Part 2-National Catholic Register Opinion

“On June 19, 2009, Pope Benedict began in the Catholic Church, “Year of
the Priest”. Here is a ‘thank you’ from the editors of the National Catholic
Register. — Father Bruce (Part 2 of 3)

NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER
OPINION (Part Two)
Thank You, Father
BY The Editors June 14-20, 2009 Issue
As the Year of the Priest begins, we lay editors of the Register want to take a moment to thank
priests.
Thank you priests, for sacrificing the fulfillment of “making it in the world” in order to give us a
chance to make it in the next world. You don’t take on jobs — they are appointed to you. You put
your own will at the disposal of the Church, for us. We are grateful.
Thank you for bringing our children into the Church, and sustaining their souls with the sacraments.
And thank you for welcoming them into the Church informally, as well. We see them look at you
like celebrities and we’re glad the first “celebrity” they got to meet was a man of God. Thank you for
patiently listening to them, for taking such joy in teasing them, and for showing them the true face of
Christ: the gentle one who said “Let the children come to me.”
Thank you priests for presiding at our marriages, even while you yourselves live such that you can be
ready to serve your people at a moment’s notice. Sometimes married people sigh and think envious
thoughts about living alone. Bu in the end, it’s hard for us to imagine how you do it. Thank you for
risking loneliness to serve us and our families.
Thank you priests, for putting yourself in the unenviable position of dealing with us at our worst
moments — when we’re anxious, upset, depressed, even a little out of our minds, focused on our
own problems to the exclusion of all else.
When we see the care you have to take in listening to the problems of so many kinds of people, we
can’t imagine how you do it. How do you listen to angry people, whining people, weeping people,
nervous people, suspicious people and clueless people? How do you listen to us?
Thank you priests, for sitting in empty confessionals on Saturday afternoons. You wait there, not
even knowing if we’ll come, like the Prodigal Son’s father on the road. Thank you for all the times
we hear “I absolve you from your sins” and feel a great burden lifted from our hearts. This gift of
God’s forgiveness brings the greatest joy back into our lives. We can give you nothing in return that
even comes closed to that.
Next week: Part Three
Sincerely yours,
Reverend Bruce J. Powers