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COMMENTARY
Discoveries in the Bronx
From Fr. Paul Berube, senior priest in residence at
Immaculate Conception parish, Newburyport MA
Someone once told me that a retired priest should
just keep moving because it’s a bit more difficult
to hit a moving target. So that led me to the Bronx
to make three discoveries. The first was pointed out
by a New Yorker priest friend through whose struggling
parish we were traveling on a bus. “We are now
on Boston Post Road,” he said, pointing to the
street sign, and added, “It begins down around
Wall Street where most of it has been absorbed by Manhattan’s
avenues”. I reminded him that it was just another
thing we shared because Boston Post Road (Rte. 20 MA)
also transected my parish in Wayland.
But why go to the Bronx? It certainly wasn’t
for baseball. After Johnny Pesky signed a baseball
for me in 1947, I went to “de-tox” and
was cured before the whole thing was taken over by
big bucks. No, I went there to discover that I was
the only Boston priest at a conference held at and
sponsored by Fordham University on “Leadership
in the U. S.
Catholic Church.” One other Bostonian was present
as moderator, Tim Muldoon, Director of the Church in
the 21st Century Center at Boston College. As an eternal,
if not optimist then at least idealist, the conference
did not disappoint. It quickly became evident that
clerical leadership at this time is a quest that only
Don Quixote would pursue. Not being from La Mancha,
I concurred with the suggestion that the Voice
of the Faithful (VOTF) belongs in the 21st Century American
Catholic Hall of Fame. Mary Pat Fox, president of VOTF,
served on a panel that looked at the clergy sex abuse
scandal’s impact on dioceses.
Both there and elsewhere, I’ve recently been
struck by the word “conversion.” Co-incidentally,
a “change of heart” was equally urged by
the departing leader of the American Catholic Theological
Association, which was meeting in Los Angeles. This
is a critical time for the American Catholic Church.
It’s not a time for wimps nor prophets of doom.
It’s a time for bold ideas and inclusive leadership.
Above all, it may well be the time for women and men
- the laity- to emerge as leaders. That’s what
Americans do best.
The third discovery was right there in the quad near
the University Chapel. I could not believe my eyes…it
was a revelation, almost miraculous-like. Presiding
over the space is a large sculpture, the bust of a
19th Century layman: Orestes Augustus Brownson.* The
work of Boston sculptor Samuel J. Kitson, it honors
the greatest layman to emerge from the American Catholic
Church of his time. A Vermont Yankee convert, a patriot
and above all a defender of the faith, Brownson was
an intellectual giant leading an immigrant but universal
Church in a new land. There is hope if we will but
encourage and provide space for our young people. At
last, there is the Leadership. Fr Paul
[*Brownson was many things before his conversion to
Catholicism – a Presbyterian, a Universalist
and a Transcendentalist. As a preacher, labor organizer
and writer he had a sizable following in Boston and
in New York City. A Google search will provide additional
background. For a quick beginning, go to bartleby.com. For
more information, try newadvent.org/.]
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