WHO WOULD HAVE EVER THOUGHT?

  MASSES WITH NO PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD 

Never in my lifetime could I ever have imagined it!

Maybe its absence will help us treasure it more when it returns!

 

A televised Mass, in an empty Cathedral, with Cardinal Collins of Toronto, Canada, presiding.

I spent four weeks with Cardinal Collins and most of his nearly 900 priests a couple of years ago. I led four of his annual priest convocations over two years. He even talked me into sharing what I gave his priests with his seminarians in a retreat at his St. Augustine Seminary in Toronto.  

Cardinal Collins, personally, gave me a tour of his Cathedral (first photo above) as it was being renovated.  Cardinal Collins is a very engaging, and well known,  preacher. When I met him, he was on the Vatican Finance Committee. 

Cardinal Thomas Christopher Collins

One of my favorite stories of his, one he told me over lunch one day when we were sharing stories about being marginalized as children, was the one when he said, citing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, "Oh yes, I remember not being invited to share in the reindeer games!" 

He is very charming, well-read, personable and down-to-earth. When he asked me to come back for the second year, I jokingly told him I would come back if he would come to Saint Meinrad Seminary. I expected him to be unable to accept such an invitation.  However, I was shocked when he accepted my invitation to present a prayer day for the opening of the school year.  He was a hit with the seminarians.  

I also had the privilege of talking to him alone in my car for about three hours as I drove him to and from the Louisville airport to and from Saint Meinrad Archabbey.  He is very easy to talk to! I'll never forget all my experiences with him. If we had had the time that day, I would have turned south in Corydon and taken him to see Rhodelia, my hometown! I don't think a Cardinal has ever been to Rhodelia! Heck, I don't even know if a Canadian has ever been to Rhodelia for that matter!