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'May the road rise up to meet you'
St. Paul Parish says farewell to longtime pastor, friend
By Ambria Hammel, ahammel@catholicsun.org
June 19, 2008
When Fr. Gene O’Carroll bows before the St. Paul Parish altar in a few days, it will signal more than the end of Mass.
The 71-year-old pastor will retire July 1.
Catholics throughout the diocese, including those who knew him at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish and couples he worked with during Marriage Encounter weekends, gathered to bid farewell during retirement receptions May 31-June 1 Masses at St. Paul Parish.
“He’s been a real rock,” parishioner Kitty Gale said. “He’s helped me through some difficult times with his spiritual advice.”
Fr. Michael Diskin agreed. The assistant chancellor for the diocese served as Fr. O’Carroll’s first assistant pastor at St. Paul.
“Like many Irish priests who have served in the diocese, he has great compassion and love for his people,” Fr. Diskin said.
Years later, Sue Hamilton is still grateful that Fr. O’Carroll agreed to offer her wedding Mass on a weekday and made it special. And she knows her story is not unique.
“He’s touched everybody,” Hamilton said. “Each and every person here has one little thing that he’s done” for them.
Since becoming pastor in 1981, Fr. O’Carroll presided over 300 weddings and funerals. He has also baptized more than 1,000 and given more than 2,000 Catholics their first Communion.
Yet Fr. O’Carroll didn’t want to leave his parishioners with just those numbers, he said during the homily.
The longtime chaplain for the Arizona National Guard also left them with a command.
“Make the Mass the center of your spirituality,” Fr. O’Carroll said in his farewell message.
The farewell message wasn’t anything new. It’s been his ongoing quest for 35 years.
That’s when the chaplain took a management course with the Army National Guard and learned about management by objectives. Fr. O’Carroll, then pastor of St. Henry Parish in Buckeye, made a management chart for his priestly ministry with Mass attendance as the focus.
“Most of the things I was doing had no effect on this,” Fr. O’Carroll admitted.
He changed his ways and watched Mass attendance swell at both St. Henry and then St. Paul. Ultimately, St. Paul had to add two Masses to its weekend schedule and build a new church.
“It was a multipurpose building when I came,” Fr. O’Carroll said of the church. Now the parish grounds are also home to a chapel, six classrooms and the diocese’s largest parish hall.
And it was in that hall — O’Carroll Hall — that Catholics from throughout the diocese lined up to say goodbye to the longtime pastor.
“I think he’s trying to keep it all together because so many people are crying,” said Mary Ann Ronan, director of faith formation at St. Paul. “This is the end of an era.”
“I’ll miss everything,” Fr. O’Carroll said. “Half my priesthood has been here.”
He’s not going far, though. At least not initially. Fr. O’Carroll will move to north Phoenix and looks forward to helping whatever parish needs him on Sundays.
In April, Fr. O’Carroll will take a cruise through the Panama Canal, a gift from the St. Paul parish council.
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