Sad News

Some of you may remember that a few months ago I was asking for Prayers for our Priest ,Father Richardson. He had been hospitalized with Pneumonia in February. Well I'm sad to say the he lost the battle this past Saturday. He'd been hospitalized since February and although they had been able to treat the pnuemonia and he appeared to be recovering I guess it all took too much of a toll on his body. From what I've heard he passed quietly. He had just turned 89 when he was hospitalized. We will miss him greatly . He was one of the lovliest people I've ever met and he was an inspiration to many. His funeral is Tuesday and there will probably be thousands attending. Mass on Sunday was difficult. I made it through most of the Mass with just a few tears, but when we came to his favorite hymn I totally lost it as did most of the congregation. We're not sure what the future holds for our congregation. We've had a visiting Priest saying Mass for us while Father was in the hospital. We are hoping he will be able to stay on. There is such a shortage of Catholic Chaplains in the Military..there just aren't enough to go around. The Priest we've had the last two months is a retired Chaplain. We are hoping they will keep him on. Otherwise we'll all have to find a new Catholic Church to attend, and we will probably all end up going in different directions.