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Biography
The Most Reverend John
R. McGann, D.D.
Second Bishop of Rockville Centre
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Bishop John Raymond McGann was born on
December 2, 1924 in Brooklyn, NY, the son of the late
Thomas and Mary Ryan McGann.
He graduated
from Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish Elementary School
in June, 1938.
He pursued
studies for
the priesthood
at Cathedral College Preparatory
Seminary, |
Brooklyn (1938-44)
and Immaculate Conception Seminary, Huntington, NY (1944-50).
Ordained to the priesthood on June
3, 1950, by the Most Reverend Thomas E. Molloy, third
Bishop of Brooklyn, Father McGann was assigned to St.
Anne's Parish, Brentwood, New York, where he served as
assistant pastor from 1950 to 1957. During that period,
Father McGann also served as assistant chaplain at Pilgrim
State Hospital, Brentwood, and from 1950 to 1954 as a
faculty member of St. Joseph's Academy, Brentwood.
Shortly after the Diocese of Rockville
Centre was established in 1957, Bishop Walter P. Kellenberg
appointed Father McGann an assistant chancellor and, in
1959, as his assistant personal secretary. Father McGann
was named Secretary to Bishop Kellenberg in 1959. That
same year, Pope John XXIII appointed him a papal chamberlain
with the title Very Reverend Monsignor. From 1957 to 1971
Monsignor McGann resided in the rectory of St. Agnes Cathedral
Parish, Rockville Centre, where he also assisted with
the parish work.
Monsignor McGann assumed additional
duties in October of 1967 as a vice-chancellor and secretary
to the Board of Consultors -- a group of priest/advisors
to the diocesan bishop -- and retained those positions
until his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop in November,
1970. From that time until his appointment as Ordinary
in 1976, Bishop McGann remained a member of the Board
of Consultors. During this period he also served on several
other diocesan boards.
In 1969, the then Monsignor McGann
became one of 10 diocesan priests chosen from around the
country to be named to the then newly formed National
Advisory Council to the U.S. Bishops, a fifty-member body
made up of clergy, religious and laity. He was nominated
for this post by the Priests' Advisory Council of the
Diocese and he served from 1969 to 1970.
On November 12, 1970, Pope Paul VI
appointed Monsignor McGann Titular Bishop of Morosbisdus
and Auxiliary to Bishop Walter B. Kellenberg. He was ordained
bishop on January 7, 1971 and in November of that year
was appointed vicar general of the diocese and episcopal
vicar of Suffolk County. Subsequently, in 1976, he was
named Ordinary of the Rockville Centre Diocese in succession
to Bishop Walter P. Kellenberg, the founding bishop, who
had retired on May 3, 1976. Bishop McGann was installed
on June 24, 1976.
Bishop McGann has served on various
committees of the New York State Conference of Catholic
Bishops. In November, 1984, he was elected to the office
of treasurer of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops
(NCCB) for a three-year term. He assumed the chairmanship
of the board of directors of the Catholic Telecommunications
Network of America for the period from May 1, 1990 to
December 31, 1992. In November, 1993, Bishop McGann was
elected chairman for the NCCB's Region II, which is made
up of the eight dioceses of New York State.
Over the years, Bishop McGann has been
awarded numerous honorary degrees, including a Doctor
of Laws degree from St. John's University, Jamaica (1971);
a Doctor of Humanities degree from Molloy College, Rockville
Centre (1977); a Doctor of Ministry degree from Immaculate
Conception Seminary, Huntington (1990); and a Doctor of
Humane Letters from Long Island University, C. W. Post
College, Brookville (1997).
Bishop McGann was invested as Knight
of the Equestrian Order of the Sepulchre of Jerusalem
in 1970 and as a member of the American Association of
the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in 1985.
On December 4, 1993, Bishop McGann
received the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council's Theodore
Roosevelt Award for Outstanding Service in recognition
of his efforts to serve the health care needs of Long
Islanders. St. Mary's Children and Family Services in
Syosset awarded him its 1997 Humanitarian Award. In anticipation
of his retirement in 1999 at the age of 75, numerous institutions
honored Bishop McGann. He was awarded Molloy College's
Lifetime Achievement Award, the Long Island Association's
Lifetime Achievement Award and St. Charles Hospital's
Lifetime Achievement Award.
Upon receipt of the Holy See's acceptance
of his resignation on January 4, 2000, Bishop McGann retired.
Survivors include a brother, James
and a sister -- his twin -- Sister John Raymond, CSJ,
former General Superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph,
Brentwood. Two other brothers, Thomas and Joseph, and
two sisters, Sister Thomas Joseph, CSJ and Madeline McGann,
are deceased.
3/2000 |
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