BY FR. LARRY MCBRIDE, SPECIAL TO THE WESTERN KENTUCKY CATHOLIC

Greetings from the Priests’ Council. We began our meeting of April 19 with the Litany of St. Joseph.  Bishop Medley shared his joy at being able to be back on the road during the annual Confirmation season. He invited everyone to the prayer service to be held at St. Stephen Cathedral that night for the prevention of child abuse and for all the victims of child abuse. The bishop has led a prayer service yearly during April (Child Abuse Prevention Month) in various parishes across the diocese. 

Fr. Tony Shonis and Edward Wilson (diocesan archivist) presented a plan for the diocese to collect an oral history from our priests. Similar to “Story Corps” which can be found on National Public Radio, priests will be interviewed around retirement. These interviews will be archived by the diocese for historic purposes, and clips from the interviews may be used at different times in diocesan media to inspire and inform. 

Danny May, director of the Office of Marriage and Family Life, engaged the Priests’ Council in a conversation about the way that we do marriage preparation in the diocese. Danny feels that we need to update our marriage preparation to better align with our emphasis on discipleship and evangelization. He shared that Pope Francis continually emphasizes the need to approach marriage preparation and enrichment from a catechetical model. Another variable in the conversation is that during COVID-19 the diocese has been using an online component to marriage preparation which couples have found to be a good experience. Taking all of this into account, he recommends: Priest will meet with couple and do initial preparation and inventory; the couple will then be asked to do the online program; they will then be paired with a sponsor couple in the parish who will serve as a bridge between marriage preparation and enrichment. Danny was asked to return to the May meeting for a formal program proposal. 

We closed the meeting with a discussion on pandemic related issues. We discussed current practices and life in the parish in the midst of the pandemic. I am sure that it is not surprising that many are hearing and experiencing a growing impatience with the current restrictions. Bishop Medley has recently sent out a letter to all priests and another letter has been posted on social media and will be found in The Western Kentucky Catholic (Editor’s note: See page 3 of this issue) acknowledging the growing frustration and impatience. He has called us to continue to be patient with the process and to act for the good of all rather than what we personally want to do. The priests went on to discuss the day when we can welcome the full community back to church and once again reinstate the obligation. We do not know the day but it gives us an opportunity to plan for the day. We want to be sure that we reach out to everyone in the parish when we open our doors and encourage and invite everyone to join us around the table of the Lord.

Fr. Larry McBride serves as the pastor of Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Henderson, and is the dean of the Central Deanery and the chairperson of the Priests’ Council. Questions and comments may be sent to him at [email protected]. 

Originally printed in the May 2021 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.