A Mass of Thanksgiving in Honor of Servant of God Msgr. Bernard J. Quinn

Saturday, April 1st at 11:30 AM at St. Brigid in Westbury

Principle Celebrant:  Msgr. Paul Jervis, Postulator
Homilist:  Fr. Alonso Cox, Vice-Postulator

Our Sunday Visitor had an article tracing the accomplishments of Msgr. Quinn in 2010 that can be found here.


"With the impending 1929 economic depression brewing, the poorest among the black families were not able to provide for their children. Father Quinn bought property in Wading River, Long Island, to establish an orphanage for these children. But he met with violent opposition from the KKK.  

The action of the Klan members had been prodded by white community residents who objected to an orphanage for black children in their hamlet, with its scenic farmlands and wooded, undulating landscape that overlooked the Long Island Sound. 

Threats on His Life 

The orphanage that Father Quinn first erected in 1928 was burned down by the KKK. They waited, and after the priest rebuilt the orphans’ home in 1929, they again totally incinerated it. The diocese was silent throughout Father Quinn’s ordeal.  

Also, New York’s Governor Alfred E. Smith, a Catholic and the Democratic Party’s 1928 U.S. Presidential Candidate, kept a low profile, for he had enough anti-Catholic detractors and was unwilling to become even more unpopular by intervening on behalf of Quinn’s black orphans."

Under threats to his life, Father Quinn stood up to his foes by defying them again in rebuilding the orphanage. He was ready to pay the ultimate price with his life for his orphan children as he had pledged to his parishioners, “...I would willingly shed to the last drop my life’s blood for the least among you.”  

Father Quinn was, however, more valuable to them alive than as a martyr. With St. Thérèse’s intercession, hostility toward him ceased abruptly. He succeeded in establishing his orphanage, fittingly named The Little Flower House of Providence, which was dedicated on Oct. 26, 1930. This institution, later incorporated into the Little Flower Children and Family Services of New York, is still thriving. "