Now that I have returned to the world of co-op employment, there really hasn’t been that much to talk about in my predictible life.

Quite bitter, I am, as a matter of fact.

I decided to be a good Catholic boy and attend mass this week, but to my disbelief, our associate pastor, Fr. Huang, has resigned from our parish and will be returning to what I believe to be Taiwan, where he originally resides.

Anyways, I have always sensed some subtle turmoil between the pastoral team ever since we installed a new leading pastor, Fr. Leung. He is a rather strict and incredibly conservative (even more so that what I have expected in a Roman Catholic church).

During the homily today, Fr. Huang, told us the news, and pretty much set everything straight with congregation— since, according to my parents, there has been some rumours floating around about why exactly he decided to go.

He was completely straightforward, and a bit shocking actually. It was quite incredible for a priest, a Catholic priest, to be so upfront and personal with the congregation. He was always been my favourite priest to attend mass to, just because he always talks about things that are relevant, and are just great to listen to. Sure, he speaks Cantonese with an awful Taiwanese Mandarin accent, which often means I only intake about 60-70% at most of what he’s saying, but seriously, he understands people more, he understands that not everyone enjoys the unappealing “lecture-like” homilies that our Catholic faith seems to appreciate.

Anyways, he pretty much said exactly the culprit who instigated his resignation— the parish’s administrative secretary. I was just quite shocked that he actually revealed the person and putting him/her on the spot like that. It seemed so…. un-church-like.

Fr. Huang pretty much said that he did not want this individual has his farewell party, which took place on Friday. However, the individual did indeed show up and Fr. Huang just left. Left his own farewell party.

Seriously, this is a priest, a person who is to lead our congregation towards the ways of the Jesus; and this is exactly the opposite of that. Even though things were racing through my head during the homily, I really admired his honesty and I give him great respect for having the courage the things that he said. Seriously, that is like me telling everyone at the congregation that I’m gay and that I’m going to get married at our parish.

He told us and admitted that what he did was not very “Christian” of him to do; even citing references of Jesus— but of which story specifically, I don’t remember. He mentioned that when someone struck Jesus’ left arm, he also gave the man his right arm to be hit. But to Fr. Huang’s defence, even Jesus asked his “striker” why he needed to be hit, when he did nothing wrong.

Even in the Church Bulletin was without positive words, citing words like he’s “physically and mentally tired” and that leaving would “allow a smoother execution of the daily operations of the parish.”

I am really going to miss him as he leaves our parish later this week. Regardless of whoever is “right” or “wrong”, I truly commend him for having the courage to speak up and let everyone know. His homily has made me realize that priests are human too, even though we sometimes don’t think of them that way— and that I really admire.

Fr. Huang - [chinesemartyrs.org]