Reflections On St. John Vianney Parish

At eight PM, on the dark and stormy night of December 9, 1966, a small group gathered in the upper room, around a coal-burning stove, at the invitation of Father Joseph Naughton, the first pastor of the new parish of Saint John Vianney in Prince Frederick, Maryland. The reason for the gathering was to enjoy some libations and small talk and a bit of parish business, to whit, I was informed I had been elected parish council president. Thus began my fifty-one year association with the parish, witnessing some of the remarkable events that moved this small parish to extend the Word of God to foreign shores. These are my reflections over this journey with St. John Vianney Parish. Hopefully they convey the flavor of the happenings and the grace of God witnessed to the best of the author's memory and of those with whom he has consulted. And as best of implies, it is not necessarily the facts that actually took place nor the exact time they happened. Also it is not the complete story. At the end of John's gospel he says, if all the things Jesus did was to be written down, the world could not contain all the books that would be written. Well, if all the events and happenings of SJV were to be written down, it would take a shelf full of books to contain it. But the essence of the truth is these pages. It has been said of St. John Vianney, in jest, 'there's entirely too much hugging in this parish.' It is my fervent wish it will always be so