1. Father Jim Barnett ~ St. Thomas Aquinas, West Lafayette, INFather Jim is the priest that married us. Which means we met with him MANY times in the 6 months before our wedding. Father Jim is an incredibly accepting and sweet person. He is also a cancer survivor. Some of my favorite Fr. Jim moments:
- When he described Lee as "laid back, almost to a fault". Haha!
- When Lee accidentally answered yes to the question "I am nervous about being naked in front of my future spouse," and then again on "I am concerned about what my future spouse may ask me to do sexually." Fr. Jim was really trying to dig into what might be a big problem, and Lee and I were just dying laughing!
- On a more serious note, Fr. Jim was the priest that inspired my Grandpa to go to confession and start attending church again. He also visited my Grandpa a couple times while he was in the hospital with melanoma. I know that he brought my Grandpa some joy in the last year of his life.
2. Father Thomas Aschenbrener ~ St. Alphonsus, Chicago, IL
Father Aschenbrener was one of two priests at the church I got baptized in last Easter. He was young and had a knack for being able to relate to the neighborhood parishioners (who were mostly my age). My favorite Fr. Ashchenbrener memories:
- When he related something in his homily to an episode of the Simpsons. Now you are speaking my language!
- In another homily he was talking about road rage. He said that every now and then he will get mad while driving and flip someone off. He said, "Hopefully I am not wearing the collar when I do that." The image of getting flipped off in traffic by a priest still makes me laugh...
3. Father Brian Rafferty ~ Christ the King Catholic Church, Norfolk, VA
When Lee and I moved down here, we tried out a few different churches. What made us become members at Christ the King was almost 100% Fr. Brian. (The comfortable kneelers and the fact that it is right by our favorite diner helped too.) Fr. Brian has a great sense of humor. He has also done a lot of different things in his life. He was in the Navy, he went to graduate school, he was engaged to be married... Fr. Brian also once had a homily where everyone in the church laughed out loud a couple different times, and then cried (it was dusty in there) at the end. Now that is an impressive homily! My favorite Fr. Brian moments:
- While talking about how many parents wanted to send their teenage kids on an upcoming mission trip to western Virginia, Fr. Brian reminded the parents apologetically "This is not a one-way trip, your teenagers will be coming back."
- He was talking about his parents' marriage and how they could communicate without talking. He then said "My fiance asked me if I thought we would be that way someday... APPARENTLY NOT."
This week at church, Fr. Brian was out of town, so Fr. Mike Hanna filled in for him. I would describe this priest to be Lewis Black if he were a priest. Hard to imagine, I know. He was extremely sarcastic and at the end of mass he said "Ok, lets get out of here."
There have been a few priests that make my LEAST favorite list. I don't remember their names, but here is why:
- Fr. Spitter ~ This priest talked to our "Day of Discovery" group for pre-Cana. As you can guess, he couldn't keep the saliva in his mouth. He also ranted on about how the song "Here Comes the Bride" really means "Here comes the whore".
- Fr. Fish ~ When we were looking for a Norfolk church, we tried 3 different churches in about as many weeks. Somehow, we kept running into this SAME priest that I didn't like. From his name, you can guess, he looked like a fish. Specifically a bass ------> Fr. Fish likes to get on some serious rants about abortion and other topics that no one wants to be greeted with on Sunday morning.
I can only hope that we have as good of luck with priests when we move back to Indiana!!
