The Catholic priesthood has taken a public-relations beating for centuries, and they've become an attractive target in part thanks to the sins and excesses of the men who served before them. The child abuse scandal is unavoidable, obviously. Some of my friends of other faiths have declared their unmarried status as "weird" or simply, "not right." Again, it's easy to understand, they're an easy target. I could bore everyone reading this with my simpleton's understanding of the whys and wherefores of the Catholic priesthood (excepting the abuse of children and power....I cannot understand the inexplicable crimes committed in any sensible way).
I can say this: all of the priests I've known were good men committed to serving their parishes and communities with everything they had. They are required to go to those places that most of us tend to eschew in favor of nice, safe shopping malls and spacious parks. To name a few: prisons, death rows, homeless shelters, missions, filthy tenements. Wherever you find the least among us is where you'll find priests and nuns, ministering and tending to the needs of those who have nothing but needs.
I'll be honest, I've only ever thought about a life of service in that "morning after" guilt complex. As in "Oh, Jesus am I hung over. Dear Lord if I get over this I swear I'll never have another drop if you'l just take this god@#Ned headache away.......I'll go to Uganda and pass out water and rice for a year and be a good boy, oh and by the way if it's no trouble could you make the Redskins play better?"
When I worked for the Public Defender I saw the religious who made the prison visits, the inmates lining up for communion and confession. To make those trips, week in and week out, requires a special type of patience.
And so it was that last week a seminarian named Mike Fallon suddenly passed away at age 40. I'd known him as an acquaintance, our families were in the same parish as we grew up. We were in the same Cub scout den for a while. We attended different DC area prep schools. I can't say we were close, but he was always nice to me and hopefully I was nice to him. Several years ago he employed my firm to represent him in a worker's compensation case for an on-the-job injury he'd suffered. He was in the Catholic University seminary at that time but they'd started getting nervous about his injury, and he was concerned they'd ask him to leave.
At that time it was clear that he was committed to his calling. I don't know if it came easily to him or not, his father was a Deacon at our church (and a good preacher, as I recall...I can still remember some of the points he discussed during his homilies). In my very brief time with him I can recall his patient demeanor with my dad (you have to be a saint to be one of my dad's clients, because my dad has no patience whatsoever). He was also deeply concerned about his ability to return to the seminary and resume his studies.
I never spoke with him again. I left the practice to do what I'm doing right now. I found out about his death last week but was glad to hear that he'd passed away at a seminary, wherein he was preparing to begin a life that was exactly the one he wanted, one of personal sacrifice and service to others. He was a good man, gone from this plane far before his time. Our church needs more men like him. It is rare, these days - perhaps more rare than at any time since Emperor Constantine "legitimized" the faith - to find people with large enough hearts and brave enough souls to commit themselves to a life of service. Walk on, Mike. Nil igitur est mors ad nos.
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