Rev. Msgr. James F. Halpine
Deceased: 2010-11-19
Diocese: TULSA
Seminary Graduation Year: 1953
At 5:05 p.m. Thursday, Monsignor James Halpine celebrated his last Mass at Holy Family Cathedral downtown. Earlier that day, the 84-year-old retired rector told a church secretary that he hoped God would grant him a heart attack so he would not die a lingering death from the disease that had damaged his lungs. “He was literally putting on his shirt for the noon Mass Friday when he died of a heart attack,” said Monsignor Gregory Gier, rector of Holy Family. Halpine died in his room at the rectory attached to Holy Family, where he had lived for 34 years and where his funeral Mass will be celebrated at noon Wednesday, just blocks from the neighborhood where he was raised. A vespers service is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the cathedral. Halpine retired in 1997 after 21 years as Holy Family’s rector, and he continued to live there and celebrate Mass and hear confessions. Through adoption and marriage, Halpine’s extended family now includes many people of African and Asian descent. Halpine held a music degree from Oklahoma City University and played the organ for Francis Cardinal Spellman’s Eucharistic Congress in New York and at the consecration of Archbishop Fulton Sheen in Rome.
James Francis Halpine was born Oct. 30, 1926, to John Arthur and Katherine Heverly Halpine in Findlay, Ohio. Before his first birthday, the family moved to Tulsa, where they first lived just south of downtown. They later moved north, and he attended Immaculate Conception Church and school. There, Halpine had many friendships with people of different races and faiths. He graduated from Central High School in 1944 and, at age 17, left Tulsa to study for the priesthood at St. Gregory’s Seminary in Cincinnati. He completed his studies in Rome, where he was ordained Dec. 20, 1952. He celebrated his first solemn high Mass in July 1953 in his home church in Tulsa. His parish assignments have included Oklahoma City’s Christ the King from 1953 to 1960; Our Lady of Sorrows in Chandler from 1960 to 1963; St. John’s in Stillwater from 1966 to 1967; and St. Mark’s in Pryor and St. Frances of Rome in Langley from 1967 to 1968. Halpine led the Church of St. Mary in Tulsa from 1968 until 1976, when he became the rector at Holy Family. He was named monsignor in 1996. He is survived by 17 nieces and nephews.
