My cousin Gail tells me that I am just like my mother: I never say "no.” And when I look back over my 45 years of priesthood I have been privileged to say "yes" many times - sometimes for a benefit and sometimes for a bother. In the back of my mind, I always felt a certain call to the priesthood.
The Sisters of Mercy at St. Charles School in Woonsocket thought that I should enter the seminary after the ninth grade. But I figured that would cramp my style, such as it was, so I said “yes” to God’s call to the priesthood after graduating from La Salle in 1958. My seminary career was one big “yes.” No one said “no” to Monsignor Sullivan or Father Besse at Our Lady of Providence at Warwick Neck, nor did one say “no” to Msgr. Craugh at St. Bernard’s Seminary in Rochester, N.Y. Even his very name was forbidding. And I didn't have much opportunity to say “no” as an assistant pastor either.
When I was first ordained, priests had to be in the rectory at 9 p.m. if on duty and at 10 p.m. if it were a day off. One night I came back to Sacred Heart rectory in Pawtucket at about one minute to ten. The girls at Sacred Heart High School were having a dance in the church hall so I started to head over there to see what was going on. On my way I met Father Robert Cassidy, the pastor, who was returning after making an appearance at the dance. “Where are you going?” he inquired. I looked at his stern countenance and said, “Back to my room, I guess.” “Yes, I guess so too,” he insisted. You did not say “no” to Father Cassidy. Nineteen years of my priesthood were spent with Father John V. Doyle at SS. John & Paul Church in Coventry. While Father Doyle was one generation younger than Father Cassidy, he more gently but just as surely expected an affirmative answer in any discussion. Just before Father Doyle retired in 1989, a major effort was begun to give him a fitting tribute for his 25 years as pastor in Coventry.
There was much discussion about whether the parish should hire a fundraiser to solicit donations for this tribute or simply rely on the good will of the parishioners. I was the one who had to give the final "Yes" to the professional fundraising suggestion. And I'm glad I did. Over $85,000 was raised from this effort which allowed 1,100 people to join Father Doyle for a gala dinner at Rocky Point’s Palladium and make a handsome gift to him as well. In its deliberations the committee proposed buying Father Doyle a car. Now I knew Father Doyle. He lived very humbly and a new car was the farthest thing from his mind. I proposed a scholarship to the parish school which, of course, had been named after him. Now Father Doyle didn't like surprises so I privately laid out this whole plan before the dinner took place. He remarked to me rather soberly, “Whose idea was it to take some of this money and establish a scholarship?” I replied, “It was my idea.” And then he demanded intensely, “Well, who are you to spend my money?” So saying “yes” can sometimes backfire.
I was only too happy to say “yes” to Bishop Gelineau when he called me in Coventry and assigned me to my first pastorate at St. Francis in Hillsgrove. And I was pleased again to say “yes” to Bishop Gelineau when he again called me in Warwick and asked me to assume the pastorate at St. Leo the Great in Pawtucket. Both parishes were very affirming experiences. And I very dutifully if somewhat naively said “yes” to Bishop McManus when he asked to me take on the double pastorate of St. Francis in Hillsgrove and St. William in Norwood. St. Francis was of course very familiar territory. St. William Parish however was completely new to me. While both parishes were very friendly, their future together was questionable. People from Hillsgrove never go north of Route 37. And people from Norwood never go south of Route 37. After two years of balancing the parish on Jefferson Blvd. with the parish on Pettaconsett Avenue, I wrote to Bishop Tobin and suggested that both these parishes deserved a full time “yes” in their own right.
The bishop graciously assigned me full time back at St. Francis and a new, full-time pastor to St. William. God willing, I will now be able to continue to say “yes” as my retirement commences. I have already said “yes” to a few requests to help with Masses at St. Ambrose in Lincoln and at St. Philip in Greenville. St. Paul wrote that the life of Jesus Christ was one mighty “yes” to the will of his heavenly Father. Blessed Pope John Paul II wrote of the Catholic priesthood as an enduring “yes” to God's Will.
I have been privileged to share in this priestly “yes” of Jesus Christ for 45 years and, God willing, can continue to do so from my family home in Woonsocket where it all began.
