June 12, 2009

Timmy Dolan's Backyard Barbecue

Yesterday I went to one of archbishop Dolan's "cookouts" for the priests of the Archdiocese of New York. Of course it wasn't outside, because it was a rainy and gloomy day, but in the big room in the seminary gym where we are occasionally summoned for meetings and presentations.

It's a little bit intimidating to walk into a room full of a few hundred priests (including a few bishops, too.) To me, priests--by appearance--seem to fall into a handful of types, so each one looks like you know him or must have met him somewhere along the way. We were instructed to dress casually, and most seemed to have complied. You can always tell which priests generally wear clerics all the time and which religious their habits, because their casual clothes will be really out of date or terribly mismatched. Others, of course, are as stylish as could be. Following his own advice, the archbishop soon appeared wearing a Milwaukee Brewers shirt and a baseball cap from the Yonkers police. He worked the room, using one hand to shake hands with each priest and other to hold his beer. He made a forceful and encouraging impression, I have to admit.

There were long tables covered with picnic gingham and set with silver colored plastic cutlery. There was a lot of food: hot dogs, hamburgers, corn, chili, chicken, ribs, sausage and peppers, and potato salad. The woman serving the hamburgers turned out to be a SalvadoreƱa and another friar and I talked to her a little about El Salvador. Seeing that he didn't have one, I told the bartender to put out a tip cup. Priests are almost invariably cheap this way, but that was no reason to give up, I said.

All in all, it was very enjoyable. There's another one coming up for lay religious, and some of our friars are going. Do you think I could get away with it if I went too?

9 comments:

Unknown said...

LUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why can't he have a backyard BBQ in the Seminary gym for lay members of the Archdiocese. I would be there in a heartbeat.

Unknown said...

And you can probably get away with going to it if you wanted.

pennyante said...

All you have to do to go the second time is to dress opposite of how you dressed this time! I'm sure you can find some mismatched clothes somewhere... maybe from the parish clothes closet... :)
(chuckle)

Tina aka Snupnjake said...

so the question is naturally, what did you wear?

Brother Charles said...

But of course, my standard casual outfit:

Black shoes

Lee Dungarees

T-shirt from Target that matches the color of our habits, which they call "fudge."

Worn out hooded sweatshirt of similar color.

Nearly disintegrated "Idaho Falls Padres" baseball cap, with little friar on the front.

Unknown said...

I love you new picture, even if its not new

pennyante said...

A charming description, FrC... I guess you will have to wear your habit the next time! (chuckle)

Brother Charles said...

That picture is from Passion Sunday this year.

Anonymous said...

If you can get in, brother, go for it. Gerard