KERNERSVILLE — George L. Repass, principal of Bishop McGuinness High School in Kernersville, passed away peacefully in his sleep Nov. 8, 2015. He was 69.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Nov. 19 at St. Pius X Church in Greensboro with Father Brian Cook officiating. Bishop McGuinness High School was also closed Thursday to "honor the memory of Mr. Repass." A vigil service, including a student-led rosary, was also held Nov. 18.
Repass's unexpected death was announced by diocesan and school officials Nov. 9.
"It is with deep regret that we inform you of the sudden death of Mr. Repass. His untimely passing is of deep shock to the entire school community but our faith is a source of comfort for us at this difficult time," said Katie Williams, director of advancement for the high school. "We ask for your prayers for Mr. Repass and his family and the entire school community. We will help each other through this difficult time using our faith to give us strength."
Clergy from the diocese and counselors from other Catholic schools and Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte responded quickly to assist students and faculty in their time of grief.
Diane Bullard, director of Catholic Charities' Piedmont Triad Office in Winston-Salem, said she was impressed with how the counselors from nearby Catholic schools offered support.
"The Catholic community really came together to support these kids and teachers at Bishop McGuinness during this time of tragedy. It's a testimony for Catholic school education and how the faith plays such a strong role in healing," she said.
On Nov. 11, the high school community came together to remember their beloved principal, who had led Bishop McGuinness for 25 years. The two-hour memorial service was organized and led by students, said Assistant Principal Tracy Shaw.
"We gathered together in prayer and song, and hugged and cried and remembered Mr. Repass," Shaw said.
The students signed a banner with messages for their late principal, prayed, painted the school spirit rock and put flowers, candles and luminaries around the rock.
"On Monday when the students gathered back at school after learning that their principal had passed away, they felt the need that they had to do something. A group of seniors took it upon themselves to put together a prayer vigil," Shaw said.
"They organized the whole thing. It was so impressive. George Repass, we know, is very proud of all of them for what they did."
Students sang Repass's favorite hymns, including "Lift High the Cross," and ended the vigil with the prayer that Repass used to say at the end of each school day: "Lord, you have given us the day trusting that we will respond to Your will for our lives. Your name is praised from sunrise to sunset because of Your loving providence and constant care. As we thank You, we ask that You make us worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen."
The students had prayer cards made with Repass's picture on one side and this prayer on the other, Shaw said.
"I am beyond amazed at the students and how they are handling the situation," she said. "They are lifting each other up and all of us up, really, including the adults in the building.
110915-Repass-George-2"We've all known him longer than the students have known him. Some of the teachers here have known him since the day he started. It's tough on the teachers, and it's really lifting their spirits, too."
Shaw said she also personally feels the loss of the school's leader.
"He hired me and has been my mentor. I have learned more from that man than from any schooling I ever had. I miss his laugh. I miss him popping in my office and talking about the silly stuff as well as the significant.
"Catholic education was a top priority for him. It was his whole life."
Repass was born Nov. 27, 1945, in Bluefield, W.Va., to the late George Wiley and Mary Katherine Repass.
He graduated from Cathedral High School in Indianapolis, Ind., and the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he majored in American history.
He dedicated his entire life to Catholic education, serving as an educator and administrator in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and for the past 25 years as principal at Bishop McGuinness High School.
He had a love for history, art, the classics and sacred music, but nothing could eclipse his love for Christ and his students before all else. He was a member of St. Leo the Great Church in Winston-Salem and sang faithfully in the choir for many years.
Since Repass's death, people have been expressing their grief and paying tribute to him.
"What a gentleman he was. There is no doubt that he will be missed and remembered fondly for years to come. Our children were lucky to have had him in their lives. Rest in Peace, sweet Mr. Repass," wrote Ashley Toups Raborn on the high school's Facebook page.
Kurt Telford, principal of Charlotte Catholic High School, noted, "I am still in shock about the news of Mr. Repass's death. George was one of the first persons to welcome me to the diocese when I was appointed principal at Our Lady Of Grace (School). When I came to Charlotte Catholic he again offered congratulations. In the almost 18 months that I have been at Catholic, there are many times when I have sought George's knowledge and expertise on a variety of issues. He was always on point."
"The Diocese of Charlotte has lost a champion for Catholic education," he said.
In addition to his parents, Repass was preceded in death by his nephew, Matthew George Repass. He is survived by his brother Robert Tom Repass and his wife Dannielle, and nieces and nephews, Andrew Repass, Charisse Repass and Christin Repass.
Burial will take place privately at a later time.
Hanes Lineberry North Elm Chapel is in charge of arrangements. Online condolences may be made to www.haneslineberryfuneralhomes.com.
HIGH POINT — Monsignor Joseph Aloysius Kerin, the second chancellor of the Diocese of Charlotte and the founding pastor of the diocese's two largest parishes, died Monday, April 14, 2014, at Pennybyrn at Maryfield in High Point. He was 82.
The Solemn Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on April 22, 2014, at St. Mark Church by Bishop Peter J. Jugis and concelebrated by nearly two dozen priests of the diocese, including many priests Monsignor Kerin had served alongside or had mentored through the years. Interment followed at Belmont Abbey Cemetery in Belmont.
Monsignor Kerin served as chancellor from 1979 to 1986 under the leadership of Bishops Michael J. Begley and John F. Donoghue, but his legacy of priestly service, first in the Diocese of Raleigh and then in the Diocese of Charlotte, spanned 57 years. He was the founding pastor of two of the largest parishes in the diocese – St. Matthew Church in south Charlotte and St. Mark Church in Huntersville – and he served as a teacher and Catholic school principal, Presbyteral Council member, and director of the Hispanic Catholic Center, among many other responsibilities.
OBEDIENT FAITH
041414-msgr-kerinMonsignor Kerin was born Nov. 15, 1931, in Mount Vernon, N.Y., to the late Thomas F. and Helen Gertrude Murnane Kerin and he grew up in a faithful Catholic family of nine children.
He gave thoughtful prayer to becoming a priest in his youth and after discerning he was called to go to college and not seminary, he attended Niagara University in Niagara Falls, N.Y., where he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1953.
"By the time I got to college, I was confident I had really considered a vocation and that I didn't have it," Monsignor Kerin said in a 2012 interview with the Catholic News Herald. "I was confident God wasn't calling me. But after I graduated, during that summer, the thought came to me: 'You are running from something.'"
His sister was a Dominican nun working at a school in Raleigh at that time, so he applied to work that summer in the Home Missions set up by Raleigh Bishop Vincent S. Waters, before he planned to enter law school that fall. But he never got to law school. Instead, he answered God's call to the priesthood, and Bishop Waters sent him to The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., to study theology.
He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Waters on May 30, 1957. As was the custom at that time, Bishop Waters assigned him to the Missionary Fathers Apostolate as an assistant at St. John Baptist de la Salle Parish in North Wilkesboro, from 1957 to 1958. He spent the summer of 1958 with the apostolate's "trailer chapels," which served Catholics in rural areas of North Carolina where there were no Catholic churches.
From 1958 to 1960, he served as a teacher and counselor at Notre Dame High School in Greensboro, and then from 1960 to 1966 he served simultaneously as pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Tryon and as administrator and principal of Asheville Catholic High School. In his 2012 interview with the Catholic News Herald, Monsignor Kerin recalled that he "thoroughly enjoyed" working in the schools.
He became pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Charlotte and volunteered to join the Charlotte diocese when it was created in 1972.
Then, Charlotte Bishop Michael Begley sent him to Mexico City for two years to serve at a mission jointly operated by the Raleigh and Charlotte dioceses. It proved to be an invaluable experience for the non-Spanish-speaking priest, he recalled.
"It was another new experience that really was a great help to me," he said. "It was a growing experience being thrown into a totally different culture."
BUILDING UP THE CHURCH
Upon his return in 1975, he served briefly as administrator of St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte, then he became pastor of Our Lady of Mercy Church in Winston-Salem and vicar of the Winston-Salem Vicariate. In 1977 he returned to Charlotte as rector of St. Patrick Cathedral.
Starting in 1977 he also served as director of the Centro Católico Hispano (Hispanic Catholic Center) in Charlotte, where he helped lead efforts to serve the growing Hispanic Catholic community over the next decade.
He also served as state chaplain of the Knights of Columbus from 1977 to 1979.
In 1979 Bishop Begley asked him to succeed Monsignor Joseph Showfety as the second chancellor of the diocese, where he was responsible for the diocese's day-to-day operation.
He greatly enjoyed being a "pastor to the pastors" for seven years, he recalled. Those associated with the diocese at its beginning use words like "exciting" and "awesome" to describe what life was like. There was a pioneering sense of starting something new. The diocese was also small enough for most priests to know one another, and the diocese's administration consisted of the bishop, his secretary, the chancellor and his secretary and one bookkeeper.
In his 2012 interview, Monsignor Kerin described the atmosphere as friendly and informal.
"There was a sense of a North Carolina spirit of the Church. The lay people and the priests had a sense that they were missioners," he said.
He found being chancellor was an interesting job and considered his role primarily to help pastors do their jobs, he said.
"It was a most pleasant time for me. The diocese was growing. We started out as a relatively large diocese (geographically), and I was able to see the continuing development of it."
In addition, after Pope Paul VI approved the U.S. bishops' request to revive the permanent diaconate in 1968, Monsignor Kerin chaired the diocese's planning committee to study the potential for a Permanent Diaconate Program here. That effort bore fruit in 1983, with the ordination of the diocese's first deacons.
ST. MATTHEW AND ST. MARK PARISHES
110712-msgr-kerin-feature Monsignor Joseph Kerin and Bishop John F. Donoghue shortly after land for a new St. Matthew Parish was purchased in what was then a sparsely populated part of Mecklenburg County in the 1980s. (Diocese of Charlotte Archives)After Monsignor Kerin expressed a desire to return to parish ministry in 1986, Bishop Donoghue named him the first pastor of the newly established St. Matthew Parish in south Charlotte. The parish is now the largest in the diocese and one of the largest in the country with more than 28,000 parishioners.
In 1996 he was granted a request for a sabbatical to attend the Vatican II Institute in Menlo Park, Calif. Shortly after his return to the diocese, Bishop William G. Curlin named him pastor of the newly formed St. Mark Parish in Huntersville. It has grown to become the second largest parish in the diocese. Monsignor Kerin served St. Mark Parish until his retirement in 2003.
Both St. Matthew and St. Mark named their parish centers in his honor.
Blessed John Paul II named him a Prelate of Honor in 1988.
"I feel I have been blessed with a very rich experience in this life," Monsignor Kerin said in his 2012 interview. "I loved getting into things that were new. That was always exciting. Coming down here has been a great blessing."
Monsignor Kerin is predeceased by his eight siblings: Dominican Sister Gertrude Mary Kerin, Dominican Sister Thomas Mary, Thomas F. Kerin Jr., Marian Kerin, Theresa Kerin, Evelyn J. Kerin, Lorraine Kerin Hoyt and James Kerin.
Harry & Bryant Co. was in charge of the arrangements.
FUNERAL MASS
During his eulogy at the funeral Mass for Monsignor Kerin on April 22, Monsignor McSweeney explained, “All of us have significant titles, sacred titles,” and one of the most significant titles we hold is being a child of God.
“The whole story about the life of the child of God is in the dash (on one’s tombstone),” he continued, speaking about the years one lives between birth and death.
“Joe Kerin had more titles than anyone could have outside the title of bishop,” he said, noting the many significant and sacred titles Monsignor Kerin held such as son, priest, missionary, pastor, shepherd, teacher, counselor and school principal – in addition to the diocesan titles later in his priesthood.
“Joe Kerin was a man of the people, a man of prayer. He was truly a child of God, truly a man of God who dedicated himself to building up the kingdom of God, and truly a man of faith.”