The Era of the Priests

Some of my earliest memories in central Detroit, Michigan, particularly from 1959 - 1965 (ages 5 to 11 for me), was my mother dragging me with her from Catholic church to Catholic church for long sessions of prayer and confession, and meeting the priests in the rectories. One of Mother's favorite churches, though not our local parish, was Saint Cecilia. The pews of Cecilia were long, wooden and hard, like in most Catholic churches, and I spent many an hour rolling around in them wishing Mom would hurry up and finish her prayers. She was born a Baptist, but once she converted to Catholicism as a teenager, she went into to it full-fledged. This was the Era of the Priests for me, because Mom did not simply attend Sunday mass, but devoted herself amply into church activities, with me usually along, and of course she made me become an altar boy at our local parish (St. Theresa). Mom spent hours discussing theology with the priests in the rectories as I usually sat waiting in the lobby combing through the various religious texts and scriptures. We attended ordinations of priests, sung Christmas carols and went to midnight Christmas mass, among all the Sunday services, attended the stations of the cross and the following Easter services, and became fully engaged in the Catholic traditions. I even remember reading condensed transcripts of Pope John XXIII's famous encyclical in the Archdiocese of Detroit's newspaper. I attended mass every day except Saturday, as Monday through Friday attendance was required by the local parish school that I attended.

[revised on 9/23/12]

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