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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Letters – February 18, 2016

Seeking our St. Martin

Two things struck me from the Feb. 4 issue. The first, in regards to “Cardinal confirms some priests decline appointment as bishop,” I can’t help but think of Martin of Tours, who had to be tricked into town, and taken bodily by force by his parishioners into the cathedral to be made bishop. I think this is the kind of man we need for our next Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The man running away from the job is the man for us! We need a saint! Not a public relations guru or a suave diplomat. It is holiness that we crave in our leaders, and which will prove the best guidance through troubled waters.

As for Archbishop Nienstedt (“After backlash, Archbishop Nienstedt leaves parish”), it is my hope that he will be welcomed to exercise his priestly ministry SOMEWHERE. At my grandma’s nursing home in White Bear Lake, they are constantly experiencing a shortage of priests able to come and celebrate Sunday Mass for the residents. I can understand that many are upset with the managerial experiences of the archbishop, but by heaven! How we need his priesthood! It seems to me he is undergoing undue privation in these reactions against his very presence in parishes that need a priest to celebrate the sacraments. To the archbishop, I would like to extend the perpetual invitation to come and say Mass in our small home chapel. It’s a small gesture, but the only start I am able to make as a mother and farm wife.

Chiara Dowell
St. Mary and St. Michael, Stillwater


 

Share your perspective by emailing CatholicSpirit@archspm.org. The Commentary page does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Catholic Spirit. Letters may be edited for length or clarity.

 


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