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Overcast Pastor reflects on Holy Name experience
Monsignor leaving to head Garden City parish
As Monsignor Thomas Harold looks back on his 12 years leading Holy Name of Mary Parish, he fondly recalls the many relationships he has made. The pastor of the Valley Stream catholic church will be leaving at the end of June.
He arrived in December of 1999 to fill in as the parish’s administrator while Pastor Daniel Fagan was sick. Fagan died the following April, and in June of 2000, Harold was named pastor by Diocese of Rockville Centre Bishop James McHugh.
“It’s been a privilege to be the pastor,” Harold said, “and the people have taught me so much about what it means to be a priest and a pastor.”
One of the defining moments of his tenure came less than two years into the job. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks hit the Valley Stream community hard, as more than a dozen residents were killed, and countless others were affected in some way. Harold said this is when he truly realized that being a pastor is so much more than just administrative duties. It is about being there for people, and in the days after the attacks, Harold visited each family in the parish who was waiting to hear about the fate of a loved one.
In 2002, Holy Name celebrated its 100th anniversary. Harold said he was about to see how much people loved and cared about their parish. The death of John LaBarbera, a 16-year-old Central High School student who died in 2005 from a sudden cardiac problem suffered on the basketball court, taught him how close the Valley Stream community is. Harold noted how people of all faiths came together at Holy Name to pray for LaBarbera’s family in their time of crisis.
Last year, Harold was beside Mayor Ed Cahill in his final months. Harold not only ministered to Cahill’s illness, but was there for him as friend. “It was both a personal experience for me and a priestly experience,” he said.
Harold said he always strived to maintain a good relationship with the local elected officials. He has nothing but high praise for the Valley Stream Fire Department, which saved the school building on two separate occasions. There was a fire in the cafeteria in 2001, and another in the boiler room on Palm Sunday in 2010.
