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Thursday, September 7, 2000
The Southern Cross, Page 3
Remembering “Father Dan”:
The Very Reverend Daniel J. McCarthy
Rita H.
DeLorme
F ather Daniel J. McCarthy’s
benign countenance and sil
very white hair belied the vari
ety of his priestly career.
Though much of his ministry
was devoted to routine parish
work, Father Daniel J.
McCarthy was instrumental in
the growth of the Catholic
Church in several areas of the
diocese.
Bom in Savannah in 1883,
and a graduate of Savannah
High School, Daniel McCarthy attended Belmont
Abbey in North Carolina and studied for the priest
hood at Saint Bernard’s Seminary in Rochester,
New York. He was ordained (on his birthday,
February 16) in 1910 at the Cathedral of Saint
John the Baptist in Savannah. For the next eight
years of his life, he served in southwest Georgia
missions headquartered in Albany, and central
Georgia missions headquartered at Milledgeville.
No less affected than many of his patriotic con
temporaries by the beginning of World War I,
Father McCarthy became chaplain to the 36th
Regiment of the Coast Artillery, and remained in
this capacity for close to a year. In 1920, Bishop
Benjamin J. Keiley of the Savannah Diocese
tapped Father McCarthy for the challenging job of
establishing Blessed Sacrament Parish on Savan
nah’s expanding southside. Early boundaries of the
parish ranged from Gwinnett Street and its eastern
extension on the north, to East Broad Street on the
west, to Reynolds Street south of Estill Avenue
(Victory Drive), to Montgomery Cross Road on the
south and, finally, to the river at Thunderbolt on
the east. At first, it appeared property purchased on
Ott and 37th Streets would be the site of the new
church. Then, land near Estill Avenue and
Chatham Crescent became available, and this new
location, south of the earlier choice, was acquired
as the setting for Blessed Sacrament Church.
Additional lots along Waters Avenue to 44th Street
Beatifications
enhanced the church’s
property. Though there
were only about one
hundred parishioners in
the forming parish and
funding was short,
Father Dan McCarthy
managed, with the aid of
his devoted flock, to get
Blessed Sacrament
Church built.
It was a modest church
for modest times, an
elaborate church plan
being patently out of the
question. Contracted by
W. T. Hussey, Blessed
Sacrament Church was
dedicated on July 10,
1921, its green-finished
pews providing seating
for 200.
Father McCarthy
remained with his new parish until 1928, at which
time he was summoned from the little white frame
church in Savannah to his new assignment: Holy
Family Church in Columbus. An article in The
Bulletin of July 28, 1928, quoted Father Dan’s
final report which noted that Blessed Sacrament
parish had “grown by leaps and bounds” and that,
because of this growth, the original church was
already “too small.” Father McCarthy’s report stat
ed that he was leaving: a church (which had cost
$9,867.63), a parish house (cost: $12,379.37), and
a parish with “assets $17,300 in excess of its liabil
ities” as well as the “splendid church property
located in the Victory Drive section of Savannah.”
During what turned out to be fifteen years’ serv
ice in Columbus, Father Dan was able, once again,
to perform double duty as both pastor and as auxil
iary Army Chaplain at Fort Benning. A 1943 issue
of The Bulletin carried an editorial entitled “Father
Dan” which stated: “So successful have been
Father Dan’s labors in Columbus,
that Bishop O’Hara appointed him
Vicar Forane of the Columbus
Deanery in 1936, and in 1940,
named him Vicar General of the
Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta.”
The summer of 1943 saw Father
Dan McCarthy’s return to both his
missionary and military “roots.”
Placed in charge of the missions at
Statesboro and Brooklet, Father
McCarthy became temporary auxil
iary chaplain to air cadets in train
ing at Statesboro during World War
II. In 1944, at the annual conven
tion of the Georgia Department of
the American Legion held in
Augusta, Father McCarthy was re
elected state chaplain of the “40 and
8” Society. Father McCarthy’s affil
iation with the American Legion
lasted throughout his life. He also
served as chaplain of the Columbus
Lodge of Elks, took an active part in the work of
the Knights of Columbus, and was a life member
of the Officers’ Club at Fort Benning. He attained
the rank of captain in the Chaplain’s Reserve Corp.
The Very Reverend Daniel J. McCarthy’s priestly
career closed in Savannah, where it had begun,
with his final appointment being that of pastor at
Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Port Wentworth.
After years of service to both God and country,
Father McCarthy died in Savannah in 1957. The
Savannah Evening Press of May 9, 1957, praised
him in the following words: “Father McCarthy had
gone about doing good as a priest for more than 47
years. He was not a spectacular person; rather, he
was on the quiet side; gentle, but effective, and
thousands are those who loved him for it.”
Rita H. DeLorme is a volunteer in the
Diocesan Archives.
Father Dan McCarthy
(Continued from page I)
Catholic, Protestant and Jewish
groups had voiced disappointment
with the beatification of Pope Pius,
who in the 19th century unsuccess
fully tried to hold onto papal tempo
ral power, approved the executions
of political prisoners, condemned
modem “progress” and its emphasis
on the rights of citizens, and had a
turbulent relationship with Rome’s
Jewish population.
The pope defended Pope Pius, not
for his political choices or all his
ecclesial policies, but for always
tmsting in God during “the turbulent
events of his times.”
“His extremely long pontificate
was certainly not easy and he suf
fered a lot in carrying out his mis
sion in the service of the Gospel. He
was much loved, but also hated and
slandered,” the pope said to scat
tered applause.
He praised Pope Pius for calling
the First Vatican Council, which he
said clarified internal church ques
tions and “confirmed the harmony
between faith and reason,” and for
proclaiming the dogma of the Im
maculate Conception of Mary—that
by special divine favor Mary was,
from the moment she was con
ceived, without sin.
The pope did not specifically men
tion the doctrines of papal primacy
and papal infallibility, which were
proclaimed by Vatican I, or the
Syllabus of Errors, Pope Pius’ con
demnation of many modem political
and philosophical ideas.
Nor did he talk about Pope Pius’
stormy relations with Jews. Several
Jewish leaders in Rome and else
where have said the beatification of
Pope Pius could set back the deli
cate process of Catholic-Jewish rec
onciliation set in motion by Vatican
II.
The pope spoke briefly about the
other three newly beatified:
—Blessed Chaminade, who had to
flee the “reign of terror” in revolu
tionary France in 1797 and returned
three years later to evangelize a
largely de-Christianized society,
reminds Catholics today of the need
to “constantly re-invent new ways of
being witnesses of the faith,” the
pope said. This has special meaning
for those who have fallen away from
the church, he said.
—Blessed Marmion, the pope
said, offered the church a “treasure
of spiritual teaching,” following a
simple but demanding path of every
day holiness. His spiritual writings
deserve to be widely rediscovered
today, he said.
Bom in Dublin in 1858, Blessed
Marmion worked for years as a pas
tor, teacher and chaplain of a
women’s prison in Ireland before
becoming a Benedictine monk. He
lived most of his life in Belgium,
and at personal risk took young
monks to Ireland to shelter them
during World War I. He died in
1923.
—Blessed Tommaso Reggio, who
gave up family riches in order to
devote a lifetime of pastoral min
istry to the poor and suffering, is a
model for every bishop, priest and
lay person today, the pope said. He
said the archbishop’s message can
be summed up in two words: truth
and charity.
Bom in 1818, he became especial
ly active in bridging the gap
between the church and society in
the second half of the 19th century,
founding the first nationwide
Catholic newspaper in Italy. When
Pope Pius condemned many forms
of Catholic political activity in the
unified Italy, the archbishop quietly
obeyed and closed the newspaper
down—despite disagreeing with the
pope’s policy. He died in 1901.