By Mary Frances McCarthy
Herald Staff Writer
(From the issue of 5/5/05)

What do retired clergy do?

"You smile a lot," said retired Bishop Thomas J. Welsh, first bishop of Arlington.

"You retire from the responsibilities of the office, but not from the priesthood. You still have good things to do — saying Mass and celebrating the sacraments," he said.

Among the activities Bishop Welsh enjoys most in his retirement is being the celebrant at confirmations.

"I always did enjoy confirmations, but I enjoy them even more now," he said. "When you are an active bishop, it is an official visit to the parish. Now it’s focused more on the young people — dialoguing with them and picture taking. I enjoy doing that more than ever."

Bishop Welsh was founding bishop of Arlington in 1974 and served until 1983 when he returned to his home diocese in Pennsylvania. He retired in 1998 from the Allentown Diocese and now resides at a home for retired priests in Bethlehem, Pa. He celebrated the 35th anniversary of his appointment as bishop last month.

"You’re used to being involved," Bishop Welsh said about retirement. "The change is that you’re out of the loop in terms of administration. That takes some adjusting. You don’t have as many chances to be in touch with priests and the people."

However, he said, if parishes know that a retired priest or bishop is still able and willing to help out, "there’s still many occasions to do parochial ministry."

Msgr. Frank Mahler retired last year, but he continues to be very active, so much so that the priests living with him at Blessed Sacrament in Alexandria are unable to list all of his activities. Besides celebrating Masses at Blessed Sacrament on the weekends, he also helps other local parishes, and keeps in touch with parishioners he met in his years of active ministry. He is still performing baptisms and funerals for families he knew, and visiting friends in nursing homes and hospitals.

Msgr. John Cilinski, who has been retired since 1999, makes it hard for many patients at Arlington Hospital to believe that he is retired. Many days, he beats the nurses to the hospital at 8 a.m. and serves as a wake-up call to Catholic patients when he visits first thing in the morning with communion.

"He practically lives in the hospital," said his brother priest, Father Joseph Loftus.

Father Loftus has found that retirement and active ministry are not very different. He is doing everything he did while in active ministry, "but I don’t interfere too much with the goings on in the parish." He celebrates Masses on a regular basis, hears confessions, serves as a spiritual director to parishioners of Our Lady of Lourdes in Arlington where he resides, and helps with the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults when needed.

"Living in the rectory, I can be involved with everything," he said.

Father Jerome Daly has also found a way to bring his ministry to place where he resides. He lives in a retirement community near Fort Belvoir, and has essentially created a small parish in the community. He celebrates daily Mass there and visits the other people living in the home.

According to Bishop Welsh, when a man is ordained a priest, he "never really thinks of retirement. You think of working as a priest all your life, and Pope John Paul II gave us a good example of that."