Irish-born priest Monsignor Noel Fogarty, who died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after a short illness, devoted his working life to the Archdiocese of Miami from the day the diocese was founded in 1958 until his retirement five years ago at the age of 82.
During his long career Msgr Fogarty served Miami’s Catholics in many roles, including teacher, administrator, pastor (parish priest) of two parishes and chaplain to mentally ill patients. He oversaw school building projects, aided child migrants and persuaded fellow Irish priests to join him in Florida. At the same time he rose within the church, receiving the honorary title of monsignor in 1974 and attaining its highest rank, protonotary apostolic, in 1995.
Noel Fogarty grew up in Co Galway, the sixth of seven children, and played hurling for the county at minor level. His father, Patrick, wanted his son to become a teacher like himself, but instead he was ordained in 1957 after studying at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and St Peter’s College, Wexford.
When he began work in Florida the new diocese was growing rapidly and needed priests. Msgr Fogarty was put in charge of recruiting his fellow Irishmen, competing with between 20 and 30 other US dioceses and also head-hunting in Ireland. “It was almost like the NFL [National Football League] draft,” he said later.
While other dioceses offered perks such as a car, Msgr Fogarty appealed to idealism.
“He said it would be a lot of hard work in a growing diocese, and unless you were prepared to work, forget about Miami,” recalled one of the recruits.
To help the Irish priests settle Msgr Fogarty set up a course to explain the local vocabulary (“gas” not “petrol”), marriage laws, food and geography.
The Cuban revolution of 1959 brought an influx of Cuban children sent by their parents to be educated in Miami. Msgr Fogarty worked with the Catholic Welfare Bureau of Miami to care for the children, known as “Pedro Pans”,or “Peter Pans”. Between December 1960 and October 1962, 14,000 children travelled alone to Miami – the largest recorded exodus of unaccompanied minors in the Western Hemisphere. Most, but not all, were Catholic.
After leading St Rose of Lima parish as pastor for 20 years, in 1991 Msgr Fogarty became pastor of St Gregory parish, where he started raising funds to rebuild and enlarge the school. By 1995 the parish had a state-of-the-art school, including a gym and auditorium that could hold 800 students.
Msgr Fogarty took pride having steered the diocese’s pension plan to financial stability. He himself avoided retirement until 2011, when he was 82. After he finally stopped working, he played golf with fellow priests on Tuesdays.
His height and deep voice made Msgr Fogarty an imposing, even intimidating, figure. Yet underneath that façade was a very shy, reserved man who would help out anybody. He was extremely bright and was a good communicator.
A colleague at St Gregory described him as an excellent administrator who brought out the best in people.
“If he had been an attorney, you would hate to be in a courtroom with him,” said Vilma Angulo. “He was tough. He stood his ground. But he knew where he wanted to take the parish and he did it.”
Noel Fogarty is survived by his sister Anna, his brother Bill, his sister-in-law Eileen, nieces and nephews.