“Merry Christmas from Fr. Jim Pillar, OMI (belated): ‘Do We Dare to Compare?'”
by Harry Winter, O.M.I.
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.