I applied to the Society sometime in October 1942. I did so without
consulting my parents, which in my family was just not done. I
haunted the office of Fr. Steve Mulcahy, who was the dean of BC
at that time. I kept asking him, "Have you heard yet? Have
you heard yet?" Of course, this was during the war. I was
graduated from high school in 1942 at the age of seventeen and
a month, so there was no urgency in getting into the novitiate
before the draft grabbed me. I turned eighteen in May of 1943,
and entered the Society on July 1, 1943.
It was on June 16, 1956, that I was ordained a priest, and I was
exultant. I really was. It was a hot, humid day, and I was perspiring
like crazy, but I was thrilled. The following year, when I was
talking to the guest of another Jesuit at ordination time, he
told me, "I can still remember you from last year and how
thrilled you were on ordination day."
For sixteen years I was assistant principal at BC High, which
for all intents and purposes meant principal for the freshmen
and sophomores, director of admissions, director of financial
aid, and director of summer school. I wore a few hats!
You ask a good question-if there's been a kind of guidance from
God in my life-and I've had that feeling many times. I can't document
them all, but I know they were there. Certainly, ordination day
was one of them. Regency was another. And my work as a counselor
for about two and a half years for the Diocese of Fall River.
