A Great Parish --- St Peter Claver, St Paul, MN

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As I have been wont to do since I have lived in the Twin Cities and began my reversion process to the Church (still a work in progress) 25 years ago, I have visited a number of parishes, mostly selected for their Mass schedules to go in accord with my erratic personal schedule. Sunday obligations can be fulfilled around here pretty much at will between 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and 9:00 p.m. on Sunday. Actually several years ago I settled down and have pretty much restricted myself to the Basilica of St Mary in Minneapolis (where I am registered and have monthly checking account deductions) and the Nativity of Our Lord in St Paul, located a bit closer and a place where I can locate a hard to contact friend.

But two events have got me on “church shopping” expeditions again. The first is the regular criticism mostly from people who don’t live here of a particular parish in south Minneapolis for its liturgies and some of its ministries. There are many people around the country who surely have the impression that all of the 220 or so parishes in the Archdiocese are somewhat the same. Several of us who blog regularly attempt to make it clear that there are a lot of really wonderful parishes here and a lot of great things happening.

The second event that happened to drive my “wanderlust” was the flyer I found a month or two ago from the “Parishes of Northeast Minneapolis”, listing Mass times and other liturgical events and instructions on how to find them.

One parish that I was intrigued by was St Anthony of Padua that had a Holy Hour at 7:30 on Saturday mornings and a Marian Mass at 8:30. As Saturday mornings are usually wasted by me, I stopped by and fell in love. You can see why, HERE.

In further musings, I realized that it might make some sense in being proactive in the defense of our priests and parishes and give a little publicity to other, not so well known parishes in the Archdiocese for those who live here, and for those who are quick to criticize. Everybody here kind of knows about our large and famous parishes like the Cathedral, the Basilica and St Agnes in St Paul, so I decided to start out my travels by choosing smaller, less well known parishes that have been recommended to me.

This morning I attended Mass at St Peter Claver in St Paul, an African American parish with a mixed congregation, whose pastor is Father Kevin McDonough, the Vicar General (manager) of the Archdiocese. A bureaucrat, if you will. Father McDonough mentioned in passing this morning that he has been at the chancery for 19 years, probably most of his priestly career. Can a bureaucrat be a good pastor?

St Peter Claver's is a small parish near Lexington and University with Masses at 4:00 on Saturday, 8 and10 on Sundays and 5:15 p.m. during the week. If you have explored the internet as much as I have, you’ll see many suburban parishes promote themselves as “a Catholic Community.” I get the feeling that the community in those parishes is often a reference to the peace and social justice missions of those parishes and not particularly on their relationships with fellow parishioners or others in the Roman Catholic Church.

At St Peter Claver's, where maybe a couple hundred were there this morning, most people seemed to be in groups of families and friends and a goodly number had brought friends with them. It looked to me like a real community. Father came out before the Mass and chatted with quite a few of the people, inquiring about their health and other matters. Later those visitors were introduced to the entire congregation.

The small choir of about a dozen or so was just perfect for the small church and great acoustics amplified their voices nicely. I’m not much of a singer but once they had gone through a verse or two, I could get the hang of their hymns, most of which I had not heard before. After the readings, the small children were dismissed for catechism instruction in the basement by the parish’s deacon to the tune of a song that I thought I would never hear in a Catholic church: “Jesus loves me, that I know, for the Bible tells me so. . . .” I found it very moving to have that hymn at that moment.

I thought the homily was going to be a bit off when Father got up and did some introductions. But today happened to be the celebration of the 20^th Anniversary of the founding of the “Archdiocesan Commission of Black Catholics” and many of the current and former Commissioners were present and given places of honor in the front pews.

Then Father introduced another special guest of honor, Mrs. Mary Hamilton, who had celebrated her 103^rd birthday yesterday. As Father said, “she and Jesus were in Junior High together so you’d better pay attention to her.” Actually, Mrs. Hamilton’s godfather in 1903 was born in the Parish of St Paul back in the 1850s. Wow! Up until a few years ago, Mrs. Hamilton was extremely active in the parish and still attends Mass almost weekly and sometimes during the week. She mentioned that she prays a Rosary every night at 10:00 p.m. for the people of the parish. (That might be a good idea for all of us for OUR parishes). Believe it or not, Mrs. Hamilton is not the oldest member of the parish, Mrs. Eloma Brown having celebrated her 103^rd birthday a couple of months ago. But Mrs. Brown can no longer leave her home.

There must be something in the hot dishes of the church suppers at St Peter Claver's that contributes to longevity. They just might have to build an addition if that word gets out.

Then we got to the heart of the homily. St Peter Claver's has a “Commentator” who talked a little bit about the Mass readings at the start of the service. I have seen that at the Basilica and I like it. I’m not always as prepared as I should be when I get to Mass and I appreciate being told what the theme of the readings will be. It helps me understand and appreciate them more.

Then Father gave a Homily like I had never heard before. Starting out by informing us that we are about to get four Sundays in a row of St John’s “I am the Bread of Life” discourse that said “If anyone eats this bread he shall live forever.” This led many of Jesus’ disciples to leave him because they couldn’t understand how that could be. Father warned us that we would also have trouble understanding it and spent some time explaining what Jesus was up to and what he really meant.

Most of what he talked about as to whether non-Christians could be saved and explained how it is that they could be without even hearing of Jesus. How God, who IS Love sent His Son down to save all, not just Catholics. And it’s up to Catholics to let people know that. Jesus didn’t make it easy, and Father didn’t make it that easy. And he even used the word “inchoate”, “imperfectly developed” a word I don’t think that I ever heard in six years of college.

And we have Bishops who are afraid to let people use the word “consubstantial” because we won’t be able to understand it. Those Bishops should be talking to Father McDonough about what parishioners can and cannot understand.

How come I have never heard sermons like that before? The Church has been so remiss in its teaching role these past forty years.

Father celebrates a good Mass. There probably would be a liturgist or two that might find fault, but not with his saying of the words and the rubrics. But the job of a liturgist is to find fault with everything that they haven’t prescribed.

I asked earlier if it is possible for a bureaucrat to be a good pastor. It sure looks like Father McDonough can! It’s obvious that he loves his people, and they love him. Thank you Father.

Father mentioned in his concluding remarks that he had lied to the folks last week. He had promised them 120 enrollments for the parish school this week. They actually did 150 enrollments. It looks like the parishioners are doing pretty well too.

Father McDonough ought to consider taping his homilies. If they are all like the one I heard this morning (and a friend said they were), it might be a source of income for the school.