Sal's Reflections

When Sal was in the fifth grade he was put into the cloak room for an entire afternoon by Sister Mary Michael his teacher. She accused him of heresy (whatever that hell that was) because in her lecture she told the class that we could offer God nothing. It was in her opinion a one way street. Sal foolishly raised his hand and asked “then why should we love God?”He could still see her red face as she grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, and send him sprawling into the isolation of the cloak room. He knew through so many encounters along the way there had always been that part of his personality that never bought into some of the absolutes. An example of this was that he never believed “that the Catholic religion was the one and only true church. He loved the church, but never saw it as the only and best best route to a loving God. This belief caused him some grief along the way.

An area that caused come cognitive dissonance in his psyche was the absolute requirement that in a mixed marriage the non-Catholic partner had to agree to sign a form stating that all children of the union would be raised catholic. Westbury had always been largely a Protestant community before the second world war so many of the marriages would be of mixed faiths. The bulk of the Protestant community had little exposure to a Catholic priest so Sal did all he could to make them comfortable in the pre-marriage discussions with him. This did not always go the way that he desired.

On one occasion the young woman in his office was obviously very nervous being in the presence of a priest. Her fiancée was a graduate of the Naval Academy, and though at sea would soon be home. Sal tried to break the ice by inquiring about him. “How long is your fiancée’s furlough? “She seemed stunned but replied “about seven inches”. She must have thought that the Catholic word for penis was furlough. Sal was dumbfounded, and carefully tried to work his way around that misstep.

The requirement to sign away the rights of future children was a real obstacle for Sal, and he believed that it violated the personal beliefs of the non-Catholic party. It was imperative that he find a path around the requirement because technically without it the marriage would not be valid in the eyes of the official church. There was a technical way around this boulder in the road called Canon 509. To make sure that the union would be recognized by the church as valid when the bride was coming down the aisle Sal mentally pronounced that the marriage was covered by Canon 509. This was a magic part of canon law that made it ok even if all the requirements were not met. It was based on the assumption that a mistake had been made, and this law rectified any issue that had not been properly fulfilled. The problem was that he was performing so many marriages that the records were filled with tons of canon 509’s. When the Bishop’s auditor came and saw this Sal was suspended until all the required paper work was produced. Jack took the weddings for a couple of weeks, and they decided the only hope Sal had to get back on board was to produce all the paperwork in a short period of time.

The first step was to go to the Temple and all the Churches in Town and gather their official forms so that they would have some documents that could meet the needs of all of the future ecclesiastical forgeries. For two solid weeks they spent hours together producing the required documentation. Jack was an excellent typist, and a willing collaborator in the episode. At the end of the “great forgery” Sal was reinstated and canon 509 was never to be used again.

There are moments of great joy that happen in parish life, but there are also moments of pain and sorrow that touch the very heart and soul.Jack and Sal had told six families in the course of a year that someone in their family under the age of thirty had died suddenly or in an accident. One such tragedy occurred on the New York State thruway when a twenty year old woman was killed instantly. She was on her way to meet her parents in Westbury, and they were to vacation for a week in Martha’s Vineyard. Another was the tragic death of two brothers returning home from their brother’s wedding. Jack had viewed the mangled bodies of those young brothers, and in an act of great compassion physically stood in front of the father, and prevented him from viewing their bodies at the morgue. He pleaded with the distraught father urging him not to see them, because he did not wish for him to have that be his last memory of them.

Since the arrival of Monsignor Murray work in the parish had tripled.This welcome change plus additional responsibilities for Sal found him overloaded.Besides all the day to day work he was on the Diocesan personnel board, and was finishing a Master’s degree in counseling. He honestly believed that there were not enough hours in the day, and for weeks he was going on three hours of sleep a night.One of the rare opportunities to catch up on sleep came through the grace of a terrible ice storm. The streets and roads were so bad that neither humans nor any other creature ventured outside.Jack and he ate an early dinner chatted for a bit, and then Sal climbed the stairs for what he hoped was actually eight hours of sleep.

His head hardly hit the pillow when he fell into a deep slumber.The sleep was so deep that initially he did not hear the calling of his name.Slowly waking he heard a knock on the bedroom door but thought it was a dream .The housekeeper opened the door and said there were two policemen downstairs who requested to see him. He hurriedly dressed and went downstairs hoping that it was not another time to tell a family that someone had died in a tragic accident. The officers were quite apologetic, but said that there had been a serious domestic dispute, and the shouting had alarmed the neighbors who called the police. When they arrived the couple was still in a shouting and pushing match, and they requested that they speak with Father La.

The ride from the rectory to the other side of town was quite harrowing and Sal was glad that he was not the one driving.After a series of skids and one actual complete spin they reached their destination. There was no need to ring the bell because the husband and wife were waiting for them in the foyer. They were both quite subdued, and dressed in pajamas and bath robes. The wife seemed sheepish, and finally asked what Sal thought of spanking. He thought to himself a good night’s sleep shot to hell for a lecture on child rearing. Somewhere between annoyance and downright anger at being deprived of sleep he mustered his best advice starting with it depends on the circumstances and the degree of spanking.Sal added that he was personally opposed to hitting children, because it teaches them that violence is acceptable. They both looked confused ,and the husband said”Father we are talking about sexual spanking.” Needless to say Sal had egg on his face, and tried quickly to regain balance in the discussion. The wife added “He wants me to spank him during sex and I don’t want to do it.”Trying to say something that remotely could be helpful ,and realizing that the two cops were howling in the living room Sal had no idea how to respond. He stumbled through some ridiculous advice ,and then made his way out to the front door.

In the car Sal teasingly said to the cops”I am sure that this tale would be told this morning at the station, but remember you are both Catholics, and if you ever come to me for confession the penances will be severe. They both laughed, and added that this had made their day.

The priests were blessed in Holy Trinity to have many persons committed to social justice. Not everyone was rich in Westbury, but by and large it was an upscale community. However, some of the local citizens were marginalized, and lived in abject poverty. One such blaring example of this was Cacciola Place.The housing was scandalous ,and literally people whose families had spent decades in the community were being fleeced by unscrupulous landlords.

. Sal brought this to the attention of his informal kitchen cabinet, and they immediately responded. One was General Counsel for a major corporation, another the managing editor of the Herald Tribune, one a chief financial VP for a multinational and a host of other professional women and men. Together they decided to change the culture of poverty on one street by providing decent and affordable housing. The Federal government had an outstanding program which was home ownership with a forty year mortgage at one per cent. The requirements were community involvement of those who were to benefit from the program, and private personal or foundation money as a down payment.

Meals at Holy Trinity rectory were almost inedible. The cook Aggie was truly a lovely person who took great pride in her work. Sal and Jack went to extraordinary lengths to avoid hurting her feelings. On more than one occasion they brought large mailing envelopes to dinner, and placed their food into the envelopes .Once the dinner was over and Aggie was out of sight they opened the back door and discarded them in the garbage cans. On Thanksgiving when Aggie brought the turkey to the table Jack whispered to Sal“It looks like it was hit by a Greyhound bus.”: One saving element was that Father Flannery was a gourmet cook who would at least once a week create a superb meal for Jack and Sal.

Sal’s first real awareness that Jack Murphy could be as zany as he occurred in November of his first year at Holy Trinity. He knew Sal loved the opera so he decided to treat him to dinner in New York for his birthday. The restaurant he chose was famous for having good food, and the waitresses and waiters were all opera singers. It was a bitter cold night ,and dressed in normal suits and ties the two clerics were at the end of a very long line to get into the restaurant.

Jack was very impatient ,and out of the blue he walked past everyone and entered the restaurant. After about five minutes he reappeared and motioned for Sal to join him. In a whisper he said “take off your overcoat and drape it on your shoulders the way Italians do in Rome. “Knowing that something was off the tracks Sal asked”ok lunatic what have you done?” He smiled and said”I merely told the owner that it was embarrassing that the famous Italian heart surgeon Dr.La Greca from Rome had to wait on line.”With those startling words he ushered Sal into the restaurant where the owner was rushing to greet him

It is truly amazing how fast time flies when you are immersed in working day in and day out in a parish The first two years were quickly coming to a close since Sal had been assigned to Holy Trinity parish. There had been so many inspiring moments in that time ,but the relationship between he and the pastor had completely gone south. Sal did everything he could to avoid confrontations with his pastor ,but the rigid rules imposed on the curates were almost always in contradiction to what were the critical needs of the parishioners.Sal was well aware that he was in all probability going to be transferred ,and despite going to another”station of the cross” parish he would be eternally grateful for the time he had spent in Westbury

It was a sad evening the night before the clerical assignments were to be announced, and Sal offered to take Gene out for dinner. In the middle off the meal Sal thanked Gene for all he had done for him, and Gene in like manner responded. The two had forged a mutual respect for each other, and shared a common vision of service to others. It was the end of their joint venture, but there were many moments of laughter through the meal. Neither man could wish ill to befall the pastor despite all that they had experienced. However, they both admitted that every night before they retired they asked the Lord if he had forgotten to call anyone to eternal life that day.

When the meal was over both priests drove back to the rectory.Sal made a theatrical gesture of goodbye to Gene ,and ascended the stairs to his attic domain. In anticipation of his coming departure Sal packed his bags that evening certain that there would be a special delivery message for him in the morning. He said the first Mass of the day and when he returned to the rectory he was met at the door by Gene.”I have been transferred Sal and am to report this afternoon to Sacred Heart parish in Newark”Sal was speechless ,and having been ready to go he again thanked Gene and wondered who would be his replacement.

Sal did not have to wait very long before he found out who was to be Gene McCoy’s replacement. Father Flannery informed him at breakfast that the pastor had shared the name of Father John Murphy one of the newly ordained.Sal searched his memory but barely could envision the new member of the team. He remembered that there was a “Jack Murphy” two years behind him in the seminary but knew little about him.

Precisely at one o’clock that afternoon the doorbell rang and Sal thought it might be the new curate so he answered the door.Standing in front of him was a tall.immaculately attired priest with a suitcase in hand. Clark Kent glasses and a winning nervous smile adorned this tall lanky visitor.Before Sal could speak the stranger said”Hi Sal it is great to see you again.:He offered his hand, and Sal taken by the fact that Jack even remembered him shook his hand and led him into the rectory.”Place your bag down and I will take you to meet the pastor” Entering the office at the end of the hallway Sal gently knocked on the door and said”Monsignor Father Murphy is here”As had happened two years prior the pastor smoking a cigar watching “Wheel of Fortune” in his overstuffed leather chair made no attempt to greet his new curate.Sal motioned for Jack to come with him .Instead of confining Gene’s replacement to the Siberia of the attic Sal led him to Gene;s old room. For the next hour they chatted and Sal did not realize that his life would be dramatically changed by the presence of “Jack Murphy.”