The Roman Catholic priest who created a sensation at a church in Prince William County, where his presence was accompanied by unexplained phenomena, is busy as pastor of two churches in the Northern Neck town of Kilmarnock, Va., where he was transferred in 1995.
The Rev. James Bruse, 42, who has been a priest for 13 years, said in a telephone interview that people rarely ask him now about the events of 1992-93, when he was at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Lake Ridge, but that he still gets visits and letters from people requesting spiritual advice and blessings.
In 1992, several people said they saw tears stream from the eyes of statues touched by Bruse at St. Elizabeth's and another church in Oxon Hill. At the same time, Bruse said he began to experience occasional and apparently spontaneous bleeding from his wrists, resembling the wounds of the crucified Jesus.
Bruse said he has no explanation for why the phenomena suddenly began and then just as suddenly stopped.
"Everything quieted down. . . . There's nothing happening," he said. "But the result was conversions and stronger faith. It strengthened people's faith. It brought a lot of people back to God. Those are its fruits after those years. I'm still seeing that from the letters and phone calls."
The Roman Catholic Church has not acknowledged the events as miracles, and neither believers nor skeptics have confirmed whether they were real or a hoax.
Bruse said his transfer from Lake Ridge to Kilmarnock was not a punishment by his church superiors. "It wasn't a negative thing at all," he said.
Besides the 650 families in his two parishes -- St. Francis Catholic Church and St. Paul's Mission -- Bruse ministers to the local hospital, nursing homes and prison.
He has no other priests helping in the parishes, which cover four rural counties.
"It's a constant run," he said.