The year 2020 was a year that many people would like to forget, given all of the concerns, confusion, and complexity surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic that was impacting almost every aspect of our lives. In the early months of the pandemic, this parish had to experience a pretty major change, the departure of your Rector, Father Christopher House, and your Parochial Vicar, Father Michael Friedel. As public masses were just resuming, you all had to get used to several new faces, with me assuming the role as your new Rector, and welcoming two newly ordained priests, Father Dominic Vahling and Father Peter Chineke.
Over the past four years, we have come a LONG way in our society and in our parish, even as it relates to the priests who have been assigned here. Just over a month ago, we said farewell to Father Paul Lesupati, who had spent two years with us, and we welcomed our two new Parochial Vicars, Father Pius Nwiyi and Father Daniel McGrath. This week, we will bid farewell to Father Dominic Vahling, who concludes his four years here at Cathedral to head off to Ottawa, Canada to complete his studies in Canon Law.
I had mentioned that 2020 was a year that many would like to forget, but for me, it is a year that I will remember fondly, especially because it began a new chapter in my priesthood. Over and over again, I tell people that one of the greatest graces of being here at Cathedral is the household of priests with whom I get to live and minister. As Father Vahling prepares to leave, there is a certain amount of sadness, as my entire time here has been with him. He has been a great priest to live with, and how he has lived his early years of priesthood has been an inspiration to me in many ways, and I have no doubt that I am a better priest for the time I have spent with him. As his first pastor, I pray that I have been helpful to him as he begins what will undoubtedly be a life in which he will bring many people closer to Christ. I have found in Father Vahling a good friend and I will be forever grateful to God for our years together here at Cathedral.
One experience stands out as particularly memorable. In January 2021, we were forced to enter a 2-week quarantine due to close contact with somebody who had tested positive for COVID-19. We were confined to our floor in the Rectory, but we certainly made the best of it. Each morning at 7 am, we would celebrate Mass together. In the evening, we would pray Evening Prayer together, have dinner, then maybe watch something together, concluding the day by praying Night Prayer. Individually, we each made the best use of our time, but those times we spent together helped make the isolation that much more manageable and even, I daresay, enjoyable!
I will also miss having a “birthday buddy” in the house, as we share the same birthday, though I am 15 years older than he is. Being a twin, I am no stranger to sharing a birthday, so I am grateful to have another person with whom to celebrate my birthday, especially since my twin sister lives in Texas and we only see one another once a year or so.
Please join me in wishing Father Vahling well in this next year in Canada. I know that you join me in giving thanks to God for the gift of his presence among us these past four years. Let us entrust him to our Blessed Mother, the patroness of our parish, that she will continue to pray for him, and keep him close to her Son, inspiring him to do likewise for the countless souls he will touch through his ministry in the years to come.
Father Alford