As we continue through Partners in the Gospel, it is tempting to focus ourselves on things that are difficult about the necessary changes we're discerning and implementing. Though the devil would have us believe that our struggles and sacrifices are in vain, the Holy Spirit is on the move, providing blessings seen and unseen! I'd like to share about a particularly powerful blessing here.

On the last Friday of May, Father Wichert - a dear friend and member of my priest support group - sent us an urgent text message: his mother, suffering from cancer, had just gotten news that she had just days or maybe even only hours left. He is pastor of Parish Family 9 (Saint Brendan in Bothell & Saint Teresa of Calcutta in Woodinville) and was feeling the tension between letting his parish down if he went home and being with his mom & family in this crucial final time together.

We of course urged him to go to his mother and let his parishes & the chancery sort out the weekend Masses, but good ol' Catholic guilt was holding him back; he didn't want to leave his people high and dry. We tossed ideas back and forth late across several text messages, but ultimately the conversation ended without any solution in sight.

It wasn't until a half an hour or so later that it hit me: our parish family had a solution! In light of Father Ed's heart attack last year and his (successful!) follow-up procedure this year, we created - and have implemented at least twice - a contingency plan by which we go from our normal three priests to two. It involves cutting Masses and a LOT of driving on the part of the remaining two priests, but we had the experience and the means at hand: we could easily implement it and send our third priest to cover Father Wichert's Masses.

I am grateful - and proud - to report that Father Ed and Father Gali were immediately supportive of this idea, despite the fact that they would bear the brunt of the schedule change and associated driving. Our PAAs (Pastoral Assistants for Administration) also shared their readiness, both preparing messaging to go out on Saturday morning (all of this was taking place at 11 pm on a Friday night, recall!). The last person to be convinced was Father Wichert himself, who was quite moved by the offer....but had to be cajoled into accepting the help! Happily, he did.

Of course - and as you, dear parishioner, already know - we didn't end up doing any of that! Because the next morning, I reached out to the Office of the Vicar for Clergy (you might remember them, from OVC Days last year) and shared that while we here on the Olympic Peninsula had a guaranteed solution, might they have leads on clergy who could more easily step in Seattle-side? As it turns out, they did - three different priests from three different locations and one of our bishops (!) each took one of the four Masses at Saint Brendan, eagerly & joyfully, I might add.

Father Wichert went home to join his father (Jim) and four sisters (Christy, Theresa, Mary, and Jessica) that Saturday. His mother, Shirley, died that Friday (June 5), with all of her family at her side.

I am so, so proud of you all. Yes, this all happened in the background and outside of nearly everyone's awareness - and ultimately cost us nothing in the way of effort or sacrifice. But here's the thing: it could have. And while I, as pastor, have the leeway to make this kind of call on my own authority, I was confident in doing so because of the support I received not only from our PAAs and vicars, but from regular parishioners. On the occasions that we have implemented our contingency plan, folks could have complained, sent in letters, and otherwise made trouble. Instead, there has every time been an outpouring of understanding, care, and affirmation that yes, we are indeed in this together even (especially!) when we must make sacrifices. 

Because of that support, I felt ready at a crucial moment to make a parish family-wide decision - a decision that started a domino effect across the archdiocese so that a priest could be with his mother in her final hours. He and his family have since said so several times and I, too, echo it: thank you.

P.S. Not unrelatedly, I would like to recommend to you a recent blog post from Father Jeffrey Moore - a brother priest here in the Archdiocese of Seattle - titled 'Realistic Expectations for Partners'. His points about what Partners in the Gospel can and can't achieve with priests & parishes is sobering but also hopeful: this pastoral process is helping us find renewed flexibility and nimbleness in carrying out the mission of the Church. Something I daresay we are ourselves discovering here on the Olympic Peninsula in ways both large and small.