Saying good-bye to Father Murrin

Funeral services for Father Murrin were held Nov. 4 at the Liberty-based parish, where he had served as a priest in residence since 2015. He died Oct. 27 in Houston after an extended illness.

Bishop Guillory and Father Paul Kahan, SVD, served as celebrant and homilist at the funeral Mass. They took turns remembering Father Murrin and in turn made parishioners laugh as well as lament their beloved “Father Don.”

“I went to visit him in Pine Bluff some years ago in Arkansas,” Father Kahan said during his homily. “He told me he just heard the Spanish Mass at St. Peter, his parish. The problem was he didn’t even speak one word of Spanish at that time.”

Father Murrin, ordained as a member of the Society of the Divine Word in 1960, went on to become fluent in Spanish, celebrating Masses, baptisms and other sacraments with the Hispanic community.

Bishop Guillory’s closing words echoed Father Kahan’s sentiments about Father Murrin’s drive to serve people — the mark of a good missionary.

“He was able to work and adjust no matter where he was sent,” Bishop Guillory said. “He was at home in the South Side of Chicago, rural Mississippi, and here in Liberty.”

Funeral services will also be held for him Nov. 7 at 10 a.m. at St. Augustine Church in Bay St. Louis, Miss., with burial to follow at the church’s cemetery.