by Father Eugene Brown

Excerpts are taken from Father Brown’s homily at his 40th Anniversary Mass, February 20, 2000, at Holy Redeemer, Marshall, MN.

On February 21, 1960, at the Church of St. Mary in Sleepy Eye, five young men were ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of New Ulm by our first bishop, Alphonse J. Schladweiler. They were: John McRaith, now bishop of Owensboro, Kentucky; Gregory Schaffer, pastor for 36 years of our mission in San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala, Robert Goblirsch, pastor of the Church of St John in Ortonville, St Joseph in Rosen and St. James in Nassau; Robert Wyffels, pastor of the Church of St Michael in Morgan and St Joseph in Clements; and myself. I would like to share with you some of the changes that have occurred in the church over the past 40 years, and what it has been like to serve as a priest during these turbulent times.

When I was growing up in the ‘30s and ‘40s and attending Mass with my family in Clara City and later in Montevideo, everything was in Latin. I remember beginning in the first or second grade to learn the Latin prayers so that I could be an altar server. Missals with English on one side and Latin on the other helped people to follow what the priest was saying at the altar and even to answer some of the prayers in what was called the Dialogue Mass. Still, the Mass was something that the priest said while the people watched.

Pope John XXIII announced the Second Vatican Council in 1959, during my last year in the seminary. It was held between 1962 and 1965 and brought about a profound renewal in the church which is still continuing. Historians 500 years from now will point to the Council as the most significant event in the church of the 20th century.

With the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, the Mass and the sacraments were gradually put into the language of the people. The altar was brought forward so the priest could face the people, music became an important element in worship, and the people were urged to participate as lectors, commentators, ministers of Communion, ministers of music and of hospitality, and members of the assembly. Churches were remodeled and new churches designed with the pews radiating out from the altar, to reflect the fact that the Mass is a celebration of priest and people together.

The Catholic Church before the 1960s was a church in which the pope, bishops and pastors were clearly in charge, and the role of the people was to pay, pray and obey. We didn’t complain because we thought that this is the way it was supposed to be. The church was seen as a pyramid, with the pope at the top and the people at the bottom. Presumably, Jesus told the pope what to do and eventually it filtered down to the people in the pew.

The Second Vatican Council instead spoke of the church as the People of God. Every baptized person is an important member of the church and possesses the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit speaks not only through the pope and the bishops but also through the body of the faithful. The role of the hierarchy is not to lord it over the people but to serve them and to listen to how the Spirit may be speaking through them.

It has been interesting to be a priest during these times of renewal. It has also been a challenge. All of my seminary training was before the Council. Much of what we learned during those 12 years of preparation has changed and some of it does not apply at all. No one could have predicted what the church would be like in the year 2000. Since it had not changed very much since the Reformation in the 16th century, we thought the church would be the same as we had always known it.

Imagine waking up one morning and discovering that the job description of the priesthood to which you had dedicated your life had been suddenly changed, and nobody asked you if it was okay.

I remember telling the children in the grade school in Sleepy Eye in the early 1960s that the Mass would always be in Latin. I celebrated Mass in Latin for the first four years until November of 1964, when the Mass was gradually put into English. Now since coming to Marshall a year and a half ago, I also celebrate Mass every Sunday in Spanish.

In the seminary we were taught that the priest had the answers because he had studied theology, and the people were to listen to him and go along. One of the results of the Second Vatican Council has been the involvement of the people in decision-making through parish councils, boards, and committees. The pastor can no longer be a Lone Ranger or a dictator but must be more of a personnel manager, with the skill to work with people and come to decisions through consensus. I have always believed in this, but I must admit that I have not found it easy to put it into practice in the parish.

Some of my classmates who were ordained for other dioceses have left the priesthood over the years, either because the church was changing too fast or because it was not changing fast enough. On my down days, when things were not going well in the parish, I was tempted to leave as well. But I always asked myself if the priesthood was worth the struggle, and I decided that it was. I’m glad I stayed. In fact, I am not sure that I could have remained a priest in the church as it was in 1948 when I entered the minor seminary. That church was very closed, turned in on itself, almost smug in the knowledge that it had the truth.

The Catholic Church as a result of the Second Vatican Council is more open, willing to admit that it does not know everything, and willing to listen to Christians of other denominations who also have the Spirit of Jesus.

Father Eugene Brown is senior associate pastor of Holy Redeemer, Marshall, MN.