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Monsignor Hilary C. Franco was
ordained in Rome at the rather young age of twenty-two.
Educated in the United States and Rome:
- received a doctorate in Biblical Theology, "magna cum
laude," when he was not yet twenty-four from the Pontifical Lateran
University in Rome.
- attended Fordham University in New York
where he earned a master's degree in Sociology.
- receiving another
degree in Canon Law at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.
Pastoral Life:
In the summer of 1956, he served as assistant at the Church
of Our lady of Mt. Carmel at 187th Street, in the Bronx, NY.
He then served as assistant at St. Dominic's, Unionport Road,
in the Bronx and at the Assumption in Staten Island, where he served for more
than three years.
From 1962 he was assistant to Bishop Fulton J. Sheen at the
National Office for the Propagation of the Faith in New York. While in
that office, he was a member of the Board of the Directors of World Mission
Magazine and also contributed Biblical articles to the New Catholic
Encyclopedia.
He also worked on the preparation of the conciliar documents
for the Second Vatican Council, which he attended as a "peritus"
(expert).
In 1967, after a few months of assignment at Our Lady of
Victory, in Mount Vernon, NY, he was called to serve in the Diplomatic Corps of
the Vatican at the Apostolic Delegation, in Washington, D. C., a year later he
was named to the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See in the
Vatican. He remained in this post for two years.
In 1970 he was made Official of the Congregation for the
Clergy, in the Vatican, where he served for twenty-four years as the man in
charge of the English Desk, which he practically initiated.
In 1971 he was named a Monsignor.
In 1981 Monsignor Franco was named a Prelate of His Holiness.
In 1994 he came back to the United States and
has been the Pastor at St. Augustine Church, in Ossining since then. During
his time at St. Augustine, Monsignor has enhanced the beauty of the existing
church, which overlooks the Hudson River; he was instrumental in creating the
truly breathtaking outdoor Stations of the Cross (the largest of its kind in the
world). A place where people come from near and far to meditate and pray.
2000 Under Monsignor Franco's stewardship, the parish has doubled in
size.
With the help of a donation by a parish couple,
Monsignor was able to acquire a 40 acre farm, 2 1/2 hours north of Ossining,
where he will create a Drug Rehabilitation facility.
In the first half of the year two important events took
place: St. Augustine parish was blessed with the reappointment of Monsignor
Franco to another 6 year term as the Pastor of our church, and the Monsignor celebrated
his 45th Anniversary as a priest.
Monsignor Franco is also a judge in the Court
of Appeals in the Metropolitan Tribunal for the entire State of New York.
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