Tears flowed from her eyes as Maureen Long recalled her parents’ last wish. Francis and Patricia Lafferty, a couple from Pennsylvania who were married for 58 years, wanted their wedding rings to become part of an enduring sacred symbol.
A few months before Patricia passed away in September of 2022, she expressed this wish: “That our wedding rings be used towards a chalice and paten given to a newly ordained priest.”
Patricia also wanted her engagement ring and Francis’ mother’s wedding ring to be included in the chalice.
“My parents had a strong faith, belief in God and belief in the family,” Maureen says. The couple volunteered at their parish and raised eight children educated in Catholic schools. The family attended Mass weekly.
Francis served in the army and was a firefighter. He was a catechist, and was also active in the Knights of Columbus. He died in January of 2014. Patricia was a stay-at-home mom and a typist for the sisters at St. Francis de Sales School in Philadelphia. She enjoyed crocheting and sewing and, at the age of 81, learned quilting.
Maureen asked friends and family, as well as her diocese and religious orders, for ideas about who could be the recipient of the special gift. “My parents wanted to give the chalice and paten to a deacon, but how do you find a deacon who needs them?” she says.
After a tiring search that produced no response, Maureen recalled that her father had corresponded with a missioner in Africa. “I remember we received Maryknoll magazine,” she says.
It turned out that the Laffertys supported Maryknoll missions for 38 years.
Finding out about her parents’ partnership with Maryknoll was a godsend, Maureen says. She contacted Father Rodrigo Ulloa-Chavarry, vocation director for the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, who embraced the idea. He described to her the seminarians who were about to be ordained.
Maureen was especially drawn to the story of seminarian Charles Ogony of Kenya. “He was raised Catholic and had grown up in a large family. We have similar upbringings,” she says. “He was a wonderful young man to receive the gift.”
Maureen contacted the jewelers of Adrian Hamers in Larchmont, New York, where she purchased a gold chalice and paten. The four rings were placed inside the base of the chalice. On the outside, the diamond from Patricia’s engagement ring was put in the center of a small cross. The words “In Loving Memory of Francis and Patricia Lafferty” were engraved on the chalice.
“Maureen’s persistence in searching opened my inner eye,” says Father Ogony, who was ordained last June. “In the heart of her parents, God had already chosen who to fulfill their wish. It took a heart-searching mileage and finally landed in my hands.”
“We are those people who bridge the gap between cultures, an American and a Kenyan culture, through a chalice and paten,” says Father Ulloa-Chavarry. “We thank the Laffertys for being part of the Maryknoll family.”
With her sister Merceda, Maureen attended the ordination at the Maryknoll headquarters in Ossining, New York, where they met Father Ogony. The new missionary priest was assigned to Bolivia. “I want to foster the friendship, and follow him and the chalice and paten as he ministers to people in Bolivia,” she says.
Maureen, who lives in Maryland, says she feels a sense of peace now that she has fulfilled her parents’ wish.
In the States and while visiting his home country of Kenya, the missioner has already been celebrating the Eucharist with the chalice and paten. “As I raise the chalice in memory of Maureen’s beloved parents, I hold them deep in my heart in gratitude,” Father Ogony says. “Maureen’s family has indeed inspired me with this gift.”
Featured Image: Maryknoll Father Charles Ogony celebrates his first Mass using a chalice and paten gifted to him by the Lafferty family, fulfilling their parents’ last wish. (Octavio Durán/U.S.)
