Patrick Comerford
Father Bill Comerford (1936-2024) was a retired Redemptorist priest who was involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal from 1970 until he died in 2024, and he was the Archdiocesan liaison to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Toronto for 17 years.
Bill served the Roman Catholic Church and the Redemptorist congregation in many capacities. He was known for leading retreats, Masses and prayers for healing the family tree, giving talks, teaching, and he was involved in individual prayer ministry.
Father Bill Comerford was born in Ottawa, Ontario, on 11 January 1936 to Jeannie (nee Light) and Samuel Comerford. He moved with his family to Oshawa in 1940. He first became interested in pursuing religious life at school in Saint Gregory the Great elementary school under the guidance of the Sisters of Saint Joseph and the Christian Brothers.
He entered the minor seminary at Saint Mary’s College in Brockville, Ontario, in 1949, and professed his first vows as a Redemptorist on 15 September 1956. After his seminary studies at Woodstock and Holy Redeemer College in Windsor, Ontario, he was ordained priest at Holy Redeemer College, Windsor, on 17 June 1962 by the late Cardinal Emmett Cardinal Carter, at that time the auxiliary bishop of the diocese of London.
He celebrated his first Mass on 24 June 1962 in his home parish of Saint Gregory the Great. During a life in ministry, he was a high school chaplain, worked in parishes, and preached on Redemptorist missions.
After a year at Second Novitiate in Montreal, he was appointed Assistant Pastor at Holy Redeemer Parish, Charlottetown (1964-1968).
He was a high school chaplain in Montreal for a couple of years before returning to parish appointments, serving parishes scattered across Canda: Saint Peter’s in Saint John (1972-1975), Saint Patrick’s, Quebec City (1975-1976), and Preaching Apostolate (1977-1993). He was a pastor of the inner-city parish of Holy Name in Toronto from 1993 to 2001.
In Toronto, he was appointed as liaison to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement by the Archdiocese of Toronto, holding that position until 2001. In that role, he ministered to more than 100 prayer groups, celebrating healing Masses and giving talks on the Life in the Spirit.
Father Bill was appointed Rector of the Redemptorist Provincial Residence in Toronto (2001- 2002) and provided pastoral assistance to the Redemptorist community at Saint Patrick’s (2005-2009) before moving to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Vancouver (2009-2019). He moved to the Redemptorist community at Saint Patrick’s, Toronto, in 2019.
For many years, Bill worked closely with Joan Green, a Redemptorist oblate, in individual healing ministry for many years. She is well known in Toronto for her counselling and healing ministry.
Although Joan Green has been severely disabled with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis since her childhood, she has led a productive life through her ministry of the pen and spiritual counselling by the phone and one-to-one, face-to-face ministry with people in need.
For 15 years, she worked for the Archbishop of Toronto, along with Father Bill Comerford, as Liaison to the Charismatic Renewal, a position they left in the summer of 2001. They teamed up on many occasions recently preached a retreat to the priests of the Diocese of Antigonish.
Despite his struggle with multiple health problems, he provided pastoral assistance to the Redemptorist ministry at our Shrine Church. He founded and helped to guide an online study and prayer group.
Father Bill Comerford died on 17 October 2024, and his funeral took place in Saint Patrick’s Church on 25 October 2024. He was predeceased by his parents, his brother Stanley, his sisters Maureen Cecchini and Joan Winsor. He was survived by his brother Donald and his nieces and nephews.
This Comerford profile is written for the Comerford Genealogy site and I plan to migrate it to that site in due time. It swas written on 11 February 2021, and updated on 9 November 2024.
1 comment:
Patrick as usual you are a veritable gold mine of information! You seem to be related to half the world. I did not know him but thanks for the informative sketch.
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