Beloved Fr. McKenna had a missionary's heart, served for 60 years

By ROB HERBST
The Catholic Week
Fr. Philip McKenna initially had plans to be a missionary in a far-off land such as China. But Fr. McKenna followed God’s plan and instead impacted countless people as a diocesan priest in numerous ways throughout Bolivia, Peru and also Alabama.
The beloved priest of more than 60 years died Aug. 30 at the age of 83. The native of Northern Ireland sure made the most of those years as a priest by going where he was called.
 “I wasn’t always sure where I was going, but somehow I let God lead me and I think that’s important,” Fr. McKenna explained in a video interview for the Archdiocese of Mobile Vocations Office video “Called: To Be a Priest in the Archdiocese of Mobile.”
While he followed God’s call, he still yearned to be a missionary. It initially didn’t work out, reportedly because of poor hearing. So he was sent to Alabama sight-unseen shortly after his ordination in 1962 and spent five years at the North Alabama Missions in Birmingham. Fr. McKenna was then an assistant pastor at St. Dominic Parish in Mobile from 1967-70 before a missionary opportunity popped up.
According to Msgr. Charles Troncale, the Boston-based Missionary Society of St. James the Apostle sought priests in the U.S. to go to Central and South America. 
Fr. McKenna asked to go, became fluent in Spanish and served as pastor of San Pio X Parroquia in Oruro, Bolivia from 1970-1985. He also served in Peru from 1993-99 after serving as assistant pastor of St. Bede the Venerable Parish in Montgomery in 1986 and St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Mobile from 1987-93.
“He was a missionary at heart,” Msgr. Troncale said. “He wanted to bring the Gospel and Christ to people. … He also had a heart for other human beings. That was part of him.”
After Fr. McKenna’s missionary days in South America were over, he became pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Prattville. He had the opportunity to continue ministering to Spanish-speaking faithful in the area, but he also impacted the Archdiocese of Mobile in a way he couldn’t predict. 
He had a profound influence on two Prattville youngsters named Zach and Chris – now Fr. Zach Greenwell and Fr. Chris Boutin.
“Fr. McKenna was a true man of God: a man of prayer, a man of the Church, a man for others,” said Fr. Greenwell, now pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Enterprise. “He was a true priest and had a priestly heart for the people entrusted to his care. He so often inspired me by the example he gave - by his ardent prayer before and after Mass, by the way he went out of his way to hear my confession, by his sound advice and wise counsel, by his presence at important moments of my life. His priestly life no doubt inspired my own vocation to the priesthood and inspires me still in the living of that priesthood. He has been and continues to be my ‘priest-hero.’ 
“If I live a life half as heroic as Fr. McKenna’s, I should count myself to have lived an excellent life.”
Fr. Boutin, pastor of St. Martin of Tours Parish in Troy and St. John the Evangelist Parish in Ozark added: “Fr. McKenna was instrumental as our parish pastor at St. Joseph’s in influencing our decision to enter seminary at roughly the same time.  I think his example as a true servant of God that quietly went about the care of souls had a major impact on both of us.  
“When I really got to know him in his final years as our pastor, I saw a man that moved and lived differently than any other person I had ever known in my life. I could never quite understand what made him so different.  I think it was because he allowed himself to be led by God in every aspect of his life.  He never inserted his own desires into anything.  He was so submissive to the will of God in everything that it allowed him to show the face of Christ to the people. Ultimately that is what being a priest is all about.  He did that as good as any priest I’ve ever seen.”
Fr. McKenna served as pastor of St. Joseph from 1999-2009 and as senior priest at Holy Spirit Parish in Montgomery from 2009-2020 before retiring.
Fr. Troncale said his ministry in Alabama was influenced by his time in South America.
“The people he experienced, I believe in Bolivia and Peru and some in Alabama I think, it helped him appreciate people who maybe didn’t have a lot of material wealth, but could have great spiritual wealth,” Fr. Troncale said.  
“And all he needed were the bare necessities.”
Fr. McKenna did get one luxury at Holy Spirit while Fr. Troncale was serving as pastor – not that Fr. McKenna asked for it.
“He loved soccer,” Fr. Troncale said. “When he got to Holy Spirit, we had some cable TV there but whatever we had, we didn’t have the soccer channel. I found out for another $5 we could get the soccer channel. I wanted to get the soccer channel for him. I remember kidding him that it was going to cost another $5. He didn’t ask for it, but I said ‘no, we’re going to do that.’”
Fr. McKenna was humble throughout, including his final days. He spent his final days and died at the Little Sisters of the Poor Sacred Heart Residence. According to Msgr. Troncale, he asked Fr. McKenna some time ago where he wanted to be buried, be it back in Ireland or somewhere in Alabama.
“He said ‘I’ll just be buried wherever I die.’ In other words, he didn’t want to be of any trouble to anybody.”
Fr. McKenna was to be buried in the priests’ section of the Catholic Cemetery of Mobile on Thursday, Sept. 8, following a Mass of Christian Burial celebrated by Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi at the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.
Before he died, Fr. McKenna made sure to deliver a message to the faithful. Msgr. Troncale said he dictated a message that was printed in the Aug. 21 Holy Spirit Parish Sunday bulletin, which in essence served as his last will and testament. 
“He wanted to say to the people ‘I hope you experienced me as someone who loved you and came to serve and not to be served,” Msgr. Troncale said. 
“It’s what he saw as what it means to be a priest — love the people and serve the people.”