Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, April 20, 2000
The Southern Cross, Page 3
A Dual Blessing of the 1930's, '40's and '50's:
Two Father James Gradys in the Diocese of Savannah
a peculiar
YlJhing hap
pened in the
Diocese of
Savannah in
the late
1930’s. There
were two
young priests
., _ , named “James
RitaH. DeLorme Grady ., James
H. Grady, a member of a prominent
Catholic family in Savannah, who was
ordained to the priesthood in the
Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in
1932 and James J. Grady, a native of
Somerville, Massachusetts, who was
ordained in the same church in 1937.
Father James H. Grady studied for
the priesthood at Saint Charles Col
lege and Saint Mary’s Seminary in
Baltimore. Father James J. Grady also
completed his training for the priest
hood at Saint Mary’s.
Here, the stories of these two dioce
san priests both diverge and intersect.
Father James H. Grady began his
priestly career as assistant rector of
Savannah’s Cathedral, moving on in
1936 to Saint Mary’s Catholic Church
in Rome, Georgia—a parish he would
serve until his commissioning as an
Army Air Corps chaplain early in
1943. Following his initial training,
Father Grady performed outstandingly
as a military chaplain, eventually ris
ing to the rank of lieutenant colonel
and serving as wing chaplain. After
three years’ overseas service, Father
Grady returned to his parish in Rome,
only to be recalled to active duty in
1950 with the outbreak of the Korean
War.
During these years, Father James J.
Grady was assistant rector at the
Cathedral in Savannah and then
moved on to become pastor of Saint
Michael’s Church, Tybee Island, and
chancellor of the diocese in 1939. He
was appointed a “Very Reverend
Monsignor James J. Grady
Monsignor” in 1942 by Pope Pius XII.
At this time he was also spiritual
director of the Catholic Youth Orga
nizations of the Diocese of Savannah-
Atlanta and involved in local Boy
Scout programs. In 1945, Monsignor
James J. Grady became pastor of Saint
Mary on the Hill Parish, Augusta.
About six years later, the monsignor
was transferred to the Church of the
Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
in Atlanta.
Monsignor Grady’s job in Atlanta
was to be a challenge. The Church of
the Immaculate Conception badly
needed repair. This historic church had
been the star of an unusual Civil War
drama. Father Thomas O’Reilly,
Immaculate Conception’s pastor at the
time of General William T. Sherman’s
arrival in the city, informed the gener
al that he intended to defend his
church from being torched by Union
forces. Said Father O’Reilly: “If
you’re going to bum any church, it’s
going to be over my dead body.”
General Sherman had enough sense
to back down and ended up sparing
not only Immaculate Conception
Church but also fifteen other churches
in Atlanta. Monsignor James J.
Grady’s early and designated responsi
bility was to raise enough money to
save this fabled church.
Chaplain (Lt. Col.) James H. Grady,
USA, in the meantime, was serving in
the military in Germany after being
called back into service by the Air
Force. In June of 1952, Father Grady
visited with Bishop Gerald P. O’Hara
of Savannah-Atlanta, who was then
representing the Vatican as apostolic
nuncio to Ireland. Little more than a
year later, with just two months
remaining until his projected return to
the U.S., Father Grady suffered a heart
attack and died. Father Grady’s funeral
Mass was celebrated by Bishop
O’Hara in Frankfurt, Germany with
forty chaplains and high military
authorities in attendance. Funeral ser
vices were also held in Savannah with
Auxiliary Bishop Francis E. Hyland,
of Savannah-Atlanta, pontificating.
Father Grady was buried with full mil
itary honors in Catholic Cemetery,
Savannah.
Monsignor James J. Grady contin
ued to serve at the restored Imma
culate Conception Church. In April,
1955, he traveled to Augusta to per
form a wedding ceremony. While in
Augusta, he was stricken with a fatal
heart attack. Bishop Hyland offered a
solemn high pontifical Requiem Mass
for the deceased priest at Immaculate
Conception, Atlanta. Monsignor
Grady was buried in his home state,
Massachusetts.
Members of the same generation,
Chaplain James H. Grady and Mon
signor James J. Grady both gave years
of dedicated service to the diocese and
to the church. Pierce Harris, a colum
nist for the Atlanta Constitution, spoke
admiringly of Monsignor James J.
Grady’s character and wrote after the
pastor of Immaculate Conception
Church had gathered $177,000 for its
restoration, that the priest should be
congratulated on “a job well done, a
Chaplain (Lt. Col.) James H.
Grady, USA
landmark saved and restored and a
church dedicated to the glory of God
and the help of needy humanity.”
In Savannah, the Evening Press
noted in an editorial eulogizing
Chaplain James H. Grady: “Wherever
Father Grady served, in the diocese,
overseas during World War II, in
Germany during these uncertain peace
times, he was a source of encourage
ment and inspiration to all with whom
he came in contact. His career has
been untimely closed, but his life was
a shining example of devoted service
to God and his fellow men.” The
Rome News-Tribune observed: “His
(Father James H. Grady’s) many
friends had been looking forward to
his impending return to Rome. They
will miss his kindly good humor, his
Christian charity, his spiritual leader
ship, and his devotion to his faith.”
With the deaths of these two priests,
both of whom shared the same sur
name and given name and died at rela
tively early ages, the diocese suffered
a double loss.
Rita H. DeLorme is a volunteer
in the Diocesan Archives.
Archbishop Quinn named to theology chair
at University of San Diego
San Diego (CNS)
he University of San Diego has named former
San Francisco Archbishop John R. Quinn as
first holder of its newly endowed chair in Catholic
systematic theology. He is believed to be the first
Catholic bishop given an endowed chair at a U.S.
university. Alice B. Hayes, president of the univer
sity, announced the appointment April 14.
Archbishop Quinn, a former president of the
National Conference of Catholic Bishops, turned 71
in March. Bom in Riverside, he was ordained a priest
of the San Diego Diocese in 1953 after theology
studies at the North American College in Rome. He
was a theology professor and rector of Immaculate
Heart Seminary in San Diego when he was made
auxiliary bishop there in 1967 at the age of 38.
In 1972 he was made first archbishop of
Oklahoma City and in 1977 became archbishop of
San Francisco.
When he retired from the San Francisco post in
1995, he was made a visiting fellow at Campion
Hall at Oxford University in England. He was the
first Catholic bishop to hold a fellowship at Oxford
since the Reformation.
His Campion Hall centenary lecture in June 1996,
urging reform of the Roman Curia and changes in
the exercise of papal primacy for the sake of
Christian unity, drew wide international attention
and led to his book last fall, The Reform of the
Papacy: The Costly Call to Christian Unity.
The University of San Diego is sponsored by the
San Diego Diocese. Its new systematic theology
chair, funded by a $2 million gift from an anonymous
donor, is named for now-retired Monsignor John R.
Portman, who headed the university’s theology and
religious studies department from 1967 to 1974.
Archbishop Quinn, who was provost of the uni
versity’s men’s college when it merged with the
women’s college in 1972, said he was “genuinely
honored to be the first to hold a chair named after a
lifelong friend and associate.”
He is to hold the chair for the spring semesters of
2001 and 2002, teaching a graduate seminar on the
papacy and Christian unity and delivering a public
lecture on campus each year.
Photo courtesy of Diocesan Archives