Fishing for Souls
Born in 1911 in St. Paul, Minn., Fr. Adrian said he did not plan on being a priest. “I was going to be a cop, but it never worked out,” he said.
Two of his sisters became nuns. Adrian graduated from St. Paul Seminary in Philosophy and Theology and was ordained at age 28 in 1939. Except for a stint as a Navy chaplain during World War II, he was a priest for more than 40 years in parishes across Minnesota and Wisconsin.
“I am a great fisherman, and I fished Minnesota,” he said.
“Whenever I had time off, I’d go fishing, and when I didn’t have time off, I would be fishing for souls.”
“Late in the year of 1984, with the icy winds of Northern Minnesota at my back, I set out for the Diocese of Phoenix in the great Southwest,” he would later write.
In 1985, while assisting at St. Mary’s Catholic parish in Chandler, AZ, he learned of the need for help in pastoral work at the then-small St. Anne’s and at a mission in Queen Creek.
“He loves the children,” said Mary Mirrione, director of Cathechesis of the Good Shepherd, a Catholic grade school affiliated with the church. “He tells them stories. He teaches them parables, and everyone loves him.”
“He’s a great priest,” said one student, Lorin McIntosh. “He deserves to be priest of the world,” said Ryan Casey, another student.
He Loves Everybody!
“I say when I go to bed at night, ‘Lord, if I can put my feet on the floor in the morning, I’ll work for you,’” said Adrian, one of three associate pastors at St. Anne’s Catholic Community in Gilbert, Arizona.
“Some priests are after me and say, ‘You should retire,’ and I say, ‘You do it your way, and I will do it my way.’”
He makes several trips each week from his home in Sun Lakes and celebrates three Masses each weekend. Adrian hears confessions after his Friday morning Mass. He also handles a big share of parish funerals.
With a stentorian voice, Adrian exudes experience, playfulness and charm.
“He has never lost his zeal for the priesthood, nor his vocation,” said Jerry O’Toole, a deacon at the 7,000-family parish. “He continues to work because he believes he was ordained to be a priest forever. His function is to continue to serve people, and those are kind of his words.”
O’Toole called the priest “an amazing man — absolutely awesome. He loves everybody. I don’t think he ever met a stranger in his life.”
“He has total faith and trust in God, and it shows in everything he does, in the caring and love that he projects,” said St. Anne’s music director, Jeff Mitchell.
The Epitome Of Holiness
Several years ago, a campus building that houses the Little Flower Montessori School was named the Adrian Center for Education. Adrian is the oldest priest in the diocese currently holding any staff position, according to the diocesan office. That includes 230 priests affiliated with the diocese and 67 priests registered elsewhere but working in the diocese.
“I have never heard of anybody more Christlike,” said Glenn Cuzzort, a lector and Eucharistic minister. “He speaks in parables like Jesus did, and his homilies are about his Navy experiences or somebody he met in Minnesota. He is really a priest of the people.”
Asked about the scandals rocking the Catholic Church with priests implicated in child molestation, Adrian said the issue is overblown.
“The Lord had 12 (disciples), and one of them wasn’t any good. You take the numbers. We have more good priests by far. The others are giving us a bad name, but I feel sorry for them. You have that problem in all walks of life,” he said.
Several years ago, Adrian established the Adrian Vocations Fund to raise money to support priests going to seminary. Six seminarians from St. Anne’s have benefited.
“He is the epitome of what we are looking for in priests as far as holiness goes, and his caring for all types of people, including children,” said pastoral associate Darin Tewes.
“He is one of the best priests I have ever seen working with little kids. He is just willing to serve all the time, and he is just a cute man.”
The Gilbert priest said love underlies all he does.
“Unless we love one another, we can’t love God, either.”
“I ask God to increase my zeal day by day in order that I don’t fall short and can keep on working,” he said.
(This article originally appeared in the Tuesday, April 16, 2002 edition of the East Valley Tribune of Mesa, AZ and is reprinted with permission.)
