While pastor of St. Louise de Marillac Parish in La Grange Park, Rev. Cletus Lynch made a profound impact on parishioners who came to admire both his strength and his warmth.
Long after his retirement in 1976, people continued to contact him from the parish he founded, and he often returned to the place he called home for 21 years.
“He started a great parish in La Grange Park,” said retired auxiliary Bishop Timothy Lyne, now the vicar of retired priests who served in the Archdiocese of Chicago. “The amazing thing was … all the people kept writing to him, and he came back for all kinds of events. He maintained a very close relationship with everyone.”
Father Lynch was ordained in 1930, which gave him the distinction of being ordained the longest in the Archdiocese of Chicago.
At 96, he was the oldest priest in the archdiocese when he died Wednesday, Dec. 10, of complications from pneumonia in American Freedom Plaza retirement community in Sun City Center, Fla.
“He was a very kind and nice man and always a bright guy who knew what he was doing. He had a very good way of helping people with advice and his understanding,” Lyne said.
No matter what the task or job, he got it done and was an inspiration in getting others to help, said Stanley Wulkowicz, a charter member of the parish.
When Father Lynch arrived at St. Louise in 1955, mass was said in a public school. To raise funds for a new church and school that was built three years later, Father Lynch asked a local contractor to donate a house he had just completed to the church fundraising campaign.
“He was a great driver of finance. That house was raffled off and that brought in a lot of money,” Wulkowicz said. “He was a great man and he was a great priest and he loved what he was doing. He knew how to reach people, and people came to him.”
Raised in Lemont, Father Lynch entered Quigley Preparatory Seminary in 1920 and graduated from St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein. After his ordination, he was assistant pastor at St. Bernard Parish on 65th Street in Chicago for six years. He then served another six-year term at St. Angela on the West Side, then was at All Saints Parish in Bridgeport, where he was made administrator in 1950, until 1954 when he was named chaplain at Resurrection Hospital.
From there he became the founding pastor of St. Louise. When he retired he was made pastor emeritus of St. Louise.
In 1967, Father Lynch was elected by his peers to the Priest Personnel Board and served for nine years on the committee that made suggestions to the cardinal for assignments.
Even after he retired to Sun City Center, he continued to work with a parish.
“For the last two years he was in a nursing home, but up until that time he was very active,” Lyne said.
There are no survivors.
Visitation for Father Lynch will be from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Friday in St. Louise de Marillac Catholic Church, 1144 W. Harrison Ave., La Grange Park, followed by a 7:30 p.m. funeral mass.
