For His Friends

Paul Koppie, State Treasurer; Dick Haight Charities Coordinator and Terry Cunniff, Membership Coordinator present a check to Bishop Lynch from the Knights of Columbus in support of Pinellas Hope.

My work week began with a pleasant surprise. Three representatives of the Knights of Columbus came to my office this morning to present me with a check for approximately $11,450 which was to be used to feed the homeless at Pinellas Hope. It seems that nationwide the Knights of Columbus challenged their member Councils to prove how much each year they give to the poor and needy. Any local Council which could sufficiently document a certain amount of money contributed credits toward their State Council. The Knights of Columbus nationally had made available $1,000,000 which would be awarded to state councils based on their eligibility and combined credits. The money would then be divided among the dioceses of the state based on population and the bishop given a check to use for feeding the poor. The portion allotted to the Diocese of St. Petersburg was the $11,450 presented to me today. And the good news is that national is again challenging their local council affiliates to do the same for at least another year and next year there will be another distribution.

What amazed me about this particular offer was that the national Knights of Columbus was not asking the local councils to adopt a project but merely to reflect and verify what they were currently doing. I think the incentive for gaining credits will encourage my brother Knights to expand their outreach but for the moment, this literally “out-of-the-sky” gift is gratefully received.

The K of C do many good things for our Church and in our community and remains probably the largest, strongest and most faithful Catholic men’s organizati0n in the nation and perhaps even the world. I salute them not just for this latest gesture of good will but for their commitment to the protection of life, their support for our seminarians and future priests, and their love of their Church. I hope young men will continue to consider joining this fraternal organization which does a world of good. Thanks, Knights.

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Bishop Lynch with the Seminarians at the Bethany Center

Our seminarians are about to return to their respective seminaries for the coming academic year and I had the pleasure on Tuesday night to celebrate the Eucharist with them and have dinner as well, all at the Bethany Center. We again have thirty-two seminarians this year matching last year’s number. They attend three seminaries. All of our college seminarians attend St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami and most of our theology students attend the Regional Seminary of St. Vincent de Paul in Boynton Beach. We have one seminarian at Blessed John XXIII National Seminary in Weston. 2011 will be the last time for a number of years in the future when we have no one to be ordained to the priesthood. Two men will be ordained deacons in 2011 and then priests, God-willing in 2012. After 2012 there will be a regular number of ordinations each year and in six years there may be a class with as many as nine to be ordained but that is too far off to begin ordering the invitations. I am impressed, however, by the quality, dedication and generosity of our men who feel called to priestly ministry.

Getting into the seminary at this moment in Church history is not that easy. A rather long application process includes three interviews with members of the Vocations Admissions Board, one with myself and a number with the Director of Vocations, a physical examination by a doctor and a whole battery of psychological tests by a psychologist. Of course, letters of recommendation are required as is promotion by one’s pastor of one’s parish church. A man beginning the path to priesthood entering as a freshman in college can expect a total of nine years of seminary formation. A man beginning his journey after completing college and earning a bachelors or masters degree can expect seven years. At a time when we desperately need priests, the universal Church has lengthened the time required prior to ordination. Each year of formation, the candidate receives an annual evaluation by the seminary formation faculty in which he is analyzed inside and out. Most of our men do very well academically so that is seldom an issue in advancing toward the altar.

I saw a parish bulletin from last Sunday and noted with great interest a reflection by the parish pastor on a seminarian who would be leaving soon to return to the seminary. I was deeply touched by this pastor’s words and reflection and I want to share it with you. “Our seminarian, Joe ______ leaves us on August 10. I have grown very fond of him and will miss him. The fact that he is leaving means that he is returning to the seminary for his final year of studies and priestly formation. We hope and pray for his ordination to the deaconate [sic] in June 2011 and to priesthood in December of 2011. The decision regarding these days is not final. Joe will make a fine priest, one that I can be proud of. He is a hard worker, energetic, and well motivated to serve the people of God. He has a rich prayer life and a solid spirituality. He instantly connects with anyone he meets. He is positive and he is likable. I look forward eagerly to his becoming my brother priest. Hopefully he has touched some lives in our young people to inspire them to look within for a possible vocation to the priesthood or religious life. The halls upstairs will be empty for me and Dusty. God bless you Joe, and thank you for listening to God’s call and responding.” My thanks to Father Dennis Stillwell, pastor of St. Francis Xavier parish in Petoskey, Michigan, for these wonderful thoughts and he did not even know he had a visiting bishop nosing around his parish.

I think most of our diocesan seminarians meet Father Stillwell’s standards and I know I would be proud to serve with almost all of them, if not all of them, were I to share a parish ministry. Each ordination finds me seriously asking myself this question: would you like to have this young man as an associate pastor and colleague and I have always been able to offer myself a resounding yes. So off they go to the seminary again. For those beginning first college, nine years seems like such a long time and it is, except it passes ever so quickly if they feel they are in the right place doing the right thing. In fairness, I would also like to add that there are about four other men from the diocese studying for religious orders, including one for the Society of Jesus (aka Jesuits) who will be ordained soon. God and the Holy Spirit is at work in our diocese planting seeds. Thank you, men, for giving God and priesthood a chance. I think they know how proud of and grateful for them I am.

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Update: Photograph with seminarians added.

Yesterday on my “day-off” I visited a property owned by the Diocese of St. Petersburg on the Rainbow River just outside of Donnellan. It is an interesting piece of property with an interesting story. Many priests know nothing of it because of its specialized use and while there has never been any attempt at secrecy, it is largely a secret for reasons I shall soon explain. The property has been called “Tomahawk Lodge” since its inception and here is the story.

In the early sixties, I believe, when all we today know as the Diocese of St. Petersburg was still in the original Florida diocese of St. Augustine, Monsignor George Cummins who was director of Good Counsel Camp in Floral City managed to convince the late Archbishop Hurley to buy almost two acres of land along the Rainbow River in Marion County for a lodge for the campers who would, he envisioned, canoe the twenty-two miles from the camp to the Lodge during their stay at Good Counsel. Archbishop Hurley bought the land which had a four room, two-story, two bath house on it. Th downstairs was all one massive room with a small kitchen and a small bath. The second story was one large bedroom and three smaller bedrooms with one bath. The house was largely constructed of Florida pine and its interior walls and floors were of the same unfinished pine. Campers in the sixties returned to Good Counsel just so they could take the two overnight canoe trips to Good Counsel, paddling from its lake to the Withlacoochie River and then to the Rainbow River and upstream to the camp. The journey took two days with an overnight along the Withlacoochie and then another overnight at Tomahawk.

View of Tomahawk Lodge from the Rainbow River

In 1968 the dioceses of Orlando and St. Petersburg were created by Pope Paul VI and lo and behold Citrus County remained in the new diocese of St. Petersburg so Good Counsel Camp continued to be project of the new diocese but Tomahawk Lodge was in Marion County, just four miles inside the boundaries of the Diocese of Orlando so the property transferred to Orlando. No more overnight canoe trips to the camp’s offsite Lodge. It did not take Bishop Borders, the new and first bishop of Orlando, long to realize he had no use for this property along the Rainbow and Monsignor Cummings, still directing the camp wanted it back. But Orlando, who might have said, “take it off our hands” instead said “buy it” which we did. This property holds several distinctions: it is the only property owned by the diocese outside of our territorial boundaries, albeit only barely outside and we had to purchase it not once but twice.

It remains an outpost for campers during the six week camping season and does not get a lot of other use. The property is stunningly beautiful. The Rainbow River is spring fed and the temperature of the water remains at 76 degrees, winter and summer. It is so clear one can watch the fish swimming by and the banks are marked by large hanging cypress trees in many places providing a canopy from the sun’s rays.  So now you know one of the “hidden secrets” of the diocese which is not really a secret at all. The place is a gem. Outside of the camping season it is available for rental and some parishes in the diocese use it for picnics, outings and other brief retreats. Monsignor Cummings had wonderful foresight in many ways. This property was recently appraised in the present real estate market as being worth about $650,000, even with the generally unrepaired solitary lodge building. Father Jim Johnson who currently directs the camp this year invested in a new metal roof and new windows which are a great improvement. I trust you have enjoyed reading about this “gem” and hope sometime you can do as I did yesterday and enjoy the magnificence and beauty of northern Florida and its rivers and lakes.

One amazing view of the Rainbow River from the lawn of Tomahawk Lodge

Pope John Paul II celebrated a large Mass in Canada using the bottom of a canoe for the altar. I thought I might do the same.

Holy Name Monastery in St. Leo -- the home of the Benedictine Sisters of Florida

This morning the Benedictine Sisters of Holy Name Monastery in St. Leo invited me to come and celebrate Mass and the blessing of their new prioress. Sister Roberta Bailey who has been a number of years the Principal of St. Anthony School in San Antonio was elected by the members of her community to serve as Prioress for a term of, I believe, four years renewable for four more if she and they choose. Sister Roberta replaces Sister Mary Clare Neuhofer who was been the Prioress for eight years. The installation of the new prioress occurred this morning in a private ceremony at Morning Prayer and attended only by the community of sisters themselves. The Mass and Blessing which I attended saw about seventy-five additional people other than the sisters attending. It was simple, lovely and at times touching but then that is the Benedictine way. They devote their lives to prayer and work and sometimes their work is precisely praying for others. They are a monastic community but not of absolutely strict observance.

It is not the easiest time to be a religious woman in the Catholic Church in the United States. There is a Vatican initiated and controlled visitation of religious communities in this country which has been announced and is already underway and their national organization which is called the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is also under scrutiny by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. I find the former to be interesting since the constitutions under which every religious community in this country lives have all been given the “good housekeeping seal of approval” by the same Congregation in Rome which now is investigating the sisters. Some time late summer and this fall, visitation teams will spread out across the US and visit the number of religious congregations and orders and then send a secret report back to Rome. If there is anything which the sisters dislike, it is precisely the secrecy of it all since they tend more than bishops or even men’s religious communities to do all their business in the proverbial “sunshine” or out in the open. We have only two possible communities which could be visited in this diocese, the Benedictines and the Sisters of St. Clare and neither of them will receive visitators.

As a man who happens to be both a priest and bishop, I can say categorically that I love the sisters of this diocese. Their total number is down considerably since my arrival (no cause and effect relationship but an indication of the aging and dying of nuns in this country) but they still contribute greatly to the life of this local Church. Many parishes who have one or two sisters working either in the school or doing parish ministry treasure their presence as do I. They are golden and a platinum resource in our midst. The same is true for the Benedictine Sisters of Holy Name who have been teachers since their foundation in many of the schools and presence in other parishes in mostly the northern three counties of this local Church. Today we prayed that God would bless these sisters with new vocations so that their presence and ministry in our midst might continue. And lest anyone forget, may I remind you that the largest national collection taken up in this diocese in terms of money donated is the one in December for the Retired Religious. Catholics also love the nuns and despite the occasional jokes about rulers across hands, our memories of the sisters of our youth are a part of the great mosaic of our faith.

Sr. Roberta Bailey, OSB and Bishop Lynch pose for a photo in front of a painting of St. Scholastica

Thank you, Sister Mary Clare. Congratulations and blessings to you, Sister Roberta. And love, prayers and best wishes to all the other sisters of our five counties.

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Now that I have your attention!

In the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, the forehead and hands are anointed with the Oil of the Infirm

This morning I made my second visit to Bon Secour-Maria Manor Nursing home to celebrate the Eucharist and with the help of five other priests (God bless them) administer the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick to those Catholics who wished to receive it. I am invited twice a year and enjoy going there to do something mildly pastoral as opposed to totally administrative. Since coming here, Maria Manor has always asked and seems to look forward to my visits. The staff go to great lengths to bring as many of the Catholic residents as possible down to the chapel and they come in all manner of wheel chairs, etc. Many of them are fast asleep prior to the beginning of Mass and it is one group you don’t mind sleeping through your homily. They seem at genuine peace. But one can not preach too long or one will be interrupted with an especially loud yawn and then you know you have pushed the envelope beyond its natural resting point. After all, no matter the age, the brain can not absorb what the tush can not tolerate.

Bon Secour-Maria Manor was the source of very negative publicity about six months ago in the local papers when the state accrediting and reviewing agency put them on strict probation for regulation avoidance. Prior to that, the facility had always received a five-star rating, one of the best in the area. Administrators reacted responsibility and were not accusatory. Instead they began to address the areas of concern and probably added some additional ones of their own that were not a part of the state-finding. I sensed a vast improvement this morning and they have already received reaccreditation from the professional agency which accredits nursing homes and are awaiting the unannounced visit of the state inspectors any day now. I would go to the bank that they will get at least four and maybe five of their stars back. It is financially challenging to operate a nursing home in the present environment with the state constantly cutting back on reimbursements for Medicaid patients. At one time, sixty percent of the population at Maria Manor was on Medicaid. The census for the facility has dropped in recent times, perhaps because of the publicity attendant upon the state’s probationary action, but also because here in Pinellas County we are losing elderly population in a significant manner. Father John Tapp, the pastor of Holy Family in which I live and Maria Manor is to be found says that his parish has lost about 1000 family units in the last decade. I truly hope that the Bon Secour Health Care System will hang in there in challenging times and continue to provide the continuum of service from Assisted and Alzhiemers care to full nursing care. As the pictures which accompany this blog indicate, they do lovingly take care of their resident and patient clientele.

Father Al Arvey, a resident of Maria Manor, who in a few days celebrates his 80th birthday receives the sacrament of the sick.

So, I did indeed enter a nursing home on this Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul but I also walked out an hour later having celebrated two sacraments of the Church with a grateful, loving group of believers. Hats off to the staff of Maria Manor.

A thoughtful reader of the previous entry reminded me quite appropriately that another distinction between diocesan and religious priests is that the former do not take vows but rather promise obedience at ordination to their bishop and his successor but the latter take vows of obedience and poverty and chastity. Since diocesans promise celibacy as well, the vow of poverty becomes a distinguishing characteristic. There is a distinction without a difference, however, between a promise and a vow. I thank the reader for reminding me of this distinction.

Last week a bishop friend of mine and I had the opportunity to visit the Trappist Monastery of St. Benedict which is located in the community of Snowmass, Colorado, about twenty miles outside of Aspen. I had always heard that the monastery was built in one of the most beautiful spots in the United States and that certainly is the case. The Trappists basically own a valley.

St. Benedict's Monastery, Snowmass, Colorado

There are about twenty monks in the present community who rise early in the morning to pray and retire to bed early in the evening so that they can rise again early in the morning. I sometimes am asked, what is a monastery and what is a cloistered community and what is a contemplative community, so in this blog I will try to tackle all three questions. A monastery is home to a group of men, usually lay brothers and a few priests, who pray the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours at the appropriate times throughout the day and celebrate liturgy daily. When not praying, the monks are usually working with some time built into their lives for rest or reading.

The Snowmass Trappists work a large agricultural field and make and sell jelly to support themselves. If the monks seldom leave the confines of the monastery building itself or the grounds, then they are “cloistered.” There was a time when one or two monks would be chosen by the community and only they could speak to outsiders, the monks could never or very rarely leave the cloister, even to visit their natural families, and they remained silent throughout the day. These extremes of the life have now given way to a little more contact with outsiders and/or visitors and there are fewer and fewer monasteries where absolute silence except for prayer remains the rule. However, even today some monasteries still maintain a relatively strict cloister into which only the members are allowed inside. That seemed the case at Snowmass as there were signs everywhere asking that one not enter the cloister or private confines of the monks.

A "hermitage" at the Trappist Monastery at Snowmass

The Trappists are one expression of monastic life and their monasteries and Abbeys throughout the country often contain retreat quarters for individuals wishing to make a silent retreat. Snowmass also has hermitages (very small one-room houses away from everyone else) if you really want to be alone. The monks provide spiritual direction to the retreatants who are invited to attend the recitation of the Office and Eucharist but the visitors sleep, eat and pray in a different place throughout the day if they choose to do so. It was at the famous Trappist monastery at Gethsemani in Kentucky that Father Thomas Merton lived, prayed and wrote. If you would like to experience what a retreat is like in a Trappist monastic setting, the abbeys at Conyers, Georgia and Mepkin, South Carolina welcome retreatants for private, directed retreats. Food is basic. No one starves.

The Benedictine Monastery of St. Leo Abbey just outside of San Antonio in Pasco county welcomes retreat groups.

So that answers the question of what is a cloister and a monastic community. There is one more iteration which deserves mention here and that is what is a “contemplative” order. Traditionally a “contemplative” order is one whose primary charism is prayer, non-stop prayer allowing the member time to contemplate, for example, on the life and death of the Lord. They often have as their apostolic work praying for others, an obligation they take seriously. Time is spent in the presence of the exposed Blessed Sacrament. These strict communities are dying in the United States but almost every monastic community provides as a part of their daily life periods of prayer and contemplation. So remnants remain today of the contemplative life.

There are priests and brothers who live in monasteries and whose life is spent in work and prayer. Those were the two foundational elements of St. Benedict, ora et labora, in Latin meaning “prayer and work.” I hope this has been somewhat interesting to the reader and if I have not exhausted a possible treatise on religious life, I can assure you I have exhausted my personal knowledge of the topic.

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