YORK (PA)
York Daily Record
August 19, 2018
By Anthony J. Machcinski
In 2006, Jonathan Ulrick was leaving his lay job to pursue a life in the priesthood, and a few of his friends took him out to lunch. One of the colleagues, a person Ulrick considered a mentor at the job, made a statement involving a priest and a child and made light of the clergy abuse scandal.
The colleague meant the statement as a joke, but it hurt Ulrick.
“I was wondering to myself, ‘Is this what this guy thinks of me?’” Ulrick said Sunday.
Ulrick, now a parochial vicar with St. Joseph, knew the Catholic Church’s reputation took a hit – with the clergy abuse scandal in Boston in 2002 and the others after it – but joined the priesthood anyway. He told the more than 200 on hand on Sunday that he believes he could be part of a “renewal” of the church pushing forward in faith so that “things can be beautiful again.”
There were subtle differences in Sunday’s Mass – hymns were sung, readings were read and babies still cried and cooed – but the Pennsylvania grand jury report that named 301 priests accused of child sexual abuse, including four who were assigned at St. Joseph, was present throughout.
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