By Amanda Hudson, News Editor
ROCKFORD—The Holy Name Society at St. Anthony of Padua Parish celebrated its 80th anniversary with Mass followed by a breakfast and installation of 2026 officers on Jan. 11 at the church.
Bishop David Malloy celebrated the Mass for the 110-member group of men that is part of a national association that spans societies across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The Holy Name Society at St. Anthony Parish also goes beyond the parish, welcoming Catholic men from the area, including its newest member who is from Rockford but moved to Indiana for work.
“He wanted to join (us) anyway,” says St. Anthony society president, David Stafford, who adds that its oldest member, Joseph Montalbano, is right about 100 years old. Stafford says he himself joined the society about three years ago and finds that being with the men and “all they do and the time they give … makes me a better person.”
The Holy Name Society is known for its support of the parish including through fundraising events like chicken pasta dinners and gaming nights. The men provide “financial or physical help, whatever is needed,” Stafford says, adding that meeting records going back to its founding in 1946 show how the group has contributed and supported parish life over the years. “We once bought the nuns a car!” he says of the archived newsletter information from 1960.
But there is an even more important spiritual focus to the Holy Name Society. It traces its origins back to the 13th century when Pope Gregory X tasked the Dominicans with promoting devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus. In the early 15th century, the “Society of the Holy Name of God” was founded and later joined with the “Confraternity of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.” Finally, in 1727, Pope Benedict XIII merged them under the name “The Confraternity of the Most Holy Names of God and Jesus,” which is its present, formal name.
The National Association of the Holy Name Society states that the confraternity “promotes reverence for the Sacred Names of God and Jesus Christ, obedience and loyalty to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, and the personal sanctification and holiness of its members.” The society also calls members to “lead their families, friends, and coworkers to Christ Jesus by their acts of charity and piety.”
In his homily, Bishop Malloy noted that his own father was a member of the Holy Name Society at their Wisconsin parish. He recalled memories of his father “sitting (up front) with the Holy Name folks on that monthly basis.”
The bishop said that such parish groups “encourage the practice of the faith” and also provide “that sense of fraternity, that sense of unity that comes from faith.” The bishop bemoaned that such fraternities and communities have “disappeared from so many places and so many parishes” to the loss of “that fellowship, that sharing that really helps others, at times inspires others, at times corrects others … We need that.”
The Holy Name Society held its first meeting at St. Anthony of Padua Parish on March 6, 1946. Society members continue today to grow in faith in part through pilgrimages — most recently to the Poor Clares Monastery — and an annual retreat — such as last year’s one-day retreat that was open to all parishioners and featured Poor Clare extern Sister Seraphim.
Members of the society prayerfully gather more spontaneously at times, Stafford says, mentioning 30 men who came together for Mass on the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, processed in as a group and after Mass went to dinner together. Others have gathered on Christmas and Easter to simply pray the rosary together.
Stafford says he gains from the fact that the men “bond together and expand our faith together.”
St. Anthony Parish’s society usually meets monthly on the second Sundays at the 8 a.m. Mass followed by a business meeting and breakfast. For more information, call the parish office.
“That fellowship, that sharing that really helps others, at times inspires others, at times corrects others … We need that.”
—Bishop David Malloy
