I was a young priest, an associate pastor at Christ the King and teaching part time at O’Gorman High School and I came running into the rectory. I was glad the class time was over for the day and I was getting myself ready for the evening appointments.
I stopped to check in with Monsignor Mahowald, just to see how things during the day had gone. He told me we were going to have a visitor the next day for lunch. Monsignor Tom Gullickson was coming home for a visit.
That stopped me in my tracks.
I had heard of Msgr. Gullickson, but had never met him. I knew he was a priest of the diocese who worked for the apostolic nuncio in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but that was about all I knew.
To be honest, a number of thoughts went through my head. The first being, “Griffin, for goodness sake, be on your best behavior.” I mean, we had an international diplomat coming for lunch. I had seen movies with Vatican diplomats; I knew what kind of world they lived in.
So I made sure my calendar was clear and the next day Msgr. Gullickson’s voice was heard upstairs in the rectory, so I made my way from my basement apartment with a hint of nerves. I walked through the kitchen door and saw a tall man with an intense and disarming smile.
The introductions were made and Msgr. Gullickson wandered around and checked out the changes that had occurred in the rectory since the days he was in residence here as a young priest who taught at O’Gorman High School.
After the wandering, two monsignors and I made our way to a local Chinese restaurant. It did not take long to figure out that my best behavior would not be appropriate. We laughed and laughed during that long, lingering lunch. Stories were shared and memories were made; it was a wonderful time.
A short time later, when Father Greg Tschakert and I were in Israel, Msgr. Gullickson was generous with his time and attention as he gave us a visit and a wonderful tour. During this time, something began to dawn on me about this man; his priestly vocation had taken him all over the world, but his connection to the diocese of Sioux Falls was strong and life giving.
It was a connection forged throughout his life, as he lived and grew in Sioux Falls, and this connection was made permanent as Bishop Lambert Hoch laid hands upon him, ordaining his as a priest for our diocese in 1976.
The gifts bestowed by the ordination rite would be used on the global stage, but at every ordination in Sioux Falls, there would be a tall, smiling priest greeting his brother priests. Wherever he may have been living, it was to Sioux Falls he would return as we ordained our newest priests.
And he would make his way to Christ the King, to look around, to reminisce and to reconnect. It was, and is, always a great pleasure to have Msgr. Gullickson at my dinner table and to appreciate, not only his love for his diocese, but also his love for this parish.
Although the living of his priesthood would take him to Rwanda, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Israel, Cyprus and Germany, it is to Sioux Falls that he comes to begin his new assignment as an archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church and apostolic nuncio to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies.
It is an extraordinary gift he shares with the diocese he loves as he prepares to connect himself with a father’s love to a new land, that it is to his family, the Church in east river South Dakota, that he returns for his ordination.
It is, of course, usual that this ordination would take place in Rome, but Msgr. Gullickson honors us as we lovingly prepare to honor him. As our brother kneels for the anointing with Chrism at his ordination Mass, we will join our hearts to the words he hears, “God has brought you to share the high priesthood of Christ, may He pour out on you the oil of mystical anointing and enrich you with spiritual blessings.”
With that we will share with the universal Church, and indeed with all the world, a man of great talent, faith, humor and love. Indeed, we share one of our best.
Wherever he may go, I think he knows there will always be a place for him at the table in the Christ the King rectory.