Fr. James B. Curran, SDB
(1921-2012)
Fr. James
B. Curran, SDB, died in mid-afternoon on Sept. 3, 2012, at St. Anthony’s
Hospital in St. Petersburg,
Fla. He was still recovering from
major surgery on Aug. 16. A short time prior to the surgery he had moved into
the Salesians’ St. Philip the Apostle Residence in Tampa
but was still a member of the community at St. Petersburg Catholic
High School.
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| At the province jubilee celebration, 2009 |
James
Brendan Curran was born at Annascaul (County
Kerry), Ireland, on May 27, 1921, in the
last days of the “Irish war for independence,” to James and Helen Kennedy
Curran, and baptized the following day at the parish church of the Sacred Heart
in Annascaul. According to a former student of Fr. Curran’s, Andrew
MacKinlay—who remained a life-long friend—Kerry was a particularly “bloody
area” after the Irish Free State was set up in
1922, including “internecine civil war.”
Young Jim
attended the national primary school in Brackloon and continued his secondary
studies from 1934-1935 at the Christian
Brothers School,
Dingle (Kerry).
Desiring
to become a Salesian priest, in 1935 he entered the SDB aspirantate at Shrigley
(Cheshire), England. He had to go to England because until 1972 the United Kingdom, Ireland,
South Africa, and Malta formed
a single SDB province.
Jim
entered the novitiate with 20 other young men at Beckford (Gloucester) on Aug. 30, 1940. His novice
master was the legendary Fr. James Simonetti, who held that position from 1905 to 1959. The socius (assistant novice master) was Fr. David de Burgh, who later had
a short but distinguished career as a member of the U.S. Western Province and
the faculty of Don Bosco College
in Newton, N.J.
Bro.
Curran made his first profession of vows at Beckford on Aug. 31, 1941. He did
his philosophical and liberal arts studies at the SDB house of studies in
Shrigley, and upon his graduation was sent to St. Patrick’s School in Sliema, Malta,
for his practical training as a teacher and assistant.
Mr. MacKinlay describes a “perilous” sea voyage to reach the island fortress of
the Mediterranean in December 1943 through
“u-boat infested waters. It was a circuitous route the [ship] took ... a long and
hazardous journey.”
While in
Malta Bro. Curran continued his studies and passed the London University
Intermediate Arts Exam (the equivalent of an American associate’s degree). In
1946 he completed his bachelor of arts degree at London University,
majoring in English, British and European history, and Latin.
Also at St.
Patrick’s Bro. Curran professed perpetual vows on Aug. 14, 1947. Soon
thereafter he started his study of theology at Shrigley (one year) and finished
at Blaisdon Hall (Gloucester),
where he was ordained on July 15, 1951,[2] by Bishop Joseph Rudderham of the
Clifton Diocese.
Following
his ordination, Fr. Curran was originally assigned to Cape Town,
South Africa, but his
assignment was changed to Chertsey (Surrey), England, out of consideration for
the advanced age of his mother. The school in Chertsey
was a small boarding and day school; Fr. Curran taught there from 1951 to 1963,
the last four years as headmaster (principal).
Mr.
MacKinlay was a Chertsey student while Fr.
Curran was headmaster. He writes that Father “was a
great pastor and tutor to countless people in Malta,
England and the United States.
It was my privilege to have known him and been one of his students ... and
to have shared and enjoyed his company” as recently as his trip to Ireland last
summer for the 60th anniversary of his ordination.
Following
a visit to Chicago, in 1963 Fr. Curran transferred
from the Anglo-Irish Province to the New Rochelle Province.
A few years later his Anglo-Irish friend Fr. Denis Kelleher followed his lead
and came to America.
Fr.
Curran’s first posting was as a teacher at Don Bosco Tech in Boston (1963-1966). During that time he also
preached retreats and did vocation work at the SDB aspirantate in Ipswich, Mass.
In
1966-1967 he was the assistant vocation director for the New Rochelle Province
and lived at the provincial residence. In 1967 he was sent to Salesian Preparatory School
in Cedar Lake, Ind., as vocation director. The following
year he was appointed director (religious superior) of the school and the SDB
community; he served a six-year term. In 1970 he became an American citizen.
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| In September 2007 Fr. Jim welcomed Fr. Pascual Chavez, 9th successor of St. John Bosco, to Marrero, La. |
Upon the
completion of his directorship, he spent a sabbatical year (1974-1975) in Rome for continuing
formation. On his return, he was appointed the provincial delegate for the
Salesian Cooperators, serving until 1983. In this position he resided at the
Marian Shrine and Retreat House in Haverstraw,
N.Y., and in 1977 an additional
charge as director of that SDB community was given to him. The Cooperators
appreciated his pastoral care very much. In the words of one of them, Carol
Verde, “He was a wonderful, loving man.”
From 1979
to 1983 Fr. Curran was director of Sacred Heart Retreat House in Ipswich, Mass.
In 1983
he began a new “career” as a parish priest. He was named pastor of St. Rosalie
Church in Harvey, La., and served there for 12 years. As
pastor he worked diligently with the Dominican nuns who staffed the parochial
school and helped the school earn its first Blue Ribbon for Excellence from the
federal Department of Education.
Continuing
parish ministry, he was sent then to St. Kieran Church in Miami to serve especially the English-speaking
parishioners, and a year later, in August 1996, he was appointed pastor. An
appointment as pastor of St. Anthony Church in Paterson, N.J.,
followed in 1998.
In 2001,
now 80 years old, Fr. Curran stepped down as a pastor but not as an active and
zealous priest. He moved back to Florida, to
the SDB community affiliated with St.
Petersburg Catholic High School, where he was vice director
of the community and a minister of the sacraments in the school.
That
assignment lasted but a year. Ever flexible, he came to Corpus Christi Church
in Port Chester, N.Y., as assistant pastor in 2002, and then relocated yet
again in 2003, back to St. Rosalie Church in Harvey, where he carried out
priestly ministry and also “puttered about the resurrected (and gloriously
colorful) garden at the rectory and provid[ed] much needed companionship,”
according to the Clarion Herald
newspaper of the New Orleans Archdiocese. After 7 more happy years in that
parish—happy except for Hurricane Katrina, which he rode out with the other SDBs
of the West Bank—he served for one year (2010-2011) at St. Philip Benizi Church
in Belle Glade, Fla., as assistant pastor and vice director.
In the
summer of 2011 Fr. Curran had the joyful opportunity to return to Ireland
for several weeks to celebrate 60 years of priesthood
with family and friends.
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| Fr. Jim in Ireland, 2011, with his good friends Andrew and Ruth MacKinlay (courtesy of Andrew MacKinlay) |
In August
2011, now 90 years of age, Fr. Curran came once more to St. Petersburg, where he assisted with the
celebration of Mass for the office staff at the diocesan chancery as well as
serving the school community as a confessor from time to time. He enjoyed a
visit with SDB friends in the North during July 2012, but his health had
deteriorated noticeably. Thus in August he moved—temporarily, it was
thought—into the SDB retirement community at St. Philip the Apostle.
Jill
Stoner, a parishioner of St. Rosalie Church, recalled “Father Curran’s dry wit
and learned homilies” that “only improved with age (like a fine wine)”; his “‘jolly
good’ nature and sense of humor” that were much appreciated.
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| During the Rector Major's visit to Louisiana in 2007, Fr. Jim relished the chance to pose with a new statue of Mama Margaret Bosco outside St. Rosalie Church. With Bro. Tom Dion, Fr. Pascual Chavez, Fr Juan Jose Bartolome, Fr. Jim Heuser, Fr. Jim McKenna, and the late Fr. Jon Parks |
Although
Fr. Curran held no higher degree than his B.A., he spoke French, Italian, and
Irish, and that learning to which Mrs. Stoner alluded earned him the
affectionate title from his confreres of “Doctor Curran.” However humble and
plain he was in his manner of life, he did seem to revel in this brotherly
honorific.
The
learning and the humility, among other qualities, are recalled by Fr. Curran’s
grandnephew Thomas Casagranda in a letter, here slightly edited, to Fr. Mike Conway,
director of the St. Petersburg SDB community:
Uncle Jimmy
was a marvellous man, and our memories of him are undimmed and always in our
hearts. I can remember his reading a book about Shakespeare. A theory had come
out that Shakespeare was a closet Catholic. Uncle Jimmy said that, unfortunately,
we cannot claim him as he had a wonderful knowledge of the [Anglican] Book of
Common Prayer…. I can also remember our walking around Westminster Abbey, and
me, as a 13-year-old, telling him that I wasn't allowed in as my Catholic
headmaster would hit me for it: Uncle Jimmy told me not to be so ridiculous,
that I should walk in and that Westminster Abbey was a great place to discover.
He was correct in that respect.
Additionally,
I can remember walking with Uncle Jimmy, around Westminster Cathedral, the
Catholic cathedral in London, and a marvellous church outside Oxford called St
Mary's, where Cardinal Newman was the vicar, prior to his conversion [to
Catholicism]. I didn't pay much attention to it as a kid, but when older, and
appreciative of Elgar, I grew to understand Newman's Dream of Gerontius, and knew just how far Uncle Jimmy was ahead of
his time.
There were
also some wonderful trips down to Dorset,
which Uncle Jimmy undertook with Fr Tom Brennan and my parents. Uncle Jimmy had
a great love of Thomas Hardy, and viewed Dorset
as Hardy country. I love Hardy too, but prefer his poems to his prose.
I can also
remember some wonderful chats, as I got older, about Yeats and “The Lake Isle
of Innisfree,” and “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death,” and he always took an
interest, particularly, when I was doing my degrees. I can remember his
arguing, good natured I hasten to add, over a passage in St John's Gospel about Greeks visiting Jesus,
and their view of what was early Christianity in relation to Plato and
Aristotle. Uncle Jimmy won, as he trumped me on St Thomas Aquinas, which I
hadn't read at the time.
In truth,
Uncle Jimmy was a man of great learning: a man who was even learning Spanish at
an advanced age. He was also humanitarian, humble, and helpful in all manner of
things. I think it will be safe to state that we will never forget him, and
we'll also never forget his great sense of humour too. He certainly broke down
barriers with his humour, wit, intellect, and charm, and goes to a place that
we can only wish to go to.
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| Possibly the last photo taken of Fr. Jim; with his good friend Fr. Tom Brennan at the provincial house, July 2012 |
Fr. Jim
McKenna was Fr. Curran’s director during the latter part of his second stint in
Louisiana. He
always found Fr. Curran to be “peaceful, kind and helpful ... always a people's
man ...always considerate of others, and I will miss him as an older priest
friend.”
One former Salesian remarked, “He was father and
mentor to many in our class and his memory still nourishes the soul.”
There were 2 Masses of Christian Burial for Fr. Jim. The 1st was at St. Jude Cathedral in St. Pete on Sept. 6, celebrated by Bishop Robert Lynch with a eulogy by Fr. Mike Conway. The 2d was at the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw, N.Y., on Sept. 8, celebrated by Fr. Tom Dunne with a eulogy by Fr. Tom Brennan.
Fr. Curran was buried on the 8th in the province's cemetery in Goshen.
