Local Priest Leads Nightly Processions for Four Years, Plans to Continue for Another Fourteen

Speaking of processions, I would be remiss if I did not mention the fact that Fr. Paul Weinberger, pastor of St. William parish in Greenville, TX, “concluded” over four years of nightly “Rosary walks” and public processions in honor of Our Lady on October 13.  I say “concluded,” because when Father Weinberger started, his initial intention was to keep up the nightly prayers and processions until the 100th anniversary of Fatima, just concluded.  But since that has now passed, he some months ago announced his intention to continue the nightly devotion until Dec. 12, 2031 – the 500th anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego.

The local diocesan paper finally gave Father Weinberger some coverage recently:

For more than four years, St. William Catholic Church’s parishioners and some of the faithful from far beyond Texas have gathered nightly for a 9 p.m. outdoor Bible study and rosary procession honoring Our Lady of Fatima.

Father Paul Weinberger, pastor of St. William since 2004, said that he expects particularly high participation on Oct. 7—the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary—and Oct. 13—the 100th anniversary of the last of the six Marian apparitions at Fatima, Portugal.

The parish is celebrating the centennial of Our Lady of Fatima’s appearances to Saints Jacinta and Francisco Marto and Lucia Santos and marking St. William’s 125th anniversary this year by not letting an evening go by without opening wide the church doors and processing across the street to a foliage-shrouded park for what has become a beloved tradition.

“By 9 p.m., it is dark and the people of Greenville see the front doors of the church wide open,” said Father Weinberger, who inaugurated the candlelight Rosary walk on June 15, 2013. “The light of the church pours out into the street. The flame from the Sanctuary lamps is taken outside to light the candles that the people are holding. People passing by say, ‘What’s happening at the Catholic Church?’

“We are getting noticed.”

Father Weinberger is who I think of when I recall that a very devout Novus Ordo in Latin definitely paved the way for our family to become full time TLMers, and aided greatly in my general spiritual development.  He is also who I think of when I consider the very best priests out there offering the Novus Ordo and the good they do for souls.  I pray Father Weinberger is allowed to offer the TLM sometime soon (he has offered the Novus Ordo in Latin for years).  I have not spoken to Father Weinberger in quite some time, but he has in the past expressed desire to offer the TLM, but was unable to do so under the previous bishop*.  Some priests were even denied permission and met with threats over offering the Novus Ordo Ad Orientem!  Apparently that last unjust stricture is no longer in place, Deo Gratias, but the situation regarding the TLM remains murkier, at present.

Some very worthy priests like Father Michael Rodriguez have come to the conclusion that, even though they were raised and ordained in a “Novus Ordo environment,” they can no longer in good conscience offer that form of the Mass.  Other priests who have a great love for Tradition and Holy Mother Church may conclude differently, that there remains substantial good they can do in spite of certain unjust restrictions on their priestly ministry (I want to reiterate this is my own speculation, and has nothing to do with Fr. W). I have no problem with either approach – or, perhaps put more accurately, I can easily understand the rationale behind both conclusions, and have sympathy for both of them.  I love and support all priests who are out there doing the best they can, given the limitations placed on them and the current sad state of the human element of the Church, whether they check all the “required” boxes of traditional preference or not.

At any rate, good on you, Father Paul Weinberger, and may God continue to bless you and your apostolate most abundantly.  May our sweet Lord Jesus Christ also move any in authority over you to allow you to conduct your priestly ministry along the lines you feel called to in the light of twin pillars of our Faith, Sacred Scripture and Tradition.

*- previous Dallas Bishop and now Cardinal Kevin Farrell put in place a public policy refusing permission to priests to offer the Mass of St. Pius V, aka the Traditional Latin Mass. That policy included threats for punishment should priests offer the TLM on their own initiative.  It is to be prayed that our new bishop will discontinue that unjust stricture so contrary to the expressed will of the Church in the form of the Pope Emeritus.