Home Page Home Page Events Events Photos Photos Diocese of Ogdensburg Home Page  
Follow Us on Facebook


Archives Rites held Feb. 4 for Fr. Robert L. Cotter, 92

Feb. 11, 2015

Canton – A Mass of Christian Burial for Father Robert Leo Cotter, 92, was held Feb. 4 at St. Mary’s incotter Canton. Bishop Terry R. LaValley presided with the priests of the diocese concelebrating and Father James W. Seymour serving as homilist.

Father Cotter died Feb. 1 at the Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown. Burial will be in the spring at St. Mary’s Cemetery, Canton.

Father Cotter was born Nov. 10, 1922 in Canton, the twin son of the late Edward and Margaret Clark Cotter. He graduated from Canton High School and began seminary studies at Wadhams Hall in 1939.

He completed his advanced studies at St. Bernard’s Seminary in Rochester and was ordained on June 14, 1947 by Bishop Bryan McEntegart at St. Mary’s, Ogdensburg.

Following his ordination, Father Cotter was appointed assistant pastor at St. Peter’s, Lowville, chaplain at Mercy Hospital in 1951, and assistant pastor at St. Paul’s, Black River and St. Rita’s, Deferiet. In 1955, he was named pastor of St. Brendan’s in Keene, later as pastor in St. Francis Xavier, Redwood, then pastor in St. Mary’s, Constableville in 1968.

He was appointed Pro-Synodal Judge in 1974 for five years, then pastor of St. Mary’s, Copenhagen, and New Boston; in 1993 he was administrator of Star Lake. Father Cotter retired in 1997, and then, in 2000, was appointed administrator of St. Mary’s Nativity in West Leyden and Sts. Peter and Paul, Fish Creek. After that, he retired to Glenfield.

In May, 2009, in poor health, he moved to the Sisters of St. Joseph infirmary in Watertown.

Father Cotter is survived by his twin brother Father Lawrence Cotter, who resides in United Helpers, Ogdensburg, a brother, Maurice Cotter, who resides in St. Joseph’s Nursing Home and a cousin, Lauren Stiles.
He was predeceased by his brother Father Charles Cotter.

Rest in peace, Father ‘Bobby’ Cotter

This week we bid a sad farewell to one of the priests of our diocese, Father Robert Cotter, who along with his twin, Father Lawrence, and their younger brother Father Charles provided decades of priestly service to people in the North Country.

Bishop LaValley and priests from across the diocese gathered at the Cotter’s home parish of St. Mary’s in Canton Feb. 5 to commend their brother to the Lord.

In his homily, Father Jay Seymour remembered “Father Bobby” for his keen intellect, humility and love for his parishioners.

Excerpts from the homily follow:
We are here this afternoon to commend to the Lord one of our brother priests and the brother of one of our brother priests.

As we gather in faith to worship our God celebrating Christ’s victory over death we are acknowledging one of His favored ones; one of the “blessed” who Jesus refers to in the Beatitudes. It is not hard to place Father Bobby into Christ’s framework of discipleship which He outlines in the Beatitudes. A couple of the verses almost jump out at you:

• Blessed/ Happy/ are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
• Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
• Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.

When Jesus commends the “meek” he is not referring to weakness (Certainly Father Larry and the Sisters too were well aware that Father Bobby could be strong willed at times) but rather when Jesus refers to meek He is referring to a humble soul and there is no doubt that was Father Bobby. We should not confuse his meek and humble nature either, for being a mental lightweight. He had a keen intellect and memory that helped to make him not only a gentleman but a scholar.

Bobby was also “clean of heart”. He had integrity of heart with no duplicity about him. His motives were pure even if sometimes they seemed confused leading to humorous interpretations.

He had his idiosyncrasies but we all have our idiosyncrasies ... except you and me, of course.

Perhaps the Beatitude that most characterizes Bobby, though, is “poor in spirit”. His great faith manifested itself in a humble dependence upon God. He also depended a great deal on the Sisters of St. Joseph these past few years (and we can’t thank the Sisters enough for all that they do for our priests) but that is God working through them.

Bobby’s poverty of spirit manifested itself in the way he conducted his whole life with such humility. This was particularly evident in his ministry as a priest. The wisdom of Sirach instructs us: “Conduct your affairs with humility and you will be loved more that a giver of gifts.” That certainly seemed to be true of Bobby. Wherever he served as a priest, he was loved by his parishioners. I think that was true because they knew how much they were loved by him. He was there to serve them and be present to them and he did not want to let them down, whenever or wherever he was called upon.

One of the endearing stories about Bobby was when the phone rang and he went to answer. Nothing unusual about that except that the phone was in the sacristy and Bobby was in the middle of the Mass. (It’s a good thing he didn’t have a cell phone). We may find it a bit humorous but that was Bobby. It also may have been St. Vincent de Paul. What did he say: “It is our duty to prefer service to the poor to everything else and to offer such service as quickly as possible. If a needy person requires medicine or other help during prayer time, do whatever has to be done with peace of mind. Offer the deed to God as your prayer. Do not become upset or feel guilty because you interrupted your prayer to serve the poor.”

I’m not sure St. Vincent had the Mass in mind when he was speaking of interrupting your prayer but who knows. We do know that Bobby’s heart was in the right place. He was clean of heart and those like him are destined to see God.

For our part, for those of us who remain, it is our duty to follow the framework for living that Jesus set before us in the Beatitudes; to live as St. Paul urges us to live in his letter to the Ephesians ... “in a manner worthy of our calling ... with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.” In this way, we too might achieve that poverty of spirit; that meekness, that purity of heart so that we too may see God and belong to His kingdom.

North Country Catholic North Country Catholic is
honored by Catholic Press
Association of US & Canada

Copyright © Roman Catholic Diocese of Ogdensburg. All rights reserved.