Fr Vincent Sherlock
He pulled in to get petrol. The back seat of his car was filled with bits and pieces from his home – the bits, over and above, what the van had taken away earlier that day. The young petrol attendant, seeing the packed car said: “Are you the new man?” The priest, telling the story afterwards, told us he smiled to himself as he had been in the parish for five years and was moving to another! At least the petrol pump attendant had heard the word that there was a change of priests.
It’s that time of year. Priests in dioceses across Ireland are packing, moving re-imagining their ministry and role as they move to new surroundings. It’s different now though for, in many cases, the movement is one way, there will not be a ‘new man’ stopping at the filling station on his way in to take the place of the one going out.
Yearly event
There’s a death taking place in parishes across the country – for some parishes, the anniversary of that death is already a yearly event, for others we are heading towards the ‘month’s mind’. It saddens me. It saddens many as they ask, “why our parish?”
This year, in a way I haven’t experienced before, it’s quite personal to me. For eight years I have worked alongside another priest in this parish. I never took that for granted; neither did I take for granted his friendship, total commitment and willingness to share the roads, the decisions, the ups and downs with me. He is being re-assigned and, with everyone in the parish, I wish him every blessing but the reality is he will not be replaced. Our diocese has had one priest ordained for ministry in the diocese in the past 13 years. It is simply not possible to fill vacancies in the absence of vocations, ordinations and people believing they are called to priesthood.
Now the four churches and church areas in this parish need re-imagining too. I dread the thoughts of it – of disappointing people when the level of service, in the best sense of the phrase ‘taken for granted’, has to be looked at a-fresh.
Diocesan changes are taking on a very different meaning for our Church and the parishes of our country. Already there are parishes across Ireland without a resident priest. Already too, and thankfully, there are mighty people meeting this reality with vision and a God-given ability to see the bigger picture.
Faith is and remains our foundation. God will provide for his people and that very provision is, at its best found, amongst God’s people. We will work together and with enthusiasm. We will seek ways to enrich and enliven our parishes and faith communities. It won’t happen in a day or seven days but maybe, for many parishes the work of re-creation has begun.
We’ll take our time with this and hopefully arrive at the Sabbath day, when seeing all that has been done; we may rest in the knowledge that “it is very good”.
***
Striking a balance
If a priest preaches for over ten minutes, he is long-winded; if his sermon is short, he didn’t prepare.
If the parish funds are low, he is a poor businessman; if he mentions money, he is money-mad.
If he owns a good car, he is worldly; if he doesn’t, he is a disgrace to the parish.
If he starts Mass on time, his watch is fast; if he starts Mass late, he is holding up the congregation.
If he redecorates the Church, he is spending too much money; if he doesn’t, he is letting it run down.
If he is young, he is not experienced; if he is old, he should retire.
If he dies, “you’d think he would have taken better care of his health.”
***
A TRUE STORY! Priests were plentiful and the parish was small but scattered. The trend had been towards having a very old parish priest and a young (in many cases newly-ordained) curate. He did most of the work. The parish priest died and was being buried. It was around the Christmas days and the winter was especially harsh. As the old man’s coffin was lowered into the soil he had tilled for many, many years, a woman looking at all the priests gathered by his graveside asked another: “Which of them do you think we’ll be getting?” The other looked at her and said: “Don’t be daft! The one we’re getting wouldn’t be out on a day like this!” (Those were the days!)
