Letter to the Editor from Atlanta, GA

Published: July 7, 2005

To the Editor:

On May 28 I attended the ordination to the priesthood of Father Neil Herlihy.

Any Catholic who has never been witness to the sacrament of ordination would do well to acquire such a shot of faith-enhancing adrenalin.

From the moment the processional began, it occurred to me that everyone present in the congregation was there to pay homage to the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Hundreds of good Catholics craned their necks as the priests of the Archdiocese of Atlanta processed down the stone aisle of the Cathedral of Christ the King, each of us diligently trying to catch a glimpse of a familiar face of a present or former pastor or parochial vicar.

And it was during these moments of jubilation that I became aware that, to we of the Catholic faith, these priests are our heroes. Not heroes in the usual sense of say, Lord Horatio Nelson or Sgt. Alvin York, but heroes of our Mother Church—each of them certainly human, yet somewhat uniquely divine.

As the beauty and solemnity of ordination came to a close and I joined in the unceasing thunder of applause for the newly ordained, the words of Thomas á Kempis rang in my ears: “Great is this mystery and great the dignity of priests, to whom it is given, which is not granted to angels.”

For, you see, true heroes will always be among us as long as they are patterned in the likeness of Jesus Christ. And we are all the more fortunate for having known them.

Jim Duryea, Atlanta