Gerald Walsh, PMA ‘59
Always Ready. Bishop-elect Walsh's breadth of experience enables him to teach by example By MARY ANN POUST (Catholic New York Feature Story - September 2004)
When Bishop-elect Gerald T. Walsh got the call in mid-June that Cardinal Egan wanted to meet with him that afternoon, he assumed it had something to do with the 2004 Cardinal's Appeal, which was just winding up, or maybe the next Cardinal's Appeal.
As vicar for development Bishop-elect Walsh oversees various archdiocesan fund-raising campaigns, including the annual appeal.
That, however, was not what the meeting was about. Instead, the cardinal broke the news that Pope John Paul II had named the 62-year-old pastor of St. Elizabeth's in Manhattan an auxiliary bishop of New York.
"My reaction was, I guess, surprise, said Bishop-elect Walsh, in a talk with CNY two weeks later, "but I was also honored. It's a responsibility, and I'll do the best I can to carry it out.
He remembers it as a pleasant meeting and a good talk, recalling in particular that the cardinal told him, "Your life is going to change.
That part, he did know about.
There's the inevitable busier schedule, which comes, Bishop-elect Walsh said, with having to be more available to parishes. "They need you, he said, "for confirmations, for lots of things.
But more fundamentally, he understands and accepts that with the bishop's miter comes a new level of leadership in the Church.
"The role of a bishop is to be a teacher, one who teaches primarily by example, he said.
It's a sentiment reflected in his episcopal motto, "That All May Be One - meaning, he explained, to "unite around the teacher.
Taken from the Gospel of St. John, 17:21, the words have always had a special meaning for him and are engraved on his ordination paten.
He added that a bishop must be, as well, "a supporter of the priests, especially in the climate we're living in, and of all those people who are active in the Church.
Asked what in his priesthood has most prepared him for that role, he answered without hesitation, "Being Cardinal O'Connor's secretary for two-and-a-half years.
In that post, which he held from January 1996 to August 1998, he traveled the world with the cardinal, including 10 trips to Rome, where he met Pope John Paul II. The experience, he said, served as a kind of apprenticeship. "I learned a lot of things I would not have known otherwise, how to handle certain situations. It was another perspective, he said.
He spoke also of other experiences in his 37 years of priesthood that he can draw upon as he begins his new chapter.
Reviewing a résumé notable for its variety, he helped meet the needs of struggling parishes during five years as a member of the interparish finance board, including a year as its chairman; he oversaw ministries to address the needs of the struggling people of the archdiocese - the poor, the addicted, the mentally ill and the sick - in nine years with Catholic Charities, including six as director of its Department of Family and Children's Services; taught religion part time for 13 years at Cathedral Prep High School; and served a total of 25 years full time in three Manhattan parishes: 13 years as parochial vicar of Holy Trinity, six years as pastor of Incarnation and six at St. Elizabeth's.
"Hopefully, I have some (experience) to fall back on, he said, with a smile.
Tall, with a friendly but reserved demeanor, the northern Manhattan native has become accustomed in the last few years to wearing several hats - often "changing them several times a day as he moves seamlessly from one set of responsibilities to another.
He was appointed pastor of St. Elizabeth's in Washington Heights in August 1998 and made regional vicar of North Manhattan a month later. In November 2003 he was named vicar for development. He has served since 1980 as associate chaplain of the Knights of Columbus' New York Chapter and since 2000 he's been a member of the archdiocesan Priests Council and College of Consultors.
He also serves on the boards of 16 community and charitable agencies, including Incarnation Children's Center in his former parish, which provides foster care for children with HIV/AIDS, and All Hallows High School in the Bronx.
Most of his time, naturally, has focused on his Washington Heights parish at 268 Wadsworth Ave. It's a busy place, with a school, a senior citizens center and a range of other ministries and programs. It also serves as the spiritual home of the densely populated neighborhood's large community of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, whom Bishop-elect Walsh often addresses in fluent Spanish. "You have to be (fluent), he remarked. "If you're not, you shouldn't be there.
Bishop-elect Walsh expects to stay on as pastor of St. Elizabeth's for the foreseeable future, a situation he would welcome. "The best part of parish work, he said, "is the people contact.
He's involved in all of his parish ministries, as he was at Incarnation, and when he's not officially "on duty he maintains his contact with the parish by taking long walks around the neighborhood - a recreational pursuit that also serves as his fitness routine.
As a parish priest, he said, "you're on the front lines of the Church.
"The Church exists in the parishes more than anywhere else, he said. "There, you meet the people, whether they're being baptized, confirmed or married, whether living out their lives as elderly people or beginning their lives in school.
His duties as regional vicar of North Manhattan - an area he knows well, having grown up there - take him beyond the boundaries of St. Elizabeth's to the nine other parishes in the vicariate, where he serves as Cardinal Egan's representative at various functions and chairs a monthly meeting of priests who discuss local issues.
Stretching from West 131st Street to West 218th Street, the vicariate covers Washington Heights and Inwood. There are nine parish elementary schools as well as Mother Cabrini High School and the Incarnation Children's Center.
The post of vicar for development, which he's held for less than a year, requires the bishop's presence at fund-raising receptions and dinners where he can get to know donors. But the day-to-day work he leaves to the professional staff in the Office of Development under executive director Helen Lowe. He noted that the Cardinal's Appeal went over goal this year and praised the development staff for their efforts to bring that about. "You have to let them do their job, he remarked.
Still, he realizes that his role may expand in time. "The need for money is not getting any less, he said.
At Catholic Charities, where he was appointed by Cardinal Terence Cooke and served from 1980 to 1989, Bishop-elect Walsh also relied on the expertise of the directors in the various divisions which he oversaw. His philosophy, he said, is to "get people who are qualified and allow them to make their own management decisions.
At the time, the Department of Family and Children's Services, which Bishop Walsh headed, had oversight of five mental health clinics, nine family service centers, an office that provided homemakers for young single mothers and elderly persons at risk, a unit to serve the aging, a prison ministry, a nursing home office, the Catholic Deaf Center and the Catholic Guild for the Blind.
The bishop-elect left that post in August 1989 to begin a six-year assignment as pastor of Incarnation parish at 1290 St. Nicholas Ave. in Washington Heights. It was the first of his two pastorates, but not his first parish assignment. He was parochial vicar of Holy Trinity parish on West 82nd Street in Manhattan from 1967 to 1980 - and he didn't have a problem, he said, with the transition from parish to administration work to parish again.
"I think you approach everything from the viewpoint of the parish priest, he said, "and when the bishop asks you to do something else, you do it the best you can.
He was living in a parish during his nine years at Catholic Charities, he noted. Even while living in the Cardinal's Residence as Cardinal O'Connor's secretary, he was with the cardinal visiting parishes practically every week.
"The parish connection is still there, he said. He added that that connection applies to all of the priests assigned to administrative posts at archdiocesan headquarters in the New York Catholic Center in departments such as Catholic Charities, the Metropolitan Tribunal and the Catholic Youth Organization.
"They exist to help the parish priest, he said.
Gerald Thomas Walsh was born on April 25, 1942, in the former St. Elizabeth's Hospital, located three blocks from the rectory where he now resides. He was the first of three children of Thomas Walsh, a New York City police officer, and Anne Haggerty Walsh, a homemaker who later worked in a real estate office. The Walshes, whose own parents were born in Ireland, were members of Good Shepherd parish in Inwood where their children grew up.
Their second son, Michael, followed Gerald by two years and a daughter, Monica, was born six years after that. She too followed a religious vocation and is now Sister Monica Walsh, R.S.H.M., a registered nurse based at St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie as coordinator of health care for priests.
Young Gerald Walsh attended Good Shepherd School and the former Power Memorial Academy. In 1959 he entered Iona College in New Rochelle and after two years transferred to St. Joseph's Seminary to complete his bachelor's degree, a practice common with young men entering the priesthood at that time.
He completed his studies at the seminary with a master of divinity degree in moral theology and was ordained at St. Patrick's Cathedral on May 27, 1967.
He studied Spanish for two summers, 1966 and 1967, at the Institute for Intercultural Communication at the Catholic University of Puerto Rico in Ponce. In 1983 he earned a master of social work degree at Fordham University. He was named a monsignor in 1990.
Bishop-elect Walsh said he began thinking about becoming a priest while in elementary school and on into high school.
"My parents were very faithful churchgoers, he said. "We were products of Catholic schools and a very active parish. I think that the whole culture of that day was a little different than what you have today. There were a lot of vocations from that parish.
Iona, run by the Christian Brothers, was still an all-male school when he went there, and "the priests and brothers were very proactive on vocations, he said.
He recalls Brother John Daly, C.F.C., a theology teacher who did a lot to encourage vocations, and remembers that there were six Iona students who went to the seminary when he did, and five of them were ordained.
"Vocations come from the home, primarily. But they can be supported anywhere, he said.
Bishop-elect Walsh has come a long way from the childhood in which he first dreamed of the priesthood. He's had a lot of support along the way, from his family, from mentors and from the bishops he has served.
He has carried out all that has been asked of him, he said, by accepting it in a spirit of openness to change and willingness to do "what the head of the diocese wants you to do.
He said, "You have to be open to that if you're going to be happy in the priesthood.