The Bishop’s Note
Someone once recently wrote: “It is easy to shine when the ones before you laid the foundations.” I couldn’t agree more! This is the whole story of the Catholic Church. Our Lord laid the foundation, or rather, He IS the foundation, but it is the Apostles who reaped the fruit of Our Lord’s labor and sacrifice. This is the story of our church here in West Chester as well. The growth of our parish and of the missions is, ultimately, God’s doing. However, God’s normal way of acting is to do so through instruments of His choosing. Right now, we are reaping the fruits of Bishop Dolan and Fr. Cekada’s labors and sacrifices. Some days, our prayer is simply not to ruin the work of God and of our predecessors, since we are simply instruments that God can use or not use as He chooses. Our job is simply to keep ourselves prepared to be used by God at any time, or to be satisfied to be left in a corner and hidden away when we are not being used—like a broom after we are done sweeping the floors.
It is easy to see the results of the work of such public and well known figures as Bishop Dolan and Fr. Cekada, but it has been amazing to see and to hear the fruits of the years of labor of priests who have had a behind-the-scenes sort of apostolate, such as can be said of †Fr. James Thielen. As one man recently said of him, “Everywhere you go you find his fingerprints.” Do you remember how Bishop Dolan had a reputation of being the best at preaching, teaching the lives of the saints, or the carrying out of liturgical functions? Do you remember how we would go to Fr. Cekada for deep questions on the Church, Canon Law, and such things because we knew that he was one of the best? Well, you wouldn’t necessarily know it unless you were among the clergy, but Fr. Thielen was unanimously thought of as the one who was the best at taking care of the sick. That was his special grace, given to him by the Sacred Heart of Jesus. No one was better at it than him. Ask any priest from my generation or the previous generation and you will get the same answer.
God certainly took care of Fr. Thielen during his last illness. Blessed be God for having sent Fr. Brueggemann to give him the Last Rites late on Saturday night, and for having allowed a priest and parishioners to be with him as he drew his last breath. Yes, yes, blessed be God forever. God truly loves His priest and took such tender care of him.
Don’t make him a saint yet though. It is possible that he is in Purgatory and it is our duty to not abandon this priest by assuming him to be in Heaven unless it has been revealed by God that this is true. Pray for him, especially if you have benefited at all from his apostolate.
We are all very busy preparing for this week’s funeral. Several priests will be staying with us this week. I thank you in advance for your help and your prayers during this time. In turn, you will be remembered in ours!
In the Sacred Heart,
Bishop McGuire