The accounts presented here are drawn from actual letters, emails or text messages received from validly ordained Catholic priests needing help. The priest's name and identifying information or location may have been modified to protect his privacy.
During these frigid days of winter in the northern United States, priests living in near-destitute circumstances, some even unable to afford heat just to stay alive. As Father John’s letter below so poignantly states, without our help, he will have to sleep on his kitchen floor with his oven door open just to stay warm!
“Dear Joe,
“Greetings and good day! Rather than sending a text or email, I chose to send you this via old-fashioned mail. Perhaps the surety of expression and depth is the reason for choosing this means over others.
“In the past four weeks, I’ve sold [my] emergency medical supplies . . . Thus, my emergency needs are gone. With winter . . . and all that surrounds it, I must reach out for assistance.
“I take full blame, as I shared with you during our conversation in Michigan last October, of my own foibles.
“. . . things don’t look very good with no assistance forthcoming. Admittedly, this reminds me of 1993, when I was laicized, and every bit of funding and insurance ended immediately. Back then, however, I was able to work, and even though such was difficult to find, I found work which allowed me to “put bread on the table and pay the bills”.
“I’m reminded of the days when the winter weather outside was warmer than my apartment. The temp inside was often 20 degrees, and I had to sleep with the stove on and oven door open. With no assistance at all coming forth, I fear the worse.
“I’m reluctant to send this note to MOM, and to you, Joe, for I do not want to be a burden . . . Yet, I have no other outlet to request assistance from.
“I’m looking for not “more than needed”, but enough to address this, for me, very difficult situation. I know . . . there are brothers in far worse situations than I am. I make my request with this knowledge.
“Joe, thanks for reading of my current situation, and for considering my assistance request. Thank you and [MOM] for the labors that you are engaged in. Thank you for helping those in varied levels of need. Thank you for taking up the standard for us “lepers”.
“Thank you for taking God’s call seriously that secular, civil and religious antagonists cannot stop you from following. Sincerely, Father John.”
Thanks to all of our Parthers in Mission for your kindness on behalf of our humbled and repentant priests like Father John, our modern day Prodigal Son, who have lived decades of faithful service alone, as hermits, in a life of prayer and penance for their own sins and for the salvation of our souls.
As St. Paul shared with the Christian church in Corinth, “who is weak that I am not affected by it?”
“. . .enduring labor, hardship, many sleepless nights; in hunger and thirst and frequent fastings, in cold and nakedness. Leaving other sufferings unmentioned, there is that daily tension pressing on me, my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak that I am not affected by it?”
St. Paul’s 2nd Letter to the Christians in Corinth 11:27-29
January 2020