Saturday I’m going to the ordination of Catholic priests for the Arlington, VA, Diocese. I happen to know that Harrisburg and Allentown up in Pennsylvania are also doing ordinations that day. Philadelphia is done. Lincoln, Nebraska is done. Washington, DC ordinations will take place on June 21. That seems very late to me. I would have to assume that their academic year ends late. The period between the end of seminary for the candidates, and the actual ordination here, has been just a bit nutty.

Every year in a diocese the moment of ordinations is huge but many people don’t pay attention. For years I knew it was happening, but largely because it connected with the clergy reassignments that occur usually in late June. That is, we find out about them in late May but they happen at the end of June. And the way the assignments are made has a lot to do with where new priests are going to be placed. Those new priests will be around for forty years, ministering here and there, but their first assignment is a vital part of a long and fruitful ministry. They visit elsewhere, especially friends they made in the seminary, but they will work in this one area, most of them, for the rest of their lives. They marry the church, but they marry the church Here, not elsewhere.

It takes time for priests to fall in love with the whole diocese. I heard a priest once talking about a very traumatic transfer. He and his parish had been through a very unusual and difficult experience together. He said moving away from that particular parish, was like getting a divorce and watching some other guy come in to take care of his bride. He said it took a while to recognize how to love his new parish and his old one together, as parts of the same whole diocese. It was a very illuminating comment.

On the last Thursday of the month, a drone watching over the diocese would see people packing and moving in all directions. First in the morning someone moves out, then in the afternoon, someone else moves in. It has to happen on one day because the ones moving in need the space of those that are moving out! Obviously. It’s like a gigantic puzzle that may, over time, slowly expand. That’s good. Or slowly contract. Not so good. Arlington is expanding at this moment.

We are very blessed!

Livestream for the ordinations is right here! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvVVW22dci_D4ZIb5RiKtdw This is the Arlington Diocese website and communications channel. Processing into the cathedral will start around 10:40 a.m., no matter what anyone says. The bishop wants to kiss the altar at 11:00. Two hundred people will enter in procession before he does. Do the math.

Sunday, June 8th, at 10:30 should be a livestream for the first Mass of a new priest. Here. https://ourladyofhope.net/ This goes to the main webpage for Our Lady of Hope in Potomac Falls, Virginia.

Pictures from the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC