REPORTING LIVE FROM THE FACEBOOK NEWS DESK IN THE VIRTUAL JASPER JOTTINGS NEWSROOM … 2010-09-18
Robert T Coyne
September 18 at 6:12am
From “The Long Island Catholic” September 15th edition:
http://www.licatholic.org/news/2010/09/091510/FatherMurphyCelebrates60thJubilee.html
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Father Murphy celebrates 60th jubilee
September 15, 2010 | Vol. 49, No. 21| PETE SHEEHAN
ROSLYN HEIGHTS — When he was growing up, Father William Murphy recalls, he didn’t think he had a vocation to the priesthood.
“Everyone would tell my mother, ‘Billy should be a priest,’” said Father Murphy, a retired veteran pastor. It was not until he was in the U.S. Army that he took that call seriously.
“I had friends who encouraged me to think about the priesthood,” Father Murphy said. Taking that encouragement to heart, 60 years ago he was ordained. His plans to celebrate his 60th jubilee in June at St. Catherine of Sienna Church in Franklin Square, where he assists, were delayed when he sustained an injury to his right leg.
For now, Father Murphy is staying at Sun Harbor Manor, a residential health care facility here, receiving physical therapy.
“Many of the parishioners have sent cards and offered prayers for Father Murphy,” said Maureen Miedreich, administrative assistant for the parish. “Parishioners are very thankful to have Father Murphy.”
“Everybody asks me how Father Murphy is doing,” said Rita Hoffman, a parishioner at St. Catherine’s, who has known Father Murphy since she was 13.
Father Murphy grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, one of two sons of James Francis and Kathryn Agnes Murphy. “My father had a clerical job for the Brooklyn Union Gas Company.” He belonged to St. Francis of Assisi Church, and liked and admired the priests.
Following high school he went to college, but his higher education was interrupted by World War II. He joined the Army, serving much of his time in California and rose to the rank of sergeant. After leaving the Army, he began investigating a priestly vocation for the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Following graduation from Manhattan College, he began seminary studies at St. Mary’s Seminary in the Archdiocese of Baltimore because there weren’t openings at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, the Brooklyn Diocese’s seminary.
Father Murphy was ordained June 3, 1950. His first assignment was as associate pastor of St. William the Abbot Church in Seaford. “It was gracious. The pastor, Msgr. Dermod Flinn, was an aristocrat in the best sense of the word. He was very kind and made a real effort to educate me.”
One lesson he learned from his mentor, Father Murphy said, was how to treat parishioners. “You have to love everyone.”
After about a year-and-a-half, Father Murphy was transferred to Holy Child Jesus Church in Richmond Hill. The next year, he was assigned associate pastor at Blessed Sacrament Church in Valley Stream.
“The people at Valley Stream were very generous, particularly the young people,” said Father Murphy, whose duties included religious education. “They were generous with their time, their energy, and their talents.”
He was serving there when the new Diocese of Rockville Centre was created out of the Brooklyn Diocese, which then included Nassau and Suffolk counties in addition to Brooklyn and Queens. Priests serving in Brooklyn or Queens stayed with the Brooklyn Diocese while those in Nassau or Suffolk became part of the new diocese.
“That was difficult for many priests,” Father Murphy said, but he adjusted.
From 1959 to 1964, Father Murphy was associate pastor at St. Anne’s Church in Brentwood under Msgr. Tom Conerty, the pastor. “That was a real clarification of my priesthood. The parish was very involved in serving the poor.”
His next assignment took him to the diocesan tribunal, the ecclesial court which handles cases of people who are divorced and seeking annulment of their marriage. During that time, the Church broadened the criteria under which people could seek an annulment to include psychological grounds that would have prevented people from giving full consent to marriage.
“It was a great ministry” for its service to people seeking in justice to remarry in the Church, Father Murphy said. In addition, his time with the tribunal, along with his subsequent pastoral experience “helped clarify my understanding of marriage. I think that more needs to be done to prepare couples seeking marriage to understand what it is.”
In 1972, he was assigned to his first pastorate, at Our Lady of Loretto in Hempstead. Father Murphy served there until 1978, when he became pastor of SS. Philip and James in St. James. “It was difficult being pastor,” but he was glad to be serving the people in that way.
In 1988, he stepped down as pastor to become associate pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Church in Elmont. After he retired in 1993, he moved into a private residence in Franklin Square and began assisting at St. Catherine of Sienna Church here.
“We have been very fortunate to have Father Murphy in the parish,” Hoffman said. When he was healthy, he frequently offered Mass and helped with confessions.
“I love his homilies,” said Miedreich. “He challenges my family to consider the question that Jesus asked his disciples: ‘Who do you say I am?’”
Father Murphy is working on his rehabilitation with the hope of returning home and offering Mass again at St. Catherine’s. “I want to have that celebration to show my appreciation to everyone who has been so supportive.”
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Murphy, Fr. William [MC????]
Coyne, Robert T. (MC1970)
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John,
I believe Fr. William Murphy is a member of the class of 1946.
Ed
McEneney Edward J. (MC1959)
[JR: Thanks, Ed. Much appreciated.]
Murphy, Fr. William [MC1946]
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