Father William Murphy, C.S.B.

Father William Maximus Murphy, C.S.B., a Basilian Missionary and former pastor of several parishes in Texas, died January 30, 2004, in the Basilian Infirmary in Toronto, Canada. He was 86 years of age.

Father Murphy, a native of Rosebud, MI, attended Assumption College and received a Master of Education degree from Wayne State University. He was professed in the Basilian Community in 1939 and was ordained in 1944.

After ordination Father Murphy spent a year studying Spanish in Monterrey, Mexico and the following year he was assigned to Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in Rosenberg. He worked closely with the Missionary Catechist Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in developing a catechism for Spanish speaking parishioners. He served as pastor of Our Lady of Carmel parish in Wharton serving the spiritual needs of the Hispanic community. While in Wharton he established a baseball league for young men which scheduled games after Sunday Mass. Teams representing the dioceses of Galveston-Houston, Austin and Victoria were members of the league. In appreciation of his priestly and civic endeavors, the city named a street, Murphy Street, in his honor. 

In 1970, at the request of the Archbishop of Mexico City, Father Murphy brought his evangelization skills to Mexico where he introduced Catechesis Familiar, a family catechical program which is used today throughout Mexico.

In his final years in Mexico, Father Murphy became a confessor at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City where he heard Confessions for eight hours a day. He said that those hours were the most spiritual rewarding days of his life.

At the age of eighty he was transferred to St. Joseph’s Center in Sugar Land and spent many weekends preaching for the Basilian Fathers Missions throughout the country. When he was no longer able to walk he took up residence at Anglin House, the Basilian Infirmary, where he spent the remainder of his life.

The Funeral Mass was offered by Very Rev. Ken Decker, C.S.B., superior general of the Basilian Fathers at he Cardinal Flahiff Center in Toronto. Father John R. Whitley, C.S.B., director of the Basilian Missions, preached the homily.

In addition to his Basilian brothers, he is survived by several nieces and nephews.

Burial was in Holy Cross Cemetery in Toronto.