Rev. Msgr. William J. Lyons
Deceased: 2011-11-21
Diocese: ST LOUIS
Seminary Graduation Year: STAFF 2003 - 2011
Msgr. William J. Lyons, 81, a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, who had served faithfully as a spiritual director for the North American College since 2003, passed away on Monday November 21, 2011. He passed away as a private Mass was concluding in his room, receiving viaticum. As the 81 year old man we loved so much succumbed to death after battling cancer, his priestly heart of 55 years shone brightly, witnessing and revealing the profound love of the heart of Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd.
He was born in Boston and moved to St. Louis at age 12. After ordination he was named assistant pastor of St. Roch Parish in the West End of St. Louis while he continued post-graduate studies at St. Louis University. He began teaching in 1956 at Blessed Sacrament School in North St. Louis and in 1957 at Bishop DuBourg High School in South St. Louis, where he taught for 10 years. He was named a part-time assistant pastor of St. Raphael the Archangel Parish in the St. Louis Hills neighborhood of South St. Louis in 1959. He served as coordinator of student retreats for the Archdiocesan Education Office from 1960 to 1967.
In 1967, Msgr. Lyons was named director of the Newman Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where he would remain until 1994 when he was appointed full time to the faculty of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in Shrewsbury and to reside at the Catholic Student Center at Washington University in St. Louis. He had been on the staff half-time at Kenrick Seminary and Cardinal Glennon College since 1966.
Director of campus ministry for the Archdiocese of St. Louis from 1982 to 1994, he once referred to the Newman apostolate as an œloving, searching, worshipping, enabling presence of the Catholic Church on the college campus; he said that it had an objective to present a Christian witness and to offer moral and religious guidance to any student.
Msgr. Lyons had been involved in a number of other ministries, including the Archdiocese of St. Louis Adult Sodality Union and the Archdiocese of St. Louis Commission for Radio and Television.
In 1988, he was named director of the pre-theology program at Kenrick. He was assigned as a spiritual director to the North American College in Rome in 2003. He loved his days at this College so much. According to his wishes, he has been interred in the Mausoleum of the Pontifical North American College in Campo Verano in Rome.
