Florida Catholic | Father Griffin

Priest to the sick

For 37 years before his retirement, Jesuit Father Thomas C. Griffin ministered from morning until night at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

ANNE DIBERNARDO | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 12.21.07

Jesuit Father Thomas Griffin poses with members of the Missionaries of Charity who attend Mass at Gesu Church. From left: Sister Loretta, Sister Mallika, Sister Ancella, Sister Severina and, in the foreground, Maryrose Alice George.
ANNE DIBERNARDO | FC

MIAMI | It is a quiet Sunday morning at the Gesu Church rectory and the sun is hiding. As promised, with less than one-day’s notice, the 89-year-old Jesuit priest has agreed to meet.

“I can see you anytime, just give me a call the day before,” he had said.

Promptly, the tall, white-haired, blue-eyed priest appears. Slightly limping, he leads the way down the corridor into an unoccupied office.

“We can talk for about 30 minutes, and then I have to go and listen to confessions,” he explains in a cheerful voice.

Among his friends, colleagues and spiritual offspring, the verdict is unanimous — Father Thomas C. Griffin is “the real McCoy,” a living testament to the teachings of Jesus Christ. He’s a man who practices what he preaches, treating everyone with a warm and gentle compassion not easy to feign.

Salvatore Mangiaracina calls Father Griffin a “living saint,” a term he does not use loosely.

“He disarms you with kindness and love without any air of pretension. This is a soul that is here to strictly serve and live as close as possible to the sacred heart of Jesus,” Mangiaracina said.

“He is a man who treats everyone alike; it doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor. He was born to bring Christ to others, especially the sick,” said Jesuit Father Eduardo Alvarez, Gesu’s pastor.

“From the womb of my mother, I was chosen to be a prophet of the word of God and a priest to serve on the altar of the Lord,” Father Griffin said during a recent celebration marking his 60th anniversary as a Jesuit and his 89th birthday.

27 FLOORS

A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Father Griffin entered the Jesuit order in Mobile, Ala., in 1947, just a few years after serving as a master sergeant with the Army Engineer Corps during World War II.

For 37 years, Father Griffin scurried through the maze of corridors at one of the nation’s busiest hospitals, ministering to patients, their families and friends, delivering the sacraments to as many people as possible each day. Considering the sizable territory of the city-like complex at Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital as well as Cedars Hospital — 27 floors and six buildings — he usually did not have a moment to waste.

Jesuit Father Thomas Griffin blesses Sal Mangiaracina, a golf pro who is the priest's golf coach. Father Griffin does not get to play too much anymore because of a bad knee.

ANNE DIBERNARDO | FC
Jesuit Father Thomas Griffin blesses Sal Mangiaracina, a golf pro who is the priest's golf coach. Father Griffin does not get to play too much anymore because of a bad knee.

Eventually, the mileage took its toll. Arthritic knees forced Father Griffin to retire from hospital ministry a few years ago, although he continues to celebrate Mass each morning for the Missionaries of Charity, hear confessions each day and bring the sacraments to parishioners of Gesu.

Father Griffin referred to his hospital ministry as a “vocation within a vocation.” You name it, he has seen it. Jackson houses a burn unit, a trauma center, a heart- and liver-transplant unit and a pediatric unit that also performs heart transplants and treats patients with leukemia.

When he was not at the hospital ministering to patients, he was on call. Because of the constant commute, he moved to an apartment across the street from the hospital, rooms which he kept for nearly 20 years. He worked six days a week beginning at 6:30 a.m., and during the evening he visited the emergency room.

LIFE, DEATH

For Father Griffin, every day was a matter of life or death. His primary duties were anointing the sick, hearing confession and giving Communion to as many people as possible.

“You just don’t know how long people are going to be around,” he said, listing the questions he would ask each patient in either English or Spanish before administering the sacraments.

“Though, in emergency situations, it is permissible to skip them and just ask if they are sorry for all their sins,” Father Griffin explained.

Any acknowledgment would suffice. “Some patients couldn’t do anything but blink their eyes or squeeze a hand,” he said. On one occasion, he recalled, a woman simply nodded, took one breath and was gone.

“This was a big consolation for families, to know whether or not their loved ones were conscious when they received their sacrament,” said Father Griffin, noting that he always kept a record of who received sacraments.

For Father Griffin, “it was more important to deliver the sacraments than to counsel,” he added.

TEARS, MAGIC

Father Griffin shared a few heart-wrenching stories from his tenure at the hospital, remembering one little girl ill with leukemia who had asked her mother to leave the room for a while.

“She had been hurting,” Father Griffin said. Her mother left the room, but peeked in through the crack and saw her little girl cry. The girl did not want her mother to see her crying, he explained, tears rolling down his face.

He tells another story of watching a mother rock her 6-month-old baby, Michael, moments after he died, and whisper to her lifeless son how he had been such a blessing. Again, his eyes welled up with tears.

One talent that became Father Griffin’s signature as chaplain was his penchant for making sick children laugh so they would forget about their pain. Along with oils and the Eucharist, he carried a pocketful of magic tricks.

It was a talent he did not acquire at the seminary. One day, a magician who entertained the children in the hospital showed Father Griffin how to perform one of the tricks with a tongue depressor. He discovered that he, too, could help children forget about their pain and make them laugh.

Golf is Father Griffin’s other passion. He jokes that his goal is to shoot his age on the golf course before he dies. Salvatore Mangiaracina is a retired golf pro who served as Father Griffin’s golf coach and was a cancer patient at Jackson 10 years ago.

“I looked forward to Father Griffin’s visit each day,” Mangiaracina said. “He brought me the Eucharist, anointed my forehead with oil and entertained my grandchildren during their visits with his jokes and his magic tricks. They still remember this.”

Edith Torres is a daily communicant who frequents the sacrament of reconciliation at Gesu. Torres said Father Griffin has been a blessing to her. “He has a Padre Pio type of gift. He listens and is concerned. I always feel like I am speaking to Jesus. Every day when I see Father Griffin leave the confessional, I pray that the Lord will give him the health and grace to stay with us,” she said.

Theresa B. Davis, former secretary at Gesu, has known Father Griffin since 1955.

“He is a wonderful person. You can call him at 3 a.m. and he will be there within minutes, regardless of who you are. He makes time for everyone, he loves to answer the phone and he still drives. Like Jesus, he always avails himself and loves unconditionally. You really feel like you can tell him anything without being judged,” said Davis, who now teaches religious education at Gesu.

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Priest to the sick

For 37 years before his retirement, Jesuit Father Thomas C. Griffin ministered from morning until night at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

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