He treasured the Mass and helped counsel, console and inspire
hundreds of seminarians during his 46 years as a priest. So
it was fitting that at the funeral Mass for Father Ronald S.
Gillis June 25 at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in
Arlington nearly 50 priests, along with a church filled with
lives he’d touched, gathered to celebrate his 71 years of
life. Known for his big heart, infectious humor, patience and
wisdom, the Opus Dei priest died June 21 of colon cancer.
Those gathered honored a humble man who believed a good
priest should aspire to be a “Father Nobody,” according to
Msgr. Thomas Bohlin, U.S. vicar of Opus Dei, the homilist and
a concelebrant. For Father Gillis, being a priest is “about
letting Christ shine through,” he said.
Yet for those in the pews Tuesday morning, Father Gillis was
remembered as a very special somebody.
During a brief reflection at the end of Mass – also
concelebrated by Bishop John O. Barres of Allentown, Pa. –
Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde called all present to
recommit to Father Gillis’ lifelong example of love and
selfless service.
The youngest of eight children of Allen John and Mary Flora
Gillis, he was born Dec. 10, 1941, in Boston. He graduated
from Mission Church High School in Boston and attended St.
Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, graduating
from Boston University with a bachelor’s degree in history in
1963. He studied as a seminarian at the Roman College for the
Holy Cross in Rome. While there, he had the opportunity to
learn from St. Josemaría Escrivá, the priest
who founded Opus Dei as a personal prelature of the Catholic
Church in 1928.
His personal relationship with the saint “gave him an
enthusiasm that he never lost,” according to Msgr. Bohlin.
In 1969, Father Gillis earned a licentiate in history and a
doctorate in canon law from the University of Navarre, Spain.
On Aug. 27, 1967, he was ordained a priest for Opus Dei in
Segovia, Spain. Father Gillis served as spiritual director at
Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., for nearly 32
years and as chaplain of Oakcrest School in McLean since its
1976 founding in Washington.
From 1972 to the present, he served intermittently as
chaplain of Tenley Study Center in Washington, an Opus Dei
supplementary educational center dedicated to the academic
and character formation of young men. He also was chaplain of
The Heights School, an all-boys Opus Dei school in Potomac,
Md., from 2005 to 2006.
For the past eight years, Father Gillis served as chaplain of
the Reston Study Center, an Opus Dei educational center
dedicated to the character development of students and
professional men, where he also resided.
Daryl Glick, Reston Study Center director, said Father Gillis
had a gift for understanding people’s struggles, and he
brought great sympathy to both his work as a spiritual
director and to the life of the center. “He had a very big
heart – he was sort of the heart of the house (in Reston),”
said Glick.
Msgr. Bohlin said in his homily that Father Gillis’ sympathy
came from his understanding of God’s love. Father Gillis knew
there is no human heart that is so weak and so fallen that
God does not want to bring it back to the flock. He knew that
holiness has nothing to do with doing everything right, but
all to do with perseverance and a willingness to begin anew,
said Msgr. Bohlin.
“He had a gift to know human frailty, to touch human
frailty,” he added.
Father Gillis spent so much of his life providing spiritual
direction because he deeply valued every person and knew that
“each soul is worth all the blood of Christ,” Msgr. Bohlin
said.
“You judge all your spiritual directors by how they compared
to him,” said Msgr. Steven P. Rohlfs, rector of Mount St.
Mary’s Seminary and longtime friend of Father Gillis. “He was
a master at listening, a master at knowing when to say
something and when not to say something.
“He had a tremendous amount of wisdom borne out of
experience; he was infinitely patient with you and he never
gave up on anybody. He would always call you to do better
than you were doing but never crushed you with a demand you
could not meet.”
Msgr. Rohlfs estimates that Father Gillis touched the lives
of more than 600 seminarians and Mount St. Mary’s faculty
over the years.
Father Gillis was very good at working with seminarians who
had doubts about their vocation, said Msgr. Rohlfs, adding
that “there are priests today because he intervened in their
lives.”
Along with his understanding and patience, Msgr. Rohlfs said
he will miss Father Gillis’ sense of humor. “He always was
able to laugh at himself as well as the situations God would
place him in.”
In a letter to Oakcrest parents, Head of School Mary T. Ortiz
said that even during his two-and-a half-year battle with
cancer, his ability to see the humorous in life remained.
Alex Aguilar, a rising senior at Oakcrest who attended his
funeral Mass, said Father Gillis was always a joy-filled and
cheerful presence on campus. And his joy, she said, “came
from the Mass.” He taught students about the power of the
Eucharist and that God’s love can be felt through the Mass.
And when he became too ill to celebrate Mass or hear
confessions at Oakcrest, he continued to be an important
presence on campus, ministering to the girls and offering
them spiritual direction, said Marty Lerner, Oakcrest
director of communications.
In his more than four decades as a priest, Father Gillis said
he witnessed many tumultuous changes in the culture and the
church. But, he said in 2011 interview with the Catholic
Herald, the answer to all challenges is prayer. “Prayer
is the only weapon we have,” he said. “The church will rise
up when we get on our knees.”
Meghan Hadley, a 2006 graduate of Oakcrest, said that Father
Gillis helped her not only better understand prayer but also
authentic love. In a letter she wrote to her mother the day
after Father Gillis’ death, she said that the longtime
chaplain taught that “love is not some mushy sentiment.
… Love is a decision, each and every day that you wake
up.”
Even in his final days, Father Gillis’ decision to love
affected countless people.
“He finished the race well; he was faithful to the end,” said
Msgr. Bohlin. “He was a man with a great heart.”
Father Gillis is survived by his sisters Doris Marie Wilcox
and Martha Jane Gillis and his brother Gregory “Gil” Gillis,
all living in Falmouth, Mass.
Email condolences may be made at adamsgreen.com.
Lisa Socarras contributed to this this story.
