A dedicated pastor in his time plays many parts, witness Monsignor Richard J. Walsh, arguably the most unusual priest ever to grace the central Pennsylvania area.
\nAn only child, Father Walsh was born in Tyrone, the son of a conductor on the Pennsylvania Railroad. \u201cI\u2019m sort of a hybrid,\u201d he said, adding that he spent his entire 27 year career serving as chaplain at Rockview Correctional Institution in Centre County.
\nRelaxing over coffee and a bowl of chili at his favorite restaurant, The Bull Pen, Walsh said that he \u201cnever took a nickel from the church,\u201d except for a stipend of fifty dollars a month during his first assignment, a six year stint (1944-1950) as assistant pastor at St. Mary\u2019s Church in Altoona under the Reverend Father J. Donald Wagner of Renovo.
\nThough he uses a cane for \u201cbad legs\u201d, Walsh\u2019s ample shock of crew-cut white hair, spare, wiry frame and kindly but alert grey eyes belie his age of 90 years.
\nAfter completing a liberal arts major at Villanova University, Walsh took a degree in theology at Mt. Saint Mary University in Emmitsburg, Maryland. He was ordained in 1944 in Altoona.
\nWhen he checked in back at his home diocese here, Walsh recalls being told \u201cI don\u2019t care where you go\u201d by his superior Bishop Richard Guilfoyle, about his first posting.
\nFollowing his service at St. Mary\u2019s Church, Walsh was ordered to report to the state penitentiary at Rockview to serve as chaplain.
\nThat assignment, in 1950, led to Walsh\u2019s self-described \u201chybrid\u201d status as a Catholic priest doubling as a full-time state employee, or vice-versa, he isn\u2019t sure which.
\nThe straight-talking nonagenarian said he has never seen the pope in person, has never been to Rome, has no real desire to go there and has scant contact with the local clergy. \u201cAll the old friends of my day are dead,\u201d he added with a grin and ordered more coffee from a highly attentive waitress.
\nWhile serving at the prison under then-Governor Dave Lawrence, Walsh saw the need for an all-faith chapel. \u201cAnd I\u2019ll get you one,\u201d the governor said and was good to his word.
\n\u201cThen there was the big riot in the winter of \u201853, which started on a Monday and lasted until Thursday,\u201d Walsh recalled. \u201cConditions were tense and very dangerous. A few of us went from cell to cell to listen to their gripes, mostly about food. When I convinced the men that, to show we were serious, the attorney general himself would appear, some hostages they were holding were released and things calmed down.
\n\u201cI got to know the Mafia as well as I knew the FBI,\u201d Walsh said, adding that he\u2019d never heard of \u201cThe Godfather\u201d movie but was on close terms with the real thing.
\n\u201cOne time I had to go to Pittsburgh for some reason and a Mafia boss offered to lend me his private plane. I said, \u2018No thanks, do you want me to lose my job?\u201d
\nThe prelate recalled another \u201cinteresting experience\u201d involving \u201ca fine black woman, very religious,\u201d whose son had been imprisoned and, upon his release, just disappeared. \u201cThe mother and his girlfriend asked me to help find the man. I got in touch with a Mafia friend who knew the Hill District… It turned out the guy had gotten a job outside the city as a camp counselor for kids. He changed his attitude about running away when I told him about his mom and girlfriend.\u201d
\nDuring the riot, Walsh said he got acquainted with an inmate named Gus, an ex-prizefighter who once fought the great Joe Louis in New Orleans (Gus lost). \u201cHe was in B Block at the time,\u201d the priest recalled. \u201cSuddenly, he yelled \u2018Hold it!\u2019 and claimed he was having a heart attack. Turned out he was just faking and wanted to be hauled to the dispensary. The last I heard, he\u2019d gone back to his home in Philadelphia and was working as a muscleman in a house of ill repute. I think he\u2019s dead by now.\u201d
\nThe only thing that troubles him about prison chaplaincy, the priest said, was his formal function on Death Row. \u201c I feel I helped, in a way, to put 15 guys to death. I still feel guilty about it. At the last minute, one guy kept hanging onto me and thought I could save him somehow. He said, \u2018Pray real loud so the others can\u2019t hear me.\u2019
\n\u201cThe rules called for six regular witnesses to the execution plus six media people. Anyone summoned who didn\u2019t appear could be arrested. I was able to get three condemned men off by appealing to Governor Leader. I don\u2019t know what happened to the other two but one went on to become the captain of a fishing schooner off the Atlantic coast. Leader lost the next election and I think it was because of those pardons he granted.\u201d
\nThere are two grades of Monsignor, Walsh explained. The highest, he said, is \u201cthe one who wears the red cassock, which I\u2019ve got. The lower rank wears a black cassock with a sash and red buttons.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve got all that kind of stuff hanging up in my closet at home on Lincoln Avenue, but I don\u2019t get involved in Church formalities much anymore. I have for a long time now, been saying Mass every Sunday for an old Methodist preacher friend whom I met here at a ministries\u2019 meeting years ago. And I visit a couple friends at the Epworth Manor nursing home on occasion \u2013 a Jewish gentleman who used to own a shoe store here and the widow of the former owner of the Villa restaurant. In fact, I\u2019ve got my own name in for a place at Epworth. I\u2019m talking with my attorney about it now.\u201d
\nWalsh\u2019s closest companion these days, he said, is a mongrel cat that he rescued from the Humane Society and named Tousch Lanuers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A dedicated pastor in his time plays many parts, witness Monsignor Richard J. Walsh, arguably the most unusual priest ever to grace the central Pennsylvania area. An only child, Father Walsh was born in Tyrone, the son of a conductor on the Pennsylvania Railroad. \u201cI\u2019m sort of a hybrid,\u201d he said, adding that he spent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area","category-excerpts-from-the-tyrone-daily-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}