Harrisburg's Msgr. Vincent Topper Is Oldest and Longest-Serving Priest in U.S

[didymus]

National Catholic Register:

Harrisburg’s Msgr. Vincent Topper Is Oldest and Longest-Serving Priest in U.S.

The longest-serving priest in the country, Msgr. Topper will be 104 years old on July 28. (For the record, the Archbishop Emeritus Peter Leo Gerety of Newark, N.J., born July 19, 1912, is the oldest bishop in the world. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1939, three years after Msgr. Topper.)“But I forget all these things,” the monsignor said matter-of-factly.

The elderly priest’s voice is strong and untouched by melancholy. The cares of old age don’t weigh upon him. To Msgr. Topper, there is little difference between the earthly life and life eternal, “because when you are ordained, you are in heaven.”
If that is true, then Msgr. Topper has spent the last 80 years in paradise. The Hanover, Pa., native was ordained by Bishop George Leech of the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pa., on June 6, 1936.

But thoughts of heaven, brought on by the harsh reality of death, were on his mind long before he became a priest.
“We were a tubercular family,” explains the monsignor, the third of seven children born to Vincent and Flora Topper. Indeed, two brothers, one sister and his mother all died of tuberculosis, and Vincent himself was born with the disease.
“They didn’t expect me to live,” he said, and he was baptized on the day of his birth. “But God had another plan.”

That plan became evident when young Vincent, in second grade, surprised his parents by telling them that he wanted to become a priest instead of a businessman.
“They were amazed and pleased,” said Msgr. Topper, “but, at the same time, disappointed.”
“My father owned a department store,” he continued, “two blocks from the square in Hanover, and we were going to have stores in Bakerstown and Frederick.”

 

[ClearWater]

What a blessing he has been!

 

[tawny]

Praying for the intentions of this “Good & faithful Servant of God”. May God bless him.