25. Fr. Francis Walsh: Administrator 1973 - 1979; Pastor 1979 - 1986
Fr. Walsh was born on August 7, 1928. He was ordained a priest on May 14,1954. He was a chaplain in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps (1956-61), an assistant priest in St. Helena's Church in the Bronx (196166), chaplain of Lincoln Hall (1966-69) and a chaplain of Sing Sing Prison in Ossining (1969-72). He was appointed Administrator of St. Mary's / Immaculate Conception in Yonkers on April 28, 1973 to help the pastor Msgr. Weber. He was in reality the pastor.
In the Herald Statesman, the Yonkers newspaper, on September 15, 1973, there is a photo of Fr. Walsh sitting on a horse. The caption reads "It's not John Wayne but Fr. Walsh ... hopes to build a better city." In the article he describes his leisure activities as golf (10 handicap), horseback riding, skiing and poker. The article ends with this sentence: "Whether it's housing, recreation or narcotics prevention program, St. Mary's will be a church to watch."
Administrator 1973 -1979
True to his word, Fr. Walsh became active in the social issues of the city. He became a strong advocate of the Pro- Life Movement (anti abortion). He made sure that there would be no abortion clinics in Phillipse Towers or in the Riverview 1 & 2. He tried to sponsor housing (see below). He joined a Yonkers committee to try to change the city style of government from a city manager to a strong mayor government. He succeeded in getting more police protection for the area around the church and school. He was also able to relocate the Yonkers offices of Catholic Charities to the first floor of the Convent. When the CYO Center was closed in 1973, its local office was relocated to the second floor of the Parish Hall.
Under the leadership of Sr. Mary Lenihan, its Executive Director, St. Joseph's Hospital began to expand. In 1976 it built a 200 bed Nursing Home, an Ambulatory Care Center and a Family Health Center. In 1979 a greatly expanded new hospital was opened. In a time when many institutions were leaving or about to leave the area e.g. Jewish Community Center, CYO Center, Saunders High School. Yonkers Board of Education, Carnegie Library, and the new hospital complex was a stabilizing anchor in the community surrounding St. Mary's. Much to the relief of the parish priests at St. Mary's, a full time priest chaplain from the Capuchin Franciscan Order was assigned to the hospital. The priests of St. Mary's had done this service since 1890. Our priests were still on night duty for emergencies.
Although there was some decline in the number of parishioners, there was still plenty of life in the parish. The finances of the school were a concern but the school remained a source of great pride. The changing demographics of the parishioners was answered by moving the Spanish (1977) and Arabic (1978) speaking Masses from the chapel into the main church. Of significance was the arrival of Fr. Sami Totah in 1978. He would remain the leader of the Good Shepherd Community and as an assistant priest for St. Mary's until his death in 2014.
Fr. Walsh ran into some protest from parishioners when his assistant priest, Fr. Arthur Leone (1973-1976), painted the chapel all in white (including the wooden pews and statues) and added a chandelier. The renovation project in 1977-78 included returning the chapel to its original design.
Some highlights of these years was the celebration of the 125th and 130th anniversary of the founding of the parish and in 1976 the welcoming home of one of our former assistant priests (1942 -1951), James Killeen, who had been just consecrated a bishop. Bishop Killeen was a Navy Chaplain and Commander who became the Military Vicar of the Armed Forces. His Episcopal ring was donated by St. Mary's parish. Unfortunately he died two years later. It is interesting to note that at least seven priests assigned to St. Mary's were chaplains in the Armed Forces: Frs. Gough (who was killed in an airplane crash), McGrath, Killeen, Cunningham, Walsh, Corrigan (not me) and Rooney.
A good example of the ongoing vitality of the parish was the Young Adults Club. Josephine Mastronardi (our secretary from 1963 -2007) remembers her years with the club as a wonderful time. Here are some of her memories, written in 1992.
"The Young Adults Club was started by Fr. Doyle in 1961. It began with a group of St. Mary's students who were in High School and looking for something that would bring them together in the Church. It started with about 25 but grew to over a 100 students. We had Folk Masses and monthly Communion breakfasts where we cooked breakfast: bacon and eggs, buns, juice and coffee. We had speakers come to the monthly meetings to talk on drugs, education and spiritual talks. The young people sold Christmas trees. We started the Teenage dances with live bands with over 300 participating. They built up their treasury so that we could subsidize bus trips. In the summer we went to Jones Beach, plays and dinner in the city, trips to Shrines in Washington. In the winter we went to weekend ski trips and the Expo in Canada. Unfortunately on a trip to Washington some of the boys went wading in the fountain and were disruptive at the hotel. Fr. Doyle became angry and disbanded the group. This group of 25 then went into the Drama Club. A year later Dorothy Paretti came to me to join her in reviving the Young Adult Group. Once again this group started. "When Fr. Doyle left in 1968 Fr. Jeffers took it over. At the time we were beginning to see the start of the Spanish young people coming into the group. One of the reasons they came was that this was the only place their parents allowed them. Some of them had little knowledge of their religion so we started a Young Adult Religious Instructions class once a week.
"When Fr. Jeffers left in 1969, Fr. Raymond Kovach (1969 - 1976) took over. The Teenage Dances were bigger than ever. We held classes with people from St. Peter's Church who came to join our group. Fr. Ed Paraco and Sr. Jean were in the group from St. Peters. My husband, John, built a room beside the cafeteria in the Parish Hall for the Teen Club - we called it the "Rap Room." We had it opened every Friday. Sr. Florence and Sr. Miriam Ann Brennan used to volunteer once a month.
"The young people began to get younger and younger. Fr. Kovach had a van (and a large Alaskan Marmaluke dog, named Titus) which he used to take the youngsters all over. In my opinion he indulged them too much. They became too destructive. John had to spend much more time repairing things and cleaning up after. John retired from the group but I stayed another two years. Bernie Skelton, Liz Milano and Sr. Ann Dolores then became chaperones. On a weekend trip to the C.Y.O. camp the young adults ran wild. Fr. Kovachs just couldn't handle them. He then concentrated on forming a band, St. Mary's Band. They travelled and played in many places including Disneyworld.
"The Drama Club (1962-1979) was also started by Fr. Doyle. Their ages ranged from 21 to 60. It was very active and thriving. Many marriages came out of this group. The demise of the Drama Club at St Mary's was caused because of conflicts with the maintenance people and the fact that Bingo was now being held on three nights a week. Eventually, Fr. Walsh asked them to leave. Unfortunately, we lost a group of parishioners with this move."
The school was doing well academically. However, it needed increasingly large financial assistance from the parish. In 1974 Fr. Walsh created a new committee, School Board of St. Mary's School. It consisted of one person from the religious faculty of the school, one from the lay faculty, three school parents and two with no school affiliation. All must be approved by Fr. Walsh. It is to function as an "independent group of the parish." Its main function was "to assist in the collection of tuition." Its first business was to raise the tuition to $30.00 a month per family plus $3.00 a week in the Sunday collection."Tuition for October 1974 is due no later than Oct. 10, 1974 and parish support (Sunday envelope) for Sept. 1,8,15,22,29 is due no later than October 10, 1974. Delinquency could result in student expulsion from the school. Obviously finances (or lack of it) was playing and would continue a be major concern. As tuition increased, the school population decreased. In the year 1972-73 the student population was 607. In the year 1975-1976 it had decreased to 480. Fr. Walsh's solution to the problem was additional Bingos. The first weekly Bingo (Friday) was started in 1967. By 1978 there were three Bingos. The rallying cry for more Bingo workers from the school was: "If Bingo decreases, tuition increases!" By 1978 the student population had increased to 538.
St. Mary's School was probably the most integrated school, public of private, in Yonkers at this time. In the year 1979-1980, the school population was 531. It included 202 Hispanics, 159 non- Hispanic whites, 142 African- Americans and 56 Asians.
The principal of the school, Sr. Nancy McNamara, and Fr. Walsh did not seem to get along. It probably had to do with the governance of the school. In September of 1976, Fr. James Corrigan (1976-78) was assigned to the parish. Within a year of his arrival a new position "Director" was created in the school. Now we had an Administrator (Fr. Walsh), a Director (Fr. Corrigan) and a new Principal (Sr. Marianne Coyle). Probably not by coincidence, Sr. Nancy had resigned.
On March 11,1971, Lillian Reilly, secretary for the Social Action Committee of the Parish Council complained in a letter about the lack of attendance by the parishioners of St. Mary's at a housing seminar on Feb. 14. Mayor Del Bello and Mr. Webdate of Urban Renewal were the guest speakers. In the meeting the speakers asked whether St. Mary's parish would sponsor housing that would soon be built within the parish boundaries. St. Peter's parish had sponsored housing at 100 Herriot St and 108 Jefferson St. (Both were within the geographical boundaries of St. Peter's parish.) The lack of attendance was an indication of a lack of interest. In 1974 Fr. Walsh formed a corporation of parishioners to sponsor a building project. It was very ambitious. The area would include all of the land between South Broadway and Riverdale Ave. and between Vark and Herriot Sts. It would include housing for low and middle income senior citizens, housing for the hospital staff of St. Joseph's Hospital, parking, garden apartments and a recreation center. Total cost was estimated at 50 million dollars. Eventually realizing that this was too ambitious, Fr. Walsh back scaled the plan to a senior citizens development. It would be called "St. Mary's Towers." He was probably inspired to do this because of the success of Sacred Heart's Monastery Manor Corporation that built low income housing for senior citizens on Fr. Finian Sullivan Dr. in 1971 (a second one was built in 1975.) Fr. Walsh hoped that it would keep parishioners in the parish. Unfortunately it was too late. St. Joseph's Hospital already had plans for the area - as did the fast food chain, McDonald's.
The new housing which was being built on the west side of Riverdale Ave revealed the weakness in the Yonkers urban renewal plan to revitalize all of Getty Square and its neighborhoods. Many thought that the success of Phillipse Towers, built in 1965, would carry over to the new developments. Phillipse Towers was advertized as "elite housing" for the working and middle classes with preference for those living in Yonkers. It sold so well that there was a waiting list. Many of St. Mary's parishioners became residents.
Ten years later, in 1975, when Riverview 1 and Riverview 2 were built just across the street (Riverdale Ave) from Phillipse Towers, very few were interested. Why? They were initially advertised as housing for the middle class but people associated this development with the large urban renewal projects that were built or being built in southwest Yonkers. These apartments would be occupied by too many people who were "low income." No doubt racism was a factor. They may have been built with the best of intentions ("to help the poor") and because the money was available. The result, however, whether intentional or not, was that southwest Yonkers became more segregated. Since the public schools were territorial, they also became more segregated.
Fr. Walsh's last years as pastor would be painful as the legal and vicious fighting over housing almost brought Yonkers to its knees.
Pastor: 1979 - 1986
After a long illness which prevented him from actually working as a pastor since 1973, Msgr. Aloysius Weber officially resigned as the official pastor on July 1,1979. Fr. Walsh is installed as the new pastor on October, 7, 1979. He had just celebrated his twenty-fifth anniversary of ordination to the priesthood.
One of his first decisions as pastor was to abolish the Parish Council. Instead of the four committees (Administration and Finance, Activities, Principal and Director of the School and Liturgy) reporting to the Parish Council, they now report directly to the pastor. Sr. Rhoda Reed became the parish coordinator of all parish activities. Lou Melone became the chairman of the Finance Committee. Although a Parish Council was recommended by the Archdiocese of New York, it is not mandated. What is mandated are two Trustees and a Finance Committee.
In 1979 Fr. Walsh founded the Nazareth Life Center in Garrison, N.Y. which supported and cared for unwed mothers. This became a central focus of his priestly ministry.
He became the Grand Marshal of the Yonkers St. Patrick's Day on March 13, in 1983. On April 24, 1983 the Yonkers Catholic Area Council celebrated the 175th anniversary of the Church of New York with a concelebrated Mass at 4:00 pm in the Church of the Immaculate Conception , the Mother Church of Yonkers.
Judging from the priests' names printed on the covers of the parish bulletins there are many priests coming and going during these years. Many were international priests. ln the years 1982-83- 84 in addition to Frs. Walsh,Totah and Pucci, there were Frs. Ambrosio Puebla, Jose Ezhanikatt, Pantaleon Jayawardane, Julio Maya, Luis Oliete, Marcos Ramos Ojeda, and Jaime Octavio. There was criticism of the lack of a full time priest for the Hispanic ministry. Fr. Walsh responded that Bishop Lawrence Graziano, although he lived in Mt. Vernon, had celebrated the Spanish Mass for the past nine years, that there was a Spanish choir, Spanish lectors and even one of the trustees of the church was Hispanic. Actually the criticism had some validity to it. The Spanish speaking population of Yonkers, especially in the southwest, was growing rapidly. In 1985, 50% of the 118 baptisms in St. Mary's in 1985 were Hispanics.
In 1984 Fr. Walsh started a second renovation project for the church, rectory and parish hall. The first was in 1977-78. A major fund raising campaign was undertaken to raise the $85,000 necessary to do the work. The work was completed by December of 1984. A special memorial plaque with the names of the major donors was installed in the foyer of the church. The names of the participants in the special Mass preceding the blessing is worth listing. Concelebrants: Frs. Francis Walsh, Sami Totah, Marco Ramos, Vincent Bartley. Lectors: Sister Rhoda Reed, Edward Condon, John Mastronardi. Director of Music: Rick Hess. Organist: Rose Kunny. Parish Trustees: Joseph Zaleski, William Letona. Fr. Walsh was heard to remark: "This will make it easier for the next pastor. He won't have to worry about renovations. The buildings are in great shape."
Fr. Walsh's greatest worry was the financial support of the school. As tuition, out of necessity, increased, the student population decreased. The tuition for a family in 1982 was $810. The number of students had dropped in ten years from 607 to 504. In 1986 it was 415. Fr. Walsh was very reluctant to "ask for welfare for his school." He meant that he didn't want to go to IPE (Interparish Financing), a system set up by the Archdiocese of New York to help financially struggling parishes and schools by taxing other parishes. He added a fourth Bingo on Saturday (once a month).
In 1982, Otis Elevator, located within the parish of St. Mary's, left Yonkers taking with it over a thousand jobs. On November 21, 1985, Judge Leonard Sand of the Federal District Court ruled "that city and school officials in Yonkers had 'illegally and intentionally' segregated the city's public schools and public housing along racial lines." Yonkers descends into turmoil. City Hall, also located within the parish, becomes the beneficiary of many prayers. The "Wisdom of Solomon" is sought for the leaders of Yonkers.
On November, 5, 1986 Fr. Francis Walsh died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack. He was 58 years old. His funeral Mass was celebrated in St. Mary's on Nov. 9. The homilist was Fr. Edward O'Donnell. He was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery.