Looking at the date, you may be thinking - it’s the first
day of summer. That would make sense
this weekend. It happens every year
right around now. Or possibly you are
thinking – it’s Father’s Day. That, too,
would be fair game; it also comes around this time, even though it is harder to
keep track of precisely when.
These are important touchstones, but among priests, this is
Anniversary Season. Just last Sunday, I
remembered that it was the ordination anniversary of Fr. DeRosa (7 years), and
my friend Msgr. Toups (18 years). The
day before, it was my friend in Birmingham, Fr. Kevin Bazzel. Monday, Msgr. Robert Panke, rector of our
seminary, celebrated his anniversary by offering Mass here at our parish, so I
could travel to celebrate the anniversary of a friend in North Carolina! Msgr. David Brockman, whom you may have met
when he visited me here Memorial Day weekend, had a big event down in Raleigh for
the twenty-fifth anniversary of his ordination, and it was my privilege to
participate.
Before it could be Anniversary Season, it had to be
Ordination Season. If you know some
older priests, they may have been ordained on the third Saturday in December,
which was the practice in Rome up through the nineteen-sixties. But for decades now, most dioceses ordain men
priests once they have completed the required studies, so the end of the school
year is prime time. University classes
now tend to be finished by mid-May, so that is when ordinations start. Father Nick, who is Dean of St. Joseph’s in
New York, a seminary that serves several dioceses, over recent weeks has spent his
Saturdays attending ordinations.
Apparently he still had at least one left to attend after he departed
here last weekend.
My own anniversary was last month. I turned seventeen! That was a good age the first time around;
let’s see how it holds for ordination. My anniversary is already almost a month back
because my year, Washington ordained priests relatively early. Usually we do it more toward mid- or late
June. Which means lots of anniversaries
around now. And it also means ordinations are now!
And sure enough, Cardinal Wuerl ordained nine men to the
Sacred Priesthood on Saturday morning at the Basilica of the National Shrine of
the Immaculate Conception. I have asked
several times over recent weeks for your prayers for these men, who will serve
our local church with their lives. Read
about them in this week’s Catholic Standard, and please keep them in your
prayers. And every year on this date,
they will mark the anniversary of the day Jesus Christ changed their souls, and
their lives, forever.
Father’s Day and the First Day of Summer will be printed on
the calendar around this time in every edition for years to come. But for Father Angel Gabriel Fermin, Father
Robert Maro, Father Alec Scott, Father Martino Choi, Father Matthew Fish,
Father William Wadsworth, Father Conrad Murphy, Father Daniele Rebeggiani, and
Father Santiago Martin, this will be the Anniversary, every year, of Ordination
Day.
Monsignor Smith
