SAN ANTONIO • Though eligible to retire, Msgr. Lawrence Walsh has chosen over the past seven years to serve as pastor of Our Lady of Grace Church. Over the past 50 years Msgr. Walsh has served and expanded four south Texas parishes.
    To honor the priest, there were two jubilee Masses on June 6 at Our Lady of Grace Church. There was also a reception that night at the Doubletree Hotel — San Antonio North, with pictures and memorabilia celebrating Msgr. Walsh’s 50 years of priestly vocation.
    A native of Tipperary, Ireland, Msgr. Walsh is the eldest of seven children born to the late Daniel and Helen Walsh.
    While still at St. John’s Seminary in Waterford City, he was recruited in 1950 by the late Archbishop Robert E. Lucey to serve in the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
He was ordained at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Waterford, Ireland, on June 17, 1954, by Bishop Daniel Cocklan.

    Father Walsh began his ministry in the United States in August 1954 at St. Cecilia Parish in San Antonio, where he earned special recognition for winning converts and his work with single young adults, CCD and the Legion of Mary. Father Walsh recalls performing 13 baptisms in one day at St. Cecilia. For 11 years, Father Walsh developed programs designed to foster and strengthen Catholic marriages and served as a notary on the archdiocesan Tribunal until 1967. Father Walsh served as assistant pastor at St. Cecilia until June 13, 1967.
    As pastor of Notre Dame Church in Kerrville from 1967 to 1980, Father Walsh is credited with restoring the parish to financial stability, developing good stewardship and building a parish social center.
    At Notre Dame, Father Walsh later recalled, he found “a new convent, three new classrooms, a new rectory, the church’s checking account was $14 overdrawn and a parish in debt of more than $300,000.”
    Today, Notre Dame Parish serves a larger community in a new church building, spacious school grounds — including a football field — and is financially secure due in part to 11 parcels of land Father Walsh acquired for the church. As for the land purchases, the late Col. Russell Smyle, then business manager in the chancery, referred to Father Walsh as the “Land Baron of Kerrville.”
    
    At Notre Dame, in recognition of the impending shortage of priests, Father Walsh is credited with promoting the apostolate of the laity, as well as attending to parishioners’ spiritual needs. Under Father Walsh’s guidance in the late 1960s and early 1970s, lay men and women began participating in a greater variety of activities, including the distribution of holy Communion at church, to the homebound and nursing homes, reading Scripture at Masses and gathering for small Bible studies and in prayer groups.
    During his tenure, Father Walsh is credited with helping to establish and promote many opportunities for spiritual growth and service, including the Knights of Columbus Kemper Council 6409, Marriage Encounter weekends, the RENEW program, the Cursillo movement, a strong parish council, Legion of Mary, St. Vincent de Paul Society, Altar Society, Guadalupanas, school board and other groups operating in the parish.
    In addition to his duties at the parish, Father Walsh served as spiritual director and confessor to nuns in both Fredericksburg and Boerne. While pastor of Notre Dame, he also served as administrator of Sacred Heart Church in Comfort for one year.
    He was elected dean of the Fredericksburg Deanery, serving from September 1971 to September 1979. In January 1980, Father Walsh returned to San Antonio to begin a period of service at the Church of the Holy Spirit. Between 1980, when Father Walsh assumed his pastorate, and 1994, the number of parish families increased from 850 to 3,000.
    Under his wise leadership, the parish constructed and paid for a 60,000 square-foot Family Center. This facility includes a foyer, banquet room, cafeteria, gymnasium, library, meeting rooms, classrooms and administrative offices.

    Holy Spirit Church was renovated to implement current liturgical directives and was enlarged to increase the seating capacity from 750 to 1,125.
    Among a host of other amenities, parishioners at Holy Spirit have access to two large nurseries and an adoration chapel that accommodates 50 people.
Ministries and programs in family life, religious education, athletics, scouting, youth ministry and ministry to the sick were expanded.
    The mother council of the Knights of Columbus, Council 786, was revitalized. The Altar Society grew from three dozen active members to a membership of more than 300, who serve the faith community through participation in a variety of activities.
    During his tenure as pastor, Father Walsh served on the archdiocesan Personnel Board for four years, from 1980 to 1984, and on the board of Antonian College Preparatory High School from 1981 to 1984.
    On Nov. 29, 1989, Pope John Paul II conferred upon Father Walsh the title of reverend monsignor. Formal investiture, by which he became a member of the papal household, took place on Jan. 7, 1990, at St. Gregory the Great Church.
    Msgr. Walsh currently serves as pastor of Our Lady of Grace Church in San Antonio.
He assumed leadership of the parish in 1997, at a time when much of the physical plant was in need of upgrade and renovation.
    Arguably, inadequate parking (which limited the number of activities the church could host simultaneously), poor access to the church and decaying buildings were pressing needs.
    Under his direction, a parish-wide survey was conducted with the help of St. Mary’s University to gauge the needs of the parish, open ad hoc meetings were convened, and the Parish Council and Finance Council were revived.
    A parish stewardship program was also launched which successfully raised the parish’s operating budget and also updated the parish census.
    Under Father Walsh’s leadership and vision, Our Lady of Grace now enjoys updated parking, improved handicap access to the church and more parking.
    All of the above mentioned parishes have been enriched by this Irish cleric known for his dedication and continued efforts to build up the Lord’s houses and his people.