mcafee's rose garden

Pastor’s ‘Fascination for Beauty’ Leads to Legacy of Rose Gardens

By Gretchen R. Crowe
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 7/5/07) mcafee

Rounding a corner of the rose garden outside St. John the Beloved Church in McLean, Father Franklyn M. McAfee, pastor, got snagged on a thorn.
His black cassock hanging all the way down to his ankles and buttoned all the way up to his collar, Father McAfee pulled himself free and continued his walk.
“Roses have good press,” the priest joked. “They smell nice and look nice, but the most dangerous place is in a garden with roses.”
All kidding aside, Father McAfee’s soft spot for the silky-petaled, sharp-stemmed plant is so great that it has led him to leave a legacy of roses behind at the last three parishes where he served. Though many of the roses at St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Great Falls have since died, the spacious garden at St. Lawrence Parish in Springfield and the newest flower bed at St. John are a testament of his love for all things beautiful.
“I just have this fascination for beauty,” Father McAfee said. “In teaching, in preaching and everything.”
This fascination was enhanced by the pastor of his childhood parish, who had been spiritual director at the local seminary. The liturgy was done very well, Father McAfee said, and the beauty of it stayed with the future priest throughout his life. After all, “beauty is one of the names of God, according to Thomas Aquinas,” he said.
In less than an hour, the Detroit native quoted from Aquinas, St. Augustine, Thomas Wolfe, Fyodor Dostoevsky and the musical “Oklahoma.” But his love for literature and the arts doesn’t quite seem to match that of nature.
Father McAfee had a green thumb from an early age, when he gardened behind his house on Detroit’s Auto Drive. His aunt encouraged him by buying seeds from the Burpee catalog, and he eventually began purchasing roses from a nearby nursery. Father McAfee took a hiatus from his work in the garden until he arrived at St. Lawrence and “finally” got a chance to oversee landscaping.
Though the priest said he usually doesn’t play favorites, the roses he most enjoys are the golden yellow Elegant Beauty and the classic White Success, both of which have found a home among the 150 rose bushes at St. John. Coming attractions include new roses and a statue of St. John to fill a recently constructed roundabout outside the church, as well as a special garden for the unborn.
From the Garden of Eden to St. Francis of Assisi to the newly bred white John Paul II rose (now blooming at St. John), nature seems to consistently intertwine with faith. And so it is for Father McAfee. When it’s hot, he wakes up early in the morning for his daily walk amid the bouquets of color, taking time to reflect and pray. He talks to more parishioners while pruning than he does on Sundays after Mass. And at the gardens he brought to life at St. Lawrence, many people spend quiet moments in prayer sitting before a statue of the Blessed Mother, yellow petals clustered around her stone-carved feet, or getting lost amid the Stations of the Cross.
Joe Mirilovich, director of the Arlington Rose Foundation, said that being immersed in nature can be both relaxing and therapeutic.
“You see the harmony and the beauty of it all,” he said, adding that both the tints and formation of the roses are pleasing to the eye. “You’re gazing into a changing kaleidoscope of shapes and colors. It’s a very surreal kind of feeling that overtakes one.”
Father McAfee said this time of contemplation, introspection and prayer is what his rose gardens are all about.
“That’s really what the purpose is,” he said. “When you’re surrounded by beauty, you just lose yourself.”

Gretchen R. Crowe can be reached at gcrowe@catholicherald.com.