Fr Joe Mahon, CSP: a great Paulist

One of the best moments of my day is my mailroom encounter with some of the old..er, more experienced Paulist Fathers in the house at 59th Street. In particular, Fr. Joe Mahon is one of the guys who always has a joke or a kind word for me each day. Our running joke is when he comes to me with his hand out and then yells at me when I refuse to give him some change. He's been a priest for over 50 years and has really been blessed by the men who he has lived with and served with for all these years. More importantly to me, he always seems to be a happy priest--someone who is at ease with himself and others. I really enjoy his company each day even if just for a fleeting moment.

Today was a unique day. He saw me fiddling with my blackberry and said that I should just ignore whomever was calling me. I replied that I had just received a text message from a friend who was tweeting. He asked me if I was a "twitterer" and I replied that I do, but mostly just push content from this blog on it and that I couldn't remember my most recent tweet.

Fr Joe: "What're you getting old? You can't even remember what was the last thing you put on your blog? Well...this makes me feel good because I'm getting old and forgetting things from time to time too!"

Mike: "You're not GETTING old, c'mon! (Long pause...wait for it....)

You ARE Old!

I think Fr Mahon's next line was something along the lines of "Why don't you go feed that dog of yours?"

Good guy--keep him and all of our retired priests in your prayers today.

A Continental Mission

This sounds a lot like the Paulist mission to me!

SAN ANTONIO—Archbishop Roberto González Nieves of San Juan, Puerto Rico, addressed the U.S. bishops on the implications of a “Continental Mission” to reignite Catholic identity and missionary zeal throughout the American continent, as urged by the Latin American bishops.

He addressed the full body of bishops June 17, at the General Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in San Antonio. The day before, he led a workshop on the same topic accompanied by U.S. bishops who participated in the Fifth General Conference of Bishops of Latin America in Aparecida, Brazil, May 13-31, 2007.

That meeting gathered bishops from more than 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the United States. Participants analyzed the pastoral life of their regions and identified positive and negative aspects of their social, cultural, economic, political, pastoral realities. They identified common problems and considered common solutions and guidelines for pastoral action.

Archbishop González said that the late Pope John Paul II “correctly identified the need to evangelize Catholics anew in the ‘continent of hope’” if they were to be true witnesses to their faith. Archbishop González said the Continental Mission is directed to baptized Catholics because “we are losing our sense of being light and salt.”

Archbishop Nieves will also receive the Fr. Joseph Fitzpatrick Award for Hispanic Ministry this year at Fordham University's Sapientia et Doctrina Dinner sponsored by their Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education on October 9th at Fordham's Rose Hill campus.

More information on the dinner can be found here