The Real "Going My Way"
Last week we sent you an email citing a movie we mentioned in the May fiscal-year-end appeal letter. To our surprise, there's a VOTF member, Suzanne Shay Travers, with a connection to that film! She shares this note.
"Going My Way" was written by Leo McCarey about a cousin of mine: Msgr. Nicholas Conneally.
He was founder and pastor of the church in Santa Monica CA and Leo was a parishioner there.
Nicholas was a real curmudgeon!
He had two other brothers who were priests in some Irish order, and they were sent from Ireland to "mission territory" here.
They also brought over their sisters from Ireland. One sister died in childbirth, and what was the father going to do with an infant and still manage to work? So Nicholas took the child into the rectory and had the housekeeper raise him -- I guess the curmudgeon wasn't too bad!
The child, Stephen, grew up to join the Marines and fight in the Korean War. When he came home, he entered the Carmelites and served for years in Africa.
Suffering terribly from frostbite (Korea) and malaria (Africa), Stephen then retired to Knock, Ireland.
The Conneally family is very close to Knock and he wanted to be with relatives when he retired.
Stephen is buried in Knock, and if you go there, you will see on his gravestone the Marine Corps emblem and the Carmelite emblem -- and the American flags we send over.
We hope you enjoyed Suzanne's recollection!
