JUNE 14, 2024
mississippicatholic.com
“Padre” Flannery celebrates 60 years of priesthood BY JOE LEE
MADISON – The blast furnace heat made quite an impression on Msgr. Michael Flannery, known as Padre to parishioners all over Mississippi and the impoverished Saltillo region of Mexico, when he landed in Jackson for the first time in September 1964. The racial discord also made a significant impression. Flannery arrived shortly after the horrific murders of civil rights leaders Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Cheney in Neshoba County. “My first assignment was St. Mary’s in west Jackson,” said Flannery, who celebrates the 60th anniversary of his priest ordination on June 14. “The school was integrated the morning after I arrived. A Black family had a little girl entering kindergarten, and there was a big demonstration. We feared Klan violence and left the lights on overnight for two weeks, but nothing came of it. “A professor at seminary prepared us to face difficulty in the U.S. but said it wouldn’t be fair to tell us what to do. He said, ‘I’ve given you moral principles. You apply them to the situation
MADISON – Msgr. Michael Flannery “Padre” and Father Albeen Vatti joining in the fun playing spoons on frottoirs (washboards) and dancing during a spirited cajun tune on Oct 3, 2021 at St. Francis parish’s annual Cajun Fest fundraiser. Msgr. Flannery is celebrating his 60th anniversary as a priest on June 14, 2024. (Photo by Joanna King)
you find yourself in.’ That made an impression on me.” Assigned to Our Lady of Victories in Pascagoula in 1967, Flannery organized the first Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) group to deliver items to Saltillo, but the game-changer was the involvement of Father Patrick Quinn. Saltillo Mission, Flannery’s book about the long-running service project that sent more than 20,000 Mississippi youth to Mexico, was published in 2017. “Father Quinn had a tremendous love for the poor,” Flannery said. “One year he was seriously injured in a car accident on a slick mountain road, and Bishop Brunini wanted his medical treatment done in Mississippi. Quinn initially refused, saying he would receive care unavailable to the poor. He eventually agreed to it, but only if he could return to Saltillo once healthy.” Valerie Balser Winn, accompanied her CYO from St. Alphonsus in McComb to Saltillo in 1973. “Father Flannery always seemed full of energy and laughter as he drove a crowded jeep among the prairie dogs
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“Going home to God”: Father Noel Prendergast passes at age 90 BY JOANNA PUDDISTER KING
JACKSON – Just shy of sixty-six years a priest, Father Noel Prendergast entered eternal life on May 26, 2024. He was born Jan. 1, 1934, the youngest of John and Mary Prendergast’s seven children. He was born at Christmastime, so that’s where Noel came from, Father Prendergast once told Mississippi Catholic. He studied six years at St. Patrick’s College and Seminary in Carlow, Ireland; and was ordained in that city’s Catholic cathedral on June 7, 1958. It was Prendergast’s choice to spend his entire priesthood in Mississippi, giving up cold, wet winters and springs for the occasional snow and frequent hot temperatures
native to the Deep South. Father Prendergast and three other priests arrived in Mississippi in September 1958. His first assignment was to Nativity Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Biloxi as an associate pastor. Four years later, he was moved to St. Mary’s Church in Jackson, where he served for two years as associate pastor. Father Prendergast once remarked that he “saw it more of an adventure,” since the parish also had a school. From there, he was transferred to Mercy Hospital in Vicksburg, where he was chaplain. He left after three years for his first pastorate at Assumption Church in Natchez in 1967. Father Prendergast became a U.S. citizen in the mid-1960s. “I figured if I was going to live here, I needed to be a citizen and take part in voting,” Prendergast recalled in 2018 for his sixtieth anniversary celebration.
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INSIDE THIS WEEK
Synod 8 Synod report shows growth, tensions, desires
Graduation insert Special section on recent Catholic School grads
From the archives 10 Bishop Gerow’s glimpse at JFK assassination
Youth 14 Youth photos from around the diocese