8-Ordained to the priesthood
Samuel Cardinal Stritch, Archbishop of Chicago, ordained Thomas J. Murphy in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception on the grounds of St. Mary of the Lake Seminary on April 12, 1958. Father Murphy was one of 43 priests ordained that day.
21 years later, Bishop Murphy shared the following reflection on his ordination in a column in an April 1979 edition of the Montana Catholic Register, “April 12th will mark the 21st anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood. It seems like only yesterday when my mother, brother, sister, family, relatives and friends joined with me in that unique happening that occurs in the life of a priest when God will take an ordinary human being and give that person a unique privilege and vocation. So many memories flood my mind even as I type this column. My father had died only a few years before, and an Irish mother could only do one thing as she tried to hold back the tears of joy that were mixed with a tremendous sense of pride – and so she cried even more.”