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dent on a choir would reluctantly and timidly join in congregational singing and the laity would assume a greater role in traditional worship, including the distribution of the Holy Eucharist at Mass.
Father McCarthy anticipated some of the directives of Vatican II when he met with Bishop Van Bekkom of Indonesia at St. Augustine Seminary on January 4, 1957. Bishop Van Bekkom saw in Indonesia, the fourth most populated country in the world with the largest Muslim concentration on the globe, a shortage of priests and the urgent need for greater participation of the laity in the life of the Church. A front page article and picture in the local Sea Coast Echo depicts the two prelates in earnest dialogue discussing this very issue: the need for help from the laity if priests were to give the spiritual guidance and leadership expected of them.
In his three years at Our Lady of the Gulf, Father McCarthy renewed and enlarged three mission churches in his jurisdiction, encouraging participation of the laity. Father McCarthy, later Monsi-gnor McCarthy, left Our Lady of the Gulf September 5, 1958.
Although Monsignor Martin Maloney was appointed eighth pastor of Our Lady of the Gulf on June 19, 1958, he did not officially begin his duties until September 5, 1958, serving until June 8, 1962. Monsignor Maloney was born in County Galway, Ireland and attended St. Patrick’s College, Carlow, where he was ordained June 15, 1930 for service in Mississippi. Before coming to Bay St. Louis, Monsignor Maloney had served churches in Biloxi, Vicksburg and Greenville.
At St. Joseph’s in Greenville, Monsignor Maloney built up his parish as he established the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, instituted monthly, night adoration, and brought thirty-three converts into his congregation. He also administered the Mission House for the Colored. It was at St. Joseph’s that Bishop Gerow invested Father Maloney as Monsignor.
On arriving at Our Lady of the Gulf, Monsignor Maloney placed construction of a new elementary school as a top priority. Fund-
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raising efforts began in 1959 under the chairmanship of E. M. Brignac, Jr. The drive stressed the pressing need for more classrooms and a cafeteria. Success crowned the efforts of the campaign for funds, and in the fall of 1960 Our Lady of the Gull'school opened for students in grades one through six. Eventually, a kindergarten was added. The school, built for $250,(XX), included thirteen classrooms and the much needed cafeteria. It was staffed by lay teachers and by the Sisters of St. Joseph who left in 1976.
Seriously ill, Monsignor Maloney returned to Ireland where he died in 1962.
Following Monsignor Maloney’s death, Monsignor James Hannon was assigned as pastor of Our Lady of the Gulf on June 8, 1962 serving until July 1, 1969. Monsignor Hannon was also born in County Galway, Ireland, and attended St. Patrick’s College, Carlow, where he was ordained for the Diocese of Natchez. By 1977, the diocese had grown so large that it was separated into the Jackson and Biloxi dioceses; thus it was that Monsignor Hannon served under three bishops — Bishops Gerow, Brunini and Howze — and at the same time under six popes, as did Father John O’Brien and Monsignor Gregory Johnson.
Before coming to Bay St. Louis, Monsignor Hannon had been assistant pastor at Nativity Parish in Biloxi in March 1946, and later that year had been assigned as assistant at Our Lady of Victories in Pascagoula. The following year he studied Canon law at Catholic University of America. Among offices Monsignor Hannon has held are those of Diocesan Director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and Diocesan Director of the Legion of Decency. He was named a papal chamberlain by the Holy See in 1954 and was appointed Vicar General during the absence of bishops in 1962 and 1964.
In 1967 Monsignor Hannon sadly witnessed the closing of St. Joseph’s Academy after its one hundred and twelve years of Catholic education in the community. The seniors who graduated in 1967 were torn between sadness and the usual elation of a high school graduating class. The juniors were completely devastated as they
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