St Marys High School - Blue Mantle Yearbook (Milford, MA)

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John J. Wright at graduation from Boston Latin in 1927, when he surpassed his class¬ mates in numerous scholastic activities but more especially debating. John Joseph Wright was bbrn in the Dor¬ chester section of Boston on Sunday, July 18, 1909. John, named for his father, was the first of six children, all now living. His mother is the former Harriet L. Cokely. The other children are Margaret, Robert, Richard, Harriet, and Alfred. The Wright family is noted as a happy household of which all the members find great pleasure in each other’s company. The future bishop was baptized by Rev. William Ryan in St. Margaret’s Church, Dorchester. By a happy coincidence, he eventually received his First Communion from Father Ryan’s brother, Rev. Francis Ryan of St. Angela’s parish, Mattapan, where the Wright family took up their residence and established the modest family home. In due course of time, the young man received Confir¬ mation from Bishop Apderson. John Wright, when old enough to go to school, attended the Truscott School in the Rugby section of Hyde Park until 1923 when he entered Boston Public Latin School. He is not remembered as particularly adept in athletic en¬ deavors for his interests were, as a rule, scholarly I John Joseph Wright, Boston Col¬ lege, Honor Student, Class of 1931. pursuits. In Latin School, the young man began to show real progress. He excelled in his studies; debating and public speaking which greatly ap¬ pealed to him, are now of inestimable advantage to him as a high ecclesiastic. He graduated with honors in 1927. Like every boy worth his salt, the eldest of the Wrights looked for some useful employ¬ ment during the summer vacation and in odd hours after school. Thereby he kept himself in pocketmoney, more often than not, spent for books amid the musty grandeur of Boston’s sec¬ ond hand bookshops. He worked for a while on the night desk of one of Boston’s newspapers, and later on was employed in the Boston Public Library system. Though not so glamorous to him as the newsroom, he was much at home in the stacks of his beloved friends—old, dusty volumes. His intense love of reading has paid off with interest, for his encyclopedic knowledge of history and literature, spiced with anecdotes galore, has furnished the background of many an entertaining lecture. 6

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Rev. Howard McCullough and Rev. John R. Shannon, Deacons of Honor, escort Bishop John Wright Into St. Mary’s Church, Memo¬ rial Day, 1950, for Confirmation ceremonies. was • • Bishop Wright presided, when Rev. William Foran and Rev. Lawrence Foran, S.J. assisted their uncle Rev. William J. Foran in celebrating his Golden Jubilee of Ordination. ... on the afternoon of Memorial Day, 1950. On that day our Bishop, the Most Reverend John J. Wright, D.D., officiated at the ceremony of Confirmation to almost two hundred children and approximately thirty adults in St. Mary’s Church. It was an impressive and awe-inspiring sight. The boys in their red gowns and the girls in white, with red berets, were a fascinating spectacle to the parents and relatives of St. Mary’s first Confirmation class in the new dio¬ cese. A month later, Bishop Wright was the guest of St. Mary’s Alumni, at their annual reunion and banquet; in the town hall this time, because of a record-breaking influx of reservations; everyone wanted to greet our diocesan Shepherd. Affable and entertaining as usual, Bishop kept all tense and expectant, with his retrospective glance into the time span of the oldest living graduate present. Then he sped into the future. making comparisons which the class of 1950 might live to see in another span of fifty years— the radical changes of thought and living which the oldest alumnus present never visualized fifty years before. Then, what might not the class of 1950 live to see in the year 2000! November first, 1950, found Bishop Wright again in our midst—this time to celebrate a Solemn Pontifical Mass commemorating the establishment of the dogma of the Assumption of our Lady, Patroness of our church. Memorial Day, 1951, St. Mary’s welcomed for the fourth time our dear Bishop, to assist its parishioners in celebrating the Golden Jubilee of Ordination of our loved and deeply respected pastor, Father Foran. Our joy and happiness overflowed as Bishop Wright paid just tribute to our dear pastor. Indeed St. Mary’s will ever have a cordial welcome for her genial Bishop with his dynamic and breath-taking personality. 5

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06 e eaniA 6cene6 • • • After his Boston Latin days, John attended Boston College and joined the weary horde of seekers after knowledge who climbed “The Heights” each morning to improve themselves amid the Gothic walls of “wisdom’s earthly fane”. At Boston College, the name of John Wright was well known successively in the Marquette and Fulton Debating societies. He was an ac¬ complished debater for he had the disconcerting knack of finding an “Achilles Heel” in almost every opponent. Meanwhile his written eloquence was often found in the pages of “The Heights” and “The Stylus”. He won the annual Fulton medal for oratory and on graduation day, 1931, was chosen as the “one who had done the most for Boston College.” Feeling called to serve God in the holy priesthood, John Wright entered the House of Philosophy at St. John’s Seminary, Brighton. In the fall of 1932, after an unusually bril¬ liant course at Brighton, the name of “Wright, Joannes” made its appearance on the roll of the Gregorian University, a Jesuit institution at Rome. The international character of the student body at the great Gregorian University delighted him, as did the intensely scholastic atmosphere of Rome. On the bright morning of December eighth, 1935, John Joseph Wright, Deacon, was elevated to the priesthood by Cardinal Marchetti-Selvag- giani. Returning to Boston, he became Secretary to William Cardinal O ' Connell. His Eminence dying in April, 1944, his successor, Auxiliary Bishop Richard J. Cushing was named Arch¬ bishop. His first official appointment was that of Father Wright as his secretary. In December, 1944, Father Wright was- named a Papal Chamberlain and in May 1946, was elevated by His Holiness, Pius XII to the rank of Domestic Prelate. He was consecrated by Archbishop Cushing in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston, on June 30, 1947. On February first of the Holy Year, 1950, Pius XII established the County of Worcester as a separate diocese and appointed John Joseph Wright as its first spiritual Shepherd. Daniel O ' Connell and John Wright, Roman students, return to the Gregorian University after an afternoon’s leisurely walk through some of Rome’s most attractive gardens. 7