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SAULT STE. MARIE - According to Bay Mills elder Irma Parrish, meeting the new Catholic Bishop Alex Sample was not only a once in a lifetime opportunity, but one of the greatest thrills of her life. Parrish, along with fellow Bay Mills elder Agnes Carrick, had the chance to listen to Sample speak at the St. Mary's Cathedral in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., on Feb. 19, where he addressed the crowd on the lack of men entering the priesthood, the lack of attendance at church, and the lack of people receiving the sacraments. Afterwards, Parrish and Carrick had the chance to meet Sample at a reception at Lake Superior State University's Cisler Center.
"I've never been to something so awesome in all my life," Parrish said of her recent opportunity to meet and listen to the new bishop speak. "I'll never forget it. I really feel privileged to have had the opportunity to meet him. I was awe-struck. You could just see the love in his eyes."
Parish said that, in addition to "being a handsome man that looked like a young Richard Chamberlain," Sample was the most cordial person she had ever met. She said she was not only impressed by how he took the time to speak with every single person that waited in a long line that stretched out into the hallway of the Cisler Center, but how he bowed down when speaking to children, and how he got down on bended knees when speaking with those who were handicapped.
While meeting Sample was one of the most memorable events of her life, Parrish said it was an event she almost never had the chance to experience.
As a student at a Catholic school and later at the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, Parrish said she attended church regularly as a child. As she grew older, Parrish said she drifted further and further away from the Catholic Church until she finally reached the point where she had not attended for years. Father Peter Fosu, the previous priest at the Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Church in Bay Mills, was a friend and regular visitor at Parrish's house. Even though he was a frequent visitor to her household, Parrish said Fosu never pressured her into returning to church. When Fosu left the area earlier this year, Parrish said God sent someone extra special to take his place - 31-year-old priest Father Al Mott.
Parrish said that Mott picked up right where Fosu had left off, stopping by frequently to visit her and her family and escorting her to one of her favorite pastime activities - attending Brimley basketball games. And then, one week before Christmas, Parrish said Mott asked her something Father Peter never had - "So what time do you want me to pick you up for church on Sunday?" And at that exact moment, Parrish said she made her decision to begin attending church again.
"Father Al coming into our lives was the best thing that ever happened [to my family]," Parrish said. "It makes me so happy to go to church regularly again and receive communion. I'm the happiest I've been in a long while and it's all because of Father Al. If it wasn't for him I never would have met the bishop, but he wouldn't take credit for it. Instead, he would say 'God directed him to me,' and that it was merely 'God working his way in my life.'"
