Monthly Archives: October 2013

Most Rev. James Daly, RIP

I learned only today of the October 14th death the the Most Rev. James J. Daly, DD Auxiliary Bishop of Rockville Centre, NY. He was 92. I grew up in that diocese and Bishop Daly (whose gentle demeanor and soft-spokeness earned him the ironic nickname “tiger”) was the bishop who confirmed me in 1977. In fact, he had only just become a bishop the same month. His first confirmation was, fittingly, for the parish where he had served as pastor up until becoming a bishop but ours was only the second time he had administered the sacrament of Confirmation.

The right-hand man to Bishop John McGann for years, Daly also served as dean of the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington and was in charge of helping decide which parishes priests would serve in. Yet colleagues said he was unassuming and humble, and was happiest being a parish priest.

Daly was born in the Bronx, grew up in Jamaica, Queens attended a Catholic high school, and studied for the priesthood at the seminary in Huntington. His experience as a priest on Long Island started before the local diocese existed. When he was ordained in 1948, Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Brooklyn made up the Diocese of Brooklyn. Nine years later, Nassau and Suffolk were carved out to create the Diocese of Rockville Centre. In 1958, Daly was assigned to the seminary, where he rose to the post of dean. By 1972, he was named pastor of St. Boniface parish in Elmont. By many accounts, it was one of the happiest times of his life. But the church hierarchy also needed him, and in 1977 Bishop John McGann requested that he be named auxiliary bishop. He eventually rose to vicar general, the No. 2 post in the diocese.

Daly retired in 1996, but remained active, visiting patients in hospitals and nursing homes. He also cared for a disabled brother in the house his family had bought decades ago in Blue Point, where Daly had his first assignment as a priest, from 1948 to 1951, at Our Lady of the Snow.

His coat of arms is based on the Irish arms associated with the name Daly. It has the addition of a scallop shell, a symbol of his baptismal patron, St. James, as well as the Sacred heart, a lily and a griffin’s head. These charges represent family allusions as well as his personal devotions. Unfortunately, I do not have a full color rendering.

He was a kind, gentle and very capable pastor, priest and bishop. Requiescat in pace.

Lord Lyon To Step Down

Royal Cardinal

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Henry (or Henrique) born on January 31, 1512 and died on January 31, 1580 reigned as King of Portugal and the Algarves and at the same time was a Cardinal of the Church. He ruled in Portugal between 1578 and 1580 and was known, for obvious reasons, as “Henry the Chaste”.

Henry was the fifth son of King Manuel I of Portugal and Maria of Aragon and the younger brother of King John III. He was not expected to succeed to the Portuguese throne since he was a younger son. Ordained as a priest in order to promote Portuguese interests within the Church then dominated by the Spanish he, not surprisingly as the son of a king, rose fast through the hierarchy, becoming in quick succession Archbishop Braga, then Archbishop of Évora and eventually of Lisbon before receiving the red hat in 1545, along with the Titular Roman church of Quattro Coronati.

Henry served as regent for his grandnephew, Sebastian, after 1557, and then succeeded him as king after Sebastian was killed at the Battle of Alcázarquibir. Henry renounced his clerical offices on his own volition and sought to marry for the continuation of the House of Avis, but Pope Gregory XIII, closely tied to the Habsburgs who controlled Spain, did not release him from his vows. The Cardinal-King died in Almeirim without having appointed a Council of Regency to choose a successor. Philip II of Spain who had a strong dynastic claim was elected King of Portugal at the Portuguese Cortes of Tomar in 1581.

For his arms he bore the royal arms of Portugal ensigned with a crown and a cardinal’s hat. (NOTE: the number of tassels was not fixed at 30 until the late 19th Century and prior to that cardinals often employed varying numbers of tassels on their galeri)