OLEAN, N.Y. — Monsignor Thomas R. Walsh of Allegany, N.Y., died Dec. 2, 2016, at Cuba Memorial Hospital in Cuba. N.Y., after a long illness.
Friends will be received from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 5, 2016, at the Casey, Halwig & Hartle Funeral Home, 3128 W. State Road, Olean, and from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016, at St. Bonaventure Church in Allegany. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. in the church. Burial will be next to his parents in St. Bonaventure Cemetery.
The son of the late John J. and Celia Phillips Walsh, he was a graduate of St. Bonaventure Parochial School and from Allegany Central School, where he was the class valedictorian of 1944, winning The James McLaughlin Scholarship to St. Bonaventure University. During his high school and college years, he served as one of the organists at St. Bonaventure Parish Church.
While in his third year of college, he was accepted as a candidate for the priesthood for the Diocese of Raleigh, with the help of Franciscan Father Thomas Plassman, president of St. Bonaventure University. He attended Mount St. Mary's College and Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., and played the organ and did missionary work in North Carolina during his seminary years.
He was ordained to the priesthood in Greensboro in May 1953 by the late Bishop Vincent S. Waters.
Father Walsh served the Diocese of Raleigh and later the Diocese of Charlotte, when the state was divided into two dioceses because of the growth in the Catholic population. He served as assistant pastor and pastor of 13 parishes across the coastal, Piedmont and mountain areas of the state. He saw and experienced many changes in North Carolina with the growth of the Catholic Church in the South.
Perhaps his most notable achievement was his nine years as pastor of St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte, when the new church was built. He had much influence on its design, its inclusion of an organ and its protection of the large oak trees on the building site, for which the parish received an award of appreciation from the city of Charlotte.
Father Walsh retired to his hometown of Allegany in 1996 and assisted at local parishes in the Diocese of Buffalo, N.Y., often at St. Patrick's Church in Limestone, until his illness prevented him.
He was a member of the Allegany Area Historical Association and the Allegany Knights of Columbus, serving as its chaplain for several years.
He is survived by a brother, John P. (Jillian) Walsh of Allegany; three sisters, Barbara Walsh of Houghton, Sally (John) Vanini of Olean and Cameron (John) Donoghue of Weeki Wachee, Fla.; and eight nieces and nephews: Margaret Eckhardt, Bridget Walsh, Matthew Walsh, John T. Vanini, Kevin Vanini, Aileen Henning, and James and Mark Donoghue.
Flowers are declined. Donations may be made to St. Bonaventure Church, 95 E. Main St., Allegany, N.Y. 14706; The Alzheimer's Association of WNY, 2805 Wehrle Dr., Suite 6, Williamsville, N.Y. 14221; The Allegany Area Historical Association, P.O. Box 162 Allegany, N.Y. 14706; or an organization of the donor's choice.
Online condolences may be expressed at www.oleanfuneralhome.com.
Casey Halwig & Hartle Funeral Home of Olean was in charge of the arrangements.
— Catholic News Herald
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Father Edmund McCaffrey, a retired priest of the Diocese of Charleston who was a former Benedictine monk and former abbot of Belmont Abbey, died Nov. 13, 2016.
He died in Louisville, Ky., where he resided with the Little Sisters of the Poor. He was 83.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at noon on Monday, Nov. 28, 2016, at St. Michael Church in Garden City, S.C. Father McCaffrey helped found St. Michael Church in 1976 and was its first pastor.
Visitation will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 27, and from 9-11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 28, at the church. There will be a prayer vigil service at 7:15 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 27, also at St. Michael Church.
As a Benedictine, he was a founder and former head of the political science department at Belmont Abbey College, as well as a visiting professor and writer, then abbot of the Belmont Abbey monastery. He was incardinated in the Diocese of Charleston Oct. 1, 1993.
In the diocese, he served at St. Andrew Parish in Myrtle Beach, was the priest in charge of the Garden City Catholic Community, helped found St. Michael in Garden City at Murrells Inlet, and served as pastor at Divine Redeemer Church in Hanahan.
He retired Jan. 1, 2003, after serving as pastor of Holy Family Church on Hilton Head Island.
Even in retirement, he spent time traveling, giving retreats and parish missions all over the country.
“I’m proud of the work I did at St. Michael Church,” he said in a 2008 interview with The Catholic Miscellany, Charleston’s diocesan newspaper. “When I started, it was a little church and we didn’t have any money, but what we built has become one of the largest parishes in South Carolina.”
Father McCaffrey was an avid supporter of vocations, and in 1974 he served as co-founder of the Institute on Religious Life in Chicago with Jesuit Father John Hardon, Bishop James J. Hogan of Altoona-Johnstown, Pa., and William Isaacson. He was executive vice president and executive director from 1975 to 1980. The institute’s mission is to promote the growth and renewal of consecrated religious life. He started the organization when he was abbot of Belmont Abbey.
“We wanted to preserve the gift of consecrated life as envisioned by Vatican II, which not only included religious but the laity, too,” said the priest.
Father McCaffrey received the institute’s 2003 Pro Fidelitate et Virtute Award for manifesting “notable support and promotion of the consecrated life.”
In 1990, Fathers McCaffrey and Hardon also were two of the co-founders of Eternal Life, a Catholic pro-life organization that would focus more on the educational aspect of pro-life work. In the first few years, they held more than 20 “Make a Moral Miracle Happen Conferences” all over the country.
Father McCaffrey returned to Myrtle Beach in 2003 because he had so many friends there. Besides giving retreats and parish missions, he led more than 23 pilgrimages to Fatima in Portugal and still tried to go annually.
He said some of his most important work was promoting the sacraments.
“I like to talk about the Eucharist and the importance of confession,” the priest said. “Those are my main apostolic works. I preach about those things all the time.”
He was born Jan. 9, 1933, in Savannah, Ga., to Joseph E. McCaffrey and Ruby Elizabeth Johnson Fairbanks McCaffrey.
He was a graduate of Belmont Abbey Preparatory School, Belmont Abbey College and Belmont Abbey Seminary in Belmont, and The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
He had a bachelor’s, a master’s and a doctorate in political science, and also had a doctorate in sacred theology doctorate.
He made his profession as a Benedictine monk (American-Cassinese Congregation) July 2, 1953, and was ordained a priest May 23, 1959.
He was elected the fourth abbot of Belmont Abbey on March 2, 1970.
In retirement, Father McCaffrey did everything but slow down.
“I don’t think that a priest should ever retire,” said Father McCaffrey in an interview. “When a man gives himself to God, it should never end with a retirement.”
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to: Eternal Life, 902 W. Stephen Foster Ave. Bardstown, KY 40004.
Goldfinch Funeral Home-Beach Chapel in Murrells Inlet, S.C., was in charge of the arrangements.
— Catholic News Service. The staff of The Catholic Miscellany in Charleston, S.C., contributed.