Father John D. Murphy: Loyal, true, faithful priest
By Erick Rommel
Head Staff Writer
COLONIA — Father John D. Murphy was no stranger to hospitals. As a chaplain, he comforted people at the best and worst moments of their lives. He found his ministry strengthened by his experience as a patient, often recalling how his time in treatment taught him that the little things, such as a touch or sympathetic ear, were important.
Father Murphy died June 13 at JFK Medical Center, Edison, where he ministered for almost 10 years.
In reflecting on her brother’s life, Peggy Ann Murphy, said his talents made those he encountered better people. “He touched us all in his very loving way,” she said during her eulogy at his June 16 funeral Mass at St. John Vianney Church. “He had a gift that he shared with every life he touched.”
Calling her brother her strength, spirit and inspiration, Peggy Ann Murphy put into words what those who knew Father Murphy would most miss. “He had a way of making people [feel] special because he thought we were special,” she said. “I find great peace in knowing my brother is no longer suffering.”
As the church filled for Father Murphy’s funeral, family and friends approached the casket one at a time to pay their final respects. Priests in attendance bowed their heads offering a final blessing, while members of the Knights of Columbus, in full uniform, drew their ceremonial swords in respect.
As he greeted the congregation, Msgr. William Benwell, vicar general and principal celebrant, offered the condolences of Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski who could not attend because he was in Los Angeles at the biannual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “I know the bishop was very concerned about Father Murphy’s health and visited him in the hospital,” Msgr. Benwell said. “I know he’d want all of us to know he’s here in prayer and faith.”
Father James Fiore, a former priest of the diocese who now ministers in Del Ray Beach, Fla., was the homilist. He was a mentor to Father Murphy during his formation as a priest.
Those who came to pay their final respects shared their stories of Father Murphy with everyone who would listen.
Felician Sister Cyndi Babyak, campus minister at Bishop Ahr High School
recalled speaking with Father Murphy in the weeks leading to his death. He wanted to assist with the school’s end-of-year liturgy. “He was a real priest, dedicated to his ministry and the people he served,” she said.
“He was a good priest, a good hospital chaplain and a good pastor,” said Father Sean G. Winters, diocesan coordinator of hospital chaplains. “He’s with God now.”
Life of service
Born July 21, 1948 in Albany, N.Y., Father Murphy was the son of the late John Anthony and Alayne Marie Fritz Murphy. He had two brothers, James and Michael, and two sisters, Jacalyn M. Bentley and Peggy Ann Murphy.
Ordained May 19, 1979 to the priesthood by Bishop George W. Ahr, Father Murphy served as a parochial vicar in St. Philip and St. James Parish, Phillipsburg, and St. Joseph Parish, North Plainfield. Only five years after his ordination, Father Murphy was named temporary administrator of St. Edward the Confessor Parish, Milford, later becoming its pastor.
Following his assignment in Milford, Father Murphy became pastor of St. James Parish, Woodbridge. He also served as a chaplain to Bishop George Ahr High School, Edison, and Raritan Bay Medical Center, Perth Amboy.
Following a sabbatical to pursue a degree in marriage and family counseling, Father Murphy returned to ministry in 1996 as a chaplain at JFK Medical Center. “I hope to help people deal with their mortality, as well as their future, when they will be with God,” he told The Catholic Spirit two years ago, reflecting on the 25th anniversary of his ordination.
He said the most profound moments of his ministry were serving people in the happiest and saddest moments of their lives. “When you reach out to people at either end (of this spectrum), I think that’s when you truly embrace what being a priest is,” he said.
Father Murphy’s body was interred at St. James Cemetery, Woodbridge.
Father Murphy embraced ‘cross of cancer’
By Kathleen Ogle
Managing Editor
COLONIA — Father John D. Murphy’s body was received June 15 by Msgr. Robert J. Zamorski, episcopal vicar of Middlesex County East, at St. John Vianney Church. Msgr. Edward M. O’Neill presided at that evening’s Mass of Commendation, and Father Douglas J. Haefner served as homilist.
Father Haefner, pastor of St. Matthias Parish, Somerset, began his homily by quoting from Anne Lamott’s book, Plan B: Some Further Thoughts on Faith, in which she writes about spending Holy Week and Easter with a friend who was dying of cancer:
We celebrated Good Friday that night. It’s a sad day of loss and cruelty, and all you have to go on is faith, that the light shines in the darkness, and nothing, not death, not disease, can overcome it. I hate that you can’t prove the beliefs of my faith. If I were God I’d have the answers at the end of a workbook so you could check as you went along to see if you’re on the right track. But no, darkness is our context; and Easter’s context, without it you couldn’t see the light. Hope is not about proving anything. It’s about choosing to believe this one thing — that love is bigger than any grim bleak stuff anyone can throw at us.
“We come together tonight, a sad day, a day of loss and cruelty,” Father Haefner told those gathered. “Death and darkness is our context as we mourn the death of John Murphy — brother, uncle, friend, priest. John, who found out he had cancer on Good Friday, a day that extended his Lenten journey more than 40 days this year. Tonight we come together in this Eucharistic feast. We gather around the table of the Lord, choosing to believe that love is bigger than any grim, bleak stuff that life can throw at us . . . Tonight as a people of faith and hope, we choose to believe in the death and
resurrection of Jesus. That love is stronger than anything life throws at us.”
God’s faithfulness
Reflecting on the day’s readings, Father Haefner discussed how the author of Lamentations was tormented at the devastation of ancient Israel during the Babylonian Exile. “If you were to read the book of Lamentations, all five chapters, it seems angry and filled with so much sorrow,” he said. “But here in this little section we heard proclaimed tonight, outrage and sorrow yield to trust and acceptance. Without warning, hope emerges; the favors of the Lord are not exhausted. His mercies are not spent; they are renewed each morning, so great is God’s faithfulness.
“As saddened and as devastated as ancient Israel was, the author knew that in their struggles, their journey, God never abandoned them. And the author knew that he belonged to God, and in that pain and suffering he was going to wait with genuine hope, infused with a faith in God’s presence and a trust in God’s power to save. The author’s prayer became Israel’s prayer and our prayer in moments in the journey in our life.”
Quoting from Paul’s letter to the Romans, Father Haefner reminded those gathered of God’s unending love and the confidence it inspires. “Nothing, absolutely nothing will ever separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus. Nothing, not anguish, not distress, not famine, not persecution.
“Paul says it so well, ‘If God is for us, what matters in this world who is against us?’ . . . Paul could write those words from his own human experience, a life that was punctuated by suffering, failure and persecution.”
Father Haefner believes Paul and Anne Lamott would have understood each other well. “For Paul, God’s love is bigger than anything life throws at us,” he said. “Jesus incarnated that love, from a crib in Bethlehem, to a cross on Calvary to an empty tomb. It’s his life and death that reminds us that we too live resurrected lives, carrying resurrection in our bodies, in our living and in our dying. . . .”
Wounded healer
Father Haefner first met Father Murphy 23 years ago when they were both assigned as parochial vicars at St. James Parish, Woodbridge. He called him “an instrument of God’s healing, of God’s love.”
“ John was a good listener and a compassionate counselor. I think he truly ministered to others from his own humanness, from his own brokenness. He truly was a wounded healer. He had compassion for priests in their struggles. He was always there for another priest when they were hurting.”
Father Haefner recalled how Father Murphy had called him on Good Friday to tell him about the doctor’s diagnosis. “ John was convinced he would live with the cross of cancer,” he said. He knew it would not be cured, but he believed it could be treated.
“ John embraced that cross as he did so much of his life. He never let the cross crush him. He worked through it until last Tuesday when he passed from this life to the kingdom of Jesus,” he said, stating that, as in his ministry, he never lost hope.
According to Father Haefner, after Msgr. O’Neill anointed Father Murphy, he prayed his own Nunc dimittis, “You can dismiss your servant in peace.”
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law