Last week, at the jam-packed reception held in his honor in the Parish Hall, the Knights of Columbu<\/strong>s wanted to make a presentation, but no one could hear the speakers because all those in attendance were talking loudly. So the crafty pastor looked around and said, \u201cI know how to do this.\u201d He then proceeded to shout, \u201cIn the name of the Father.\u201d At that point everybody automatically became quiet and made the sign of the cross. Yes, he knew how to get their attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Father Joe has held our attention for almost two decades now. His tenure has had a transformative effect on St. John\u2019s and the entire Oxford\/Lafayette\/University<\/strong> community. The things that really stand out are his teachings by example about the things that matter most, which can best be expressed by the phrase \u201clove thy neighbor.\u201d From the beginning he has championed the cause of the less fortunate among us with his unwavering advocacy for important social service agencies such as Interfaith Compassion Ministry<\/strong>, More Than a Meal<\/strong>, Love Packs<\/strong>, Doors of Hope<\/strong>, the Oxford Pregnancy Center<\/strong>, and many others. His strong support of St. John\u2019s Drawdown<\/strong>, a community-wide event that produces tens of thousands of dollars annually, has been just as significant. All the proceeds of this fundraiser benefit local charities, including those listed above. Now that he\u2019s leaving, Oxford will have to step up in a big way to maintain a robust level of support for these organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After all these years Father Joe has taken on the aura of a local \u201cpersonality,\u201d just like other great Oxford fixtures past and present, such as Angelo Mistilis<\/strong>, Ron Shapiro<\/strong>, Sparky Reardon<\/strong>, and Richard Howorth<\/strong>. Practically everybody in Oxford knows him, at least by sight, because he\u2019s always wearing his all-black clerical attire instead of ordinary street clothes. If you see in the distance someone wearing black, you know it has to be Father Joe because Johnny Cash is dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many may be unaware that Oxford\u2019s most famous member of the clergy is also an accomplished artist. Among his creations are a number of \u201caction figures\u201d of local celebrities. If you don\u2019t believe this, you can view these figurines at Square Books<\/strong>. And if you haven\u2019t seen the beautiful series of stained glass panels adorning the walls of the narthex (vestibule) of St. John\u2019s, you should stop by to check it out\u2014Father Joe designed that, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those who know him well are keenly aware of his remarkable sense of humor and his legendary sarcasm, which is always flowing like the Nile. Nevertheless, it\u2019s easy to tell when he\u2019s kidding because that\u2019s most of the time. Here are just a few samples of his wit and wisdom:<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Lent: When a student asked him what he planned to give up for Lent, he replied, \u201cI\u2019ve already given up everything. What do you want me to do, give up breathing?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the Ole Miss\/LSU rivalry: \u201cAlthough we are sure that only God knows who is in Hell, a Catholic in good standing may be allowed, on certain occasions, to shout: \u2018GO TO HELL, LSU, GO TO HELL.\u2019 Choose the occasion carefully! Peace be with you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On those who (like me) attended the Catholic Church for decades and then, finally, decided to convert: \u201cIf you hang around a barber shop long enough, you\u2019ll eventually get a haircut.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On fasting and abstinence from meat on Ash Wednesday: \u201cI\u2019m not telling anyone to do anything. It\u2019s Ash freakin\u2019 Wednesday. You know what to do. If you decide you want to have chocolate-covered strawberries, a steak dinner, champagne, and romance, then go on and go to Hell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n St. John\u2019s had needed a new church building long before Father Joe arrived on the scene in 2004. All the previous efforts to raise the money and construct a new building had come to naught, but the new priest was able to pull it off. He did it in a most ingenious way: by tearing down the old building and then saying, \u201cOkay, if you want a new church, go raise the money.\u201d It was a daring approach, but it worked. In the meantime St. John\u2019s met in several campus locations\u2014Paris Yates Chapel, Nutt Auditorium, Johnson Commons\u2014and would have, in his words, met in a pool hall, if necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Greenville<\/strong> native and graduate of Delta State University<\/strong>, Father Joe is the living embodiment of the saying, \u201cYou can take the boy out of the Delta, but you can\u2019t take the Delta out of the boy.\u201d What\u2019s more, he\u2019s a Rebel through and through. I wonder if that will apply to St. John\u2019s incoming priest, Father Mark Shoffner<\/strong>, who is also from Greenville. I hope so. Father Joe Tonos, Oxford\u2019s one and only Catholic priest, has left a deep, indelible mark on this place we call home. And I don\u2019t just mean that spot in front of the church where he wrote his name in the wet concrete while workers were building the sidewalk. He has given everything he has to give and has set the bar high. Our local community will have to work hard to live up to his standards of charity and service. And so, as we welcome Father Mark to Oxford, we bid a fond farewell to Father Joe: goodbye, adi\u00f3s<\/em>, Godspeed, and as Roy and Dale used to sing, \u201cHappy Trails to You.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n by Melvin Arrington A few months ago parishioners at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church learned that Father<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123474,"featured_media":119600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[307],"tags":[19119,19246,5,4,21392,21393],"class_list":["post-119575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-people","tag-father-joe-tonos","tag-melvin-arrington","tag-mississippi","tag-oxford","tag-saint-john-the-evangelist-catholic-church","tag-st-johns"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/2022-05-05-FatherJoeTonos.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123474"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144547,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119575\/revisions\/144547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/FatherJoe-750.jpg\")
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