CHARLOTTE — Vincentian Father Joseph A. Elzi died peacefully on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019.
A priest for nearly seven decades, Father Elzi served at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Charlotte.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated starting at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 31, 2019, at St. Vincent's Seminary’s Vincentian Community Chapel, located at 500 East Chelten Ave. in Philadelphia. Interment will follow at Princeton Abbey & Cemetery’s Congregation of the Mission Section in Princeton, N.J.
A native of Jackson, Mich., he attended the Vincentian-run Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Parish while growing up and was inspired to join the Vincentians when he was 20 years old. He spent 45 years as a missionary in Panama before returning stateside to serve in Long Island, N.Y., followed by a year at St. Mary Church in Greensboro.
In 1998, he was assigned to what was then called the Hispanic Catholic Center in Charlotte, where he began serving the growing number of Latino Catholics in the area. As parochial vicar of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, serving alongside longtime pastor Vincentian Father Vincent Finnerty, Father Elzi helped lead its growth into what is today one of the Diocese of Charlotte’s largest parishes. Thanks to his pastoral work and the ministry of many others, the Hispanic community in the diocese grew to encompass an increased number of Spanish-language Masses, adult and youth evangelization programs, Cursillo, and a broad group of experienced religious and lay leaders who developed diocesan Hispanic Ministry into what it is today.
Father Elzi remained in residence at the Charlotte parish after his retirement before returning in his later years to the Vincentian motherhouse in Philadelphia.
Condolences and memorial donations may be sent to St. Vincent's Seminary, c/o Vincentian Father Gregory P. Cozzubbo, 500 E. Chelten Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19144
— Catholic News Herald
Served at St. Ann Parish in Charlotte
PHILADELPHIA — Sister Judith Monahan, S.S.J., died July 29, 2019, at Saint Joseph Villa.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Aug. 2, 2019, in Saint Joseph Villa Chapel where relatives, friends and her sisters in community rejoiced in celebrating a life that for Sister Judy was a “journey inward.”
In Montclair, N.J., parents Lawrence and Helen Lokeman Monahan welcomed daughter Judith into her life’s journey on Jan. 26, 1938. She attended public schools in neighboring West Orange, N.J. She learned heartbreak early in life when her father was killed in action in Normandy during World War II. Her mother lovingly reared Judy and her brother alone until Judy was 11. Her mother later remarried and the family grew with the birth of Judy’s sister Louise.
It was at Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Orange that Judy met the Sisters of Saint Joseph and eventually was taught by them at Our Lady of the Valley High School. After attending nursing school for a year, she soon realized with a generous and spontaneous heart that God was inviting her to serve Him and His people. She entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph in September 1957. Her novitiate began in April 1958 when she received the name Sister Helen Lawrence. In 1965, with a deepening of her inward journey, she made her final profession of vows.
Sister Judy began her classroom ministry as a second-grade teacher. She served God’s people in the dioceses of Camden, Philadelphia, Newark, Baltimore and Charlotte. The longest and perhaps her happiest 30 years of ministry were spent at St. Ann Parish in Charlotte, where she lovingly served youth and parishioners as pastoral associate.
Her warm, welcoming, joyful personality thrived in the South and embraced all whom she encountered. In communal living, her sisters attested to her sense of humor, her novitiate stories of adventures and misadventures, and especially her innate gift of southern hospitality. It was with reluctance, yet generous submission to God’s will, that in 2018 she retired to Saint
Joseph Villa after suffering a stroke.
The life and untiring zeal of the sojourn of Sister Judy Monahan was indeed inward and a testament to the spirit of the Congregation expressed in its Constitutions, that as Sisters of Saint Joseph “we imitate Jesus in His untiring zeal and healing presence; Mary in her living faith and constant fidelity to grace; Joseph in the loving manner of his service and his cordial charity to all.”
The “journey inward” of Sister Judy Monahan, was a genuine, heartfelt focus on God whom she loved and sought and found in all of the circumstances along life’s way. The Congregation rejoices, praises and thanks God that she has reached her destination: eternal life in His loving embrace.
— Sisters of Saint Joseph, Philadelphia