I remember them well! School let out and the shoes came off to stay except for on Sundays. My brothers and I left the house in the morning and usually showed back up with a few others, oh, let’s say somewhere around lunchtime. Then off again in the green and the sun and the freedom.
As a priest of the Diocese of Charlotte, I always look on with interest whenever a brother priest gets his name in the paper. This interest, unfortunately, sometimes turns to trepidation whenever the story of a brother priest has been told in a way that hardly befits himself or his fellows in ministry. It was precisely this sort of trepidation I felt after reading the interview with Monsignor John McSweeney written by Tim Funk in the July 9 Charlotte Observer.