It’s a bit out of line, but having reflected on Monsignor Stricker, the indomitable and inimitable Founding Pastor of our parish, I want to jump to my immediate predecessor, Father William Thompson, the Fifth Pastor of Saint Bernadette. When what was supposed to be a column about all five of my predecessor Pastors filled up very quickly with the muchness that was Stricker, I assumed I would write next about Bishop David Foley (or “Monsignor Foley” as many around these parts still remembered him) since he was, after all, the Second. But I have already written about him on several occasions, and for reasons I do not entirely understand, Father Thompson has been very much on my mind the past few weeks, when both liturgically and privately my prayer has been directed toward the faithful departed.
Father Thompson was also my first pastor, since I was assigned here just after my ordination to the Priesthood. He had been here only one year at that time, and he had spent part of that year in a continuing education program for priests that was given in Rome, at the North American College where I was finishing seminary, so we had already met. His previous assignment had been Saint Mary, Bryantown, to which he had been assigned when he returned to the Archdiocese from his decade as a chaplain in the Navy.
Large and loud like Monsignor Stricker, and his speech peppered with nautical terms after two turns in the Navy, one of his nicknames among the clergy was “Battleship Bill.” With ten years enlisted service and ten years as an officer (chaplain) he was a classic “mustang.” He had enlisted while still a teenager, having been invited to leave several of our distinguished Catholic high schools. After ten years’ service, he went back to school, continuing straight through seminary to be ordained in 1971, then after a time returning as a chaplain. He always figured that Cardinal Hickey treated him so well because after his retirement from the Navy, he came back to the Archdiocese to serve, whereas many chaplains, with their comfortable pensions, find more leisurely pursuits after separation.
Father Thompson did not check all the boxes for the textbook exemplary priest. However, among my seminary friends and classmates who compared notes frequently in those early years, I was unanimously recognized to have the Best First Pastor. Not least among the reasons, but hardly the only one, was his generosity to me. That includes gifts; I still routinely use the lovely embroidered pall he gave me a few months after I arrived, and he fed me very, very well. More memorably, he treated me with respect, offered me friendship, and allowed me to thrive as a priest who was discovering just what an awesome thing that is. As you might expect, this parish was itself an excellent teacher for a priest, by the expectations and requirements of her people. He was not jealous of people’s affection, but rather was happy when I found welcome here. He was also generous to my priest friends, treating them as worthy of his time, attention, respect, and affection. Altogether, that put him head and shoulders above what many of my peers received.
It was a magnificent first assignment, almost making necessary a predictably difficult second one. As it turned out, when his time as Pastor here ended, mine began. We remained friends, getting together for dinner, though not nearly enough. He diminished rather steadily and died in 2015.
The names on the list vary as I mentally mention souls I remember at Mass, or when one of my other prayers concludes with “and may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.” Most often, I lead with “Jack and Kay and Carl and Martha,” my grandparents. Cardinal Baum and Cardinal Hickey both get frequent mention. Other family, various friends, recent losses, people from the news pop up in their turn. And yes, of course I remember Bishop Foley often and by name, as he also became a friend and generous mentor to me. For some reason this November, most likely gratitude, but also because I hope someday someone will do it for me, Father Thompson has often jumped to the front of the list. May the souls of all the faithful departed, especially Bill Thompson, through the mercy of God rest in peace.
Monsignor Smith
