Monday, April 14, 2008

The Pope's Not Coming to Idaho...

...but a little part of Idaho is going to the Pope. Next week, Fr. Jorge Ramirez, Lucky Stiff and priest of the Diocese of Boise (and, incidentally, my parish) is going to be capping off his annual retreat by concelebrating a Mass with the Holy Father in New York.

Fr. Jorge, a native of Colombia, is a man of modest bearing, quiet demeanor, and complete adorableness. Although in his early forties, he has only been ordained for about a year and a half ("I'm just a baby priest," he says). He is very interested in the Tridentine Mass and is in the process of studying the rubrics. Fr. Jorge has a keen appreciation for what really matters. "I am not conservative," he once insisted; "I am Roman Catholic!" He, like his boss, Fr. Francisco Flores, is proud to be a priest and proud to have people know it: he is literally the first one I have seen in more than a dozen years who wears a cassock. One morning, he approached me at a Knights of Columbus breakfast wearing street clothes and his K of C cap and jacket; when I told him I didn't recognize him at first, he immediately disappeared, then reappeared in clerical attire. His humility by no means rules out an awareness of the high dignity of his office, or the need for visibility.

Fr. Jorge asks for prayers for his journey. And from this quarter, he gets them. He's definitely a keeper!

1 comment:

  1. That's a great story, Anita! He sounds like a really devoted priest. I hate seeing priests in jeans and sandals, or shorts and t- shirts. It does nothing to elevate the Divine Office they have been blessed with.

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