Dec. 24, 2014 By Shan Moore Msgr. Joseph Aubin uses the word often, describing the many gifts given to him in his long life. Among the first was St. Boniface Parish in Rochester, where he made his first sacraments, and where, he said, “it was almost expected you would become a priest.” The monsignor was among seven ordained priests in just two years from the German parish. “And we all grew up together,” he said, sitting in his comfortable apartment in St. Peter’s Church Rectory in Plattsburgh. “(But) a priest is never without a family,” he said. He chuckled over how, some 60 years later, that hasn’t changed. A recent fall in the church left Msgr. Aubin with a broken right hand, which, he noted, impeded both writing and holding a coffee cup. St. Peter’s pastor, Msgr. Dennis Duprey, he said, “makes sure I don’t do anything I’m not supposed to do.” That’s an accomplishment that also brings a twinkle to his eye, for, to one superior early on, he didn’t have an auspicious start. Msgr. Aubin had entered a religious order but stayed just eight weeks before asking the bishop of Rochester if he could go to seminary. “To go from one thing to another,” he remembers the bishop telling him, “is a sign of instability.” The young man was allowed to attend seminary there for two years, however, then completed his studies in the Diocese of Ogdensburg. “I think I’ve proved my stability,” Msgr. Aubin noted. That posting brought his greatest joy as pastor. “I’ve never seen a community with such faith,” he said. The first Mass he celebrated was a daily one, and he assumed the large crowd that showed up was just curious about the new pastor. “The next day, it was the same,” he said. “Every day, there was always a good group of people — 40, 50. “I was there long enough to really absorb the spirit of that town.” And he welcomed invitations to fill in on weekends after he retired. He voiced his concerns, he said, but was told: “When the bishop asks you to do something …” His work on the adoption side of the agency, which opened in 1958, became a source of tremendous joy. “I placed 170 children,” said Msgr. Aubin, who was Catholic Charities director for 11 years. “There was a great stigma of being an unwed mother. Our job was to care for them in dignity and safety and complete secrecy.” The young women were sent to centers where they delivered their babies, and the monsignor and Catholic Charities staff labored over placement of the infants. “It was always a shared decision,” he said. “We got together, and we prayed over it.” And when the time arrived to give a baby over to the new parents, he said, “it was a great day of festivity in the office.” The counseling side of the agency was expertly handled by Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, he said. For the first decade, he filled in for parish priests on 20 weekends or more a year — often at St. Patrick’s in Rouses Point, St. Joseph’s in Coopersville and St. Elizabeth’s in Elizabethtown; he even traveled as far as Old Forge from time to time. Now, with less mobility than in his younger years, he helps out at St. Peter’s, hearing confessions, celebrating Masses. Also living at the rectory in retirement is Father Patrick Mundy, who later directed Catholic Charities in Plattsburgh, Msgr. Aubin noted. “You keep yourself busy, active, but not have the responsibility of the parish,” he summed up his life these days. “That’s the joy of retirement. Christmas collection - for retired priests Photo by Shan Moore |
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