‘With great joy, I hand your chalice back to you.’
A remarkable tale, from Baltimore’s Catholic Review:
Almost exactly 50 years after Father Francis “Fritz” Gollery received permission to leave the priesthood, the 86-year-old clergyman has been reinstated as a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
During a Nov. 18 Mass at St. Joseph in Cockeysville, Archbishop William E. Lori welcomed Father Gollery back into the presbyterate at a Day of Recollection with his brother priests that also honored priests celebrating milestone jubilees.
Father Gollery made promises of celibacy and obedience during the celebration and signed a rescript, a formal document authorized by Pope Francis that allows a previously laicized priest to be restored to ministry.
“Now, as if to prove that God is with us, something is about to happen that will rejoice the hearts of all us priests, past and present,” Archbishop Lori said in his homily. “Today it is official that Fritz Gollery is received back into our presbyterate.”
In celebration of his return, Monsignor Richard W. Woy presented Father Gollery’s former gold chalice to him at the end of Mass, which had been a gift Father Gollery had given to Monsignor Woy when he was ordained.
“In June 1963, Father Gollery was an assistant priest at St. Peter in Westernport. He taught me how to be an altar boy,” said Monsignor Woy, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Crofton, who credited Father Gollery’s “humble, kind and priestly life” for inspiring him to become a priest.
“With great, great joy, I hand your chalice back to you,” said an emotional Monsignor Woy, as he embraced Father Gollery.
Father Gollery was first ordained a priest in May 1963. In addition to serving in Westernport, he was involved in ministry at St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Highlandtown and St. Mary of the Assumption in Govans. After serving in active ministry for eight years, he asked for a leave of absence before deciding to leave priesthood altogether three years later.
“That was granted to me on Nov. 15, 1974, 50 years ago,” Father Gollery wrote in a letter he shared with friends and family. “I would always remain a priest but with all obligations removed, as allowed.”
Ad multos annos!
