I live in Beaumont, California. I'm a member of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha parish in the Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino. My heroes are Daniel Berrigan, John XXIII, Eugene McCarthy, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Cesar Chavez, Catherine de Vinck and Kathleen Norris. My favorite newspaper is the National Catholic Reporter.
I'm an ordained Catholic priest with no official ministry in the church. Now retired, I was a computer programmer from 1972 until 2002. Since 2004 I've been a volunteer chaplain at San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital in nearby Banning. I favor an expanded and enriched Catholic priesthood, including married and single men and women.
My first wife Constance, a former Benedictine nun, was a high school English teacher and librarian. Our two sons were born in 1968 and 1970. Both are married. Our five grandchildren were born in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2003 and 2007. We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in December 2007. Constance died in July 2008.
One Tuesday in October 2008 I was asked to lead the Bible Study class at our parish. Elizabeth was in the class. We talked for a few minutes, surprised to learn about each other's background. Our first date was breakfast together the following Sunday after the 8:00 a.m. Mass. Elizabeth and I were married on June 24, 2009 at Blessed Kateri Catholic Church in Beaumont, California. Father John Domas officiated.
I don't like the way most priests preach. They don't apply the Gospel to
practical questions outside the home or neighborhood. Albert Camus, a French
dramatist and journalist, complained in 1948 that he survived World War II
without ever knowing the pope had condemned Nazism. Most American Catholics
got through the 1960s without listening to anything from the official statements of their bishops about segregation or the Vietnam war. Priests today hardly ever mention topics like the death penalty, immigration policy, hatred toward Jews or Muslims, human rights, world hunger, environment pollution, gun control or U.S. military actions in other countries.
