We were all active members of St. Anne's Parish in Hyde Park near Boston. Fr. David Regan, the first pastor, had a tough time, because he had to put up buildings during the Depression. The Council of Baltimore insisted parishes build the parochial school first. My older brothers would go to Mass there near the eighth grade classroom until the basement of the church got built, but they had only the lower church while I was there. Later there was a public elementary school. When most of the students went there, the parochial school closed. The Irish from the Walker Square section were early supporters of the parish. Although the Italians came to Mass, they were not really active until Fr. Mimi Pitarro came. Maybe they had an Italian Mass, but at least the pastor made some contact with the Italian families, so they could enter into the parish.

I spent seven months on Treasure Island next to San Francisco. When the war in Europe was over, I still had to serve time. We got a delay for a leave. When we were shipped out to Guam. I spent about a month with a whole lot of electronic or radio technicians that they didn't need anymore. And they finally cleared out that receiving station. And they put a half a dozen of us on a ship to Wake Island. So I took a little course down there. But they didn't need me there either, because they were just rebuilding the island communications. When they wanted to put us on work detail, our leader said we were petty officers, and they were supposed to use us at our rates. So they sent us to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, as they were getting ready for the first Pacific atom bomb test at Bikini. On July 1, 1946, when they did the first test, I was at sea on my way back to the States.

Anyhow, I came back to Baghdad from Rome in 1965, and we'd been at Al-Hikma for a year or so. I was supposed to go back to the States in '67 for my sabbatical year, because I had been out of the States about ten years. But things were kind of rough in Iraq then. There were student groups roaming around. There was a communist group and some other group and then a pro-government group, and they were causing trouble so that there was a lot of destruction. At the end of '67, I was sent back to the States with Fred Kelly, S. J. He got a chance to go to the University of Rhode Island to finish special studies in the computer. Fred had met an engineer, who was helping us teach engineering. He became a dean at URI later on and then, I think, a vice president. He got Fred there. And I went along to URI. I stayed at a parish off the campus, Christ the King.

The glee club was called the Ambassadors of Song. They wore tuxedos with a red stripe and sang Fairfield songs. Also, they were not supposed to have beards. Simon Harak, our director, unfortunately died on us. So Ben Murray had to get a new director and a glee club manager. But he didn't think of me at first. He thought about two or three other people, but maybe they were too modern. Anyhow, Jim Coughlin, S.J., asked me if I'd take it. And I said, "Yes, I'll do it."

I have been given lots of graces, I suppose, because things have worked out quite well for me all the way through. But the fact that I'm eighty years old, and out here at Campion Health Center, and that I've been ordained as a priest for 46 years-great.

Due to death or sickness some of these selected readings have been read by someone other than the author. This page contains one such replacement.