He was born at Everett’s Providence Hospital on Halloween of 1950. He played Little League baseball with Dennis Erickso
n
A Snohomish County native through and thro
ugh — that’s the Rev. Patrick Conroy.
A Catholic priest and member of the Jesuit order, Conroy is the new chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives.
“Nobody saw this coming,” Conroy said Friday from his office in the U.S. Capitol. “My ministry has been rather eclectic. It wasn’t a beeline career.”
Conroy was sworn in May 25, becoming only the second Catholic and first Jesuit to serve as House chaplain. The 60-year-old Conroy follows the Rev. Daniel Coughlin, who retired after 11 years as the first Roman Catholic priest to have the role.
A former chaplain at Georgetown University, Conroy also worked at Seattle University and, in the 1980s, on the Colville and Spokane Indian reservations.
The job he most recently left couldn’t have been more different than his new post. Since 2003, Conroy had been at Jesuit High School in Portland, Ore. He was the school’s leader, but also taught ninth-grade religion and was assistant coach of a softball team — “the Mighty JV II girls.”
Before being chosen, Conroy had an extensive interview with the staffs of House Speaker John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The House leaders both attended a second interview. Boehner is a graduate of Xavier University, a Jesuit school in Cincinnati.
Conroy was offered the job in early May. “When I got a phone call from The Associated Press, I told them, ‘I can’t talk right now, I’m getting ready for a softball game,’ ” he said Friday.
The chaplaincy dates to our country’s beginnings. In 1789, the first Congress chose the Rev. William Lynn, a Presbyterian, as official chaplain of the House. In modern times, the average tenure has been about 20 years. “It’s my job to lose or to retire from,” Conroy said.
According to a House document, the constitutionality of the chaplain role has been upheld in Supreme Court decisions “based on precedent and tradition.”
What will Conroy do? He won’t talk politics, that’s not part of the job.
“I say the opening prayer for every working session of Congress,” he said. There are prayer breakfasts, memorial events and blessings. Conroy recently attended a tree planting ceremony in memory of the late Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania.
During the job interview, Conroy said he was asked about his ministry experience, and if he was comfortable praying in mixed religious groups. And the subject of child sex abuse wasn’t ignored.
Conroy said Friday he was asked about a recent settlement with people who had filed claims of sexual abuse by the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus.
Conroy belongs to the Jesuit order, which filed for bankruptcy in 2009. The bankruptcy and settlement “stem from, among other things, child-abuse accusations on the Colville Indian Reservation where I have served six years,” he said Friday. “The abuses occurred back in the 1960s and ’70s, before I was ever on the reservation.”
The son of Ruth and Stanley Conroy — his late father was an Everett attorney — he attended Everett’s Immaculate Conception School until third grade. He moved to Virginia with his mother after his parents divorced in 1958, then returned to finish school at Snohomish High.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from California’s Claremont McKenna College, and attended Gonzaga University Law School for a year before entering the Jesuit order in 1973. He finished law school at Gonzaga before being ordained in 1983. He holds master’s degrees in philosophy and divinity.
His brother, Edmonds attorney Stephen Conroy, his wife, Rosemary, and their two daughters attended the swearing-in ceremony. “A House member introduced him as Father Pat Conroy from Snohomish, Washington,” Stephen Conroy said. “It’s a big, big deal.”
“He’s really perfect for the job,” Rosemary Conroy said. She added that her brother-in-law had pored over a book with House members’ pictures. “Before he was sworn in, he had memorized all these names — 435 members.”
When the House chaplain thinks of Snohomish County, he envisions the snow-capped Cascade Range on one horizon and the Olympics on the other. He remembers friends from Snohomish High School, “the friendliness of everybody.”
Now, with an incredible opportunity, he’s happy where he is.
“The East and West are very different,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed both.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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