I had often thought of the priesthood, even as
far back as elementary school, because we used to have Mass there
frequently. The Dominican sisters were our teachers, and they
had a devotion to the rosary. I remember how at noontime we went
to the chapel to say the rosary. They would be leading the prayers.
There was a great religious atmosphere in that elementary school.
Also, in those days, it would have been absolutely unthinkable
for my parents not to attend Mass on Sunday. And, as many people
did in those days, my father had a great devotion to the Sacred
Heart and First Fridays.
I can remember one snowy morning about quarter of six, when I
was still in bed, I heard the front door slam and I knew it was
my father leaving much earlier than he normally would. And I remember
calling out to my mother, "Where's Daddy going?" And
she said, "To church." He was going to the early First
Friday Mass before heading out on his long trip to work. I was
about five or six years old at the time, and, somehow, it made
a deep impression on me. So that's why, as far back as elementary
school, I began to think about the priesthood.
My master of novices used to talk frequently,
including conferences about the early days of the New England
Province, and also talked about them frequently in more informal
settings. He was in on the preparation for becoming a province
and at its beginnings. Also, I was intrigued by all of this, and
he was only too happy to talk about these early years, sometimes
at great length.
Given my interest in history to begin with, I was fascinated by
the period of transformation when an independent New England Province
was split off from the Maryland Province. I had a good memory
to keep up with all this information. I should add that all this
stood me in good stead when, later on, Fr. Levens as provincial,
asked me to be the archivist for the province.
In the summer of 1966, Woodstock College, which
was still in Maryland, offered an institute by their faculty members
to explain some of the still recent decrees of Vatican II. I was
able to attend that, and I look back on it as one of the most
marvelous experiences of my life. All the professors' lectures
were excellent. Included were some pretty big names: John Courtney
Murray, Avery Dulles, and Joe Fitzmyer.
Another seminar, though it did not have as many stars as the first,
also had excellent speakers. Each day we had a concelebrated Mass
at a time when such Masses were quite new. The homilies were also
uniformly excellent. It was a great opportunity for me to get
to know more about Vatican II. So I really never felt that I had
somehow painted myself into a corner. Rather, I was able to grow
with the changing times.
I do think that the Society owes a lot
of credit to Fr. Dezza for smoothing things over very nicely with
the pope. I remember seeing him on a few occasions, as he and
Fr. Pittau walked home from the Vatican after meeting with the
pope for lunch, as they did every two weeks or so.
Fr. Cecil McGarry, who was one of the general assistants at the
time, told me that he felt Fr. Dezza, the papal delegate, would
be in place for some five years or so. But Fr. Dezza took over
in late October and called a meeting in Rome of all the provincials
of the Society in February. During their gathering, they met with
the Pope himself. The Pope said to the delegates, "You can
have your congregation." So Fr. Dezza had done a tremendous
job in setting up this successful meeting with the Pope so soon.
Due to death or sickness some of these selected
readings have been read by someone other than the author. This
page contains one such replacement.
