“Last month my local parish celebrated the retirement of Father Raymond Rafferty, who served as pastor of Manhattan’s Corpus Christi Church for fifteen years and has been a priest in the Archdiocese of New York since 1966. . . .
“Father Rafferty is no stranger to the world around him. These sensibilities served him well as a pastor in Morningside Heights, a vibrant neighborhood best known as a hub for all sorts of intellectual activity, largely due to the neighborhood’s most prominent tenant, Columbia University. He also took pride in the fact that Corpus Christi was the parish through which Thomas Merton was received into the Church while a student at Columbia in 1938. The spirit of Merton still looms large in the parish through the Thomas Merton Society and a Lenten Vespers series that also bears his name. . . .
“Like all priests — or anyone who follows his or her vocation — I’m sure Father Rafferty had his gripes about certain aspects of his priestly ministry. Yet, he never voiced these issues publicly, and one would not detect any dissatisfaction from his demeanor at Mass or other parish events. Instead, he exuded joy, a joy that was contagious and almost irresistibly attractive. Perhaps that’s why, at his retirement Mass, the church was over capacity with a standing-room-only crowd. It was a truly “catholic” occasion: The congregation was made up of the rich and the poor, the young and the old, and almost every ethnic population imaginable.”
In a recent commentary, Christopher White reflected, with a spirit of gratitude, on the many good priests who serve the Church tirelessly and faithfully.
To access his complete post, please visit:
Catholic Pulse: Priests Matter: A Vocation of Joy and Service (10 JUL 13)
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