“All right, I won’t like it, but I’ll do it for your sake.” Thus spoke Father Lou Vallone, Pittsburgh’s most provocative priest, now retired and residing in my parish, about our Easter Sunday evening Mass in 2019, before the pandemic. I’d scheduled it diffidently, because my parish usually has a Sunday evening Mass, though I was uncertain many would want to come to a late Mass on Easter.
Such Masses are not popular with us older priests, who tire more readily and who relish the precious evening without meetings or public duties. We might also miss the choir and the thicker crowds. But every parish ought to take on some burdens of regional service, and this parish, to which I’d just been assigned as pastor, was blessed with many priests to share the sacrifice. I committed to sustaining the 7:00 Sunday night Mass.
