Msgr. Thomas Michael Flynn, 88, a retired priest of the Diocese of Camden, died Sept. 20.
Born Sept. 2, 1934, in Ireland, he studied at Saint Peter’s Seminary in Wexford, and was ordained there on June 8, 1958. In September of that year, he began his ministry in South Jersey as parochial vicar in Saint Paul Parish, Stone Harbor.
In his 50 years of active ministry, he was administrator and later pastor of Saint Anthony of Padua, Camden (1971-1978); and pastor of Saint Ann, Elmer (1978-1991); Saint Aloysius, Oaklyn (1991-2003), and Epiphany, Longport, where he served from 2003 until retiring in 2008.
His friend retired priest Msgr. Thomas Morgan, remarked that “the fondest memory I have of Msgr. Flynn is that he was a man who had a big priestly heart.”
“His gift and outpouring … spoke to [the faithful’s] spiritual hungers – their emptiness and brokenness … their need for God. His physical absence is a loss for all of us.”
Retired priest Father John Killeen reflected on Msgr. Flynn’s Irish Catholic roots and his journey to ministry in New Jersey.
“[Msgr.] Tom came from a small farm in the west of Ireland; in many ways, he never left that farm where he received his faith formation,” Father Killeen said. “Working on the land, he felt the crunch of creation under his boots. He experienced the seasons on the land and reflected on the grain of wheat dying and becoming a stalk of wheat. The wheat becoming bread and the bread becoming the Body of Christ in his hands during consecration. He never lost touch of the daily mystery of creation in Moylough [Ireland] or South Jersey.”
A viewing will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 23 at Saint Aloysius Church (Saint Joseph the Worker Parish), 37 West Haddon Ave., Oaklyn. A second viewing will be held at 10 a.m. Sept. 24, with a Mass of Christian Burial to follow at 11 a.m. Burial will take place in Ireland.
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