For Love, Not Money

As I was thinking about charity, the theme of this issue of NC Catholics, I thought of three examples of priestly charity. The first I experienced personally.

In 1959, after my ordination in Rome and with my studies ended, I returned home to Raleigh and went in to see Bishop Waters. I was all dressed up in a handmade Italian suit. Bishop Waters greeted me and we talked about my coming assignment.

“Have you bought a car yet,” the Bishop asked, and I told him I didn’t have the money. Bishop Waters looked into his wallet, pulled out two hundred dollars and said, “Take this, it is all I have.” I took it. And thanked him.

When I celebrated my Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Monica the following Sunday, a collection was taken up for me which amounted to three hundred dollars. I dressed up in my Italian suit again, my pastor, Msgr. Fred Koch, took me to a friendly dealer in Sampson County and I bought a $500 used Chevrolet which died two years later.

The second example involves Bishop James Navagh, who served Raleigh as the Auxiliary Bishop and eventually became Bishop of Paterson, N.J. He died during

Vatican II. When he died the Diocese of Paterson had to pay for all of his burial expenses, because he routinely gave away all his money. When he died his bank account was empty.

My third story is about Father Augustine Tolton, one of the early black priests ordained for the United States. He was from Quincy, Ill. He had from his early youth a great desire to become a priest, but the prejudice and timidity of priests and bishops made this dream at times seem impossible of fulfillment.

He eventually met Father McGirr, an Irishman, and Father Schafermeyer, a German, who believed in his vocation and did all they could to help him fulfill his call. From their own pockets they paid for Tolton’s college education to help prepare him for possible Ordination.

Augustine Tolton eventually had to go to Rome for his priesthood education at the Propagation of Faith Seminary because no American seminary would admit him. He was ordained in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Cathedral of Rome on April 24, 1886 by Cardinal. Giovanni Parocchi. On Sunday the 25th, he celebrated his first Mass in the St. Basilica of St. Peter on an altar normally reserved for Cardinals and distinguished prelates.

- Msgr. Thomas P. Hadden