Remembering Msgr. Murphy

Photo from The Brooklyn Tablet

August 11, 1929 - April 23, 2012
 

Tu es sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech.

 

Rev. Msgr. Walter Murphy was ordained to the priesthood on May 31, 1958, and was named Prelate of Honor to His Holiness in June of 1984. He served as a combat officer in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War. After ordination, he was a member of the faculty at Cathedral Preparatory Seminary and College, Douglaston. He served as pastor at Sacred Heart Church in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, for 30 years and as National Chaplain, First Marine Division Association.

He celebrated the Sunday Latin Mass at St. John's Chapel Cemetery for several years and was beloved by all for his kindness, good cheer and faithfulness. Fr. Wilson celebrated a memorial Requiem Mass for him at the chapel last May a few weeks after his death and the congregation walked to his grave site in the cemetery after Mass to say some prayers.

Several of us attended his funeral at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Douglaston and were fortunate to sit at the reception afterward with some Marine veterans who recounted a number of touching accounts of this indomitable and extraordinarily selfless man.

I think the most moving tribute to Msgr. Murphy comes from V.K., who sent the photos of his vestment featured in the last post:

These vestments, to me, always carry a special memory of Monsignor Walter Murphy too, as he liked wearing them. Monsignor Murphy was, to me, a great example of what a gentleman is, someone strong and tough enough to have been a marine, a veteran of the Korean war, but also such a gentle soul, the reliable and beloved confessor of children. A proof that real strong men are not afraid of being gentle.