Some of you know that Fr. Joe Gillespie celebrated 55years of priesthood this past spring. I am also told that his birthday is August 17. Please wish the good Fr. Joe a happy birthday. I wanted to take time to celebrate the amazing ministry of Fr. Joe – who Archbishop Hebda once referred to as “one of our finest priests.” Those who have benefited from Fr. Joe’s tireless ministry, including me, know this to indeed be true. Don’t worry, Fr. Joe isn’t going anywhere, I just wanted to take the opportunity to celebrate his ministry and to thank him.
Fr. Joe was raised in Minneapolis and has deep roots in the Twin Cities community. It appears that Fr. Joe knows everyone in town and everyone knows Fr. Joe. His spiritual influences include Lasallian, Benedictine, and Dominican from his education at DeLaSalle, St. John’s and his decades long ministry as a Dominican friar. So much comes to mind when reflecting on Fr. Joe and his amazing service as a priest – he has an extraordinary blend of head and heart and manifests a seamless combination of faith and reason, as well as a keen sense of culture. A few years ago, after a gathering with priests, I reflected on my top five favorite priests and realized they all shared four qualities: faith, talent, generosity of spirit, and rich humanity. Fr. Joe was at the top of my list! Fr. Joe’s humanity shows beautifully through his love for poetry, his love of people and gatherings (which must include Sheep Dip) and opportunities to gather for friendship and mirth at The Monte Carlo.
Fr. Joe has a great love for The Basilica community, and the community has a great love for Fr. Joe. Fr. Joe served for 15 years as senior associate of The Basilica before taking the helm as pastor of St. Albert the Great in south Minneapolis. Even as he was serving as pastor at St. Albert, Fr. Joe would generously assist at The Basilica, including being a fixture at the Sunday evening Mass. In spring of 2022, as I was preparing to come to The Basilica, I was with Fr. Joe and the baptism of the granddaughter of a mutual friend. Fr. Joe told me that he was soon ending his tenure as pastor of St. Albert. In response to that news in 2022, I asked Fr. Joe to lunch where I asked him if he would come back to The Basilica to serve as senior associate. Fr. Joe quickly said yes and has been serving with great generosity ever since – and is now back at the helm of St. Albert as his shoes were impossible to fill. I am most grateful for Fr. Joe’s amazing service to The Basilica and the countless lives he has touched through his compassionate ministry.
In addition to Fr. Joe’s service at The Basilica, our community is blessed by the service of Fr. Harry Tasto, Fr. Peter Brandenhoff, Fr. John Berger, and more recently Frs. Paul Feela and Phil Rask. I hear consistently from parishioners how much they appreciate the thoughtful homilies of our priest-presiders and their generous service in offering the sacramental life to those who come to The Basilica. Fr. Tasto goes above beyond offering Mass, as he often offers hospitality and service in other ways – whether it is opening his home to the 7:00am weekday Mass crew or joining the Habitat for Humanity team, swinging a hammer in his tank top – that’s right a tank top. Serving as pastor and rector of The Basilica is a big job and has become even more full as we prepare for the full restoration of the Basilica and attendant fundraising. I would not be able to do the work entrusted to me at this time without the generous service of all our priests – I remain deeply grateful for their service.