DIOCESAN NEWS
04/13/07
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Msgr. Harkins joins retired priests
By Fabvienen Taylor
       JACKSON — In his tenure as an active diocesan priest, Msgr. Thaddeus Harkins, 79, served under five bishops and survived five heart attacks.
       “All the bishops — Gerow (Richard), Brunini (Joseph), Howze (Joseph), Houck (William) and Latino (Joseph) — were first class,” Msgr. Harkins said. “They all put up with me. We in the Diocese of Jackson have been blessed with good bishops,” he said in an interview in March.
       As for the five heart attacks: “I feel like the good Lord loves me, wants me to stay around for some reason,” he said.
       Sitting in the den of his brother Mitch Harkins’ northeast Jackson home, Msgr. Harkins, a native of Jackson ordained in 1955, oozed positiveness during the interview.
       His first heart attack was in 1997 following a hip replacement. His latest one was earlier this year. After it, Bishop Latino retired him.
       “So now I’m waiting to get into St. Catherine’s Village in Madison,” he said. He’s on the waiting list for Marian Hall, the assisted living section.
       “I can’t live by myself. I fell two or three times while I was in Port Gibson and needed help to get up,” he said.
       Msgr. Harkins could have retired when he was 65, but didn’t.
       “I felt I could still be useful to the the people of God, to the church,” he said. “I could have retired but I did not want to. I didn’t want to retire now but had to because of my health.”
       With his recent status change, Msgr. Harkins, joins the list of retired priests in the diocese. Currently there are 15, with another five priests, who continue to work, eligible to retire.
       Providing for retired priests and their health care is one of the areas funded by the annual Catholic Service Appeal (CSA) for the Jackson diocese.
       This year’s diocesan-wide collection will be held the weekend of May 5-6.
       The 2006 CSA allocations were as follows: priests’ retirement, $93,196; clergy medical, $30,642; campus ministry, $87,050; mission schools/parishes, $125,000; seminarian education, $20,000; evangelization, $125,000; and Catholic Charities, $474,973.
       Msgr. Harkins uses a walker now but said he’ll be able to concelebrate Mass when he’s at St. Catherine’s.
       His last assignment was as pastor of St. Joseph in Port Gibson.
        His first assignment was assistant pastor in Biloxi at Nativity BVM Parish, now the cathedral of the Diocese of Biloxi.
       “Back then after ordination we were turned loose on the people, no internships or anything,” he said, noting that seminarians now serve internships in parishes (as deacons).
       After graduating from St. Joseph Catholic School in Jackson in 1945, he entered St. Joseph, then a minor seminary in Covington, La.
       “I was attracted to the priesthood by the encouragement I received from the Sisters of Mercy,” he said.
       There was also Father Andrew Lawrence, a priest of the Most Holy Trinity (Trinitarian).        “He too was an inspiration to me.”
       In fact, the future monsignor had his eyes set on entering a Trinitarian seminary. “But my father and pastor talked me out of it. They said I needed to go to a local seminary so I could be a priest in Mississippi.”
       After earning his associate of arts degree from St. Joseph’s seminary, he complete his studies in theology at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans.
       He came from a family of six — three girls and three boys. His immigrated from Ireland and settled in Carthage, where they attended St. Anne Church.
       He wasn’t the only religious vocation from his family, five cousins on his father’s side became Sisters of Mercy, as well as one on his mother’s side.
       In his years as a pastor, two current diocesan priests served, at one time, as his altar servers — Fathers Rich Smith and Joe Tonos.
       He encourages any one interested in the priesthood to contact the vocations director and bishop and go to the seminary.
       “You’re doing God’s work,” he said. “It’s for anyone who wants to serve God and his church and who is willing to make the sacrifice of giving up the possibility of having a family. The priesthood is a vocation, you are called to it.”
       Over the years, Msgr. Harkins went wherever his bishop assigned him. “And I enjoyed every place that I served, whether is was St. Richard, or St. Peter in Jackson, or St. Mary in Natchez, or St. Joseph in Greenville, or St. Patrick, or St. Joseph in Port Gibson, or Immculate Heart of Mary in Greenwood,” he said.
       “I can’t begin to express how much I appreciate all of the bishops’ leadership, all of their kindness toward me,” Msgr. Harkins said.

 

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