Help Save Priests's Lives With This One Little Trick
Janet Springley had no idea the mission of heroism she was on when she told her parish pastor her entire life's story...
Springfield, CO — Springfield, Colorado, is home to the Traditional Catholic parish of St. Anne’s. Fr. Timothy Carlson is the pastor of this well-populated parish, full of young families and children. St. Anne’s was recently the stage for an event that has left parishioners feeling extremely thankful.
It is a well-known fact of priestly and parish life that a priest may hardly ever show himself without being in extreme danger of being arrested by one of his faithful parishioners in order to have a conversation. It is an even more well-known fact that this is more probable if the parishioner Father encounters is a woman.
Rarely is a parish priest ever sighted by a lady from his flock and does not end up being taken into a conversation, or surrounded by at least a dozen of them. It would seem that the occupation of most women who form part of the parish is looking for a chance to talk to the priests. If you have ever been part of a parish where community is a key characteristic, you know this is true. From younger girls to older women, they all love to talk to Father.
Now, you may be someone who regularly encounters scenes like these and watches them from afar, or, you may be the cause of such scenes. Regardless of which of the two you are, I am sure we can all agree that priests are highly solicited men.
Yet we here at Irkutsk Ice Truckers, and the parishioners of St. Anne’s, are here to tell you that these kinds of incidents and these kinds of women–yes, even the conversations about cooking or gardening–can save a priest’s life.
Early on Saturday, after saying the morning Mass, Fr. Carlson left the sacristy ready to embark on a hunting trip. Parishioners at St. Anne’s have been familiar with Fr. Carlsons’s unique affinity for hunting ever since his installation as pastor of the Springfield parish. Having first experienced a hunting trip with his father when he was only eight years old, Fr. Carlson’s love for hunting accompanied him straight through seminary and now into his priesthood.
Knowing that he had the rest of Saturday off after Mass, Fr. Carlson had loaded his hunting equipment into his car since Friday night. He planned to leave immediately afterwards to make the most of his short vacation, given that the last time he left the parish on a resting day happened almost a year ago. But, as he headed from the sacristy to the rectory, the thing Fr. Carlson feared the most occurred — he heard someone say, “Hi, Father!”
A woman had spotted him.
Concerned over whether his guidance was needed, Fr. Carlson avoided mentioning his plans for a hunting trip, following his motto, “The priest is not his own, but God’s.”
What followed was a long conversation during which the parishioner at St. Anne’s recounted almost the entire story of her life to Fr. Carlson.
“I was able to consult every little doubt I had with Fr. Carlson. It was a very enjoyable conversation,” the woman, named Janet Springley, told IIT.
The conversation lasted two hours and thirty-three minutes, by which time Fr. Carlson had given up any idea of enjoying a hunting trip. Too frustrated to change his plans to redirect the rest of the day for any other kind of recreation, the priest decided to simply spend the rest of the day in prayer and recollection in the rectory.
What initially seemed as the bothersome intervention of a woman on a priest’s day of rest later turned out to be an act of saving a life.
The next morning, Fr. Carlson, on his way home after a sick call, learned about a peculiar event that took place in the Colorado woods the prior morning, where he would have found himself had it not been for the fortunate interruption.
An aggressive, wild bear from the Wyoming Wildlife Conservatory and Center for Studies escaped early on Saturday morning, resulting in the death of a man on a hunting trip.
“It’s quite fortunate there were no other people hunting that day,” a spokeswoman for the WWCCS told IIT. “We don’t know what might have happened if Cuddly the bear had encountered any other prey. All I can say is, it would be a miracle if they had survived.”
Thanks to this 75-year-old parishioner, Fr. Carlson’s life was saved.
Reading this news story, Catholic women all around the world can feel validated. An action which was once seen as an act of pestering can now be recognized as an act of goodwill. Conversations with a priest are no longer simply conversations; they are acts of heroism. Who knows what dangers they may be saving their priest from? Perhaps it may not always be a matter of life or death, but it may be other things almost as dangerous, such as a load of papers in his office, car troubles, or a sink in the rectory that desperately needs to be fixed.
So the next time you see one of these devoted women at the parish, be sure to thank them from the bottom of your heart for their endless service, which cannot be repaid. Not only are they wonderful daughters of the Church, but they are also lifeguards to the men God called to serve Him. For you never know when their turn may come to act, even unknowingly, as a superman in disguise.
And, women, the next time you see your parish priest, start a conversation with him – because you could be saving a life.
I am constantly being saved from bears.