My college buddy, the baseball nut Tom Maguire, texted me at the end of last month and asked, Who are these guys dressed as Nats and Cubs? The day before, both his team and mine had undertaken a ‘fire sale” and traded away many players who had been considered essential to the identity of the team. Now Trea and Max and Anthony and Kris would be wearing other uniforms, in other cities. The two teams, both gutted, played one another the next day; I was left with Juan Soto and Companions; he with Contreras, Hendrix, & Friends. Sigh.
I know last week came as a similar bombshell to you; I found out only a few days before you did. But Father Russo was traded mid-season to another team and assigned by Cardinal Gregory to Sacred Heart Church in Bowie. He has been an indispensable part of the team, a face-of-the-franchise player, Rookie of the Year in 2019, and an All-Star in 2020 and 2021. He was constantly in the school and was an essential part of the day to the students there. He raised up a new crop of altar servers and trained them to the high standard we have long maintained here. He was the digitally-inclined member of the rectory team, introducing and operating our online interface, Flocknote. That is hardly all, and even that pales next to his just being around, available and eager to be your priest.
Meanwhile, a new guy showed up in the dugout, um, I mean, rectory this week. He is not a replacement for Father Russo – apparently, we are unlikely to get one until next year – but rather will move into Father Berhorst’s old room and be our student priest in residence while he works on his degree in Canon Law at Catholic University.
Father Peter Santandreu is a priest of Buffalo, three years ordained. He heard about Saint Bernadette through several friends, and called to see if there was room at the inn. Apparently, you all have a reputation for being good to student priests! We are only just beginning to get to know one another, but he has a can-do attitude and did not flinch when I told him that the Home Team had been reduced by half. He is by no means a scrub, nor second-stringer; and he is ready to help. Please give him a hearty welcome.
It will be my job to see if I can rustle up some more help so we can maintain the grueling Mass and confession schedule we started coming out of the Covid lockdown. I have to make sure Fr. Santandreu’s principal assignment, studying for his degree, is protected from creeping pastoral activity. Some things from Father Russo’s portfolio will be taken up by other folks; some things just will not get done. That definitely goes in the “loss” column. With a little patience, though, and the help of divine providence, this parish will continue to be an engine of sanctification in Four Corners.
Since this weekend is our last with a parochial vicar, and our first with a student priest, I saw my very narrow window of opportunity and went off to make my annually required retreat, this year at the mother house of some religious sisters I have known for a long time. Pray for me, as I will be doing for you.
When a man finishes seminary and is ordained, he is fully a priest, but not yet fully formed as a priest. His first assignment, his first few years, teach him what a priest is, by means of what the people ask of him, expect of him, and share with him. You all, this parish, are great teachers and formators, so Father Russo has a lot of you in him as he moves on into the rest of his priestly ministry. That is not good luck; that is grace.
So, hats off, and a lusty cheer for Father Russo as he enjoys his last weekend here, then empties his locker. At least Sacred Heart is not a ‘hated rival’; not the Yankees or the Dodgers. It has oft been called (as a compliment to both parishes) the Saint Bernadette of Bowie, as we are the Sacred Heart of Silver Spring. The two parishes have long had much in common; now we will have more.
Monsignor Smith
