Religion

Last Updated on Saturday, 30 December 2017 05:58

By Paul Chasko

Father Robert Boyle has retired as administrator of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Finleyville and Union Township and St. Isaac Jogues in Elrama.

Jim and Carol Patterson along with over 100 others got their photo taken with Father Boyle at his retirement luncheon.

On November 19, Father Boyle celebrated his last Mass as administrator and personally greeted hundreds of well-wishers in Finley Hall at his retirement luncheon.

Father Boyle was born in Pittsburgh and attended Saint Basil Catholic School and High School in Pittsburgh’s Carrick neighborhood. He was ordained on May 4, 1963. He served several parishes in the Pittsburgh area up to June of 1969, when he joined the Society of Saint James and served as a Missionary Priest in Chimbote, Peru. He served there from June 1969 to June 1974. Returning to the Pittsburgh area, he held posts in Mt. Lebanon, Monroeville, and Bellevue while serving as Chaplain for Suburban General Hospital.

He was named pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Finleyville in January of 2000 and held that post until 2006, when he was appointed as the parish administrator as, apparently, there is a maximum age to hold the position of pastor. To most of his parishioners, he’s been nothing less than their beloved pastor, despite the title change. He served as administrator at St. Francis for 13 busy years. In the same period, he served as administrator of St. Isaac Joques Parish in Jefferson Hills and was Chaplain for both Jefferson Hills Regional Medical Center and Mon Valley Hospital.

Not content with that busy schedule, he took on the task of administrating the building of a new church on the grounds donated to the church many years ago by the Finley family – the church that now stands in Finleyville and Union Township.

Our best wishes in your retirement, Father Boyle.