Chaplain

Msgr. Thomas J. Hilferty, 80, pastor emeritus of Queen of Peace Church in Ardsley and a Vietnam War veteran, died of a heart attack Wednesday at St. Madeleine Sophie rectory in Mount Airy. For the last five years, he had assisted with liturgies at St. Madeleine Sophie Church and had just said Mass when he became ill. Msgr. Hilferty served as pastor of Queen of Peace Church from 1992 until becoming pastor emeritus in 1998. He then assisted the pastor at St. Agnes Church in West Chester.

For 10 anxious days the crewmen on the American transport ship Dorchester watched the frigid North Atlantic for enemy periscopes, imagining how their lives might end. Then, 65 years ago this morning, came the explosion, the shudder, the smoke and screams, and the scramble for life jackets that would make heroes of the Dorchester's four chaplains. Distinguished Service Crosses, a special Congressional Medal of Valor, presidential speeches, a postage stamp, a memorial chapel in Philadelphia, and a national day of recognition followed.

The war continues inside, even after you come home. That was made even clearer in a report by Portland State University researchers that tracked more than 320,000 men, a third of whom had served in the U.S. military between 1917 and 1994. The report released in June found that male vets were twice as likely to kill themselves as other men, and were 58 percent more likely to use a gun to commit suicide. These men did not have higher rates of death from disease, but they did suffer much higher rates of various psychological disorders.

A former Camden police officer and department chaplain pleaded guilty yesterday to official misconduct for lending a friend a gun in a plot to rob drug dealers. Michael Hearne, 43, faces a seven-year sentence. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped conspiracy, weapons, money-laundering and attempted-robbery charges. The sentence will be "flat," meaning there will be no parole ineligibility. Hearne also may apply for a supervised release program after serving 60 days.

The Rev. Kevin C. Trautner, 59, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church in Norristown and an enthusiastic Irishman, died of a heart attack Tuesday at Phoenixville Hospital. For 13 years, Father Trautner ministered at St. Francis as an assistant to the pastor, parish administrator and, since 2002, pastor. He was loyal to the elderly and visited every homebound member of the parish at least monthly, said the Rev. Joseph Arnholt, a friend for 40 years. Father Trauner, the son of a funeral director, considered funerals an important part of his work, Arnholt said, and he spent a great deal of time preparing homilies for the deceased.

Retirement for the Rev. Nicholas Salios meant being available for his new duties 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Salios, known as "Chaplain Nick," is chaplain of the Plymouth Township Police Department. It's a position he has held since Jan. 23, 2002, and there wasn't a moment during the last five years when he wasn't ready to serve. "I felt, the reason I serve 24/7, if I'm not available when they need me, what good am I?" Salios said. "In 24 hours, anything can happen.

Willye Essie Watson Parkinson, 77, of Germantown, a Philadelphia teacher and wife of a Lutheran chaplain, died of heart disease Monday at Moss Rehabilitation Center, where she had been for three weeks. She died 25 days after her husband, the Rev. John Parkinson. Mrs. Parkinson's cardiologist, Frank James, who was her student in second grade, said it would be too much of a strain on her heart to attend her husband's funeral. "She then died of a broken heart," said daughter Carol Parkinson-Hall.

John Archibald Parkinson, 88, of Germantown, a Lutheran chaplain for prisons, mental hospitals and churches, died of a stroke Thursday at Pennsylvania Hospital. Rev. Parkinson was born in New Amsterdam, Guyana. After graduating from high school, he learned accounting through correspondence courses from England and worked as an accountant in Georgetown, Guyana. He joined a Lutheran church, where he became a lay pastor. With dreams of becoming a minister, the young man traveled from South America to Oxford, Chester County, where he earned a bachelor's degree in classical languages at Lincoln University.

The Rev. Frederick Manning Brooks Jr., 94, Episcopal minister at the Church of the Saviour for 26 years, died of congestive heart failure Oct. 4 at Cathedral Village, where he had lived for six years. He was a longtime resident of University City and Merion Station. He was born into a family of several Episcopal ministers in Massachusetts, one of whom was the Rev. Phillips Brooks, author of the 1868 poem "O Little Town of Bethlehem. " Father Brooks was ordained at Boston's Episcopal Theological Seminary in 1941.

In a dozen cities across the country today, as communities commemorate the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks, one Philadelphian's contribution will play a key role. Filmmaker Glenn Holsten's Saint of 9/11, a documentary about the life of the Rev. Mychal Judge, the chaplain of the New York Fire Department who died on the scene in Lower Manhattan that day, will be featured in special screenings today and tomorrow in 13 U.S. cities. Holsten said he believed audiences had responded to his film because it shows that humanity emerges from "huge, horrible events" like 9/11 in individual actions.