Thaddeus Rooney, Deer Park pastor, dies

When Thaddeus Rooney was growing up in Ireland, he had to pick turnips on the family farm before heading off to school, friends recalled.

The family was poor, so when the Salesian order of priests and brothers offered young Thaddeus the chance to study at one of their schools in England -- and pay whatever his family could afford -- he took them up on it at the age of 12.

It was the start of a religious journey that brought him to Burma and imprisonment during World War II, and eventually, to half a century serving the Roman Catholic community of Long Island. Msgr. Rooney, the longtime pastor at the Roman Catholic Church of Saints Cyril & Methodius in Deer Park, died Monday. He was 93.

"The whole parish environment was just beautiful," recalled Sister Kathleen Schaetzle, who taught and served as principal of the parish's school in the 1980s when Rooney was pastor. "I don't know anyone who could say an unkind word about him."

Around the time Rooney retired from the parish, a street in front of it was named for him.

His decision to study in England was not difficult, since he had few such opportunities in Ireland, given his family's financial situation, said Msgr. Peter A. Libasci, an auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Rockville Centre who worked with Rooney.

"He lived a very tough life," Libasci said.

It only got tougher after the Salesians sent him to what was then known as Burma before he was ordained and World War II broke out. He and other Salesians were taken prisoner, and held in solitary confinement for months, Libasci said.

Eventually they were freed, and Rooney later made his way to the United States, spending time on the West Coast before coming to New York and joining the Diocese of Brooklyn, which at the time covered all of Long Island before the Diocese of Rockville Centre was created.

Rooney served at several parishes including Our Lady of the Snow in Blue Point, Our Lady of Lourdes in Malverne and St. John the Evangelist in Center Moriches.

He seemed to be perpetually in motion, Libasci recalled. Typically he would be up and working by 5 a.m., preparing the parish bulletin, tending to the flowers he planted to beautify Saints Cyril & Methodius, or doing other chores.

"He believed in working hard, and he sure did," Libasci said, adding, "He was top notch. He touched so many lives."

His wake is scheduled to continue Friday from 1:30 to 5 p.m. at Saints Cyril & Methodius, followed by a Mass of Transferal at 7:30 p.m. The funeral Mass is scheduled for Saturday at 10:15 a.m., followed by burial at Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Westbury.