n the fall of 1984, Msgr. John Vesey was a Maryknoll missionary working with the indigenous people of southwestern Guatemala, but he became deathly ill with pneumonia. While bedridden, he slipped in and out of consciousness.
In moments of lucidity he saw, standing over him, Sister Alba Estela Orellana and her fellow Carmelite nuns. The Guatemalan sisters helped him minister to the Tz’utujil people of Santiago Atitlán. But Msgr.
Father Stanley Rother
‘Father’ Vesey, a Missionary Even in Retirement, Honored at St. Michael’s
Msgr. John Vesey is quick to laugh with everyone, but prompt to cry with the sick and suffering. Just ask the members of St. Michael’s Parish in Flushing, Queens, where he was pastor during the grim early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. They honored him recently with a special Mass.