Letter to the Editor from Monroe

Published: December 8, 2005

To the Editor:

I am writing to express my gratitude for a most humble and holy priest of our parish, Father Dan Toof of St. Anna’s in Monroe. In addition, I’d also like to express gratitude for all the priests of our archdiocese and for Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory.

I had the privilege recently to hear a homily from a missionary priest at another diocese about the “suppression” of Catholic churches, especially up North, due to the lack of priests. These poor parishioners are being told that they will no longer have priests to serve them in their churches. They will now have to travel many miles in order to receive Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament at another church.

So often we take our priests for granted. We should realize that those precious hands of our priests consecrate the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord at Mass every Sunday. How people, in the past, would long to simply be touched by a priest because of his consecrated hands. Let us not forget that there were times during World War II, in parts of Europe, when people did not have priests to offer them the sacraments. They would go into their churches to sit and cry before the altars.

Let us not take them nor the sacraments for granted. Our priests are truly, truly gifts from God.

Becki Bennett, Monroe