To honor Father M. Valentine Keveny for the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood, parishioners at St. Mary’s in Rockville brought a little bit of Ireland to the Irish-born priest, just as he has done to the people whom he has served in The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington over these five decades.
A June 3 Mass there celebrating his priestly jubilee opened with a song to Our Lady of Knock, the Queen of Ireland, and closed with a flutist playing “Danny Boy.” And the 76-year-old priest from rural Ireland who still speaks with a gentle Irish brogue said prayers at the Mass in Gaelic to honor his late parents.
Since 2000, the priest has been in residence at the Montgomery County parish, serving as a Catholic chaplain at a nearby hospital and for local retirement communities and nursing homes, while also bringing Communion to the homebound. About 700 people packed the church to honor “Father Val” and then many of them attended a reception for him in the school.
Beneath his vestments, Father Keveny wore the black cassock that he had worn at his ordination to the priesthood on June 23, 1973 at St. James Church in Easkey, County Sligo in Ireland, near his family’s farm. Although not visible during the Mass, the 76-year-old priest born on the day after Valentine’s Day in 1947 and named for that saint associated with love also wore his trademark red socks.
He thanked the people for their support, saying, “All of you have been the light of God and the love of God” to him on his priestly journey.
And with his typical humor, he confessed to feeling nervous at his anniversary Mass, saying that he had butterflies in his stomach, and he hoped they were flying in formation.
In his homily at the Mass, Msgr. Robert Amey, St. Mary’s pastor, praised Father Keveny “as a very faithful and humble priest who is willing to go the extra mile with the sick and dying.” And for the longtime chaplain, “going the extra mile” might be an act of faith. Msgr. Amey joked that Father Keveny’s car “is almost 20 years old! I think the angels and the saints keep it going! St. Patrick and St. Valentine, pray for us!”
Concluding his homily, Msgr. Amey praised his fellow priest, saying, “Father Val, this has been your mission, to carry out the work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” And then he recited “An Irish Blessing” for his friend.
During an interview one day earlier, Father Keveny spoke about the roots of his faith, on his family’s farm in County Sligo. His father and mother raised five children on the farm, where they had sheep, cows for milking, and bred pigs, and where they grew potatoes, wheat, barley and sugar beets.
“We were very poor. We all helped out on the farm,” he said, adding that they had “a donkey and cart to do the work, with no machinery.”
He praised the faith of his parents, saying they were very kind and prayerful people. “They were remarkable. What shaped my future was, we prayed every night of the week before the fire” at their farmhouse, he said, adding that everyone prayed a decade of the rosary. “I would pray one in Gaelic, in Irish. That became the norm, right through college, the family praying (together), until I left for America.”
Father Keveny remembered a night when a homeless woman came walking up the road and knocked at their door. His parents welcomed her into their small home, gave her something to eat, and made a bed for her in front of the fire.
“I never forgot that. I truly believe the Lord came to our home that night,” he said. “We had nothing but luck after that. That became a turning point in our life… From that point on, everything turned out wonderful.”
His older brother Martin became a priest of County Mayo. Msgr. Martin Keveny served in mission churches in Brazil for nearly three decades, and from 1988 to 1994 served as a chaplain for Irish immigrants in New York City. He turns 83 in November and is now retired.
Their sister joined the Religious Sisters of Jesus and Mary, and Sister Fionnuala Keveny worked as a high school art teacher in County Mayo and is now retired.
His youngest brother, Matt, took over the family farm and cared for their parents as they got older. Their parents are deceased, and Matt is now 77. Another brother, Joe, got married, had a son and a daughter, and is a retired accountant who is now 79.
Father Keveny noted that Joe was the only one among the five siblings who got married. “We only found one lady who had the courage to marry into our family,” he joked.
When he was 8, Valentine Keveny began volunteering as an altar server at St. James Church near their farm. “I took great pride in being an altar boy,” he said. “Before we went to church, we had to do the milking, then we had to wash and change.”
From the age of 11, he wanted to become a priest, and he prayed that he could enter the seminary some day. His brother found an ad in the newspaper from a priest and his family, offering to pay the education for a young man studying for the priesthood. Then with the sponsorship of then-Washington Archbishop Patrick O’Boyle – who had family in that part of Ireland – Valentine Keveny was able to complete his seminary studies, with the understanding that after his ordination, he would serve as a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington.
“Talk about the hand of God along the way!” Father Keveny said. He added that in his ministry as a priest, he continues to see “the hand of God, all the time.”
Father Michael Valentine Keveny was ordained to the priesthood in June 1973 at St. James, his home church, because of their father’s frail condition. Archbishop O’Boyle had written to Father Keveny explaining that he was expected to report to Washington right after his ordination, but the new priest wrote back explaining that first he had to help out at his family’s farm.
“I told them that milking had to be done, turf had to be brought in – we burned peat – and hay had to be brought in,” he said.
About two months later, he left Ireland for the first time, traveling on the Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner and celebrating Masses for passengers until the ship landed in New York City.
Before catching a ferry to London for this trip across the Atlantic, Father Keveny’s older priest brother offered him advice.
“My brother Marty told me, ‘Val, get to know the people.’ I’ve kept that as my mantra in America,” he said.
And Father Keveny did just that in his first assignment as a parochial vicar at St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish in Indian Head, Maryland. “I went around to every home in Indian Head,” he said.
He continued his personal approach as a parochial vicar at St. Catherine Laboure Parish in Wheaton and then in that role at St. Hugh of Grenoble Parish in Greenbelt, and during that time he began serving as a chaplain at the Washington Hospital Center, beginning a ministry that become central to his life in 35 of his 50 years as a priest.
While he was assigned to St. Stephen Martyr Parish in Washington, he served as a chaplain at George Washington University Hospital. Then when he was appointed to live at St. Mary’s Parish in Rockville, he began serving as a priest at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, and he later received a Community Partnership Award.
He continues to serve as a chaplain at Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg and at other local retirement and rehabilitation centers and nursing homes and brings Communion to the homebound.
Father Keveny said it is a special blessing for him to minister to the ill and infirm. Describing his ministry of anointing people who are dying, he said, “I feel privileged to be there, to usher them into eternal life.”
Reflecting on his priesthood, he said being kind, encouraging and faithful has a ripple effect on others.
“I’ve had a great journey here in America,” he said.
On June 11, Father Keveny headed home to Ireland, to celebrate a 50th anniversary Mass at St. James Church, and to help his brother Matt on the farm and pray together with him in front of the fire at the family’s farmhouse, just like they did years ago with their parents and siblings.
Going home is “like a retreat,” Father Keveny said.
“When I go home to the farm, I find religion all over again. I find God all over again,” the priest said in his Irish brogue.
