The Power and the Glory If the Heart of a Priest Grows Cold — Beyond These Stone Walls

After 42 years of priesthood, 30 unjustly in prison, ‘The Whisky Priest,’ the central figure of Graham Greene’s best known novel, comes to my mind in darker times.
June 5, 2024 by Fr Gordon MacRae
“You are sure to find another cross if you flee the one you bear.”
— Anonymous Mexican Proverb
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I was ordained to the priesthood on June 5, 1982, the sole candidate for priesthood in the entire State of New Hampshire that year. On the next day, June 6, 1982, I was nervously standing in a corner in the Sacristy as I prepared to offer my First Mass in Saint John the Evangelist Church in Hudson, New Hampshire. The church was packed with friends, family, and strangers from near and far. I was standing in a corner because the Sacristy was filled with my brother priests all vesting to join me for the occasion. I imagined they were watching me for signs that I might flee.
I peered through the open sacristy door at the huge, anticipating crowd and my anxiety level was off the scales. I wished …