Paulist Fr. Richard Colgan entered eternal life on Monday, May 25, 2020, in Washington, D.C.
He died of complications from COVID-19. He was 68.
Fr. Rich had served since 2011 as our community's director of novices, accompanying men in the first year they live at our seminary in Washington, D.C.
He also was our assistant director of formation, helping to guide all of our seminarians.
Fr. Rich made his first promises to the Paulist Fathers on August 16, 1975. He was ordained a priest on May 19, 1979.
In his first priestly assignment, he served as a campus minister at Clemson University in South Carolina until 1983. He then had a one-year posting at McGill University in Canada.
From 1984 to 1987, he served as our associate director of novices. (The novitiate was then based at Mt. Paul in Oak Ridge, NJ.)
Fr. Rich also served as associate pastor of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City; associate director of St. Lawrence Parish and Newman Center in Minneapolis, MN; associate director of the Paulist Center in Boston; pastor of St. Philip Neri Church in Portland, OR; and as pastor of St. Peter's Church in Toronto.
See photos from Fr. Rich's decades of ministry at Pinterest.
In this video, Fr. Rich shares some of his vocation story and reflects on his ministry.
A longer, audio-only version of Fr. Rich's vocation interview: