Msgr Gregory Haddock will be remembered

On Thursday, January 4, 2018 Msgr. Gregory Haddock passed away peacefully at the age of 83 after a long illness that he bore with a Christian spirit and after having received the Anointing of the Sick. For more than 50 years he faithfully and generously served the Church in his priestly ministry.

Msgr. Gregory Haddock, a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei, died on January 4, 2018 in Toronto.

Msgr. Haddock was born on October 2, 1934, in the Bronx, New York. He was athletic and loved track and field events. His specialty was the 400 meter relay, for which he won a couple of medals. He also enjoyed playing the piano and singing.

Thanks to a full academic scholarship he did his university studies at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, graduating with a degree in Physics. During the last two years of his studies he was a regular contributor to The Ionian, the student newspaper. Following graduation he spent some years working on different aspects of the U.S. space program in Washington, DC and Boston.

On a trip to a centre of Opus Dei in Boston in 1957 he saw clearly that God was calling him to seek holiness as a numerary member of Opus Dei. In 1961 he went to Rome to pursue a doctorate in Philosophy at the Lateran University and to receive formation at the Roman College of the Holy Cross, which is the international seminary of Opus Dei. He was ordained a priest of Opus Dei on August 8, 1965.

While in Rome he had the good fortune to live close to St. Josemaria. He was able to attend many get togethers with Opus Dei’s founder and on one occasion had the chance to serve his mass.

He returned to the U.S. in 1966 and spent 15 years exercising his pastoral ministry in centres and corporate works of Opus Dei in Boston, New York and Washington. In 1981 he moved to Canada to be the chaplain of the first centre of Opus Dei in Toronto. He remained in Toronto for 4 years and then in 1985, he was appointed Regional Vicar for Canada of the Opus Dei Prelature. He spent the next 13 years living at the Canadian headquarters of Opus Dei in Montreal.

In 1998 he returned to Toronto as the chaplain of Ernescliff College and carried out pastoral work in all the different apostolates of the Prelature in the Greater Toronto Area. He was much loved and sought after as a spiritual director. He was known for his warmth, kindness and good humour, as well as for the wise and practical advice that he would impart in spiritual direction.

He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2008. He bore the progression of the disease over the years with total trust and abandonment in Our Lord, seeing it as a manifestation of the will of God.

Visitation will be held on Monday, January 8th from 3 to 6 and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Cardinal Funeral Home, 366 Bathurst Street, Toronto. The funeral Mass will take place on on Tuesday, January 9th at 10 a.m. at St. Michael's Cathedral, 65 Bond Street, Toronto. Burial at Holy Cross Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Wellspring Cultural Foundation, 156 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2G1.

Link for donations to Wellspring Cultural Foundation is <click-here>.