Fr.
James Naughton, SDB, 75, died at 2:25 a.m. on Nov. 27 in the rectory of St.
Theresa’s Church in Leeds, Ala., where he had been pastor since July 1, 2000.
Suffering from terminal skin cancer, he came home from the hospital on October
28 and began receiving hospice care. The weekend before he died, he’d told Fr.
Dennis Donovan that he didn’t expect to last until Thanksgiving, and he was
right.
St.
Theresa’s beloved pastor had had an earlier battle with cancer that cost him
the sight in one eye.
Fr.
Jim had been a Salesian for 56 years and a priest for 46 years.
James
J. Naughton, the elder of Michael and Mary Cody Naughton’s two sons, was born
in the Bronx on Jan. 27, 1938, and was baptized in the family’s parish church,
Holy Family, on Feb. 14 and confirmed there in 1946. He attended Holy Family’s
parochial school and was a member of the Dominic Savio Classroom Club (before Dominic’s
canonization in 1954). In later years Fr. Jim said that even then he “saw
something special in the life of St. Dominic Savio and his relationship with
St. John Bosco.” That sentiment and the influence of his parents shaped his
priestly and religious vocation.
Jim
entered Don Bosco Juniorate in Haverstraw, N.Y., as a high school seminarian in
1952 and graduated in 1956. From there he was admitted to St. Joseph’s
Novitiate in Newton, N.J., part of a class of 39 clerical and coadjutor brother
novices, guided by master of novices Fr. Aloysius Bianchi. They made their
first profession of vows on Sept. 8, 1957, in Newton.
Bro.
Jim earned a B.A. in philosophy from Don Bosco College in Newton in June 1962
and carried out his practical training by teaching at St. Dominic Savio High
School in East Boston from 1959 to 1963.
In
1963 Bro. Jim went to Italy for his immediate preparation for the priesthood at
the Salesians’ theological school in Bollengo, near Ivrea in Piedmont. He was
ordained in the basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin on March 18, 1967.
Upon
his return to the U.S., Fr. Jim served until 1976 with passion and notable
success as vice principal at Don Bosco Technical High School in Paterson, N.J.,
leaving a lasting, positive impression on both students and faculty. He
remembered that first priestly assignment fondly: “I learned a lot from the
kids that I instructed. They were truly an inspiration.”
During
his years in Paterson he also earned an M.A. in education at Montclair State
College (1972).
From
1976 to 1979 Fr. Jim was treasurer at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J.
Fr. Jim in May 1984 |
Then
came two years as assistant pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Harlem. He
helped set up and run a computer training center for local youths in addition
to helping support the parish, youth center, and summer day camp with his
ministry—including the youth workers provided by the city to assist with summer
programs. He sent some St. Thomas youths for vocation weekends at the high
school seminary in Goshen and to the province’s youth leadership program in the
summer camps. From 1981 to 1985 he was pastor of the church and director of the
Salesian community, and for another nine years he was, once again, assistant
pastor. He was also provincial treasurer from 1985 to 1991.
In
1994 Fr. Jim moved to Birmingham, Ala., as assistant pastor of Holy Rosary
Parish, also filling in at various times the roles of youth minister, vice
director, and treasurer of the religious community. The Salesians at Holy
Rosary were also responsible for St. John Bosco Parish a few miles away. He was
pastor from 1995 to 2000, when he moved to Leeds, a suburb east of Birmingham,
as pastor of St. Theresa’s Parish. His ministry at both parishes included jail
visits and visits to the sick in their homes, nursing homes, and hospitals.
An
article about St. Theresa’s Church in The
Leeds News (May 6, 2004) noted the pastor’s “wit, wisdom and sense of humor
[that] he uses in ministering to his congregation and to residents of the
community.” As a New Yorker, the article observed, Fr. Jim had had to adapt to
a much slower pace of life when he came to Alabama, as well as to learn
“Alabama English.” He compiled a short history of the parish, which began in
the 1930s with four Catholic families.
On
Dec. 24, 1996, Fr. Jim received a liver transplant at the University of
Alabama-Birmingham, which saved his life and left him ever grateful to his
unknown donor. “I don’t know my donor,” he told The St. Clair Times of Alabama, “but I try to treat everyone as if
they were the one who donated to me or the family of the person who donated to
me.”
“I
was so ill in November,” he told the North
Jersey Herald a couple of months later, that I couldn’t remember anything.
I did not know who I was or where I was.” With his typical humor, he began to
mark Dec. 24 as his “second birthday” and to tell people that he was about 40
years old—59 years from his first birthday, and perhaps 20 from the age of his
liver, averaging out to 40. “You have to have a sense of humor. You can’t feel
sorry for yourself. You can’t sit around and mope.”
He
also quipped that the prayer at Mass “Deliver us, O Lord,” had taken on a new
meaning for him.
He
was a famously hard worker at whatever he did, and he had great respect for
anyone else—Salesians or others—who also worked hard. Those who seemed to him
to be less industrious were often the targets of his deflating humor.
He
could gently mock himself, as well. After his liver transplant and his first
bout with cancer, and perhaps also considering the vast geographical distance
between Leeds and most of the rest of the Salesians of the province, he was
wont to identify himself on phone calls as “James of Molokai.”
In
2007, at the time of his 50th anniversary of religious profession, Fr. Jim said
that he had stayed young by trying to work with the young. He gladly
acknowledged that he has “received more from God than I have given.”
Fr. Jim presiding at Mass in Monrovia, Liberia, at the time when he was province treasurer. San Francisco provincial Fr. Thomas Prendiville is to his left. |
In
Harlem Fr. Jim collaborated with the province vocation director, Fr. Mark Hyde,
SDB, who later served with him at Holy Rosary in Birmingham. He writes that Fr.
Jim “had a heart as big as all outdoors when it came to the young and the poor.
He thrived on his ministry at St. Thomas in Harlem and at Holy Rosary and St.
John Bosco in Birmingham and St. Theresa in Leeds.
“When
Fr. Jim was in Harlem, he frequently organized outings for his kids to
experience life outside the city: to swim, to fish, to frog, to run around and
play on grassy fields in Goshen and Newton.”
“In
Birmingham,” Fr. Hyde continues, “Fr. Jim worked tirelessly for the well-being
of the parishes, the food pantry, and the youth center. He was ever ready to
assist with the youth ministry programs of the diocese and the youth ministry
and sacramental programs of John Carroll Catholic High when they had no
chaplain. Whenever a nearby, or not so nearby, hospital had an emergency,
needed a priest, and couldn’t get hold of their chaplain, Fr. Jim was called and
immediately responded. In Leeds he gave emphasis to youth ministry and tied
into our province programs. He got the people and the youths of St. Theresa in
Leeds as well as number of other nearby parishes involved in the work of the
Holy Rosary Youth Center and the food pantry.
“In
his outreach to the young and the poor,” Fr. Hyde sums up, “Fr. Jim truly had
an oratorian heart like Don Bosco’s. His apostolic zeal made the love of God
present in a very concrete way to the young and the poor.”
Fr.
Jim is survived by his brother Michael of Chicago, Michael's wife Carol, his nephews James,
Michael, and Daniel, the extended Naughton family, and his Salesian family.
A Masses of Christian
Burial was celebrated at St. Mark the Evangelist Church in Birmingham on Dec. 3 with Bishop Robert Baker presiding and Fr. Dennis Donovan preaching. A second funeral Mass was celebrated at the Marian Shrine in
Haverstraw on Dec. 5 with Fr. Donovan preaching again and the vice provincial, Fr. Steve Dumais presiding. Fr. Naughton was buried in the Salesian Cemetery in Goshen, N.Y., on Dec. 6.
7 comments:
(Received via e-mail)
I am very sorry to hear of Jim Naughton's passing. I will always recall him as an indefatigable worker. As a boy I clearly remember him as a cleric leading the band from Savio on Provincial Day in Newton when Fr. Divizia took a group of us "hopefuls" to join in the festivities. He struck me as one who knew what he was doing and was intent on getting it done, and well. Although not profusive in his emotions, he had that gravitas, which could be daunting to those who did not know him, but which easily gave way to warmth once he knew you and could feel at ease. I will offer the prescribed Masses for the repose of his good soul.
Fr. Tony Mastroeni
Mt. St. Mary's Seminary Emmitsburg, Md.
I still recall with fondness, Fr. Jim standing at the top of the stairway at Don Bosco Tech in Paterson in 1972 when I was a 17-year old student. He'd be there each morning as we went to our classes. Sometimes we'd do goofy things as 17- year old boys do, and he'd try to look stern and displeased, but I knew underneath there was warmth and affection.
Rest in Peace Father Jim. You were the principal of Don Bosco Tech when I graduated in the class of 1973. I never forgot you and your devotion to the school and students.
Rest in peace, Fr. Jim. I will always appreciate your work in developing me into a responsible young man. Fred Schulze, Don Bosco Tech class of 1972.
Father Jim you are in my thoughts and prayers. You made an impact on my life and I will always strive to do the right thing. May God make worthy to stand before you some day. I know that you are blessed for your service.
"Gentlemen, today, as you know, there is snow on the ground ...leave it there"
Fr. Jim's way of telling myself, Bob Epsom, Tom Shear and Greg Kowal not to start a snowball fight after school waiting for the bus.
John Laski
Father Jim was the friend and protector to all of us who were Salesian lay missioners in Birmingham. We loved him and he loved us. He was our friend, mentor, confidant and always supportive and hilarious. My dear friend, keep your chins up as you enter the gates of heaven. You are well loved. (SLM 1996-97)
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