HUDSON (WI)
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Richard Meryhew, Randy Furst and Paul Levy
Last update: December 10, 2005 at 10:11 PM
Star Tribune staff writers
As he spoke to the congregation about the Blessed Virgin Mother, the Rev. Ryan Erickson began sobbing.
Like others at St. Patrick's Church in Hudson, Wis., Joan Richie was stunned the first time she witnessed one of Erickson's emotional outbursts.
But when his crying became a regular part of his sermons, an irritated Richie said she could no longer hold herself back. She confronted him one Sunday about four years ago in the church sacristy.
"He was like a little child, gasping for air between sobs when I asked him, 'Aren't you overdoing it a bit? Can't you quit crying?' " Richie, 79, recalled. "And he did. If he had to, he could turn it on and off.
"I never doubted his devotion to his faith. But Ryan Erickson was an actor. And his greatest role may have been as a priest."