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December 17, 2020James Arthur Garvey was born on Dec. 19, 1897, in either Atchison, Kan., or Fargo, N.D., depending on which source someone chooses to believe. Regardless of the location of his nativity, he was raised in El Reno and, thus, firmly rooted in the Oklahoma soil.
Ordained a priest in 1918 by Bishop Meerschaert, he began his career in the normal fashion being named an assistant pastor at Bartlesville and later Enid (the term associate pastor wasn’t used until the 1960s). In 1920, he was named pastor of Duncan and served there until his appointment as the newly created superintendent of Associated Catholic Charities in 1926. Bishop Kelley sought a more unified effort as diocesan charities consisted of Saint Joseph’s Orphanage (greatly expanded during monsignor’s tenure) dedicated in October of 1912, and a few cottages for the aged as well as a nursery for infants.
Bishop Kelley wanted his priests (even those in diocesan offices) to be a pastor of a parish, and Holy Angels in Oklahoma City was erected in 1926. Obviously, a gifted priest, he became the founding pastor as he was beginning to develop the Associated Catholic Charities program.
Father Garvey (later monsignor in 1944) began a program to fully develop services based on the social teachings of the Catholic faith. He began in earnest by starting an independent infant care center in 1927 that later morphed into Our Lady of Victory Nursery and Maternity Clinic in 1937.
The pressing need for senior care was met with Saint Vincent’s Home (1946) and Saint Ann’s Home (1950), which he did not live to see. His health began to fail as he suffered his first heart attack in 1948. The Southwest Courier reported in his obituary: “Following his release (from the hospital), he plunged once again into the work of Catholic Charities with undiminished fervor, expending his strength and his tremendous nervous energy in unceasing effort to further the activities of the Catholic Charities in the diocese.”
That same article stated beautifully: “During the 23 years that he served as superintendent of Catholic Charities, his zeal for the unfortunates was a flaming torch that ultimately consumed him.”
Monsignor Garvey left this life on Nov. 30, 1949, as a faithful servant and champion of the poor.
