Father Michael G. Ryan comes to mind immediately. A diocesan priest, Fr. Ryan was the first priest to make an impression upon me as a young boy in my home parish Our Lady of Fatima. Serving Mass for him and seeing him at work and play gave me immediately a sense of his deep honesty. He is, above all else, a truthful person. I can recall as a child asking him many questions to which he not only never failed to answer truthfully but even avoided putting me down for my childishness. "Why do you have such a big nose?" He answered: "I was born with it." Another time, I asked: "Father, is drunkenness a mortal sin?" "Yes, it is," said he. "Well, how far can I go without committing a mortal sin?" "I think," he said in reply, "that you are asking the wrong question."Fr. Ryan spoke truthfully in and out of season and by word and deed encouraged others to do the same.

At Blanchet high school, Sulpician Father James Healy happily came into my life. Fr. Healy taught algebra and geometry to us just as he had to students for more than 40 years. Later I learned that he was once a great athlete. "Scooter," as he was called, was a standout at both baseball and basketball. Time had taken its toll on his body but not on his mind or soul. He kept his humor and wits about him and despite all twists and turns of fate kept faithful to his vows. Persistence, among other virtues, characterizes Fr. Healy.

In college, I met "Socrates in a Roman collar." Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer has a sharp mind, tremendous energy, and contagious enthusiasm. At Georgetown he gave a lecture on two views on human life, the functional and the ontological. According to a functional evaluation of human life, people are what they produce. The more they make, consume, or contribute the more value they have. Conversely, human beings who do not function well or who drain society do not deserve basic human respect. The ontological view, on the other hand, holds that people are due respect just in virtue of being human. Spitzer detailed reasons why the functional view is ultimately arbitrary, irrational, and dangerous. We were all spellbound as he made a terrific case for the pro-life position on abortion and euthanasia. Lately, Spitzer’s gifts have been recognized by Gonzaga University whose board made him the University President.

Of course, were it not for these recollections, you wouldn’t be hearing about these priests. Their veracity, persistence, and enthusiasm does not make for headlines, movies, or TV dramas. And neither do the supernatural powers they exercise to forgive sins and to offer Mass. Hence, what will make news is normally the failures and not the daily, quiet, and nevertheless heroic virtue of so many priests like the ones described here. So let us not forget the virtues of so many men of the cloth nor mistake "news" for the fullness of reality.