Fr. Thomas Mulville King, S.J. Rest In Peace

I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will shepherd you wisely and prudently.

Jeremiah 3:15

Last week, our Holy Father published a letter declaring this year to be a “Year for Priests”. The declaration was made on the 150^th anniversary of the death of the Curé of Ars, the saintly John Mary Vianney. In the letter, Pope Benedict urged priests around the world to be priests after the Heart of Jesus. In urging priests to follow the example of the Curé, the Holy Father quotes St. John Vianney, who said, “A good shepherd, a pastor after God’s heart, is the greatest treasure which the good Lord can grant to a parish, and one of the most precious gifts of divine mercy”.

For those of us who had the grace to have Father Thomas King, S.J. as a teacher, a priest, and a friend, we certainly know the truth of the Curé’s words. Indeed, Georgetown received a great gift from the Lord in the form of Father King.

As for our beloved Father King, I am sure that he read the letter from the Holy Father. Maybe he was too humble to admit it, but let me be the first to say that all of what the Holy Father called for – priests after the Heart of Jesus – all of what the Holy Father called for was accomplished – with the grace of God, of course – by Father King.

For the students of Georgetown, who were far from their homes and their families, Father King was a pastor, a shepherd who guided us to Love, to Truth, to Jesus, to God the Father. Like the saintly Curé, Father King worked tirelessly in the fields of the Lord – day in and day out, six days of the week offering the 11:15 Mass, with Benediction on Tuesdays and his famed soirees on Wednesdays.

He headed the University Faculty for Life, and for those of us who were involved with GU Right to Life, he was always there to give the yearly prayer for those unborn who were mercilessly slaughtered by the culture of death.

As we know, as we see, Father King was a popular man, beloved by many, admired by many. Why was this? Was it his charisma? Was it the fact that he was (before my time at least) one of the best impersonators of Fred Astaire? Was it his iconic greetings – “Yo!” among others? Was it his perpetual joy? Or his perpetual youthfulness? Of course it was all of these things.

But I also like to think that it was the fact that he was a priest after the Heart of Jesus – a true prophet of the Good News, of the Gospel of Truth, of the Gospel of Life! He was an unashamed defender of the defenseless, of the innocent, especially the most innocent, those babies that were and continue to be slaughtered by the culture of death. He was an uncompromising defender of the Truth.

Six days of the week, for forty years (!), he persevered, hot or cold, rain or snow, to feed us, his sheep, with the Body and Blood of the Lamb. Even at the young age of 80, even after becoming crippled by ice, he still walked to class, teaching us about Mother Teresa, among other things, drawing very skillfully the Cave of Plato, telling us about his adventures in India. You can insert your own memories here. Whatever your memories, I’m sure they reflected his mystical love of God, his joyful and youthful demeanor, and his iconic mustache.

What was the mystique of this man?

Why was this man, Father Thomas Mulville King, why was this man so popular? He preached against abortion, against the sins of the flesh. He preached about a man who was brutally murdered and then rose from the dead three days later. He preached against everything this world holds most dear, he preached for everything this world most abhors.

And yet he was so popular, so beloved. Why was this so?

Because whether we know it or not, we are attracted to the Truth, to Good. Father King, through his self-sacrifice as a priest in God’s Catholic Church, channeled that truth, that goodness, that Eternal Truth, that Eternal Goodness. He showed us the Way. He shepherded us, against the lies of the world, against the evils of the world, keeping us on the straight and narrow. He was a candle in the darkness. Indeed, he truly was a priest after the Heart of Jesus.

Remarkably, here was a holy man, a holy priest, who dwelled among the infamously un-Catholic environment of Georgetown, who stayed true to Our Church while so many of her own priests strayed from her, continue to stray from her.

For those priests who find the Curé of Ars to be too distant an example to follow, the Lord gives you an example for these tumultuous times. In this Year for Priests, may you, the priests of God’s Catholic Church, may you all look to the life of Father King

– a sacrificial, uncompromising life – as an example of how to be a good priest, of how to be a priest after the Heart of Jesus.

May we all pray for Father King, and may Father King pray for us all, especially for the priests of God’s Catholic Church.

Amen.

Courtesy of Brian A. Nafarrete, 24 June 2009, San Diego, CA

A Short Biography

Fr Thomas King, SJ, taught theology at Georgetown University for forty years. He was featured several years ago by one of the campus newspapers as Georgetown's man of the century. He founded University Faculty for Life, and his courage and perseverance has sustained this group over the years. Known especially for celebrating Mass at 11.15 pm in the University chapel six days a week for the last forty years, his example and preaching helped many young people find their vocations in life, whether married or religious and priestly.

A prolific scholar as well as pastor, he was an expert on the Jesuit paleontologist and mystic Pierre Teihard de Chardin. Fr King wrote: "Teihard's Mass: Approaches to 'The Mass on the World'" (2005); "Teihard de Chardin" (Way of the Christian Mystcis, 2008); Teihard, Evil and Providence" (1989); "Teihard's Mysticism of Knowing" (1981); "Teihard and the Unity of Knowledge" (1983); "Letters of Teihard de Chardin and Lucille Swan" (2005). In addition, he authored: "Sartre and the Sacred" (1974); "Can the Modern World Believe in God?" (1993); "Enchantments: Religion and the Power of the World" (1989); "Jung's Four and Some Philosophers" (1999); "Merton: Mystic at the Center of America" (1992).

Born in 1929, he entered the Jesuits in 1951, was ordained in 1964, and received his doctorate from the University of Strasbourg in France. A more faithful son of the Church and St Ignatius Loyola would be hard to find

Francis Beckwith's post (here) on Fr. King, his blog is entitled Return to Rome

"Legendary Georgetown University theology professor, Fr. Thomas King, S. J., died last night. He was the founding president of University Faculty for Life, an academic society on whose board I sit. We will miss our beloved Fr. King."


Joseph Bottom's post (here) on Fr. King, his blog is entitled First Thoughts

Fr. King was my theology professor, in the mandatory theology course I took as a freshman at Georgetown. He’d had throat surgery of some kind, and his voice was soft and ghostly—lost in the hum whenever the air-conditioner in White-Gravenor Hall would come on.

I saw him far more rarely than I wanted, in later years: a few UFL meetings, and Tim took me by to visit him in the Quad on a trip to Washington.

But I remember the midnight Masses he would say in Dahlgren Chapel when we were undergraduates: candlelit and subdued, and as mystical as any services I’ve ever experienced—except perhaps for the Mass he would say every year in the crypt underneath the chapel in Copley Hall on the anniversary of the ordination of Teilhard de Chardin.

Scholastic Joseph Koczera, SJ writes in his post (here) Ave atque vale, his blog is entitled, City and the World.

It was with great shock and sadness that I learned, just two hours ago, of the death this evening of Father Thomas Mulvihill King. In his forty-one years on the Hilltop, Father King had an incalculable influence on several generations of Georgetown students. I owe my own vocation to the Society of Jesus to his influence and example, and I will miss him dearly as a priest, teacher, mentor and friend. I will probably post more detailed reflections on his passing later, but for now I'll simply ask you to join me in praying for the repose of his soul and for the consolation of his family and friends.

And further at his post (here) Adieux, Joseph writes

Thomas Mulvihill King was not the first Jesuit I ever met, but he was the first Jesuit I really got to know as a person. He was also the first Jesuit - as well as the first priest - whom I ever had as a teacher. He was my guide on my first visit to the Holy Land and on several student retreats at Georgetown. When Tom King died suddenly of a heart attack last Tuesday, I lost a mentor, friend and spiritual father. To say that Tom was my spiritual father is to say that he was like a Russian starets, a venerable and wise guide to the Christian life.

Blogger Note: We, Jesuits and non-Jesuits alike a have a "My Jesuit". I seems as though Fr. King was "My Jesuit" to quite a few people. When I say quite a few, I think that translates into 10's of thousands.