day we shall meet in Rome. Then, mainland priests can make a pilgrimage tour, as well as bring delegates from your dioceses to Rome to celebrate. Dear fellow priests on the mainland, we always keep you in our prayers. Let us pray for each other.

On the day of the Pope’s public audience, I presented to the Holy Father a precious portrait of the Our Lady of Sheshan in China. It represents the reverence of mainland Chinese clergy and faithful.

The Pope loves China and is concerned about the Church in China. He loves Our Lady Help of Christians in Sheshan, and for this reason, he invites the Universal Church to pray to the Blessed Mother for the Church in China.

The portrait of Our Lady of Sheshan will be placed in the Pope's study. The Holy Father will be able to pray for us and for the suffering Church of China every day in front of Our Blessed Mother.

Our Blessed Mother, the Pope will always be with the Church, until the day the Church in China is truly free.



Source: Asia News

[Gabriel]

http://www.catholicjobs.com/job/3680108221

[Gabriel]

Determined priest provides place for parishioners after Hurricane Katrina
Published: Sunday, August 30, 2009, 5:00 AM Updated: Sunday, August 30, 2009, 9:41 AM
Sheila Stroup, The Times-Picayune

Jennifer Zdon / The Times-Picayune
Rev. R. Tony Ricard never doubted that the red-brick church on St. Roch Avenue would reopen.
The Rev. R. Tony Ricard slipped inside his deathly still church and smelled something unfamiliar: mud.

It was September 2005, and New Orleans was a ghost town. The 8th Ward neighborhood that surrounded Our Lady Star of the Sea lay in ruins. His rectory had taken in 6 feet of water from the levee failures that followed Hurricane Katrina.

But the ebullient priest never doubted that the red-brick church on St. Roch Avenue would reopen.

"There was something in my heart that told me, 'People are coming back to Our Lady Star of the Sea no matter what, ' " Ricard, 45, says. "So I never asked, 'What do we do if they don't come back?' I asked, 'What do we have to do to bring everyone back?' "

During 77 days of living in exile with his family near Leesville, his faith grew stronger.

"My parishioners were people who had always lived in New Orleans, and I knew they wanted to come home as much as I did, " he says.

The native New Orleanian -- "Father Tony" to his parishioners, the young men he mentors and members of the New Orleans Saints, for whom he serves as Catholic chaplain -- reasoned that if he opened the church, his flock would return to the city.

"Our people were scattered around the country like refugees, " he says. "I thought, 'The church is a way to bring them home.' "

The 75-year-old building, raised several feet above the ground, sustained relatively minor damage from Katrina: The air conditioning and heating units were ruined, and the wooden floor needed refinishing, but otherwise, the lovingly refurbished church was in good shape.

He and his parishioners had brought it back from the brink of death once already. He knew they could do it again.

"What we had going for us was faith and an awful lot of love, " he says.

. . . . . . .


Jennifer Zdon / The Times-Picayune
The congregation of Our Lady Star of the Sea grew week by week as word spread about the dynamic new pastor, and in eight months the working-class worshipers donated $50,000 to restore the church's interior.


When he became pastor in July 2001, the church at 1835 St. Roch Ave. was crumbling. Active members numbered 120, and there were rumors that the archdiocese was going to close the church.

But instead of performing the last rites, the young priest challenged the people to breathe life back into Our Lady Star of the Sea.

He told them, "I will bring my gifts to the table, but you need to bring your gifts, too."

His lively homilies made them believe in themselves and their church and convinced them to be generous during the offertory. The congregation grew week by week as word spread about the dynamic new pastor, and in eight months the working-class worshipers donated $50,000 to restore the church's interior.

"They were determined to save their parish, " he says.

At that time, a pastel mural behind the altar showed Mary surrounded by a host of fair-skinned angels.

"But all those angels had moved to Metairie, " Ricard jokes.

New Orleans artist Vernon Dobard convinced the new pastor that behind that wall were other angels trying to get out. As part of the renovation, the New Orleans artist created "The Dance of Holy Innocence, " a vibrant floor-to-ceiling mural that shows Mary surrounded by gorgeous angels in flowing gowns, representing the various cultures that have worshipped at Our Lady Star of the Sea.

"It was so beautiful, " Ricard says, "people cried when they saw it."

. . . . . . .

In the dark days that followed the hurricane, Ricard had another reason to reopen Our Lady Star of the Sea. His second parish, St. Philip the Apostle in the 9th Ward, had been under 10 feet of water for weeks and couldn't be salvaged. He wanted members of St. Philip's to have a place to call home.

"It was really a kind of natural migration, " he says.

He had been appointed pastor of that church a few months after becoming pastor at Our Lady Star of the Sea, and for five years he had the difficult job of dividing himself between the two church communities.

Jennifer Zdon / The Times-Picayune
"What we had going for us was faith and an awful lot of love, " Ricard says.
"It was like having two families, " he says. "It also meant I had two sets of old ladies who thought they knew everything about running a church."

At the same time, his reputation as a national speaker was growing, and he was traveling nearly every month.

"It was tough going back and forth, " he says. "It was a challenge for the parishioners and for me."

Katrina left far greater challenges in its wake, but Ricard was undaunted. On Christmas, less than four months after the storm, he celebrated Mass with more than 400 parishioners.

"I called it the 'we-opening' of our church, " he says.

In February 2006, after he learned that Our Lady Star of the Sea was not on the reopening list released by the Archdiocese of New Orleans, he asked for the chance to prove his church could survive.

He explained to the congregation what that meant: They would have to pay their bills. They would have to pay their monthly assessment to the archdiocese. They would have to come up with the money for repairs to the church.

"I told them, 'We have to do this all on our own, ' " he says.

They opened their hearts and their pocketbooks, and when Ricard traveled around the country speaking he would ask the congregations to take up a second collection for his church instead of paying him.

At the gospel Mass on Dec. 16, 2007, when he read the letter from Archbishop Alfred Hughes announcing the official reopening of Our Lady Star of the Sea, 525 people stood up and cheered.

"Today, we rejoice that like that reed swaying in the wind, we have not been broken by the disaster of Katrina, " their pastor told them. "We have not faltered. We have not failed."

. . . . . . .

The popular priest admits that some people think he's "all about Tony."

But he knows he's doing what God wants him to do.

"It's not about me. It's really all about him, " he said.

To do God's work, he has a Web site, a fan club on Facebook, even a bobblehead likeness that's authentic down to the ponytail.

"When my nephew Andrew saw it, he told me, 'Now you have a head that's in proportion to your ego, ' " Ricard says, laughing at the joke.

Many friends and parishioners would be surprised to learn he used to be the little boy who hid behind his momma's skirt and wanted to "stand in the back and be a tree in the school play."

He says the St. Augustine High School band is where "the aura that is Tony" began to come out.

"Maybe it was the standing ovation we got in front of 69,000 people in the Superdome at halftime, " he says. "When the St. Aug band played, people didn't get up and go get something to eat."

After graduating from Loyola, he became a public school teacher at Lafayette School on Carrollton Avenue, but as much as he loved teaching, he felt something was missing.

"I was 26 when I entered the seminary, " he says. "It was a tough decision, but as soon as I made it, I felt a sense of peace."

Now, he can't imagine being anything other than a priest: Preaching his mantra of "Don't be stupid" to teenagers across the country, trying to keep the young men in the neighborhood away from violence and drugs, saying Mass for the Saints the night before each home game.

"The greatest blessing is when I come into church on Sunday, and it's full, " he says. "I just realize how much God has been able to use me to make sure his presence is felt, here in the St. Roch community."

Last month, at the Mass celebrating his 10 years on St. Roch Avenue, Ricard's homily was about the "storms, natural and unnatural" he and his parishioners have weathered together, on the "love boat" that is their church.

In typical Father Tony fashion, he sang the theme from the old TV show, following up with the theme song from "Gilligan's Island, " with everyone joining in.

"The storm landed us on deserted islands all the way across the United States, " Ricard told the packed house. "What you see is the end of the story -- a little tale of the castaways."

Every day, he thanks God for allowing him to be part of their blessed story. Every day, he thanks God for bringing them home.

. . . . . . .
Ref: http://www.nola.com/living/index.ssf/20 ... s_pla.html
A priest with a sense of humor and can tell a story......
Just for fun, football fans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lo8wkU0 ... re=related