| CURIA GENERALIZIA MARIANISTI Rome, December 14, 2004 Death Notice No. 34 (To all Unit Administrations) The Province of the United States of America recommends to our fraternal prayers our dear Brother, JOHN D. MULLIGAN, priest, who died in the service of the Blessed Virgin Mary on December 5, 2004, in Dayton, Ohio, in the 76th year of his age and the 58th year of his religious profession. John Donald Mulligan was born on June 25, 1929, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Patrick and Elsie Dunn Mulligan. He grew up in the city with his sister, Dorothy, and brothers, Thomas, Robert, Eugene, Patrick, and William. He attended St. Anne’s School and Cathedral Latin High School in Cleveland. Following a call to religious life he said was strong his entire life, Father John professed his first vows on August 17, 1947, in Beacon, N.Y., and his perpetual vows on August 17, 1951. He was ordained to the priesthood on July 14, 1957. Father John earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Dayton in 1950 and a master’s degree in religious education from The Catholic University of America in 1963. He also received a Certificate of Theological Studies from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley in California in 1978. Father John spent more than 20 years in Dayton ministries. He was spiritual director of the Marianist Scholasticate, a theology instructor at the University of Dayton, editor of Mary Today magazine and both director and spiritual director of the Marianist Mission. As an instructor, administrator, counselor and preacher, Father John’s ministries took him across the country and to Europe and Puerto Rico. He served as a teacher at North Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, Pa.; a teacher at Colegio Ponceño in Ponce, Puerto Rico; assistant director of novices in Utica, N.Y.; director of novices in Charlottesville, Virginia.; spiritual director of the Marianist seminary in Fribourg, Switzerland; rector of the Marianist seminary in St. Louis, Missouri; provincial of the former Marianist Province of New York; director of the Institute of Spirituality and Worship at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and both assistant pastor and pastor of St. Joseph’s parish in Sykesville, Maryland. Fellow brothers said Father John was an outgoing, warm, compassionate man who loved to tell jokes, travel and play Scrabble on the Internet. “He always began his homilies with a joke or two,” said Marianist Father Patrick Tonry. “Father John had a marvelous ability to accept people as they are and a genuine sense of caring and faith. I used to kid him that he must have been ordained with motor oil because he loved to travel so much.” “He took groups of people on pilgrimages to special places of devotion in Europe and the Holy Land,” said Marianist Father Richard Knuge. “The trips were extremely well organized and managed. Father John always was considerate of people’s needs.” “I’ll miss his giving personality and sense of humor,” said Marianist Brother Donald Winfree. “Father John was such an engaging person. He bonded with others so easily. My friends became his friends.” “Father John was a man who maintained strong faith despite personal trial,” added Father John McGrath. “He was gentle, intelligent and articulate.” Father John died of heart and respiratory complications. May he rest
in peace.
|