MAY 7, 2006

This is one of my favorite Sundays and , indeed, weeks of the year. It is the week of my anniversary of ordination, and the day of First Holy Communion. As I see our younger brothers and sisters receiving Our Lord for the first time, and especially as they gather for the group pictures, I am always reminded of the links and echoes of our ordination class and the picture that appeared in the Pittsburgh Catholic at our ordination.

On Monday of last week, there occurred an annual event: the reunion of my ordination class. Since we were ordained in 1973, each year on or around May 5 (the ordination date of the bulk of us), we hold a reunion. This year, those who were able gathered at the Church at St. Mary of St. John of God Parish to celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving. Thirteen of us were there. We then went to Primadonna to have a celebration dinner. To understand why this is so special each year, one needs to know the history of this class.

In 1961, about 150 boys who graduated from grade school embarked upon preparation for the priesthood in the Diocese of Pittsburgh by entering the seminary. About 1/3 of us were the founding class of the Bishop's Latin School, a new concept in seminaries at that time that allowed us to live at home and day hop to our studies. The rest were sent off to a number of boarding school seminaries stretching from Michigan through Indiana to New York and several places in Pennsylvania. By the time four years had past, with the addition of a few new students, the total of seminarians was reduced to 75, the others pursuing God's will for their vocation in other directions. Again, about 1/3 of us remained in Pittsburgh to found St. Paul Seminary in Crafton, where we lived while attending class at Duquesne University. The rest were scattered. Some at the same places as high school, others to Maryland and Ohio.

When the four years of college wre completed, only 45 chose to continue in Schools of Theology (Major Seminary). Our class was assigned by then Bishop Wright to 12 different institutions, now with classmates in Belgium, Rome, Florida and some of the same places previously used. By the time our pre-ordination retreat rolled around in May of 1973, 28 of us were scheduled for ordination that year. It was on that retreat that I met for the first time many of those who had been my classmates for up to 12 years. Because we had been to so many different schools, the first thing that brought us together was the fact of the ordination itself, and so we met.

In the 33 years since that day, we "strangers" have met every year to celebrate the only thing we have in common: our preisthood. Out of the original 28: 2 have died; 7 have left the active ministry; 1 has joined a diocese in Florida. One of our classmates is at sea in the Navy Chaplaincy, another has been on the staff of a Michigan seminary for 30 years, and one has become a bishop of the Providence of Rhode Island Diocese. The rest of us are the main pastors of parishes in the Pittsburgh Diocese. Most of us bear little resemblance to the picture that appeared in the Pittsburgh Catholic in 1973 on our ordination day. But we gather, and pray, and relate, and support, and celebrate.

When I see out First Communicants, I wonder what God and the years ahead have in store for them. Maybe successors to my ordination class are among them.

To our First Communicants: May you always be as close to Jesus and each other as you are today.

To my classmates: Thank you for what we share, and in the traditional salute: Ad Multos annos; oremus pro invicem!