It might be helpful if I were to reveal how Vatican II has affected my own life. Let me reveal my own attitudinal change.

I was ordained in 1957. At that time my uncle was married to a Protestant woman. His children were raised as good Methodists.

“Why,” I asked him one day, “had he not been married in a Catholic church?”

The answer was quite simple. He said, “Because the priest would not let us marry in the church. Catholics who married non-Catholics could only be married in the rectory. My wife wanted a church wedding.”

I might add also, that in those days a non-Catholic could not be buried in a Catholic cemetery. By 1957 however, non-Catholics could be buried in a Catholic cemetery – if they were buried in a vault. It almost seemed that non-Catholics might pollute the sacred soil. Therefore, at that time my uncle could not have been buried with his wife – except in a vault.

To compound things, my uncle in all innocence decided to join the Masons. He had two reasons, I am sure. One was that his friends were Masons. These friends were also life long friends of my mother. They were beautiful people.

Secondly, in those days there were certain companies where a person could not get a supervisory job unless that person had “the ring” – or “the button” as my godfather Johnny Skeehan called it. Duggans Bakery, the Pennsylvania Railroad and Public Service were three of those companies. Of course, they would never admit it.

At any rate, my uncle became a “knife and fork” Mason. He was a part of their camaraderie and the social life of the lodge.

But one day he showed me – very proudly in fact – the Bible that the lodge had given him.

At that point I let him know in no uncertain terms the history of the Masonic Lodge and its hostility to the Catholic Church. And besides, I told him, the Bible was the “King James” version. Catholics had no use for that Bible.

As you can imagine, that episode widened the rift in our family from a crack to a veritable gorge.

How sad as I look back that I was trained more as a warrior for Christ than a conciliator and a loving witness.

A few weeks ago, I took a tour of the incredibly magnificent Masonic Lodge in Philadelphia. It contains seven types of architecture. It is worth seeing.

The man who took us around is a devout Catholic. In our tour there was a group of high school boys from a Catholic school.

All through the tour all I could think of was my uncle. I anointed him on his deathbed. But it is too bad that the ecumenical movement did not happen sooner. So much sadness could have been avoided – at least in my own family.

(To search the archives of Msgr. Gilchrist’s columns go to www.msgrgilchrist.freeservers.com)

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