ARTICLES

Fr. Spillane celebrates Golden Jubilee

By Steve Neill
of The Catholic Virginian

Father William Spillane is what many in the priesthood refer to as a “lifer.”

The term refers to a priest who entered seminary training as a high school student and went on to be ordained a priest, a vocation until the end of life.

Father Spillane, a Redemptorist who is serving as parochial vicar at St. Joseph’s Church in Hampton, celebrated his 50th anniversary as a priest on Sunday, June 22, at the 12 noon Mass at St. Joseph’s where he has served since June 2005. The Redemptorists also serve at St. Mary Star of the Sea Church in Fort Monroe where Father Spillane celebrated the 9:30 a.m. Mass on June 22.

Originally from Boston, the priest who most know as “Father Bill” grew up in a largely Catholic neighborhood during a time when the priesthood and religious life flourished and many followed a religious vocation.

“We still have this Redemptorist parish in Boston, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which is still popularly called the mission church,” Father Spillane told The Catholic Virginian.

“Our Lady of Perpetual Help, in the Roxbury section of Boston, had about 25 parish priests and brothers when I was growing up,” he said. “They had a big parish grade school taught by the School Sisters of Notre Dame and there was a high school.

“The sisters taught the girls and Xaverian Brothers taught the boys.”

After completing the 8th grade, Father Spillane went to St. Mary’s (Minor) Seminary, operated by the Redemptorists in North East, Pa., near Erie.

After graduating from the high school seminary, he entered the Redemptorists’ major seminary in Esopus, N.Y., located on the west bank of the Hudson River. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 22, 1958. There were 12 men in his ordination class.

The seminary, known as Mount St. Alphonsus, was closed but the building remains open as a retreat house.

“When I was first ordained a priest we helped on the weekends in parishes through the Hudson Valley,” Father Spillane said.

A year after being ordained, he went to Catholic University of America in Washington where he studied from 1959 to 1963. When he left he had a master’s degree in physics.

He was then assigned to teach at his order’s minor seminary in North East, Pa., where he stayed for the next 13 years.

“We had a flourishing minor seminary with 200 students,” Father Spillane said.

The seminary since has closed, but the building remains open as a retreat house.

“In 1976 I went to Puerto Rico and was there until 2002,” Father Spillane said. “I was at various parishes. We were the first American group to go down there.”

In 2002 he went to Jacksonville, Fla. where he was assigned to Holy Rosary parish for two years, and then he served briefly for four months at Sacred Heart Church in New Smyrna Beach, Fla.

Now in Hampton, Father Spillane celebrated his Golden Jubilee on June 22 at St. Joseph’s. Then he will have a second anniversary celebration July 13 at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Boston, which he still refers to fondly as “the mission church.”

He has been happy in his vocation, but also says in many ways it was challenging.

“It was a challenge teaching in the minor seminary,” Father Spillane said. “Then to start over again in Puerto Rico with the Spanish language was another challenge.

“I enjoyed it immensely, especially working in Puerto Rico in the rural parishes,” he said.

back to top