Dear Editor, Over the past few years and especially during the ordination ‘season’ of June/July, you have covered the phenomenon which can only be described as a sort of clericalism (in the best sense of the word). By that your pictures show the newly ordained in full cottas, amices and bright gold Roman vestments; heightened by a sharpness of presentation which would have made Fredrick the Great envious! Some may view this as the last expression of a Roman comfort blanket which will be cruelly snatched away by a cynical secularism; but I feel that we are seeing a desire for the priesthood to reassert a confidence in the only high priest, Jesus Christ. This, together with the near weekly episcopal ordinations and the peregrinations of the Papal Nuncio, show that its holiness and confidence in Christ is what has brought this about; via the intellectual example of Blessed John Paul II and his successor finding expression in the warmth of Francis’ pastoral outreach.
As a priest, of a few years ministry, I thank my younger brothers for this gift of their love of Christ in his Church and which will aid a re-discovery for the likes of me, who sadly can become easily cynical and introspective in the midst of a country and world which has become a decidedly cold house for Catholics and others of faith.
Yours etc.,
Fr John McCallion, CC,
Clonoe,
Co Tyrone
