30 Years Later, ‘Uncle Ed’ Answers Call to Priesthood

PHILADELPHIA —  Edmund John Maher--Uncle Ed for short--is steeped in history. He made it, taught it, is living it.

He made it by being the first baby born in Brooklyn many New Years’ mornings ago.

He taught it in the Philadelphia school system for almost 30 years.

He’s living it by being the oldest seminarian “in living memory” to study for the priesthood in the 115-year history of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Lower Merion.

How old is Uncle Ed?

Let him give you an idea.

“A few years ago, on the 20th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination, I was sitting around the table with seven classmates having lunch. I asked if any of them could remember exactly where they were the moment they heard the president was shot.

“They just looked at me. Six said they weren’t even born, and the seventh was only 2 years old. That’s when it hit home.”

Maher was born in the wee hours of Jan. 1, 1929. But the age gap doesn’t bother him a bit. In fact, he calls his current activity a “unique experience.”

Jolting Sight in the Mirror

“Few men get the opportunity to live their young adult life over again,” said Maher. “But here I am, acting, living, studying like someone 25, 26 years old. I see all these young faces all day, I forget who I am. It’s a rude awakening, though, when I look in the mirror in the morning to shave. It’s really quite an experience.”

It’s an experience for which Maher waited 30 years.

Maher was 12 when his parents and three younger sisters moved from New York to the Lawndale section of Philadelphia. After graduating from Northeast Catholic High School in 1947, he entered the priesthood for the first time. He stayed only four years.

“I didn’t think I had the vocation,” Maher said. “I didn’t think I had a calling to the priesthood. I was out for a year or so when I realized I did.”

But it was “humanly impossible” for him to return to his priestly studies.

“Family necessities, finances, necessitated I be the breadwinner,” said Maher. “But I never had any doubt that someday I would return. I didn’t know how God would work it out, but I knew He would. I always had the call.”

Unable to answer that call immediately, Maher turned to teaching history in junior high schools, a job that lasted almost 30 years.

He also became a volunteer director at city summer camps, a position that also lasted 30 years. In addition, he became deeply involved with various Catholic groups and organizations. “I was serving people,” said Maher. “That’s all I wanted to do.”

Retired as Teacher

Finally, in September, 1983, after the deaths of his parents years earlier and after his retirement as a teacher, Maher switched from teaching history to learning theology.

“With God’s help,” he’ll be ordained in May 1988.

But Maher’s age, combined with his slight paunch and white crew cut, have led people to think he’s already ordained. Some have mistaken him for a priest, a monsignor, even a bishop. And a few times visitors thought he was the seminary’s rector.