Like married couples, it is customary for Priests to celebrate their 25th and 50th Anniversaries of Ordination, or in the case of Religious Sisters, Brothers and Priests, those Jubilee Anniversaries of their Solemn Profession. This weekend Fr. William Metzler celebrates his Golden Jubilee of Priesthood. His preparation for ministry included studies at public grammar and high schools, undergraduate studies at Boston College and two masters’ degrees from Niagara University. On May 27, 1922, Fr. Metzler was ordained to the priesthood in the Cathedral of St. Joseph by then Archbishop John Francis Whalen.
After serving in several parishes, Fr. Metzler was invited by the Archbishop to begin a Campus Ministry at Quinnipiac University, serving all students regardless of their faith background. After 13 years of campus ministry, Father accepted a brief assignment as a parochial vicar to get reacquainted with parish ministry before being appointed pastor at Sacred Heart Church in Kent, where took on the task of building a new church. Fr. Metzler came to St. Mary’s Parish in November of 1997 and guided the parish as its pastor for the next 15 years. In 2012 he was appointed pastor at St. Mark Parish in West Hartford. Upon his retirement from active ministry in December 2018, Father returned to Simsbury for his residence and to St. Mary’s as his parish.
We are deeply grateful for Fr. Metzler’s faithful service as a priest for the Archdiocese of Hartford over these past 50 years. We congratulate him on this major milestone in his life, and offer him our support and prayers. We ask God’s continued blessings for him in his life and priesthood, God-willing for many years to come.
Prayers for the People of Buffalo, NY and Uvalde, TX
This past week, not one, but two tragic mass shootings have taken place again in our nation, not to mention scores of other acts of violence in our schools and communities. It is deeply saddening – and maddening – that such violence continues and even grows in scope and frequency. My heart is heavy, as I’m sure yours are, with this tragic, unnecessary loss of innocent life both at the Tops Supermarket in Buffalo and particularly the little ones at the Uvalde Elementary School. Seeing the images of grief-stricken parents, family members and friends, brings feelings of anguish, sadness, and disgust that as a society we fail to address the root causes of such violence to prevent these incidents from occurring again and again. We are people who support life from conception to death. This concern most certainly falls under our responsibility to protect life. We keep the families of those who have lost loved ones in these tragic shootings in our hearts and prayers, and ask our Good Lord to embrace the souls of those children and adults who have succumbed to such senseless violence.