JUST TOO COOL: A priest friend has an official day proclaimed for him in my native place!

This needs wide coverage.

My good friend Fr. Joseph Johnson, for a few days more Rector of the Cathedral parish of my native place, St. Paul in Minnesota, who engineered having the Cathedral of St. Paul made the National Shrine of St. Paul during the special year dedicated to St. Paul, and who obtained from the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls in Rome a brick, relic from the tomb of the Apostle Paul, who obtained a spectacular and rare perfect cast of Michelangelo’s Pieta for a chapel, who has raised remarkably the standards of liturgical worship of the Cathedral and lifted a vasty portion of the debt from the work done on the done, et al., is moving on to a new assignment. All this while simultaneously pastor of the Hmong parish.

However, 24 June is officially proclaimed by the mayor of St. Paul as “Very Reverend Joseph Johnson Day”.

I think that is JUST TOO COOL.

Here is the LINK to the story in the diocesan paper, The Catholic Spirit – also getting an overhaul these days.

I am really proud of this guy, whom I first met in Rome when he was a lay student. I had a part in bringing him to St. Paul in the first place and it is good… good… to see him get this recognition. I wish him all the best in his next assignment.