Illness adds meaning to priest's Lenten journey

Karen Mahoney reports in the Catholic Herald on Fr. Wayne Barta, "retired archdiocesan priest in residence at St. Martin Parish". Fr. Bartas has been suffering from liver cancer, which he recently learned had spread to his lungs and back.

"He can be quiet and melancholy about it all, but then he surprises me sometimes, too," admitted Schoofs [LeeAnn Schoofs, a friend who has been assisting him]. "Recently, we had gone to another priest's funeral and it reminded me of when I will have to take care of Fr. Barta's, and I began to cry. I said to him, 'Oh, Father, I am never going to live through your funeral,' and he said, 'Well, neither am I!' "