Russian Greek Catholicism

[Aramis]

I so wish you’d make a collection of all these wonderful little tid bits about the Church in Alaska.

This one reminded me of a painting I love of Fr. Michael Oleska ringing, with a hammer, a bell he apparently made from an old plane propeller. I’ll attach it but it’s an old, small file and might not really show up well here.

Most of them come from having been around the clergy of the Archdiocese as both son of one of the deacons thereof, and from reading the “Catholic Anchor”, the local Catholic Insert to the newspaper and functionally the diocesan newspaper. catholicanchor.org/wordpress/

But also, as a teen, I volunteered in the office at Holy Family Cathedral.

Reverend Friar Urban Bates, OP, used to drive the road-circuit for South-Central Alaska. And, in order to be part of the community of Dominicans, he’d stop in and spend time at the cathedral, usually mid-week. And he loved to talk. So I learned a lot about that circuit.

But also, when one of the priests from St. Andrew parish, where my dad has been assigned since about 1988, Rev. Father Scott, was chosen to be pastor of a mission, the bishop first ordered him to get a pilot’s license. Fr. Scott is now pastor of record for 7 or 8 parishes, and flies between them. He mentioned this in his going away speech. I can’t remember his last name. (But it’s not Fr. Scott Medlock; he’s the married roman priest.)