After 97 years, priest gets final resting place

PATTI MENGERS — DAILY TIMES

Holy Saviour's founding pastor, the Rev. Thomas J. Horan, was exhumed from his resting place of nearly 97 years on Monday in front of the church and reinterred Tuesday at Immaculate Heart of Mary Cemetery in Upper Chichester because the parish is closed and the property is for sale. Boards now cover his former grave that is cordoned off with police tape.

PATTI MENGERS — DAILY TIMES

The Rev. Robert McDermott, right, pastor of St. John Fisher parish in Upper Chichester, and the Rev. Anthony Hangholt, who celebrated his first Mass at Holy Saviour Church in Lower Chichester in 2012, prepare to preside at the re-interment of Holy Saviour founding pastor the Rev. Thomas J. Horan at Immaculate Heart of Mary Cemetery, Upper Chichester Tuesday morning.

Rev. Thomas J. Horan

PATTI MENGERS — DAILY TIMES

Lifelong Holy Saviour parishioner Louis "Rob" Robinson, 65, of Bethel, pays his last respects to the Rev. ThomasJ. Horan, founding pastor of Holy Saviour parish in Lower Chichester, who died in 1919.

PATTI MENGERS — DAILY TIMES

The Rev. Thomas J. Horan's new casket was donated by the Joseph A. Ward Funeral Home of Lower Chichester, that also donated their services.

More than four months have passed since the last Mass was celebrated at Holy Saviour Church in the Linwood section of Lower Chichester, but the marquee in front of the adjoining school still beckons in green letters: "Last Mass – July 12 – 4 p.m. All are welcome."

However the doors of the church and school, rectory and convent were locked and the grounds of the former parish, seemingly deserted early Tuesday afternoon save for a carpenter wielding a folding measuring stick.

"Boarding up the windows. Kids are breaking in," said the fellow as he went about his business.

In front of the church, beneath a budding tree, was a gaping hole covered with boards and cordoned off with yellow police tape. It was not a crime scene, but, indeed, testimony to the finality of Holy Saviour parish that was closed by Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput in 2013, one year shy of its centennial.

The front lawn of the church had been the resting place of Holy Saviour's founding pastor, the Rev. Thomas J. Horan, for nearly 97 years.

"It was a common practice to bury the founding pastor on church property," explained the Rev. Robert McDermott, pastor of St. John Fisher parish in Upper Chichester that absorbed Holy Saviour parish and Immaculate Conception of Lourdes parish in Marcus Hook when they were closed two years ago.

Late Monday morning the skeletal remains of Horan, who died March 19, 1919, were exhumed from the grassy knoll between the church and school, facing Ridge Road. Tuesday morning they were reinterred less than a mile away at Immaculate Heart of Mary Cemetery in Upper Chichester just at the border of Lower Chichester. Like Holy Saviour parish, its mailing address is "Linwood, PA."

"Working with the archdiocese, the parish leadership – clergy and lay – felt it most appropriate that Father Horan's resting place remain within the former boundaries of Holy Saviour parish," said McDermott. "The Archdiocese of Philadelphia honored the special request for Father Horan to be buried in Linwood at a Catholic cemetery."

The cemetery was actually established for the former Immaculate Heart of Mary parish that was founded in south Chester in 1873 and remained opened until 1993 when it was merged with five other Chester parishes to form St. Katharine Drexel parish on the north side of town.

"It was a blessing that Immaculate Heart of Mary parish cemetery was in Linwood," noted McDermott.

Horan's new resting place is not far from the grave of former Immaculate Heart of Mary pastor, the Rev. Joseph Coleman, who died in 1967, nearly 50 years after Horan had been buried on the grounds of his beloved Holy Saviour parish.

Holy Saviour is one of eight Delaware County parishes that have been closed and merged with others since 2013. Their closure is part of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's ongoing Parish Pastoral Planning Initiative proposed by former Philadelphia Archbishop Cardinal Justin Rigali in 2010 and initiated by Chaput in 2011 to determine sustainability of 266 Roman Catholic parishes in the archdiocese's five-county region.

Councils comprised of parishioners and pastors make recommendations to an archdiocesan Strategic Planning Commission whose members make recommendations to the archbishop, who has the final say. Declining membership, increasing debt and lack of clergy are among the major factors cited by archdiocesan officials for parish closures. All Holy Saviour real estate holdings, assets and debts were transferred to St. John Fisher when the parishes merged, however the church was initially permitted to remain open as a worship site for funerals and other special events.

In June Chaput announced that Holy Saviour Church would no longer even be used as a worship site because, together with the former school and rectory, it would require an estimated $600,000 in repairs in the near future. The church property and buildings are now listed for sale with Media Real Estate. The need to move the founding pastor's remains became critical.

Ed Ward and his staff at Joseph A. Ward Funeral Home in Lower Chichester volunteered their services to disinter and reinter Horan's remains. They also procured the proper permits from the state to move Horan's remains and donated an 18-gauge copper tone casket to replace the wooden one that had deteriorated after nearly a century.

One of six children of Joseph and the late Eileen Ward who grew up in Holy Saviour parish, Ward felt it was the least he could do for the founder of his lifelong parish.

"It is not the first time I disinterred and reinterred someone but it is the first time I did it for a priest and it is certainly the first time I did it for someone who was buried almost 100 years," said Ward

He explained that instead of a vault, the grave was lined with bricks and covered with a concrete slab.

"The wood casket was still intact until you touched it and it came apart because of age. His vestments were still intact and parts of his clothing," said Ward.

McDermott, who witnessed the disinterment, said a sounding had to be done first to determine the exact location of Horan's coffin.

"There was a metal cross on top. We feel it had been in his hands. His feet were towards Ridge Road and his head was toward the church," said McDermott.

The monument that marked Horan's burial site was too large for Horan's new grave, said McDermott.

Thirty-year-old Ray Cooper, one of the members of Holy Saviour Knights of Columbus Council 13710 who was a pallbearer Tuesday, said he remembered climbing on the monument as a child, not realizing it was Horan's tombstone until his parents yelled for him to get off of it.

Holy Saviour archivist, Jerry Dugan, said he also was never quite sure if Horan was actually buried there until recently. Horan's impact on the community was highlighted in a purple-covered tome called "Catholicity in Delaware County: Nineteen Hundred and Eighteen" that Dugan unearthed for McDermott to read at Horan's brief service Tuesday morning.

The book told of how the industrial revolution brought many Catholics to the area and inspired the Rev. A.L.Ganster, the rector of the Church of the Resurrection in Chester, to establish a "mission" in Marcus Hook and "Chichester" that would become Church of the Holy Saviour. He purchased the first site for Holy Saviour on Chichester Avenue and a cornerstone for the chapel was laid Sept. 13, 1914, with much pomp and circumstance. June 3, 1915, Horan, who had been assistant pastor at St. Michael's Church in Chester, was appointed rector. Realizing the growing need for a parochial grade school, he purchased the current site of Holy Saviour with the idea of first building the basement of the church that could serve as a temporary schoolhouse. The cornerstone was laid June 24, 1917, and another parade was held that included the participation of the Knights of Columbus.

The book includes an ad on page 19 that read: "With Every Good Wish for Rev. Thomas J. Horan and his good works from his friend, William C. Sproul". Sproul was a former co-owner of the Chester Times, forerunner of the Daily Times, who served in the state Senate and eventually became governor of Pennsylvania.

Another ad on page 27 notes: "Kindliest wishes to Rev. Thomas J. Horan and the members of Holy Saviour Church." – T. Woodward Trainer. Trainer was a Progressive League member who served on Chester City Council and is credited with helping in "cleaning up both city hall and the city."

The book also includes a note of thanks to "pastors of the Church of the Holy Infancy, South Bethlehem and of St. Michael's Church and the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, both in Chester, in allowing collections to be taken up in their churches for the benefit of Holy Saviour Parish."

"Last night I slept very well. Father Horan didn't bother me even though I bothered him," said McDermott, eliciting a chucklefrom the members of the Knight of Columbus in attendance at Horan's reinterment service Tuesday morning.

Assisting McDermott was the Rev. Anthony Hangholt who celebrated his first Mass at Holy Saviour Church in 2012. After a few readings, a recitation of the Our Father and a sprinkling of holy water, Horan was left to his final resting place. Immaculate Heart of Mary Cemetery workers Francisco Lopez and Alex Villalobos carefully navigated Horan's casket into the vault under the supervision of Skip Kunkle of Esterly Burial Vault Co. of Berks County. By 11:30 a.m., they were sprinkling grass seed on the priest's new resting place.

Lifelong Holy Saviour parishioner Louis "Rob" Robinson, 65, of Bethel, whose baby twin sisters Alice and Margaret Mary, are buried not far from Horan, had mixed feelings about witnessing the reinterment of Holy Saviour's founding pastor.

"It's an honor to be at this distinguished ceremony at this somewhat melancholy time in Holy Saviour parish history," he sadly noted.

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