Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: June 10, 2021
Easily the most-frequently-asked question I’ve had to field over the past month (since I announced my move away from St. Joseph Cathedral Parish) has been “Have you started packing yet?” Well, honestly, I started moving some time ago. I managed to buy and fix up a little condo across town almost three years ago, and although I’ve only been able to get away to it for one or two nights a week since January of 2019, I’ve done my best to bring a box of stuff over almost every week since then. That’s 50 boxes a year, at least! So a lot of my stuff is there already.
Of course, I will need to get the final few pieces of furniture, plus mostly books and clothes, over there, but the end is in sight! I do want to thank everyone in advance for your willingness to help with this. I will be happy to enlist your help when that might be needed.
Naturally, I should probably be taking this opportunity to sort through my belongings and begin giving some of it away. I have an awful lot of theology and canon law books, of course (my vocational specialties), as well as cookbooks (my hobby). But I also have one medium-size bookcase full of fiction and non-fiction that has just entertained me over the years. I try to re-read a few of these every so often, and invariably enjoy that almost as much as I did the first time. If you’ve never gone back to one of those good books you enjoyed in high school or college you might be surprised that they often provide even more “reading pleasure” now. After all, we were less mature back then – even though we didn’t think so at the time!
I’m also trying to plan life after July 1. The most important task ahead of me in the coming year certainly will be “mentoring” my eventual replacement in the Tribunal office. Miss Claire Breaux was hired about five years ago, and proved to be so capable that the diocese then sent her up to Washington, DC, to obtain her licentiate degree in canon law. She gets back this month! She will be able to be a judge and indeed take over as director of the Tribunal – sooner rather than later, I hope! But it wouldn’t have been fair to just drop her into the job and ride into the sunset immediately: when I returned with my canonical degree back in 1988 I was given a year of “on the job training” and it was invaluable. So I’ll do the same: help her get settled, assist with some hiring and technology issues that are looming, show her how the diocesan budget works, introduce her to the wide range of tasks that go with the job, teach her the unwritten rules (every job has ‘em!!), and so forth. When she finally says she’s “ready to ride without training wheels,” well, then, I’ll be able to back away.
So if you have some spare time, pray in the year to come for both her and me! Neither one of us has done this before!
Still in Christ,
Father Paul Counce
