The Servite chapter

In June of 1970, the Servites held their chapter or general meeting of the Eastern Province of Servites at St. Xavier College.  I am not sure if that was the place, but it was nearby in Chicago.  All the solemnly professed Servites of the Eastern Province gathered for this annual meeting.  This year they were going to elect a new provincial and consulters.  I had never been to any of these chapters, since I was in Europe.  There must have been about sixty or seventy Servites.  I got to meet a lot of people that I had not seen in years.  I met others for the first time.  I had time to talk with Rev. James Dore, OSM (1933-2007).  He was the Servite priest in charge of the Servite seminarians at St. Louis University at Coronado Hall.  I always had a good talk with him.  We talked about the problem of preparing students for the priesthood.  He always seemed so serious to me.  He died in 2007 at Annunciata Priory, Chicago, IL, in 2007, when he was seventy-four years of age, and a priest for forty-eight years.  His obituary showed several people that he had a huge impact on.  Otherwise, I renewed acquaintances with others.  There were not that many young people my age.  We voted for a new Provincial.  The provincials that I had known were Father Louis Cortney, Father Joe Loftus, and Father Terrance O’Connor.  Now I would have to get to know Father Justin Ryska, as he was the new provincial.  He signed my contract with CTU later in the month.  When it came to electing the consulters, there was a big problem.  Tom Cunningham, who was at CTU, lost three times when he ran against other Servites.  He never got more than twenty-five votes.  I wondered about that.  Was there something against the people at CTU among the other Servites or did they just not like Cunningham, who was from Ireland?  Obviously, there was some kind of split among the Eastern Province Servites.  One day, I decided to wear my colorful pants.  Everyone noticed me and made comments.  I am not sure that I helped to resolve anything.  I became aware that there was a big difference between those Servites working in parishes and those teaching.  I never did figure out exactly what the problem was.  However, I had assumed that everyone got along a little bit better.  Perhaps the new provincial would help.  Other than my talk with Jim Dore, I thought that the chapter was a failure.  There was a growing dispute among the various Servites, but I could not put my finger on exactly what was the problem.  That was frustrating to me.  I did not think that they were serious about the future.  Do you worry about the future?