It’s a pleasure and a prvilege when I am invited to speak with church leaders; I had such a chance this week in speaking to 200 or so pastors, school principals, DREs/faith formation coordinators and youth ministers. Fr. Kris Stubna heads their secretariat for Christian Formation (though I am not sure that’s the Correct title) . He brought me into speak on tle recommendation of youth ministry leaders, Joyce Gillooly and Bob Sherwin.

It was a great night. One of the lead agents for the gathering was an octogenarian and religious sister of Mercy, Sister Ignatius. She was a great conversationalist and amazed me at her energy level.

It was great to see all these Catholic education leaders come together for mass and to share supper while being thanked for their efforts during this past school/ programming year.

I had fun “poking fun” at them. As a former school teacher I remember wanting May to fly by and it usually felt like the longest month of the year.

After the dinner, it was good to relax with a few parish and diocesan folks. The'’hot” topic was who would succeed Bishop Wuerl–who will become Archbishop of Washington DC sometime in June. You could hear the respect in their voices as they described the leadership and contributions Bishop Wuerl has made in their catechetical work. Their loss is Washington’s gain.

I tried to reassure them that they would continue to have strong leadership because Bishop Wuerhl has strengthened them. I truly believe the next bishop of Pittsburgh will carry on that tradition and be strengthened by the commitment of the people I met that night.