priest jubilees

Priests Celebrate Anniversaries

HERALD Staff Report
(From the Issue of 5/17/07)

The annual priests jubilee Mass was celebrated by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde on May 16 at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Shrine in Emmitsburg, Md. The priests who will celebrate special jubilees this year include:

55 Years
Father Louis Gagnard, retired from the Diocese of Alexandria, La., in private residence in the Diocese of Arlington.
50 Years
Monsignor Thomas Cassidy was born Sept. 25, 1928, in Philadelphia. He graduated from West Catholic High School for Boys in 1946, and studied Latin at St. Joseph Seraphic Seminary in Calicoon, N.Y. He finished college and spent four years as a Franciscan before leaving the order for the Diocese of Richmond. He was ordained a priest for the Richmond Diocese Sept. 26, 1957. Msgr. Cassidy spent nine years as regional director of Catholic Charities of Northern Virginia before becoming director of Catholic Charities in the Norfolk area in 1969.
In 1973, Msgr. Cassidy became the second pastor of St. Mark Parish in Vienna where he remained for 16 years. He was appointed the first diocesan pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Falls Church in 1989. Msgr. Cassidy spent two years working in the diocesan mission parishes of Banica and Pedro Santana in the Dominican Republican from 1994-96.
After his return from the Dominican Republic, Msgr. Cassidy became parochial vicar at St. Ann Parish in Arlington, and in January 1997, he was appointed pastor at St. Francis de Sales Parish in Purcellville. He retired in 2003, and is now pastor emeritus at St. Mark Parish in Vienna.
Josephite Father Francis M. Hull was born in Philadelphia, and graduated from St. Thomas More High School. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the South Pacific for three years during World War II. He entered the Josephite minor seminary in Newburgh, N.Y., and was ordained in 1957 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Father Hull taught high school and college, and has served as rector of the Josephite St. Augustine High School in New Orleans. He has also served as pastor of Josephite parishes in New Orleans, Houston and Washington, D.C. Father Hull is currently pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Alexandria.
40 Years
Opus Dei Father Ronald Gillis, assigned to Opus Dei Study Center in Reston.
Father Robert J. Richter, retired from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, in residence at Our Lady Queen of Peace in Arlington.
Father Clarence Watkins, retired, in private residence in the Diocese of Arlington.
35 Years
Cistercian Father Vincent Collins, member of the Holy Cross Abbey community of Trappists in Berryville.
Missionhurst Father Joseph Giordano, director of promotion and treasurer at Missionhurst in Arlington.
Franciscan Friars of the Atonement Father C. Donald Howard, pastor of Christ the Redeemer in Sterling.
Franciscan Father Robert J. Menard, parochial vicar at St. Francis of Assisi in Triangle.
30 Years
Franciscan Friars of the Atonement Father Arthur M. Johnson, parochial vicar at Christ the Redeemer Parish in Sterling.
Father Jerome Fasano, pastor of St. Andrew the Apostle in Clifton.
25 Years
Third Order Regular Father Thomas G. Bourque was born May 15, 1954, and earned a bachelor’s in political science from Salem State College in Massachusetts in 1976. He entered the Third Order Regular Franciscans, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1982. Father Bourque worked as a teacher and administrator at the high school and college levels including at Bishop Egan High School in Fairless Hills, Pa., St. Francis University in Loretto, Pa., and Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio. From 1999 to 2004, he served as vicar provincial and formation director for the Third Order Regular Franciscan Province of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Father Bourque has been assigned to St. Joseph Parish in Herndon since June 2004.