Worth a Listen

Father Richard Simon, the current pastor at St. Lambert's Parish in Skokie, IL, is one of the best priests I know.

When I say "best", I mean that inasmuch as he possesses in spades the qualities of being orthodox, holy, down-to-earth, intelligent, eloquent, humble, and funny.

I first got to know him at the parish where he used to be pastor — St. Thomas of Canterbury in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood — which runs a soup kitchen where Jocelyn and I volunteered while we were students at nearby Loyola University. (In fact, that's how we met.)

In addition, we've had the good fortune of having Father Simon lead our staff retreat the past two years.

For the past few years, my prayer has been that some time when Rome needs to go to the sacerdotal bullpen, he'll get the call and find himself the recipient of a ring and crozier.

Father Simon is a regular guest on Relevant Radio's "Searching the Word" program, and yesterday's topic was the canonicity of Scripture.

I only got to hear the first half of it, but Father was in rare form. As of this writing, yesterday's program is not yet available in the Archives, but I suspect it will be quite soon.

It's well worth a listen.