Ash Wednesday Collection to help retired priests

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

SHREWSBURY - The annual Ash Wednesday Collection assists the Diocese of Worcester in providing for the needs of retired diocesan priests.
Oftentimes, it is the retired priests themselves who help each other nurture their spiritual and physical well-being.
A ministry by retired priests, for retired priests and other people living in Southgate at Shrewsbury, is noteworthy among those efforts.
Father David B. Galonek gets high praise for his dedicated work from fellow retired priests, about a dozen of whom live at Southgate, an independent and assisted-living facility adjoining Shrewsbury Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
Father Galonek, 76, has coordinated the Southgate ministry since moving there in 2014.
Msgr. Richard E. Collette, 95, a resident since 2001, was once responsible for the chapel ministry along with the late Father Philip D. McNamara.
“We’ve always had a point person” for religious services – a resident priest for the Catholics, and Protestant and Jewish residents for those groups, noted Kara Ewick, director of resident services at Southgate. She said Father McNamara was the Catholic point person when she arrived in June 2014.
Father Galonek, who arrived that fall, said he started helping Father McNamara and was later asked by the priests to take over the responsibility.  
“He’s great to work with,” Ms. Ewick said. “He’s pleasant. He’s caring. He’ll do anything for anyone. And if he can’t help you, he’ll always point you in the right direction of someone who can.”
She commended him for “bringing the chapel to life” and getting more residents to attend Mass and to volunteer.
“He really organized it,” she said. “Southgate gives him a budget. … Residents also donate” for things like flowers, which he goes out to purchase and arranges. Father Galonek is not paid for this work, she said.
“We just had the altar and it was very plain,” Msgr. Collette said of the days when he and Father McNamara took care of the chapel. Father Galonek, he said, bought material and got residents to sew different colored cloths for the liturgical seasons.
Active clergy also come to serve the small Southgate community, including Bishop McManus, Father Richard F. Trainor, Jesuit Father Paul J. Shaughnessy, Msgr. Michael F. Rose and Father Jose F. Carvajal, Father Galonek said.
The priests volunteer anointing the sick, hearing confessions and simply having lunch with the priest residents.
Resident priests pray vespers together, and pray for seminarians, deceased priests, and the sick, Father Galonek said. Lay residents lead the rosary before Masses on weekdays and weekends.
Sister Mary Ann Bartell, a Carmelite Sister of the Eucharist who takes care of retired priests’ healthcare needs, said Father Galonek has had weddings, funerals and memorial services at Southgate. She said the work is hard for him, given his own health issues.
“It’s like his little parish,” said Father Charles J. Dumphy, 93, who moved there in 2008. “He’s a Godsend. Anything he’d ask you to do, he would do himself.”
Father Galonek schedules priests to celebrate Masses, and lay lectors and eucharistic ministers. He makes sure residents in assisted-living areas receive Communion, are anointed when sick, and receive ashes and palms when they are distributed.
“I concelebrate every day,” Msgr. Collette said. “We who can’t stand up” concelebrate from the pews. “Once in a while I give a funeral homily,” holding on to the pulpit to stand.
Father James B. O’Shea, 83, who came to Southgate in 2020, said that he has trouble getting down to the pews from the altar when he is main celebrant, so Father Galonek helps him by taking the chalice to the priests in the pews or wheelchairs.
The chapel is used by other faiths and Father Galonek prepares the space for them. On Thursdays, the crucifix is taken down and a cross is erected for the Protestant service. On Fridays, candles and seasonal decorations are moved for the Jewish service.
“I think the biggest thing is his reverence for the chapel and making it special,” said Sister Mary Ann. When he provides things familiar to residents, like rosaries and holy water, “it’s just like it was in the churches in their time,” she said. “It perpetuates their faith and it helps people that are lonely.” They become part of a community.
Once after a Holy Thursday Mass, one resident marveled that “it was just as beautiful as if it was in a basilica,” Sister Mary Ann recalled.
Father Galonek’s ministry extends beyond the chapel.
“He’s in touch with all the sick priests that are here and some elsewhere,” and provides updates “because we like to know what is happening with our brother priests,” Msgr. Collette said.
“He takes care of us,” said Father John F. Hamm, 64, who moved to Southgate in 2021.
Father John E. Horgan, 76, a resident since 2015, said, “People recognize him as the coordinator of the priests and they reach out to him” if they have a spiritual need. “He’ll reach out to them himself or put them in contact with one of us. That’s the good part about being here; we still do some active ministry … those of us who are capable of it. We go out and help in parishes.”
He added, “It’s kind of like a parish … we’ve got the blessings of ministry but not the burden of administration.”
A variety of sources support the diocese’s retired priests, such as the Celebrate Priesthood gala, the Partners in Charity appeal and the Legacy of Hope capital campaign. The Ash Wednesday Collection supplements these.

– Donations can be made at Ash Wednesday Masses or through the diocesan website worcesterdiocese.org/ash-wednesday-collection-1. Bishop’s Ash Wednesday Collection Letter is on Page 4.