The Official Newspaper of the Diocese of Little Rock
Bishop Emeritus Andrew Joseph McDonald reached several major milestones as a Church leader: 65 years as a priest, 41 years as a bishop and 28 years as the bishop of Little Rock.
On April 1 he died at St. Joseph Home for the Elderly in Palatine, Ill. He was 90.
The Savannah-born prelate will leave a lasting legacy in Arkansas as the bishop who ushered in the changes of the the Second Vatican Council, initiated the first Mass for Life, gave funding for the first March for Life in Little Rock in 1978, invited Mother Teresa to Little Rock to run Abba House in 1982 (calling it the “most outstanding and memorable moment of my 28 years”) and was an outspoken opponent of abortion and the death penalty.
The tiny-feet pin on his suit jacket lapel was a constant reminder of his commitment to the protection of the unborn.
“The Catholic Church is totally pro-life. We pray and long for the day that the life of the unborn child will be fully protected by the laws of the United States,” he wrote in 1994.
He will have a place in diocesan history as the bishop who led the diocese through its 150th celebration in 1993-1994, strengthened ecumenical ties and made Hispanic ministry visible in the diocese.
While vocations to the priesthood were on the decline during his tenure like many other dioceses, he initiated the reinstitution of the permanent diaconate in 1978.
Reflecting in 2012 on Bishop McDonald’s episcopacy, Bishop Anthony B. Taylor said, “We are very aware of some of the painful crosses you bore during your 28 years here: the precipitous decline in vocations following Vatican II; Roe vs. Wade just one year after you arrived in Little Rock and our struggle to protect the sanctity of life ever since; your vocal opposition to the death penalty when executions resumed here in 1990; (and) your quiet support of our Office of Justice and Peace when Father (Joseph) Biltz took unpopular positions on social issues, such as the military draft and nuclear disarmament.”
In recent years Bishop McDonald’s memory was failing and he couldn’t recall many of his episcopal highlights. The memories of his parents and his early years, though, were never lost.
Bishop McDonald was fond of sharing stories about his Irish family, his calling to the priesthood and his appointment as the bishop of Little Rock in 1972.
He was born in Savannah, Ga., to James and Theresa McDonald on Oct. 24, 1923. Of his 11 siblings, four of them became religious sisters.
Bishop McDonald credited his family with leading him to the priesthood, but his parents died before he was ordained a priest in 1948. The family prayed the rosary nightly. His mother attended Mass every morning while the older children watched the younger ones.
His all-boys grade school, run by Marist brothers, also fostered his vocation.
“They really pointed boys toward vocations,” he said in 1998. “They talked about being a brother or a priest.”
Because he expressed an interest in the priesthood, when he was 13 years old young Andrew was sent away to St. Charles High School in Cantonsville, Md. He fondly remembered his parents making financial sacrifices to buy him a trunk, clothes and sheets. Train passes were available because his father worked for the Central of Georgia Railroad.
He graduated from St. Mary Seminary in Baltimore in 1948, a year earlier than expected because of World War II, and he was ordained a priest on May 8 at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah. The church held a special place for him because he received all his sacraments — baptism, first confession, first Communion and confirmation — there.
The chalice he used on ordination day and throughout his priesthood contained his late mother’s wedding ring from 1901.
“My right index finger touches it every Mass every day,” he said.
For days before and after his ordination, he recalled kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament, praying in Latin, “What shall I return to the Lord for all that he has done for me? I will take the chalice of salvation and I will call on the name of the Lord.”
Shortly after ordination, he was tapped to study canon law in Washington, D.C., and Rome.
From 1957 to 1963 he was the diocese’s chancellor, traveling with the bishop for confirmations and church dedications.
In 1963 he returned to parish work as pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church in Savannah while continuing as vicar general and judicial vicar.
On June 11, 1972, he got news he was not expecting. Pope Paul VI named the monsignor from Savannah to become the fifth bishop of Little Rock.
He was ordained a bishop at his home cathedral in Savannah on Sept. 5 to ensure his friends and parishioners could attend and was installed as bishop during a Mass at the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Little Rock Sept. 7.
Father McDonald had been to Arkansas twice before to visit seminarians from Savannah attending St. John Home Mission Seminary in Little Rock.
“I looked around and I didn’t know a single soul in the state of Arkansas,” he said in 2012. “It was not easy coming down to earth from all the pomp and circumstance I experienced in the ordination and installation. As the weeks and months went by, I settled in. Finding my way through 53,180 square miles in the state of Arkansas was no routine. I was an explorer, a missionary. Remember then, the highways were mainly two-lane roads and there were no GPS systems or cell phones at that time. What an adventure … Slowly I learned to let go and let God.”
In 1972 the Church was rapidly changing to be more focused on the laity.
“I liked the things that were happening in the Church” he recalled. “We could have Mass in English, and there could be a better participation on the part of the people in the life of the Church. There was real fear. Were we doing it fast enough? Are we doing it well enough?”
In the 1970s, the diocese was responding to the new Roe vs. Wade decision, welcoming refugees to the state and supporting the establishment of Little Rock Scripture Study.
LRSS co-founder Abbot Jerome Kodell, OSB, said of the bishop’s support of LRSS, “People around the world owe him thanks for that.”
He endeared himself to the Catholics of Arkansas. He routinely wrote letters to be read from the pulpit at weekend Masses, all signed “Your friend, Andrew J. McDonald, bishop of Little Rock.” He kept an extensive list of 154 anniversaries of deaths, baptisms and weddings and sent letters to them each year. He reveled in the times that friends and parishioners would name their children Andrew. It happened more than 100 times in his first 25 years as bishop.
He developed a reputation as a golf player, igniting interest in the first Bishop McDonald Golf Tournament in 1994 to support Catholic Charities. He even boasted once at playing a round at St. Andrew in Scotland.
In 1997 for his 25th anniversary as a bishop, he predicted his resignation wouldn’t be accepted quickly.
“So you might have to put up with me until the millennium,’’ Bishop McDonald said.
In 1998 when he was 75 years old, he was required to turn in his resignation.
“I don’t want to slow down. I’m in decent health, and I want to do them,” he said.
In January 1999 the bishop was forced to miss the Mass for Life and trip to St. Louis to see Pope John Paul II because he had emergency open heart surgery. The bishop returned to his office two months later and presided over Holy Week services.
His official retirement didn’t come until 2000 when Pope John Paul II accepted his resignation and named Father J. Peter Sartain of Memphis as the sixth bishop.
Then-Father Sartain first arrived on Jan. 3, 2000, to publicly announce his papal appointment. Father Sartain went to the bishop’s residence and they immediately prayed the Te Deum in the home’s chapel.
Archbishop Sartain, now of Seattle, recalled, “It was a touch of prayer and a touch of class I will never forget.”
For two years Bishop McDonald remained in his residence and filled in for vacationing or ill pastors and played golf. In 2002, thinking ahead to his real retirement, he asked the Little Sisters of the Poor if he could eventually live in one of their retirement homes. They jumped at the opportunity to invite the retired bishop to become the chaplain of St. Joseph Home for the Elderly in Palatine, Ill. Bishop McDonald was pleased at the opportunity to remain active and honored his late sister, Sister Celine of St. Rose, who was a Little Sister of the Poor.
From 2002 to 2013 he was the chaplain, saying daily Mass and hearing confessions. When he was not as mentally sharp and was physically slowing down, he gave up his chaplaincy work. He maintained an office at St. John Center in Little Rock where his secretary Marian Swift kept up with his correspondences.
Since 2002 he visited Little Rock at least once a year to see his doctors. His last trip to Arkansas was in February 2013. For his 90th birthday in October, his current and former secretaries visited him in Palatine for a small party with friends, nieces and nephews.
In late January he was moved to the infirmary at St. Joseph Home.
He was preceded in death by his parents; eight sisters, Alice Elizabeth Hiltz, Sister M. Aurelia, CSJ, Sister Celine of St. Rose, LSP, Mary Bernadette Pigman, Sister M. Incarnata, RSM, Sister Mary James, CSJ, Ann Frances Jordan and Eleanor Rosalie Arnett; and three brothers, James J. McDonald, Eugene B. McDonald, and Richard A. McDonald. He is survived by one sister-in-law, Julia McDonald of Atlanta, and 78 nieces and nephews spanning four generations.
Memorials may be made to the Bishop Andrew J. McDonald Burse Fund for seminarians studying for the Diocese of Little Rock. Donations should be mailed to Diocesan Seminarian Fund Inc., P.O. Box 7239, Little Rock, AR 72217.
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