Thanks given and memories shared at bittersweet farewell Masses for Bishop Reidy

By Bill Doyle and Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER – A farewell Mass for Bishop Richard F. Reidy was held Saturday at Christ the King Parish, where he served as priest in residence for the past 12 years. Parishioners lined up afterwards to bid him goodbye and good luck.

On Tuesday, Bishop Reidy was ordained and installed as the sixth bishop of the Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut, at the Cathedral of St. Patrick in Norwich. He was appointed by Pope Francis in February. The bishop-elect served as vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Diocese of Worcester since 2013.

Bishop Reidy told The Catholic Free Press that he is looking forward to beginning his new position.

“I’m excited about the prospect now,” he said. “I was stunned at first, but after prayer and talking to my spiritual director I was at peace about the decision to accept it and now I’m eagerly looking forward to the challenge of serving the Lord and the people down in Norwich.”

Bishop McManus presided in choir at the farewell Mass. Msgr. Thomas Sullivan, Christ the King pastor, and Jesuit Father John Gavin concelebrated.

During his homily, Bishop Reidy asked the parishioners to pray for him and he said he would pray for them. He also thanked Bishop McManus and Msgr. Sullivan for their guidance and commended Christ the King’s staff, volunteers, parishioners, Knights of Columbus and women’s guild for their support of the parish.

At Masses at Christ the King and St. Paul Cathedral, Bishop McManus rejoiced that, as the Worcester diocese celebrates its 75th anniversary, Pope Francis saw fit to choose one of its priests to be Bishop of Norwich, which he called an awesome responsibility, especially these days.

“I’m going to miss him tremendously,” Bishop McManus said, “because half the time I spent going from my office to his office to say, ‘What do you think about this?’ His counsel was very helpful.”

Bishop McManus also said it’s important for a bishop to never lose his “heart and love of being a parish priest” and that is certainly true for the new bishop.

After Bishop McManus closed the Mass with his kind words about Bishop Reidy, the parishioners gave Bishop Reidy a standing ovation.

“I’m grateful for it,” he said. “It’s been a wonderful home and I’ve really felt part of the community over these last dozen years. The people have been very gracious.”

Bishop Reidy, who turns 67 at the end of May, is a native of Worcester. He grew up at Immaculate Conception Parish, graduated from Doherty High School and the College of the Holy Cross, worked for the law firm of Mirick, O’Connell, DeMallie and Lougee, and then served as a priest in the Diocese of Worcester for more than 30 years.  

“Except for school, I’ve been here for 66 years,” he said of Worcester. “So, it’s been my home. So, I’ll certainly miss the people, the place and the memories that really make up home.”

Bishop Reidy plans to return to the Worcester area on occasion to visit family and friends.
Bishop Reidy said he learned a great deal in Worcester that will help him in his new post in Norwich. He thanked Bishop Daniel P. Reilly (who was bishop of the Diocese of Norwich before coming to Worcester) for appointing him rector of St. Paul Cathedral in 1995.

“Bishop Reilly had a unique warmth and genuine love for people,” he said, “that I was honored to witness and be the recipient of.”

Bishop McManus also served as a valued mentor.

“Bishop McManus has been an excellent bishop for me to work for,” he said, “and a good delegator, and he’s an excellent shepherd who has led our diocese with compassion and clarity and courage as well.”

Bishop Reidy also praised the priests, deacons and laity for helping him along his journey to being named bishop.

“Every parish I’ve been assigned to,” he said, “I have been edified by the holiness of wonderful lay people who inspire me and have helped me, to use an old sports analogy, ‘raise my game,’ by the witness of their openness to the Holy Spirit. That certainly includes Christ the King, but also every place I’ve been.”

Bishop Reidy is the first priest ordained in the Diocese of Worcester to become a bishop since Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Michael W. Banach the Titular Archbishop of Memphis, Egypt, in 2013. He is currently the apostolic nuncio to Hungary.

“I think he’ll be an excellent bishop,” Msgr. Sullivan said of Bishop Reidy. “He’s so spirited. Good preparation for his homilies. He’s a real people person. He’s so energetic and welcoming. I think he has all those virtues. He’s also perhaps the holiest priest I’ve ever met. So prayerful, such attentiveness to his personal prayer life, and everything about him bespeaks his great love for Christ and the Church. All those qualities are very, very important for being a bishop.”

Msgr. Sullivan will replace Bishop Reidy as vicar general.

Bishop Reidy said when he was younger, he never considered becoming a bishop.
“No, I thought about being a priest,” he said.

Bishop Reidy said he had two good role models while growing up: Father Edward T. Connors, his pastor at Immaculate Conception Parish, and his uncle Father Maurice Reidy, a Jesuit who served as dean and later a member of the board of trustees at the College of the Holy Cross.

From 1996-2008, Bishop Reidy was diocesan chaplain of the Boy Scouts of America. Camping and canoeing remain important to him.

“The beauty of nature,” he said, “was a major component or part of my discernment of the call to a vocation to priesthood and I did a lot of that discerning in the high mountains of the Alps, the Andes and Alaska.”

He no longer takes part in serious mountaineering, but he still enjoys hiking, camping and taking canoe camping trips. Over the years, he’s gone on camping trips with youths to the Divine Mercy Shrine in Stockbridge and the Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, New York. He’s also taken part in father-son canoe trips on the Connecticut River and in Maine.

“He has always looked forward to his spring and summer canoe trips on the rivers in Maine,” Msgr. Sullivan said. “He would prepare his gear and food supplies a couple of weeks in advance. To see him hoist his canoe single-handedly on top of his little Honda was really something ... ”

Joyce Dubuque, 85, has been a life-long parishioner at Christ the King Parish. Her husband, Roger, 85, joined Christ the King when they got married in 1966. They believe Bishop  Reidy will make an excellent bishop.

“He comes so qualified in every area,” Mrs. Dubuque said. “His homilies are always wonderful, thoughtful. You really have a lot to take away from every homily he gives. He’s very spiritual.”

Chris Derr, 75, is another longtime Christ the King parishioner.

“I expect him to be a holy bishop because he’s been a holy person and a holy priest,” Mrs. Derr said. “He’s really lived that part of his life well. He’s a listener, compassionate. He notices people’s needs and seems to reach out to a lot of people, young and old. And he’s prayerful. He’s also smart and true to the Catholic teachings and beliefs. He’s a good teacher, explaining things.”

Mrs. Derr appreciated how compassionate Bishop Reidy was while she and her family grieved the death of her daughter, Leah Derr, in 2022.

“He’s a very busy person,” Mrs. Derr said, “but he took time to be at the Mass and say the Mass along with Msgr. Sullivan and another priest friend of ours. So that meant a lot. He notices people. He looks into people’s eyes and really asks, ‘How are you?’ and he means it.”

After celebrating English and Spanish Masses at St. Paul Cathedral Sunday and greeting parishioners at receptions, Bishop Reidy won praise from some who recalled his days as rector there.  

Fanny Escobar, who has served there for decades with her husband, Deacon Francisco Escobar, said she gave a talk at the end of the Spanish Mass, expressing thanks to God for his dedication and highlighting his ministry there.

When the Hispanic community heard he was becoming rector, people wondered how he would treat them, she said.

“In those days, we were waiting for someone who would make us feel welcome,” she said. “He used to wait after Mass to say ‘hello,’” using his limited Spanish, even when he hadn’t concelebrated the Spanish Mass.

When overseeing cathedral renovations, he had a shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe added to make Hispanics feel welcome, she said.

Upon learning that she and her husband and a religious sister who served the Hispanic community kept their “office papers” in their cars, “he gave us an office, a telephone and even a key” so they would be “with the [cathedral’s] other offices; he was looking to make us feel equal.”

He encouraged Hispanics to have their Masses in the upper church like the Anglos did, Mrs. Escobar said  

Bishop Reidy let the cathedral’s African community use the church basement for monthly meetings, said parishioner Anthony Adade, chairman of the diocesan African Ministry’s board of trustees.

“There weren’t too many Africans at the cathedral” when Mr. Adade’s daughter, Crystal, was born; “I didn’t have anyone to be the godfather.” He said Bishop Reidy became her godfather, and gave her ongoing support.

At Sunday’s reception after the English Mass, Bishop Reidy said he had “wonderful” years of great training at the cathedral. He also made a point of praising the Hispanics for saving the church building when there was a fire during one of their holy hours.  

“I’m so excited somebody from this ... city” is becoming a bishop, St. Paul’s parishioner Soraya Perkins said. She remembered  the former rector as being kind to the less fortunate and said a homeless woman told her he made sure she had groceries.

Lisa Giassi Bean said her father was an altar server when Bishop Reidy was rector.

“I would sit in the front pew,” she said, marveling at her own attentiveness to Bishop Reidy’s homilies when she was a youth.  “He captivated me. … I was able to relate to what he was talking about.” Now she and her daughter Sophia, 13, are altar servers there.

Timothy Kneeland, a parishioner of St. Paul’s, reiterated those points and added more.
Bishop Reidy gave “good sermons – you could tell Christ was speaking through him,” he said.

He was “very kind, compassionate, loved the people,” and helped the homeless find jobs and places to stay, and connected them with agencies that could assist them – “everything a pastor would do. People loved him.” He brought people back to the Church, Mr. Kneeland said.

He said Bishop Reidy is “truly a man of God, a good shepherd,” and added, “I’m so glad Pope Francis made him a bishop before he passed away.”

Julie O’Connor, 84, has known Bishop Reidy since he was 13 years old and delivered the newspaper to her home. She was a parishioner at St. Paul Cathedral. When he came to Christ the King in 2013, Mrs. O’Connor and her husband Jack followed him there.  

Mrs. O’Connor said her husband, who died last June at age 85, thought very highly of the bishop.

“He had been saying,” Mrs. O’Connor said, “I swear to heaven, for 10 years, ‘When are they going to make Richard Reidy a bishop?’ So he really, really thought he should be. He’s very, very spiritual. Reading all the time, but he’s also very down to earth.”