Several weeks ago, I was able to visit with Bishop Attila Mikloshazy in the Jesuit Infirmary at Pickering, ON. He is in pain due to significant and multiple ailments, which required his recent transfer to Rene Goupil House from St. Augustine's Seminary where he had served as Dean, professor of liturgy and historical theology, all the while carrying on his ministry of encouragement to Hungarian expatriates around the world who were able only with difficulty to maintain contact with the Church in Hungary.
My teacher at Regis College, where he had taught before transferring to the Faculty of Theology at the University of St. Michael's College (where he also for a time served as Dean), we have shared many conversations over the years, especially since my nomination as a bishop (he was one of the co-consecrators at my episcopal ordination).
Congratulating him on his recent 80th birthday (on April 5) and his forthcoming Golden Jubilee of priestly ordination (today), he gave me the card he had printed for the occasion which has the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the front and on the obverse not his date of birth but of his baptism (April 26, 1931) and priesthood and the words "the future is bright" (an eschatological hint, for that was an aspect of his courses on Theological Anthropology).
Please join with him, his confreres and many friends in giving thanks to the Lord on this day and during this year, and pray for his well-being in these days of physical infirmity, which he unites with the sufferings of Christ for the sake of the Church (Colossians 1.24).
Ad multos annos!
Today I attended a Holy Mass at Manresa Retreat House in Pickering, Ontario, which was celebrated by Bishop Attila Mikloshazy.
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