“Merry Christmas from Fr. Jim Pillar, OMI (belated): ‘Do We Dare to Compare?'”
by Harry Winter, O.M.I.
Fr. James J. Pillar, OMI
Thanks to the help of our archivist, Mat Martin, at the Oblate Archives, San Antonio, TX, Jim Pillar, O.M.I., gave a Christmas gift to the Oblates of the Tewksbury Infirmary, consisting of an article he wrote for the Journal of Mississippi History in 1993: “A Special Breed: Mississippi’s Catholic Priests in the 1880s.” Jim, who is almost totally blind, gave his original article a new title, since he was listening to it being read to him during Advent: “Merry Christmas from Fr. Jim Pillar, O.M.I.: ‘Do We Dare to Compare?’ ”
Not only did Jim describe the sufferings and trials of those priests, but he compared them with the Baptist and Methodist clergy very accurately.
