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This situation, however, is very sad. Fr. Johnson was a remarkable priest. He made the rounds of his parish on a constant basis, and personally knocked on every single door in the boundaries of his parish 5 times during his time as pastor. He made hundreds, maybe even thousands of converts. And all because the diocese wanted to give him the worst parish to keep him out of the way while they went about the process of their revolution.

A saint in the making, perhaps? He will be sorely missed. He sounds a lot like a modern day Cure d'Ars, St. John Vianney. If anyone knows of any particular gift he had for the sacrament of Confession, then that clinches it. What a wonderful and sad story. Hopefully, somewhere, he will have inspired someone to follow in his footsteps.

If anyone knows of any particular gift he had for the sacrament of Confession, then that clinches it.

Actually, the other article about Fr. Johnson (links above), mentioned confession as the basis of his apostalate. The former pastor only had 17 confessions during the Christmas season, Fr. Johnson hears more confessions every single day of the week. When Fr. Johnson saw a priest visting the parish for a seminar, he told him to jump right into the confessional and get to work earning his keep. You're right that does reflect the spirit of the Cure of Ars.