A funeral Mass for Vincentian Father Paul Michael Murphy was offered Nov. 16 at St. Joseph in Emmitsburg. Father Murphy, in residence at St. Joseph since 2007, suffered a fatal heart attack Nov. 12.
Father Murphy would have celebrated 50 years of priesthood next May.
Receiving his early education at Catholic schools in Brooklyn, N.Y., he was ordained in 1960 and earned his licentiate in philosophy at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland in 1963.
Father Murphy served as instructor and director of novices at St. Vincent de Paul Novitiate in Ridgefield, Ct., and Mary Immaculate Seminary in Northampton, Pa., from 1963 to 1967. He was a preacher of parish missions, novenas and retreats in Springfield, Mass., from 1967-68; Groveport, Ohio, from 1968-69; in Spring Lake, Mich., from 1969 to 1971; and in Philadelphia from 1972 to 1974.
Father Murphy taught part-time at Niagara University from 1975 to 1981 and at St. John’s University on Staten Island from 1981 to 88. He served as a parish priest at St. Mary in Greensboro, N.C., from 1988-89; at Immaculate Conception in Philadelphia from 1971-72 and again from 1989 to 1991. He served in pastoral ministry at St. Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, Pa., from 1991 to 2007.