“We don’t even study the marriage laws of the Church until my fourth year. I haven’t the slightest idea of all that might be good or bad in their marriage. I’m just at sea, Ma.”
“Won’t you try? For me?”
He had no idea what if anything he might be able to do. But this was his mother. No one on earth did he love as he loved his mother. “Ma, I promise you, I’ll do everything I can to fix things up. Trust me?”
She tilted her chin. He bent closer. She kissed him on both cheeks. “Now,” she said, “let’s go back to the parlor. Then you can take Aunt Martha and Uncle Frank for a nice walk and tell them you’re going to help them.”
“But, Ma-”
“Then Aunt Martha will be as happy as me that you’re going to help her. Not another word now …” She put a finger to his lips to prevent what he intended to be another word.
They returned to the parlor to find Tony doing stretching exercises in one corner and Frank and Martha sitting on the couch contentedly holding hands. At the sight of the couple’s bliss, Vincent was confused. He knew from Church law that they were not married in the eyes of that same Church. But … living in sin? He wondered.
Louise steered straight for her sister and brother-in-law. “Vinnie wants to take you to see-what was it you were going to show them, baby?”
“The … uh … the crypt chapels.”
“I’ll just take Tony outside so we can be with Lucy,” Louise said. “You can find us there after your little tour.”
Martha smiled conspiratorially. “Come on, Frank …”
All the three needed was to turn a corner from the parlor to the prayer hall, which, besides being a place for morning, noon, and evening prayer, tripled as a classroom and an entertainment center.
They entered a series of five impressive small chapels, all portioned off from one large room and separated from one another by nothing more than a small space.
“Each of five faculty members has one of these chapels as his own. And all five celebrate Mass daily and all at the same time.”
“Isn’t that a little confusing?” Frank asked.
“You’d be surprised, Uncle Frank. Everybody whispers … in fact, they’re called ‘Whisper Masses.’”
Vincent showed them each chapel, though there was little difference among any of them. Finally, he pointed out the large plaque embedded in the floor at the room’s center. Beneath this plaque, one day, Cardinal Edward Mooney would be buried. For whatever reason, visitors were most impressed by the future tomb of the Cardinal archbishop of Detroit.
“And now,” Martha said as they had quite obviously completed their tour, “what does your mother want you to tell us?”
“What?”
Martha smiled banteringly. “We’ve been sisters too long not to know what’s going on with each other.”
Vincent was relieved: He’d had no idea how he would introduce the mission his mother had given him. Somebody had to bring up the subject. His prayer was answered when Martha popped the question. “Come on, Vinnie,” she urged, “out with it.”
“Well …” Vincent did not feel entirely comfortable. “… Mother is concerned about your standing in the Church.”
Martha reddened. “She shouldn’t have involved you. There’s nothing you can do. We saw a priest before we got married. He said there wasn’t any way we could be married in the Church. I don’t think it was her place to involve you-”
“Wait a minute, Marty,” Frank broke in. “You never know. Vinnie is smart … and he’s young. The things he learns here probably are the most up-to-date developments there are in the Church. I know how bad you want to go to Communion. Maybe Vinnie can help. We don’t want to turn down an offer like this.”
Martha fell silent. Half of her saw the logic of Frank’s statement. The other half was upset that Louise had brought the matter up again. Martha went through life trying not to think about it. It was too painful, even after all these years.
“Well,” she said at length, “what did you have in mind, Vinnie?”
Vincent thought as intensely as he ever had. Then, an inspiration.
“Look, Aunt Martha, as I explained to Mother, I won’t even be studying the Church’s marriage laws until I’m in my fourth year here. And by that time I’ll be on the verge of ordination and my first Mass-which seems a target date for Ma: She wants to be sure that you’ll be able to receive Communion from me …” He hesitated.
“So? So what happens now?” Martha demanded.
Vincent brightened markedly. It was as if the Holy Spirit Himself had visited. “I know that you saw a priest before you got married. But maybe the priest you talked to wasn’t up on everything. Things in the Church generally don’t change very fast … but they do change.
“What I’m suggesting is that you see a friend of mine-Father Robert Koesler. As luck would have it, he was assigned to our parish, St. William’s, right after his ordination.”
Martha recollected. “Yes … Louise has mentioned him. He gives good sermons … or so she says. When was he ordained?”
“Last June.” The words were muffled.
“Last June! Why, he’s been a priest only four or five months!”
“Now, Marty,” Frank said soothingly, “remember what we just got done talking about-how these younger priests might be up on the latest? What could it hurt if we give this a chance?”
“I don’t know …” She was skeptical. “I don’t have a very good feeling about this. I know how you don’t put much trust in my intuition, Frankie. But it proves true more often than not.”
“Come on, Marty, what could go wrong? What with where we are now, it could only get better. It’s not going to get any worse. I would do anything so you could go to Communion again.” Well, Frank thought, just about anything. The one thing he knew neither of them could possibly do would be to separate and get a divorce. But anything else …
“I guess …” Martha said tentatively, “… it would be all right then. Do we know this Father …”
“Koesler.”
“… Koesler will see us? We don’t live in his parish. We’re in the neighboring parish, Nativity. Our pastor is mean and gruff. Maybe he won’t let us see your Father Koesler-”
“I don’t think he has any choice in the matter,” Vincent said firmly. “I think for consultation, you can go to any priest you want.”
“Okay, we’ll try it. No,” Martha said after a moment, “we’ll give it all we’ve got. I’ve been negative and reluctant about this only because neither of us wants to get hurt again. Really, I’m very grateful to you, Vinnie.” She reached up and pulled him down to her height and planted a big kiss on his lips.
Frank shook Vincent’s hand vigorously.
“Now,” Martha said, “how do we go about this?”
Vincent thought for a moment. “Using the phone here in the seminary is kind of awkward. We have to get permission. And catching Father Bob at just the right moment is problematical in any case.
“I think what I’ll do is write him a note and get. it in tomorrow’s mail. I’ll just explain that my aunt and my uncle will be phoning for an appointment. And I’ll ask him to see you. I’ll just give him a general idea of what this is about. I think it’ll be better if I don’t get too deeply into the marriage thing. That way you can start fresh. And actually, I don’t know that much about it. So if I don’t go into it, I won’t mess things up.”
“Okay, Vinnie.” Martha checked her watch. “Visiting time is almost over; we’ll have to leave.”
“I’ll walk you to the car,” Vincent said, leading the way.
They all began piling in. Frank, the last to enter, turned and held out his hand. “Really, Vincent, we-me especially-are grateful. If this works out, Marty and me are going to be about the happiest two people on the face of this earth.”
As the car pulled away, everyone was waving good-bye.
“How did it go?” Louise asked.
Martha snorted. “You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
