Father Murphy: Still pointing the way

MIAMI LAKES | The last time Father James Murphy had a street named after him, he did not invite his siblings to be present at the ceremony. This time, Dennis Murphy and Madeleine Keating were determined not to miss it.

So they flew to Miami from Ireland on Friday, attended the ceremony Saturday and flew back to Ireland on Sunday. The one who did not attend the ceremony this time — at least physically — was Father Murphy, who died in February after battling cancer for nearly five years.

“It sounds crazy (the one-day trans-Atlantic trip) but we wanted to honor him. We’re proud of him,” said Dennis Murphy.

So did most of the Miami Lakes Town Council, Mayor Wayne Slaton and dozens of Our Lady of the Lakes parishioners who gathered Sept. 13 at the corner of the church’s property — Miami Lakeway North and Ludlam Road (N.W. 67th Ave.) — to rename the portion of Miami Lakeway from Ludlam to N.W. 154th Street after their beloved pastor.

“This is his second,” said family friend Jacqueline Austen, who first met Father Murphy 40 years ago when he was a parochial vicar at St. Michael Parish in Miami. “I’m getting kind of used to these,” she added, referring to all the proclamations and honors the priest received in his lifetime.

The other street named after him is the one that runs between the rectory and the gym of St. Patrick Church in Miami Beach, where he served as pastor for 15 years before being assigned to Our Lady of the Lakes in 1996.

“I just thought it would be a good idea so I asked Councilman (Manny) Cid to put it on the agenda,” said Our Lady of the Lakes parishioner Wayne Rinehart, who suggested the street renaming “just to honor him for what he’s done for our community, our church — and as a friend.”

The Miami Lakes Town Council approved it on second reading — five months ago. “What took so long was to actually have the signs made,” Rinehart added.

“He helped many people find a way to live life and in doing so he really gave us a good glimpse of what Christianity is all about,” said Father Jose Alvarez, who succeeded Father Murphy as pastor at Our Lady of the Lakes.

He noted that Father Murphy “was really at his best ministering to those who live in less than perfect circumstances,” such as the poor, the sick, the dying and those coping with the deaths of family and friends.

“It’s only appropriate that this street is renamed Father Murphy Way, because he showed the people in this parish, in this town, how to find their way through the traffic jams in life, through the noise in life, through the tragedies in life,” Father Alvarez said.

“He may be gone but he is not forgotten,” said Mayor Slaton, an Our Lady of the Lakes parishioner.

He recalled Father Murphy’s special passion for the poor and sick, his love of cooking, and the fact that every Thanksgiving he opened his house to anyone from the community who was going to be alone on the holiday or too elderly to cook.

He noted that more than 3,000 families in Miami Lakes are members of the parish. And he said Father Murphy became a part of Miami Lakes history when he gave the invocation at the town’s first council meeting — the area became a city in 2000, four years after he arrived as pastor.

“Father Murphy was truly a community person,” Slaton said. “When you journey on Father Murphy Way, consider the many ways that he touched your life. His legacy will continue.”