A memorial service for Fr. Tom Goekler was held today in our main chapel. Many guests, relatives and friends, began arriving last night. Former Maryknoll priest associate Father Jack Martin, from Newark, was presider and Fr. Bill Donnelly, who had worked with Tom in Central America, was homilist.
Remembrances at the end of Mass were given by Tom's oldest sister and a lay couple from Amistad Catholic Worker House in Hartford, Conn., which Tom helped found.
(Thanks to Fr. Ed Szendrey for supplying these details.)
On December 10, Archbishop Henry Mancell of Hartford celebrated a memorial Mass there, inviting Maryknollers in the area to concelebrate.
I taught with Tom at South Catholic HS in Hartford. I saw him at Maryknoll when he was home in May and I was at the Deacon Consultation. I was looking forward to seeing him in action in Guatemala during January's Pilgrimage.
ReplyDeleteTom was "a good priest". There is no higher praise.
I will miss him
Dn. Dennis Dolan,
Diocese of Norwich CT