We're lucky enough to have Fr. Barber as a weekend assistant priest here at our parish in Menlo Park. The "helluva fine priest and fellow" description is accurate.
macnylleth | 01.30.04 - 3:01 pm | #

"As the U.S. prepared for this latest invasion, Fr. Barber listened closely to the news coming from Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of Catholic Military Services. 'Before the war started, he was very much against a U.S. invasion of Iraq and made the argument to all the chaplains and to the President that this did not meet the qualifications for a Just War. But after the war started, he sent another letter to all the chaplains noting that this is a matter about which intelligent people may disagree..."

This is what many of us have been saying about the war. People of good faith have disagreed. Can we now put to rest this endless debate about the war?
SteveF | 01.30.04 - 3:22 pm | #

Fr. Barber is a great Jesuit. A couple of years ago, I wrote an article about him. He was the chaplain for the crew of the surveilance plane that was downed and held captive in China in 2001. When they were released and returned on Good Friday, he met, talked to and had a communion service for them. The stories of the importance of their faith in this crisis situation are similar to the one's Mark linked. There's a funny incident he relayed for the story:

When the service was over on Good Friday, the Catholics asked for rosaries. "So we went to our storeroom and brought out all these plastic rosaries that the Navy buys to hand out to sailors and Marines," Fr. Barber said. "They're plastic so they won't make noise in your pocket when you're in a war."
As Father Barber was handing them out, one of the pilots looked at him with a grin on his face and said, "I don't think that I can accept this Father."
It had a big tag on it, Fr. Barber said, "Made in China."

Fr. Barber is spiritual director at the San Francisco Archdiocese Seminary now (St. Patrick's). His younger brother Stephen, another excellent Jesuit, is full-time chaplain to 6000 men at San Quentin State Prison, including the men on death row.
Jack Smith | 01.30.04 - 4:04 pm | #

As soon as Mark stops posting articles telling us how the war wasn't justified, but that it was justified, but now that this, that or the other thing has been discoverd (because of the war, I might add) it isn't justified any more we'll be glad to stop the endless debate. I just might add that people still debate the US involvement in WWII, though for most reasonable people that has been settled for quite some time.

I would like to pass along a hearty thank you for your service to Fr. Barber. We need more men like him.
Daniel P. Crandall | 01.30.04 - 4:55 pm | #

I'm also at the parish in Menlo Park. Mike Barber is a great guy, very humble. We're lucky to have him.
Matteo | 01.30.04 - 6:01 pm | #

Another great Jesuit!

One thing that disturbed me about the article was the fact that soldiers in a war zone were getting emails divorcing them.

Something is wrong here....wrong, wrong, wrong.
Charles R. Williams | 01.30.04 - 8:38 pm | #

What are we laity doing sitting around when our service members come back home to an empty house with the lawn not mowed? WE have the vocation to the world. Why aren't WE right there before a priest has to deal with this ghastly situation? These servicemen have sacrificed for us. The least we could do is to support them when they could use some help. Lord help us.
Glenn Juday | 01.30.04 - 9:10 pm | #

Sounds like a great priest.

The email divorces are a shocker. War becomes an attack on the family and an occassion for adultery. The costs on the troops, their marriages and their families need to be factored in to the decision to go to war.

God Bless
Chris Sullivan | 02.01.04 - 1:41 pm | #