The Washington Post recently printed an extensive obituary, along with a photo, of a priest in our nation’s capital that interested me. Anytime The Washington Compost, as it is known by some, grants this kind of recognition to a Catholic priest my antennae go up, for the newspaper’s reporting and editorial board are not exactly “Catholic friendly.”

These were the opening lines of the obituary of Rev. Michael O’Sullivan:

With his walking stick in hand, a baseball cap on his head, and his clerical collar tucked unobtrusively in his pocket…

Why would this Catholic cleric, born in Ireland and ordained a priest since 1955, hide the one bit of clothing that identified him as a priest?

No one would doubt that his work as a pastor in a church in Washington, D.C. was exemplary, but why place his Roman collar out of the sight of those he encountered during his walk? Surely, Fr. O’Malley would never have done such a thing!

The Rev. Chuck O’Malley, played by Bing Crosby, was Hollywood’s stereotypical priest. In both Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary (1945), the good priest overcame any and all obstacles, often using his Hibernian charm to win the day. But when Fr. O’Malley went out of his parish church, the collar went with him, for it was an indispensable part of his clothing, and his being. Somehow, the importance of the Roman collar has been set aside, but Fr. O’Sullivan was not alone in so doing.

During the sessions of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), one of the German delegation’s periti, or theological experts, was the Rev. Karl Rahner, S.J., who was never seen with a Roman collar; in fact, he was never seen in anything but a business suit and tie. While assigned to the U.S. Embassy to The Holy See, each time I visited the Jesuit Gregorian College, few – very few – wore the collar; turtlenecks, to be sure, but no collar. Three years ago, in their effusive obituary of the Rev. William Callahan, S.J., whom The Post described as, a “rebel priest (who) had a progressive mindset,” the late priest was pictured without the collar.  Perhaps this is more of a Jesuit thing.

Since the Second Vatican Council, form has become separated from function. The collar, with its implications of authority and detachment, has become separated from a priest’s function as the spiritual advisor of his parish. The late Fr. O’Sullivan thought he was a priest with – or without – the collar, for he was “a man of his parish.” To Catholic traditionalists, no priest should ever be seen without his collar, and the soutane that he also wears. To me, he is alter Christis, and that vocation or “calling” is an inseparable part of his life and being.

The plight of the Catholic Church today is mirrored, unexpectedly, in that obituary of a now deceased priest, for the unresolved question is whether it is Fr. O’Sullivan’s approach to his vocation that should be the acceptable modus operandi of the priesthood, or that of Fr. O’Malley. The answer to that question will have a major impact on the future of the Church in the Western World.

—- Comments —