Three Maryknoll priests who are celebrating significant anniversaries this year were born in the Brooklyn Diocese. They are among 37 Maryknoll priests and brothers who will be commemorating their ordination to the priesthood or Final Oath as a Maryknoll Brother on June 24. Short biographies of the jubilarians follow:
Fathers James W. Lehr, M.M., and Michael O. Zunno, M.M., were ordained June 13, 1953.
Father Lehr, a native of Elmhurst, attended St. Bartholomew School, and Cathedral Prep, Brooklyn, for three years, before entering Maryknoll Apostolic College (Venard), Clarks Summit, Pa., in 1943. He then studied at Maryknoll Seminary, Ossining, N.Y.
He served in the Musoma Diocese in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) East Africa, for 44 years.
He performed pastoral ministry and construction work as an assistant pastor until 1959 and then was assigned to teach at St. Pius Seminary in 1960. He was appointed to Kiagata Catholic Church in 1964, then to Majita as assistant pastor and was appointed pastor there in 1967. He later served at Majita Catholic Mission until January 1973, when he became assistant pastor in Musoma Town Parish.
In 1983, he was appointed full-time chaplain in the Musoma Hospital and was known for visiting all the patients twice a day, bringing the sacraments to as many as 30 Catholic patients daily.
Father Zunno, M.M., is a native of Brooklyn, who was raised in Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish, Williamsburg.
He attended P.S. 17; Cathedral Prep and College, before entering Maryknoll Seminary in 1946.
After ordination he was assigned to the Maryknoll Mission in South Korea in 1954 as assistant pastor of the Chechon parish. His pastoral work included teaching, relief work among the poor and catechetical work that extended throughout the Diocese of Cheongju.
In 1955, he became pastor of the Maryknoll parish in Chung Pyong. In 1960, he founded the parish in O Song in Cheongju Diocese. He was appointed First Consultor to the Maryknoll Regional Superior in 1961, and subsequently served as Consultor for a second term of office.
He was named pastor of the Yeong Dong parish as well as acting Vicar General of the Diocese in 1966. He was appointed Vicar Capitular to administer the affairs of the Cheongju Diocese in the absence of a bishop during August 1966.
Beginning in 1970, he was pastor of Pu Kang parish. Later, he founded the Parish of Sa Jik Dong.
• • •
Father William Edward McCarthy, M.M., a native of Brooklyn, is celebrating his 60th anniversary of ordination.
He attended St. Francis of Assisi School and Bishop Loughlin M.H.S., both Brooklyn.
He entered Maryknoll in 1948 at the Maryknoll Seminary, Glen Ellyn, Ill., and was ordained June 14, 1958. Assigned to Musoma, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), East Africa in 1958, he joined Isenye parish as a teacher in the parish school. He transferred to Dar es Salaam in 1974 and remained there until June 1977.
When he returned to the U.S., he first served as assistant pastor at St. Barnabas the Apostle, Bellmore, L.I., in the Diocese of Rockville Centre.
During 1993, he served at St. Mark’s Church, Shoreham, L.I.
When he retired, Father McCarthy moved to Maryknoll in Ossining, and continues to reside there.
• • •
Maryknoll Centennial
Throughout the year, Maryknoll is commemorating the centennial of its first sending of missioners overseas. After receiving Vatican approval to begin missionary work in China, four Maryknoll priests – Father Thomas F. Price (Maryknoll co-founder), Father James E. Walsh, Father Francis X. Ford and Father Bernard F. Meyer – departed for China on Sept. 8, 1918.
Maryknoll is celebrating its tradition of “Called–Sent–Transformed” – Called by name in community through baptism, Sent by the Catholic Church in the U.S. in missionary discipleship and Transformed by love through relationships and thankfulness.
