THOUGHTS FROM OUR HEAD OF SCHOOL, JOSEPH VORBACH:
Last evening, I went to the wake of Father Mark Pilon, a priest of our Diocese who passed away this week after a difficult battle with cancer over the past few years. I did not know Father Pilon well, but he was the Chaplain at O'Connell for part of my time as a student here in the early 1980s. I remember him as a wise and serious-minded man. Since my time returning to O'Connell, I learned from Father's friends in our community about his scholarship as a theologian and his work as a professor in the Seminary -- he taught our Chaplain, Father Thompson at Mount St. Mary's. Most recently, Father Pilon has been in residence at Christendom College in Front Royal. The Arlington Catholic Herald headlined the ten years Father served as Pastor at St Ambrose parish.
Priests are called to be spiritual fathers to their parishioners and it is in that sense that their families are the parishioners (and students) they serve in their various assignments. When they are called home to be with the Lord, as we all are at some point, the family that remembers them and prays for them is made up of people from the various assignments they have had over the course of their vocation. This was certainly true last evening as families continued to arrive in a steady stream to pay their respects and to pray for Father.
Obviously, we mourn whenever someone close to us passes from this life. In calling attention to Father Pilon's passing, I wanted to bring to mind the special vocations of the priests and religious in our lives and highlight the importance of praying for them -- that we not take their service in our lives for granted.