Msgr. Seamus McGowan: 55 years after ordination still serving

Although he retired 15 years ago due to health reasons, Msgr. Seamus McGowan still maintains a full schedule of pastoral activities. “I can’t do the things I did when I was younger. When I have to sit down to rest I do, but you never retire from being a priest.” 

That is more than apparent to members of the small mission church of St. Mary’s on Cynthia Street in western Nueces County. As a mission of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, St. Mary’s has no resident pastor or priest in charge, but to the people Msgr. McGowan is a special friend in addition to being their priest. He is the person fit, vibrant and full of good cheer who brings Christ and His message of love and service to their community.

Msgr. McGowan’s relationship with St. Mary’s mission goes back to when it was attached to St. Anthony’s in Robstown. He is back with the people where he “helps out.”

“Babies are gifts from God, today we will bring little Liam into the family of Christ,” Msgr. McGowan said while performing a baptism at St. Mary’s. “His parents are the instruments that gave him life; they came here today to give their baby the gift of faith. Everyone here will become an honorary padrino, you will give him faith by your example.”

“It meant everything to us to be able to have Msgr. McGowan baptize Liam,” Amanda Young the three-month-old baby’s mother said. “He has been with our family for years, Baptizing our babies and we love him very much.”

The Baptism of baby Liam Young was particularly joyful for Msgr. McGowan, as he has known his family since he was in Robstown at St. Anthony’s. Liam is the grandson of two of the original members of St. Mary’s, Cele and Petra Garza, who were present for the Baptism. The baby’s Godmother and aunt Rose Mary Garza is their daughter.

Msgr. McGowan grew up in the beautiful Glenaide parish of County Leitrim, Ireland. He was the eldest of seven boys in a family that “had no girls to spoil.” He remembered that his childhood, though generally happy and stable, was shadowed by the ominous political troubles in Ireland during the 1930s.

“There were lots of problems and a threat of civil war,” he said. His father, a school principal, got involved in the fight for freedom from the British government and eventually served as a member of the first Irish parliament.

“There was a lot of unrest and suffering,” Msgr. McGowan said. Then there was World War II. As an eight-year-old he remembered feeling a great pity for the Polish people, “who didn’t have a chance when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.” There were hardships, which the McGowan family felt with others; the rationing of goods, gasoline, tires and various foods. “There was no tea, we had the worst coffee ever,” he said.

Despite the political landscape, the McGowan family remained settled and prayerful. Each evening the family gathered to pray the Rosary. “We would say a special ‘Pater’ [Our Father] for vocations to the priesthood.” Included in the request was for a vocation within their family.

He remained in his local school until eighth grade when he was enrolled in a Catholic High School. “It was a privilege I had and it was at great sacrifice for my parents,” he said. He completed his high school and two years of college work while there.

Eventually he began to think about the family rosary with the special prayer for vocations to the priesthood.

“I might like to be a priest,” he thought. There were a lot of problems to overcome. There were few colleges around; he was in a very rural area with no car and no gasoline. He finally did manage though to get to St. Joseph’s College in the south of Ireland in County Kilkinney.

“I was thinking about the priesthood all the time,” he said. He wanted to be a missionary and carry the Gospel message to India or maybe even Africa. He also thought some about doing diocesan work. He then went to St. Patrick’s seminary in Thurles, County Tipperary, where he studied philosophy and theology for the next six years.

“The seminary at Thurles was designed to prepare priests to serve somewhere outside Ireland, in religious communities or as missionaries,” he said. At the time, it was one of approximately 10 seminaries operating with that purpose in Ireland.

“There was no shortage of priests in Ireland and you were not encouraged to try to be ordained to serve in an Irish diocese,” Msgr. McGowan said. He considered volunteering to go to Melbourne or Auckland when fate intervened.

Msgr. William Kinlough was traveling in Ireland for Bishop Mariano S. Garriga looking for volunteers to come to the Diocese of Corpus Christi. “It made little difference to me, no matter where you were you could serve the Lord. I also was attracted by the name Corpus Christi,” he said.

He was ordained for the Diocese of Corpus Christi in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Thurles on June 16, 1957 along with 70 other men. Six priests from Ireland came to the diocese that year, including  Fathers McGowan, John Killeen, Matt Lyng, Aidan Leddy, William Daley and Larry O’Dwyer.

Father McGowan’s first assignment was to St. Patrick Parish in Corpus Christi. It was a new parish and very active, he said. He remembers particularly how the youth group was a lively part of parish life. He served with Msgr. Thomas Meaney and Father Charles Dougherty from 1957 until 1962, at which time he was sent to St. Anthony’s parish in Robstown where he remained 15 years.

Robstown was divided along ethnic lines. There were serious issues affecting the community at various levels. Adding to the challenges was the post-Vatican II changes being felt all over the diocese. People and pastors both were somewhat unsure as to just how to implement the new regulations coming out.

Father McGowan worked diligently with everyone in his parish to help solve the problems. He befriended most and worked with them towards acceptable solutions. The parish received unexpected help implementing Vatican II rules regarding the changes needed for the interior of the Church.

“Many parishioners did not want to change the altar to accommodate the new liturgy where the celebrant faces the congregation. They were adamant. Then Hurricane Celia hit in August 1970 packing sustained winds of 125 mph. It damaged St. Anthony’s so extensively that the interior had to be redone.

“I felt the Holy Spirit was working and sharing with the people the need for the change. Their faith was very strong.  We had to have our Masses in the parking lot. When the church was finished the people were so glad to see the inside of the church, no matter where the altar was,” Msgr. McGowan said.

“Being sent to Robstown to do the Lord’s work was a real blessing for me,” he said. “I did not speak a word of Spanish and had some tough going. I needed translators for everything.”

The nuns who served the parish, the Missionary Sisters of the Most Pure Virgin Mary originally from Mexico served as his translators. Father McGowan took Spanish lessons and with time became fluent. His Spanish is especially useful when he visits the sick and dying. 

“His ability to sing the hymns in Spanish and English is a great comfort and consolation to the people,” Msgr. Morgan Rowsome, his long time friend and pastor at St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, said. “He is one of the hardest working priests in the diocese, visiting the hospitals everyday besides everything else he does.”

Father McGowan retired in 1997 after several bouts with life-threatening heart disease and three open-heart surgeries. Urged by his cardiologists to retire, he finally did on the 40th anniversary of his ordination. He continued to serve the Lord through counseling when needed and as a chaplain at Spohn South.

He continues to this day, helping in parishes, particularly St. Peter’s and its mission St. Mary’s where he celebrates Mass, hears confessions, baptizes those coming into the faith and presides at funerals for those whose earthly life has ended. He epitomizes the prayer by Dominican Jean Baptiste Lacordaire who described a priest as one who lives “in the midst of the world with no desire for its pleasures; to be a member of every family, yet belonging to none; to share all sufferings; to penetrate all secrets, to heal all wounds; to daily go from men to God to offer Him their homage and petitions; to return from God to men to bring them His pardon and hope; to have a heart of fire for charity and a heart of bronze for chastity; to bless and to be blest forever. O God, what a life, and it is yours, O Priest of Jesus Christ!”

Msgr. McGowan provides witness to the words “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (Hb 7:17)