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Jun 5, 2002
Three priests celebrate golden jubilees
Classmates ordained in 1952 have served the Church 150 years
By Alwen Bledsoe
June 7, 1952, Archbishop Urban J. Vehr laid hands on a group of newly ordained priests who would soon lead the Church in northern Colorado through Vatican II and the Civil Rights Movement up through the Cold War era and into the present. This June 7, Msgr. Ed Madden, Father John McGinn and Msgr. James Rasby will all celebrate their 50th jubilees.
Msgr. Madden still remembers the very first day of his priesthood.
"I remember a fire truck came down Louisiana Street by the seminary and woke me up very early. I was so excited I couldn't get back to sleep after that," he said.
Even 50 years later, Msgr. Madden, pastor of Our Lady of Pines in Byers, manages to exude the same gentle enthusiasm about his ministry.
"I love to offer the Mass," he said. "I try to have deep faith that it accomplishes so much. Many of our human efforts are so futile, but when you have that constant faith that everyday our Lord is there and he's honoring the Father, petitioning and getting help for the world, all the people in parishes, world peace, and all the needs that there are, that's the main thing."
The daily 7 a.m. Mass at Msgr. Madden's childhood parish gave him his first up-close glimpse of the ministry. He served as an altar boy from third grade all the way through high school.
"I got to know the priests and liked them very much and admired them," he said. "I thought, `Well, that's for me.'"
Since 1952, Msgr. Madden has pastored churches in North Denver, Arvada, Colorado Springs, Montbello, Lakewood, Boulder and Byers. In his long tenure in the Archdiocese of Denver, Msgr. Madden also taught religion at Holy Family High School, served as chaplain at Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs where he taught student nurses ethics, sociology and psychology, and served as vicar for priests for the archdiocese.
After years of ministry, it's still the same thing that makes the job worth it for Msgr. Madden: God's transformation of lives.
"You have big conversions — people who have been out of the Church for a long time and come back," he said. "It's times like that when you say, `Boy, it's all worth it.'"
And his advice for young priests? Pray and seek out the friendship of other priests.
Father McGinn has known Msgr. Madden since their years at Regis Jesuit High School.
"He's probably the most knowledgeable, loving, caring priest that God made," Father McGinn said, later adding, "We each know where to go when we need someone."
Father McGinn's interest in the priesthood also began with a childhood steeped in Catholicism and a long-lasting stint as an altar boy. He grew up next to St. Catherine of Siena in Denver, where he also went to grade school.
"I served Mass there from the time I was knee high to a grasshopper," Father McGinn said.
The priests at St. Catherine and at Regis High were a strong influence on him, he added.
He began his priesthood at St. James in Denver and has ministered in Colorado churches in Yuma, Denver, Montbello, Louisville, Centennial, Peetz, Iliff, Georgetown, Idaho Springs and Greeley. Though he retired last June, he has continued ministering at Holy Family and other parishes occasionally, he said.
Prayer, he said, is the most essential element of any successful priest's life.
"If you don't talk to God a little bit you don't get many good answers," he said.
Then there's also golf.
"It would help a whole lot if a priest could play a lot of golf," he said, later adding, "As the Lord said to the apostles, `Go out to the desert and pray.' Tucson and Phoenix have some pretty nice golf courses. Jesus knew what he was doing."
Father McGinn's dry humor is accompanied by what is clearly a tender heart for his flock.
Remembering the turbulent days following Vatican II, the 60s, and the upheaval of the Civil Rights Movement, he said, "There was more than enough to do."
But for Father McGinn it really comes down to one basic principle.
"People always need someone to care for them. That's the role of the priest — to see Christ in others."
That quality is something Father Mike Karrigan saw when he was assistant pastor at Guardian Angels in Denver when Father McGinn pastored the church.
"It seemed like he was always easy to be around and he had an ability to make people feel welcome. He's a lot of fun," he said.
Msgr. James Rasby was born on a Nebraska farm, but received his Catholic education at Holy Cross Abbey's school in Cañon City where his uncle was a Benedictine monk. Too much of an extrovert to relish monastic life, Msgr. Rasby moved to Denver for a job and, after much prayer, decided upon the priesthood.
The work that he considered most meaningful throughout his life as a priest is still the work he does today.
"Just being able to help people, to cry with people, to laugh with them, to pray with them, to honor them, to be an advocate for them, to find food for them, find housing for them," he said.
Though "retired," nearly every weekend finds him saying Mass at one of the 29 parishes he's helped out since retiring in 1995. Since January, Msgr. Rasby has officiated at 23 funerals as well as baptisms and weddings, he added. He also counsels with people in his roomy condo and loves walking through Washington Park with those who want to talk. Often he hears confession while settled into his favorite park bench, he added.
Msgr. Rasby's ministry has been entirely in Denver and Arvada, beginning with Christ the King Parish. His ministry at Shrine of St. Anne included opening their school in 1960. In 1967 he became St. Joan of Arc's first pastor and soon went on to spend 20 years as rector at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception before finally moving to St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Denver.
Among his fondest memories, Msgr. Rasby lists working with Archdiocesan Housing to build Cathedral Plaza, delivering meals to the homebound with Meals on Wheels, and counseling runaway kids who wandered into the cathedral looking for help.
"I'm a great advocate for the poor," he explained.
His ministry, though, seems to extend to any who might be needy.
Sister Marianne Keena, C.S.J., mission coordinator at Archdiocesan Housing, often calls on the "retired" priest to minister to the sick and dying, she said.
"I could call him and say, `Can you meet me at the hospital at such and such a time,' and he'll be there." she said.
Later she added, "He works harder than anyone. He's the most unretired retired priest I know."
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