So I would sit. I would walk. But I wasn't sure just what I wanted
to do. So how did I connect with the Society? I think it was the
wonderful St. Ignatius Church at BC. I would sit there often.
So many things happened around that time that I'm not sure that
I can keep them all straight.
I asked a girl that I had met at the store if she would go to
church with me. Her father was the chief of a law firm on Commonwealth
Avenue. I don't remember its name, but they were a wonderful family.
Cardinal O'Connell was her uncle. And I used to go to their place
on the Cape. I really liked them. A couple of their boys were
well-known in Massachusetts law circles. And the father was a
wonderful, well-known man. And I said to myself, "Why don't
I go out with her?" I later decided to enter the Society.
I'm not sure whether she later married.
I went to Bishop Connolly High in 1967 from the Seminary Guild.
They really needed someone to put in an accounting system for
the Jesuit community as well as provide some financial help for
the school. Then, when the kids came in, I could tell who they
were and how much they owed. I really enjoyed working with the
students. But that grew less and less as I grew older and older.
So when I came back from tertianship, I wasn't sure where I was
going to go or what I was going to do. But they needed someone
to set up the school in Fall River. I put together all that was
needed for a school and passed it on to the very nice priest who
was running four schools for the diocese. They used what I had
prepared for their schools. That was the only project I was working
on. When he asked me if it was done, I said yes. And he said,
"Could we use that?"And I said, "Certainly you
can use it."And they used it, and they developed it over
the years. I liked him very much.
Then, after a year when I had gotten to know all these people
in Corpus Christi Parish, the provincial asked me to go and work
at Boston City Hospital as a chaplain. But when they heard of
this over at the Weston School of Theology, the president there,
John Padberg, said to me, "We've been wanting to ask you
if you could come and build up our financial system here."
They needed help, so I agreed to come. It turned out well.
But what I really wanted to do was to be able to say Mass for
the people, and I was able to do that. I went to local parishes
on weekends. I said a lot of twelve o'clock Masses in the school
chapel, which was good for me. I used what I had learned at Auburndale,
which had been a beautiful experience for me. It had been hard
to lose it. I said to myself, "Oh, God, what am I going to
do?" I had been waiting so long for this chance to celebrate
Mass.
