Father Tom McCarthy Celebrates Pope Leo’s Message of Faith, Peace and Unity as Grand Marshal of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade|
Stop me if you have heard this story before. A local boy from Chicago’s South Side attends Catholic schools growing up, earns his bachelor’s degree from Villanova University, enters the Augustinian order to become a priest, and goes on to lead a distinguished career before being honored with one of the highest awards in the world.
No, I am not talking about Pope Leo XIV. I am talking about Father Thomas McCarthy, O.S.A. (Order of St. Augustine) whose background so closely resembles that of the newly elected leader of the Catholic Church. Fr. McCarthy’s recent honor did not take him to the Vatican, but it did take him to downtown Chicago on Saturday, March 14, as he was called to serve as the Grand Marshal of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
For Fr. McCarthy, his honor as Grand Marshal marked a seminal moment in his personal and professional life, given his Irish background and Chicago roots, which continue to grow in his role as Vocation Director at St. Rita of Cascia High School on the Southwest Side.
“I’m proud to be half-Irish,” Fr. McCarthy shares, noting that his two Irish grandparents, from Killarney and Westport, respectively, met in Chicago and were married at St. Elizabeth’s. “I knew my grandfather well and had a wonderful experience with him. He had the beautiful brogue, and we were always celebrating our Irish heritage, especially around St. Patrick’s Day. My mother made the best corned beef and cabbage, and we were fixtures at the South Side Irish Parade.”
A native Chicagoan, Fr. McCarthy grew up on the Southwest Side, attending St. Adrian School in Marquette Park before enrolling at St. Rita, the Catholic high school that has been operated by the Order of St. Augustine since its founding in 1905. When it was time to select a college, he continued in the Augustinian tradition studying at Villanova University, where he earned a Bachelor Arts in Communication. After graduating from Villanova, Fr. McCarthy entered the Midwest Province of the Augustinian Order in 1987, and after completing his novitiate, he attended Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and graduated with a Master of Divinity degree.
For Fr. McCarthy, his sense of Irishness – and everything that entails – is intertwined with the critical role that the Irish played in the foundation of the Augustinian Order, of which he has now been a part for the better part of four decades. In 1794, the Augustinians of Ireland sent Reverend John Rosseter, O.S.A., to Philadelphia to establish the Augustinian Catholic presence in the United States. Dublin native Reverend Matthew Carr, O.S.A. would arrive in 1796 and make Philadelphia the center of Augustinian missionary activity, and over a century later, the Augustinians would expand into the Midwest with the establishment of St. Rita’s Cascia Parish and St. Rita High School in Chicago.
After his ordination in 1994, Fr. McCarthy embarked on a whirlwind career of service around the world, which included stops in Michigan, back in Villanova, Ontario, and even Rome, where he ministered as part of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization. Pope Francis named him a Papal Missionary of Mercy in 2018.
The Catholic Church in America, and particularly the Augustinian order, changed forever on May 8, 2025, when the Reverend Robert Prevost, O.S.A. was announced as Pope Leo XIV. Given his close ties with the new pontiff, Fr. McCarthy instantaneously became a popular man, sought-after by media outlets around the world to share his reflections on Pope Leo. After all, the two priests had known each other for 35 years, and Fr. McCarthy considers the Pope a close friend. It was Pope Leo, then known as Reverend Prevost, who appointed McCarthy as President of St. Rita in 2002.
“I bet that I did fifty interviews before I could come up for air,” Fr. McCarthy reflects on that time, and he continues to feel pride and hope in the new papacy.
“I’ve always had deep respect in the Pope’s work as a missionary. All the missionaries from Peru that I met, I’ve had great admiration for them. When Pope Leo earned his doctorate, he could have taught at any seminary, but he chose to return to Peru to work among the poorest of the poor. Everything he has accomplished is not a surprise. It’s who he is, it’s so natural for him.”
Last October, when Fr. McCarthy traveled to Rome and met with Pope Leo, he was struck by how little the new pontiff had changed; he was still the same man that Fr. McCarthy remembered.
“He hadn’t changed a bit,” Fr. McCarthy remembers. “He is such a down-to-earth, holy man in the best sense of the word.
Pope Leo and Fr. McCarthy
Fr. McCarthy’s pride in the new Pope is matched by his pride in the Augustinian Order – as he says, “as an Augustinian, it’s just awesome to have one of our own become the Vicar of Christ on Earth” – and his dedication to the order continues to grow. He was recently elected as Prior Provincial of the Midwest Augustinians, the same position that Pope Leo held from 1999 to 2001. He will formally take on the position in June, and he looks forward to building on the excitement around the order – the “Pope Leo Effect” - to mentor younger friars and “dream big” in serving the Church.
For all of Fr. McCarthy’s travels, and for all the impact he has made in his ministry, the recent honor of serving as Parade Grand Marshal was particularly meaningful to him, as a proud Chicagoan of Irish descent. He was not expecting to receive the award when Fr. Scott Donohue of Mercy Home invited him for a luncheon several months ago and introduced him to Jim and Michelle Coyne. However, as soon as he received the invitation, he recalls saying, “I’d be honored. I said yes in honor of my parents and grandparents.” 
Fr. McCarthy, Michelle and Jim Coyne
Naturally, the Lenten season is a busy one for Fr. McCarthy, but he still found time to participate in a number of events and activities leading up to St. Patrick’s Day, including a pilgrimage to Rome with the Plumbers Union to discuss important labor issues. Among the dignitaries they met on that trip was none other than Pope Leo.
The theme of this year’s St. Patrick’s Parade was Faith, Peace, and Unity, which was inspired by Pope Leo’s first words when he addressed the throngs of people from the Balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica following his ascendancy to the papacy: “Peace be with you all.”
By marching down the streets of Columbus Drive as the guest of honor at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Fr. McCarthy not only reinforced this important message. He also celebrated the proud legacy of his ancestors – both his blood relatives from Ireland and Chicago, as well as the generations of Augustinians who, like Fr. McCarthy, dedicated themselves to community life, prayer, and service.
To learn more about the Midwest Augustinians,
visit their website at http://www.midwestaugustinians.org
Father Tom McCarthy Celebrates Pope Leo’s Message of Faith
