A Real Feel - Good Story for Christmas 2007 !!

"PRIEST WHO LED FLOCK FOR 63 YEARS DIES"

Adapted from SA EXPRESS - NEWS, Saturday, January 5, 2007.

"KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- A Catholic priest died Christmas Day after leading his parish for 63 years, ending what is believed to be th elongest active tenure at a U.S. Catholic church.

"He was 98.

"Monsignor Heliodore Mejak became a priest in 1935.

"He celebrated his first Mass at Holy Family Church on Aug. 1, 1944, and never left.

"He resisted attempts to have laymen serve Holy Communion and said it should be served only from a priest's hand, not in the hand of the recipient."

[This was true as well at Houston's Holy Rosary Church downtown in late May, 2007. I should know, as I was there.]

"Mejak also ignored a Second Vatican Council recommendation for parishioners to shake hands or hug as a sign of peace during Mass, saying it distracted from the Eucharist."

[This was also true at Holy Rosary Church in late May, 2007!]

Wow! What a way for a good and faithful loyal Roman Catholic Priest to go: Christmas Day, 2007, and "with his boots on.."