All religious superiors are required by Canon Law (the law of the church) to have a group of consultors in order to provide proper advice and perspective on issues of governance. While I was assigned to Blessed Sacrament in Hollywood, I was informed by the provincial that he had appointed me to be one of his consultors. This sent me scurrying as I had no idea what this meant.

It didn’t take me long to understand that this meant monthly meetings where the confidential issues of the province were taken up for discussion. These issues of governance included personnel issues, the assignment of superiors to our various works and the evaluation of ministries.

In 1993 it came time to select a new Director of Novices, which is arguably the most important position in the province, second only to the provincial himself. The consultors spent at least two of our monthly meetings composing a lengthy two-page, four paragraph description of the type of person we were looking for. The plan was to send this document of qualities out to the various houses of the province requesting suggested names. Good luck, I thought, as I reviewed the letter we had composed. Who could possibly meet these expectations? Jesus need not even apply!