The blizzard of Dec. 11 made for an interesting weekend for the priest who pastors the two parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis that are the furthest southwest of the Twin Cities.
A quarter-inch of freezing rain followed by the snow caused Father Dennis Backer to cancel Saturday evening Mass at Nativity in Cleveland.
“Sunday for the 8:30 Mass at Nativity we had 30 people instead of the usual 125,” Father Backer told The Catholic Spirit. Afterward he was supposed to lead the 10:30 a.m. Mass at Immaculate Conception in Marysburg, about 14 miles west, and he actually tried to.
“I drove down to Marysburg on glare ice, passing cars in the ditch. The church is out in the middle of the country, and when I got to the church I couldn’t even get into it. The snow drifted over the parking lot, so even if I got in there people wouldn’t have been able to park.
“But no one else was there.”
Father Backer was taking some consolation from the storm, though.
“I caught a lot of grief from some of my fellow priests in my support group when I canceled Mass due to the first snowstorm this season.”
This time he wasn’t alone, and he said he was enjoying the fact some of the priests who teased him for canceling Mass had to cancel this time too — and eat some crow.
