Bernard E. Gilgun: Worcester’s Catholic Worker Priest

Father Bernie Gilgun, at age 84, quietly breathed his earthly last in the company of family and friends at the Grenon ICU Center of the University of Massachusetts Hospital in Worcester in the early afternoon of Easter Monday, April 25, 2011. Father Gilgun was widely known for his holiness, his preaching, and his love of the poor. His loss is acutely felt by his followers who viewed him as wise priest, expert leader in prayer, and teacher.
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Dan Dick and Me: The Old Rascal with a Good Old “catholic” Cause and the Young Catholic Rascal Who Admired Him

Daniel Eggleston Dick, a good old union man of eighty-six well lived years, died in the early afternoon of July 26th surrounded by his large family and a few close friends in Worcester, Massachusetts. I was blessed to be among those gathered at Dan’s bedside when he breathed his last. What a gift and privilege it was to be with him and his family at this most sacred time. This was a special grace that I had not anticipated receiving and that I will never forget. That’s why we call grace “amazing” I suppose. It is sheer gift like a 3D Photo Crystal that shows up as a surprise.
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Tom Lewis remembered

To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one’s life would not make sense if God did not exist.
–Cardinal Emmanuel Suhard

Inside Worcester magazine, June 1990
Photo Credit: Inside Worcester

Tom Lewis, a much beloved friend and colleague, died in his sleep on April 4, 2007 at “Emma House” in Worcester, Tom’s household of Biblical faith and resistance to empire. Many have written beautiful pieces of remembrance about Tom and I am a bit reticent to repeat what others have so aptly described and appreciated. But I find it is necessary to add my own unique sense of things too. Tom and I shared a pilgrimage and activist commitments in this life. And we both shared teaching posts at Anna Maria College.
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