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Bishop Gregory Mansour's Address at the Clergy Conference 2006

Chicago, Illinois, July 3-6, 2006

This past year I have had the special grace and privilege of accompanying two of our senior priests to their eternal rest, Peter Mahfoud and Norman Ferris. I was honored to celebrate their funeral liturgies.

From Peter I learned a little more about the importance of human affection and warmth. He knew I was fond of him. After I left Uniontown I visited him twice a year, every year. How little I knew he was fond of me as well. My picture sat next to his nursing home bed on the windowsill. His nurses would say that my cards and letters would be kept and read over again to him. We lived a lot of life together, as I invited him to return home to Uniontown to spend his last years when I was pastor there. We became priest friends. His passing was a sad day for me as I thought of all that I had received from knowing him and the deep love for the priesthood that we shared.

From Norman I learned the grace of being a practicing Catholic. Even though he was a true priest, he was first and foremost a practicing Catholic. I would see him with his rosary, I noticed that at 3:00 he prayed the Divine Chaplet, I knew he was a man of personal prayer. But the greatest lesson I learned was not from his success as a priest, but from what he would call his failures: his fear of death; his struggle with scrupulosity, his feeling that God was not listening to his prayer, his reliance on Mary, his need for confession. Norman taught me how to be terribly human and still be a priest. In fact, this “humanness” may have been the secret to his success as a priest. For as a confessor he was excellent, this I learned personally. I will never forget Norman and Peter.

My brothers, it is in the context of our brother priests, that I address these few words to you today. As eparchial priests we have passed through many difficulties this year. Some have faced their own health problems, other have faced personal and pastoral difficulties, some have dealt with a transfer that was not easy for them, they are still suffering through this, some have dealt with a transfer that was to their liking, but still find it hard to say good bye.

Some of our people complain about us to our face, some behind our back. Some call the bishop to complain about the priest. Some call the priest to complain about the bishop. As priests we have faced difficulties in our parishes, not everyone will be happy with us; and we face our own difficulties with parishioners, we are not always happy with them.

We have also faced the difficulties of a celibate lifestyle. It seems that we get buffeted harder than married men with all the interior temptations, personal jealousies, second-guessing of ourselves. Our loneliness seems to be more painful because it is more accentuated for us. We are “there for everyone,” yet no one is “there” for us.

Yet with all that we faced and will continue to face, it is a little easier when we face it not alone, but as a presbyterate with the bishop. When we govern God’s people together as a college of Disciples of Christ, rather than separate “Jesuses,” we make Christ even more present in our lives and service as priests.

So I now come full circle to Norman and Peter. I thank God for all that they have taught me personally. I am more aware of the importance of human affection in our lives as priests, and more grateful for our human nature, weak as it is, as an instrumental part of our compassion for others.

I also come full circle to each of you, my brother priests. You are the silent heroes, the faithful disciples, the college of apostles, the presbyterate who with your bishop governs the Church entrusted to our care.

I thank each one of you for all that you have taught me and others. I pray that our lives and service together may always reflect the face of Christ in our world, and give hope and love to a world in search of God. Thank you.