Retired bishop of Portland, Maine, dies; his episcopal motto was 'to serve, not to preside'

PORTLAND, Maine (OSV News) -- Retired Bishop Joseph J. Gerry, the 10th bishop of Portland, died at Mount Carmel Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Manchester, New Hampshire, July 2, the 75th anniversary of his profession as a member of the Benedictine community. He was 94.

"Bishop Joseph gave his life in service to Christ and the Church. He was a monk, a priest, an abbot, a bishop, and spent 15 years as Bishop of Portland. In each mission that he accepted from the Church, he was the pastoral presence of the Good Shepherd, helping everyone he met in coming to know Christ in a new way," said Robert Bishop Robert P. Deeley, who has headed the Portland Diocese since 2013.

"Though saddened by his death, we are strengthened by the hope that faith gives us that this good man will be in the loving presence of God," he said.

A funeral Mass for Bishop Gerry will be celebrated July 6 at St. Anselm Abbey in Manchester. Bishop Peter A. Libasci of Manchester will be the main celebrant. Burial will follow the Mass in St. Leander's Cemetery on the abbey grounds.

Bishop Deeley will celebrate a memorial Mass Aug. 3 at Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland.

Joseph John Gerry was a native son of Maine, born in Millinocket Sept. 12, 1928, one of eight children of Bernard and Blanche Gerry. He was baptized with the name John Gregory, named for the fifth bishop of Portland, Bishop John Gregory Murray. Joseph was the name he later received when he entered religious life with the Benedictines.

Bishop Gerry said the roots of his vocation were planted in his family's deep faith and were supported by the priests and religious sisters he encountered in his life.

"Thus, from a very young age, I prayed for the grace to come to know what the Lord desired, for somehow, I never doubted that his desire for me was for my well-being and happiness," he said in a 1989 interview with The Church World, Portland's diocesan newspaper at the time.

He attended St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1945. He said he was considering three possible vocations -- doctor, teacher, or priest -- but discerned it was the latter to which he was called. At age 18, while still a student at the college, he entered the Benedictine novitiate. He professed first vows as a member of St. Anselm Abbey July 2, 1948.

He was ordained to priesthood June 12, 1954, at St. Joseph Cathedral in Manchester.
After receiving a master's degree from the University of Toronto in 1955 and a doctorate from Fordham University in New York in 1959, he joined the faculty of St. Anselm College.

In 1963, then-Father Gerry was named prior of the abbey, responsible for the religious formation of those entering monastic life. He then served as academic dean of St. Anselm College in 1971 before being elected abbot of the abbey and chancellor of the college in 1972. They were positions he continued to hold until St. John Paul II named him in 1986 to serve as the auxiliary bishop of Manchester.

He said he had a difficult time saying yes to the appointment, knowing how much it would change his life, but through prayer, he came to the conclusion that it was what God wanted of him.

"I do not know if I am capable of fulfilling all of the expectations and demands of the office of bishop, but I will work at it with whatever gifts the Lord has given me and trust in the support of the people and the grace of God," he said at the time.

Bishop Gerry was a Manchester auxiliary bishop for three years before St. John Paul named him as the 10th bishop of Portland Dec. 27, 1988, succeeding Bishop Edward C. O'Leary. He was installed as Portland's 10th bishop at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland Feb. 21, 1989.

"I was born and brought up among the people of Maine. To them, to whom I owe so much, I offer the fullest measure of my affection. The deepest desire of my heart is and shall be to serve all of them to the utmost of my strength and ability," he said at the time of his appointment.

During his years as bishop of Portland, he was known for sharing the teachings of the church through pastoral letters, writing about one a year on topics such as vocations, the sacrament of confirmation, marriage and human sexuality. He also wrote a book featuring many of his homilies.

On Bishop Gerry's Coat of Arms are the words "To serve, not to preside," and those who served beside him said that is how he led the diocese. He is remembered as a man of deep prayer, who had a gentle spirit and a warm, welcoming smile.

"You can't understand Bishop Joseph without first understanding him as a monk. He was first and foremost a monk, and that never changed," said Msgr. Marc Caron, moderator of the curia and vicar general for the Diocese of Portland. "In terms of his personal life, his outlook on life,
the way he led the diocese, and his decision-making process, he was a monk."

"He was a gentleman, a nice man, somebody who was very real and very human," said Msgr. Paul Stefanko, vicar for priests.

"He respected everybody, and he found the good in everybody. I think the greatest gift he gave to the diocese was the spirituality he brought," said Sister Rita-Mae Bissonnette, a member of the Congregation of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, who chancellor of the diocese. "He was genuine. It was a glow from within that shined through."

Bishop Gerry served as bishop until February 2004, at which time he returned to St. Anselm Abbey, where he lived until his health required additional care and he was transferred to Mount Carmel Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in New Hampshire. For several years after retiring from active ministry, he continued to return to Maine to be present at some liturgies and to assist in administering the sacrament of confirmation.