Msgr. Bernard Patrick Corrigan served his parish for 30 years

Warwick - The parishioners of the Church of St. Stephen, the First Martyr lost a beloved treasure on Sunday, Jan. 30, when their longtime pastor and then pastor emeritus, Msgr. Bernard Patrick Corrigan, 89, passed away. Msgr. Corrigan had been a priest for more than 63 years and had served as pastor of St. Stephen’s for 16 of those years, 1981 to 1997. During that period he shepherded the construction of the present church at 75 Sanfordville Road. Following his retirement as pastor, Corrigan remained at St. Stephen’s, serving as pastor emeritus. Until last July, when health issues required that he live at Schervier Pavilion, a skilled nursing facility near the church, he continued to serve the parish by saying Mass, hearing confessions and, among other duties, conducting bible study and church history adult classes. In March of 2007, St. Stephen’s Parish celebrated Corrigan’s 60 years as a priest. Parishioners along with family and friends filled the church to join in a special concelebration of Mass in his honor. And at that time, Corrigan, at age 85, was the principal celebrant. During his homily, he delayed his comments on the gospel to discuss his humble beginnings, his gratitude for his Irish born parents and the happiness his vocation brought. As a reflection on his own advanced age, Corrigan mentioned that his grandparents had lived through the great Irish potato famine of 1849. He recalled that during his childhood he fancied, like many other children, becoming a cowboy or fireman but with the positive inspiration from his teachers and parish priests, decided in Grade 8 to test for admission to Cathedral College, a pathway to the priesthood. His vocation, he explained, was a calling from God to which he responded. “I’ve never looked back,” he said. Shortly after his ordination in 1947, Corrigan joined the faculty of Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx. He remained there for more than 33 years and was then assigned by Cardinal Cooke, to be pastor of St. Stephen’s in Warwick. The quiet country parish was supposed to be a rest from the heavy teaching schedule at Cardinal Hayes. But Warwick was exploding and so was the small Catholic Church on South Street, which is now home to the Assembly of God. A new church facility was to be his legacy. At one point in his homily at that Mass of Thanksgiving, Corrigan drew laughter when, with his Irish sense of humor, he repeated something he had said during his Golden Jubilee 10 years earlier. “Inside every old person there is a young person saying, 'What the heck happened?” At last Sunday’s Mass, Father Robert Bubel, parochial vicar of St. Stephen’s, gave another illustration of that sense of humor shortly after he, a newly ordained priest, had arrived at the parish. “I had mentioned to Monsignor Corrigan that I had Baptisms to perform that afternoon,” recalled Bubel. “And later that same day, I was doing something outside when I was suddenly caught in a heavy downpour. When I returned to the rectory, I was drenched from head to toe. Monsignor looked up from his chair, stared at me for a moment, and said, “Well! How did the Baptisms go?”