NEW YORK — The Redemptorists offer prayers of thanks to God for their confreres who are celebrating jubilee anniversaries of ordination to the priesthood this year, including Redemptorist Father Michael Hopkins, who served as pastor of St. James the Greater Church in Concord from 1981 to 1987. Father Hopkins is marking his 50th anniversary as a priest.
He was born on April 6, 1937, in Brooklyn, N.Y., and first professed vows as a Redemptorist on Aug. 2, 1958. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 23, 1963. His first assignments after ordination were to Sacred Heart of Jesus in Baltimore from 1965 to 1968; St. Boniface in Philadelphia from 1968 to 1969; St. Gregory in North East, Pa., from 1969 to 1973; and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Bradford, Vt., from 1973 to 1976. In 1976 he was assigned as a mission preacher for two years, spending most of his time in the Redemptorists' Vice Province of Richmond, which covers the Southeast. In 1978 he was assigned to St. Joseph in Hampton, Va., and in 1979 he was appointed pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Salem, Va.
He also served as pastor of Holy Rosary in Jacksonville, Fla., from 1987 to 1993. He returned to the Baltimore Province in 1993 with an assignment to the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston. In 1996 he began a three-year assignment to St. Patrick in Frederiksted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. He returned to the U.S. in July 1999 and was assigned to St. Peter the Apostle in Philadelphia. In 2005, he relocated to Brooklyn, where he served as province secretary until 2008. He has been in residence at the Redemptorists' residence in New York City since 2008.
The Redemptorists were founded by St. Alphonsus Liguori in 1732 in Naples, Italy. The priests and brothers minister to the spiritual and material needs of the faithful, especially the poor and most spiritually abandoned. Their primary ministry is preaching. There are approximately 300 Redemptorists serving in the U.S., and approximately 5,300 worldwide.
The Baltimore Province of the Redemptorists maintains its headquarters in Brooklyn. The province was created in 1850 and took its name from its home city of Baltimore. The name was retained when the headquarters relocated to New York. For details about the Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province, visit redemptorists.net.
— Stephanie K. Tracy