Gaffney, Hugh Gerard

1984, November 30

Date of Birth: 1910, October 9

Hugh Gaffney was born in Orange Grove, St. Croix, Virgin Islands, on October 9, 1910. He was ordained on May 25, 1937 for the Archdiocese of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Father Gaffney entered Solitude in Catonsville, Maryland later in the same year and became a Sulpician in 1938. He taught at St. Charles College and at St. Edward’s Seminary before becoming a chaplain in the United States Army Air Force. On his discharge as a lieutenant colonel, Father Gaffney ceased to function as a Catholic priest. Later he attempted marriage. In the 1970s, Father John Sullivan arranged Father Gaffney’s laicization and reconciliation to the Catholic Church. In gratitude for Father Sullivan’s zeal, Father Gaffney, in his will, made a generous bequest to the Sulpicians. He died on November 30, 1984.