By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily at the Month’s Mind Mass for Father James Connaughton, who served as pastor of St. Ambrose Parish in Deerfield Beach from 1968 to 1993. He died July 19 at age 90 after 65 years of priesthood, and was buried in his native Ireland.
Today, my dear parishioners of St. Ambrose, you are joined by the priests of this diocese to pay our respects to Father Jim Connaughton and to pray for the eternal repose of his soul.
The Church of Florida is grateful for the gift of this man, who like so many of his countrymen, came from Ireland to minister here in Florida. Our sympathies to his sister, Sally Kerins, who is also a member of St. Ambrose, where Father served as pastor for 25 years.
The priests here – like many of you – were associated with Father Connaughton in different ways and in varying degrees of friendship and fraternity. Some also come from the “Old Sod” as he did, but we are all joined together in a common love for the priesthood and this local Church of Miami.
When I was still a priest and working with South Florida’s Haitian population, Father Connaughton would invite me to the parish to preach on the ABCD. ABCD supported my work among the Haitians – and so in a way, I was singing for my supper. (Though I never did sing “Danny Boy.”) For some reason, Father Connaughton told the parishioners that I turned down a career in baseball to become a priest. I don’t know where he got that idea. I only played catcher in a Pee Wee league and I only got on base when I walked. I think he confused the name Wenski with Yastrzemski.
When somebody lives to be 90 as Father did, he probably will find more people in heaven to welcome him “home” than he would find on earth to bid him farewell. Yet your presence tonight is a great tribute to this man who was ordained a priest in July 1950 – he was a priest for longer than I have been alive.
Many of you here could recall the things he did in the many years of priesthood he spent in the service of Christ here in Florida. But rather than list the accomplishments and the assignments of this man, rather than enumerate his virtues, or kid about his shortcomings, let it suffice just for us to say: James Connaughton was simply a priest, a good and faithful priest.
As priests, we know our own human frailty, and so we are not shy in asking for prayers for him – and when we die, we beg your prayers for us, confident that the love of Jesus Christ who gave us the gift of the priesthood is stronger than death. Here in the Archdiocese of Miami, when one of our priests dies, each parish makes a contribution for special Masses to be celebrated for him.
These Masses are commended to priests in mission lands – where often the only income available to a priest is his Mass stipend. And so even as we offer this Mass for the repose of Jim’s soul, please know that other Masses will be offered for him throughout the whole world in coming months.
For the priests here, it is a special bond that unites them to Jim Connaughton, a priestly bond of solidarity and communion. This special bond is “stronger than death” – for we were ordained like Melchizedek of old, priests forever.
And Father Jim Connaughton, like each of these men here, carried an immense treasure in earthen vessels; and so we invoke God’s loving mercy on his soul and ask for him the joy and peace of eternal life in the communion of the most Blessed Trinity.
As we pray for Father Jim Connaughton, his death is an opportunity for us priests to experience in a deeper way our communion with him and our other brothers in the priesthood who have died; it is an opportunity for all of us to proclaim our faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, which we do in celebrating Mass for the repose of his soul.
One song that occasionally we have the opportunity to sing has the refrain: We remember, we celebrate, we believe. Today, as we offer this Mass for Father Jim, we too remember, we celebrate, we believe.
We pray confidently, comforted by the words of St. Paul: “If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if we persevere, we shall also reign with him.” In gratitude for his faith, his long years of priestly service, and his perseverance in his vocation, we commend him to Mary, the mother of all priests, whom we invoke as Queen of the Apostles.
