Longtime pastor retiring, but ‘not from God’s work’
Msgr. William H. Carr has come full circle in his 52 years of priesthood.
His first parish assignment after being ordained for the Diocese of Richmond in 1969 was as associate pastor at St. Bridget, Richmond, where he served until 1974. He returned to St. Bridget as pastor in 2005 and served there for the last 16 years. He will officially retire from active ministry on July 5.
When he first went to St. Bridget, Msgr. Carr said the daily life of the priests assigned there revolved around the sacraments, the school and the few service groups.
“There was not a lot of downtime, but yet it seems to me it was more simple and the life of the priest was more simple in the ‘70s – here anyway,” he said, noting that priests served a certain geographical area.
While parishes do have boundaries today, parishioners come from all over the metropolitan area and priests are called to hospitals and homes further away.
“That makes it a bit of a stretch to the fewer clergy there are,” he said. “That’s one of the dramatic differences, how many more parishioners there are in all the parishes and how few we are as priests.”
Promises kept
While he feels the life of the priest has become more complex over the years, Msgr. Carr feels the opposite way about himself.
“I think that my life and my heart and my soul have become more simple over the years,” he said. “I have had to keep close to Jesus as the high priest and focus on him and what he wants me to do, and I figure that out in prayer and in discussion with other people.”
Throughout his vocation, the promise Msgr. Carr made to God – like the promise made in a marriage – has gotten him through “many more good times, but some bad times and some challenging times.”
“I made a promise to be respectful and obedient to the bishop and his successors, and I made a promise to be a priest,” he said. “I made the promise to God, and sometimes we just fall back on the promise: I gave my word, I’m going to keep it. And I’ve just asked God to help me to do that, and the Lord has done that for me all these years.”
Looking back on his assignments, Msgr. Carr said his greatest successes were the moments in which he could see how the parish had grown and come together.
“It was really bringing people together, going through the hard work of developing consensus in prayer and discussion, and then there was that kind of ‘aha’ moment where I could stand back and say, ‘Gosh, you know, thank God we did this,’” he said.
The priest said he has always looked to the parish committees and councils as opportunities for faith formation – and for learning about people’s families and prayer intentions or discussing the faith.
“And so, particularly here, the parish council, the finance committee, the liturgy committee, the parish staff, have become centers of my spiritual life because we’ve grown together, and I love that, and I will miss that,” he said.
Part of the family
Msgr. Carr said that people in the parishes have become family over the years.
“I find that God supplies what we need. And what I need, and I think maybe what everybody else needs, is a family,” he said.
“I found that God gave me families – that is people who care for me, who worry about me, who pray for me, who laugh with me – and I’ve found that in all the parishes and here at St. Bridget.”
In addition to interacting with his parish family, Msgr. Carr said the beauty of St. Bridget School and the students’ energy will be missed.
“And I’m going to miss standing in the commons and greeting people and saying goodbye to them. I’ve always enjoyed that,” he added.
Seeing people grow in their faith has been a very rewarding part of Msgr. Carr’s life as a priest.
“What has made me happy is seeing people who stood back, who felt insecure about ministry, who just were on the sidelines, grow in their love of the Lord and step forward to take up leadership positions over the years,” he said. “And I’m very, very proud of having a little bit of a hand in that. I just want to call people closer to Christ, and I’ve seen that happen all the way back to my first pastorate, Holy Spirit, in the ‘70s.”
Msgr. Carr served as pastor of Holy Spirit, Virginia Beach, from 1975-1983. He has also been pastor of St. Augustine, Richmond (1983- 1993), and St. Bede, Williamsburg (1993-2005).
Guided by Scripture
Two Scripture passages have guided Msgr. Carr’s priesthood. The first is when John the Baptist said, “He must increase; I must decrease.” The second comes from the Gospel of Luke when two disciples realized that it was Jesus who had accompanied them all day and broke the bread. They said, “Were not our hearts burning within us?”
“Those two passages kind of look into my life, you know,” he said. “I’ve tried to share that idea so that the Mass, the Eucharist, could be celebrated in such a way and I could be presenting Jesus, sharing Jesus, in such a way that people’s hearts would be burning.”
Msgr. Carr said he has tried to show the seminarians and young priests of the diocese – 25 of whom have lived at St. Bridget during his 16 years as pastor – that he truly believes he must decrease and that his heart is burning within him when he celebrates Mass and the sacraments.
“I want to listen to the young priests and the seminarians because they’re bright people and they’re dedicated people and prayerful people, and I don’t have all the answers, and I’ve tried to make that evident to them,” he said. “I’m not their boss that dictates to them what they need to do, but I’m a fellow worker in the vineyard who wants to listen to them. And I hope, I hope, I’ve been able to achieve that in some way.”
‘Not retiring from God’s work’
Msgr. Carr celebrated his retirement at St. Bridget during the weekend of June 26-27 by celebrating the 5:30 p.m. Vigil Mass on Saturday and the 5 p.m. Mass on Sunday. Following both Masses, parishioners gathered on the parish terrace to wish their pastor well.
Although it is fitting that Msgr. Carr celebrated his retirement on the weekend that the faithful returned to Mass, i.e., the weekend that the general dispensation from attending Mass was officially lifted, that is not why the priest made his decision to retire.
“It’s a matter of my physical health, my stamina, and also because I think that as a pastor, I really served long enough in one place,” he said. “I think that it’s time for a new pastor to come here. I think a new pastor will bring a different vision and a different set of skills, and I know the one who’s been named here (Father Ken Shuping), and I have every confidence in him. I just think it’s time.”
Msgr. Carr said that he is unsure exactly what his future will look like, but he hopes to volunteer and celebrate Mass at different parishes in the area.
“I am retiring as a pastor, not as a priest. I’m retiring from administrative and sacramental duties in a parish,” he said. “I’m not retiring from God’s work.”