It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of Father John Cusack early this morning.
As you probably know he had celebrated his 100th birthday in August.
He had just returned from the hospital after a brief visit occasioned by a fall in his room.
Details to follow.
So very, very sorry. Love Father Cusack. Very supportive of me when I made transition from Catholic schools to Philadelphia Public Schools. May the angels welcome him to paradise. I’m sure Father Allie Grass is welcoming you!!!
A photo of Father Cusack at the time of his ordination hung on the living room wall at the home of my grandmother, his Aunt Lizzie. She was so very proud to have a nephew who had been a missionary in Panama. Just a few months ago, Father Cusack wrote me a kind note on my mother’s death. It was very special because he was able to tell me what my mother was like as a child. My prayers are with him.
We are so happy that we were able to visit Uncle Jack three times this past year. He was always so willing to pray for us and so many others. He would show us where he sat in the Vincentian priest’s chapel & his very thick stack of friends and family who passed into heaven before him & who he remembered in his prayers.
We can only imagine the HUGE welcome Uncle Jack received in Heaven. Yes, lead by his dear friend Father Allie Grass! A Huge Homecoming, indeed. He is now even better equipped to intercede for each one of us. Please keep praying to Father John Cusack……
Love, Ken Sr, Martha, Beth, Ken Jr, Erin, & our grand children Caelin & James.
He was the brother of my Godfather, Dennis Cusack. The two of them … they do not make ’em better.
When Father John was the Principal of St. Thomas More HS in west Philly, he took it upon himself to write a letter of recommendation to the Admissions officer at Notre Dame when he heard it was one of the colleges I applied to. As a senior at Cardinal Dougherty HS, I knew it would take a miracle to be admitted but my Dad advised, since he couldn’t help us 6 kids financially, that I/we should shoot for the best that I/we could get in.
I never knew until my Junior year what Fr. John did for me … and even then I could only conjecture … ’cause he knew too much about my … progress.
He married us in September ’65 before my senior classes started. At the time
he was President of St. John’s University. Fr. John visited Notre Dame later that year with their great basketball team. He took my wife and I to a spaghetti dinner at Rocky’s on Notre Dame Avenue and slipped my wife $75 while I was boring him with my rowing stories and too busy to notice what he was up to…. Back then, that was enough to pay our rent and buy a bunch of groceries. My wife worked as a secretary, and I worked three jobs, 2 on campus and one off campus as a bus-boy at Randall’s Inn.
He knew all about the Notre Dame Crew … as I was later to learn he had a “friend” in the Administration, Fr. Wilson CSC, (VP Operations) whom he kept close tabs on my “antics”.
It’s not the place to write a book here, but if there was ever a man who deserved to be canonized, Rome has to use as a model the life of Fr. John.
I love him so.
My apologies for not having seen and approved this post earlier.