Father Daniel McCaffrey was ordained in 1958. A year later he departed for the Muslim country of Pakistan where he served for over eight years as a missionary. Father holds a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicam) in Rome. In 1968, during the Vietnam Conflict Father joined the United States Army Chaplain Corps. During more than twenty years of active duty he served in Vietnam, Korea, Germany and Honduras, as well as numerous army installations throughout the United States.
During his ministry he has worked in the Apostolate of Marriage Enrichment establishing successful Natural Family Planning programs on the diocesan and parish levels. Father is a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.
He also did each of the masses over the weekend. The homily he did... wow. First of all an average mass lasts, what about 50 minutes? Maybe a little more? His homily lasted for about 50 minutes. My Dad had gone to the earlier mass of the day, and I went to the one after CCD, so I knew to expect an exceptionally long homily. And I knew he was at the parish to preach about NFP. I wasn't all that thrilled, I was not that excited to hear a 45+ homily on NFP, that sort of thing just doesn't appeal to me. And usually I'm distracted 5 minutes into a homily. Not today though. I was absolutely engaged on everything he had to talk about for the whole 50 minutes.
He covered All Saints Day and All Souls Day, the culture of death, the media and the culture of death, the failure of priests to teach and preach, and our failure as the laity by contracepting ourselves away. I can't ever remember ever hearing anything like it before from the pulpit, and I suppose I won't again anytime soon.
I really can't do his talk any justice by writing about it, but if you ever hear that he is speaking near you go see him. It will be worth it.
4 comments:
NFP This is the area that needs alot of support and stick-togetherness.
If people would only try it, read about it, begin to understand how beautiful it all is...if they only knew! It is a marriage uplifter!
It teaches so much about TRUST between partners, UNSELFISHNESS,
yet pure JOY when the two come together. I am so thankful that my husband and I learned about it. I so wish I had understood even sooner about it. I urge all young people to get involved...they simply won't regret it. Nothing is going to make us "perfectly" happy in this world, however, true NFP far surpasses anything else I've seen yet in all my years and I ain't a spring chicken anymore! So, you go folks...you go and you have my prayers! Keep studying and encouraging all you friends and siblings. BE NOT AFRAID! AMEN
Ha! -grin- So you ARE human, as in:
"And usually I'm distracted 5 minutes into a homily."
Seriously, thank you again for your informative words on topics which normally would not cross my desktop.
steveroni
Oh trust me, as far as concentration goes I have the focus of a three year old on pixie sticks.
He spoke at St. Peter's a few weeks ago, and the homily was pretty long there too. I think my favorite comment he made was "no wonder we're a church full of dummies" when talking about the failure of priests to teach the faith.
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