Soul physician: As retirement nears, daily Mass remains a constant for Father Whatley

Note: Six priests of the Archdiocese of Baltimore who have combined for nearly 300 years of ministry will be retiring July 1. The Review profiles the six as their parishes bid them farewell.

“You know how they fill your mouth with stuff and (then) monopolize the conversation?”

A trip to the dentist’s office was what Father Christopher J. Whatley recalled as he described the first perceptible stirrings of his vocation to the priesthood.

He was in his later high school years, and the “maze” of chemistry had convinced him that he would not become a pediatrician, his original objective. Brooklyn Preparatory School in New York City was famous for producing men with futures, and the young Whatley had described his uncertainty regarding his own just before his mouth became crammed with improbable items.

“Why don’t you become a physician of souls?” the dentist queried, apparently not expecting an answer.

“Quite frankly, I didn’t know what he was talking about,” recalled Father Whatley, now 81 and set to retire as pastor of St. Mark in Catonsville July 1.

He said that he went and met his friends at a subway station and “forgot about it.”

Father Whatley grew up in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens, which he described as both multicultural and “bucolic.” The street grid was there in the 1930s and 1940s, but clusters of blocks remained unspoken for, he explained. Many were wooded, and some offered informal or hidden venues for neighborhood activities, such as sledding – at “the Hill” – and football games.

According to Father Whatley, who still serves as chaplain of the Baltimore Ravens, the latter were “sandlot” level, and yet the participants wore leather helmets and were sufficiently organized to square off by block.

“94th Street would play 95th, or 94th and 95th would play 96th and 97th,” he said.  

Religion was integrated into his life, such that he speaks of it with no sense of novelty.

“I can see my mother kneeling at her dresser, on which she had a statue of the Blessed Mother,” Father Whatley said. “I saw her do that as a child. As a high school student, coming home for a rare night, I saw it, and after I was ordained, she was still doing that.”

His father, a banker, had lost his job during the Great Depression and traveled around the city with other men to get work where possible. Father Whatley recalled that his father always spoke fondly of the Franciscan friars who lived near Grand Central Station and had fed him lunch many times during those hard years.

In addition to the Jesuits who educated him, Father Whatley greatly admired the priests of Blessed Sacrament in Jackson Heights, his home parish.

“Top-flight men,” he recalled

He entered the Jesuit novitiate with the intent to “give it a shot.”

The elder Whatley was uncertain of his son’s decision but told him: “You made this choice, and I’ll pray that it’s successful. But if it’s not for you, you get out and you come home.”

Father Whatley would not return home for seven years, when he was assigned to teach at Xavier High School in Manhattan in July 1964. During his second week teaching, his father had the first of several strokes; he died the following September.

“I gave serious consideration to leaving (the Jesuits),” Father Whatley said, “not because I was unhappy, but because what was my mom going to do? They had been married for 31 years, and she didn’t work during that time.”

He underestimated her. She found work at Brooks Brothers in Manhattan, coordinating appointments for the well-to-do businessmen who came in for fittings and measurements and plying them with Irish tea sandwiches (which may have helped bolster the shop’s bottom line via overall fabric sales).

“She got some wonderful Christmas gifts from those characters – I’ll tell you that,” Father Whatley said.

The simple community spirit of his formative years has pervaded Father Whatley’s ministry, culminating in the great joy of his priesthood – celebrating Mass “with a congregation.”

He was ordained at Fordham University in June 1970, and described his first Mass at Xavier High School as “profound.”

“The next day, I’m standing at the altar in the high school I taught at,” he said. “I had my family, my friends, and a couple of priests there. This is a group of people united by family love and love for the faith, praying together. It’s the most important part of our Catholic faith, and I think we’ve kind of lost that.”

Father Whatley loves the Mass. It captivates him.

“How can transforming the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ be boring?” he said. “It’s boring because you haven’t taken the time to ponder what’s going on there.”

He had plenty of time – nearly three decades – to ponder the faculties imbued to him at ordination before he exercised them as a pastor.

In addition to teaching at Xavier, Father Whatley taught and counseled at Loyola Blakefield in Towson, and served as guidance counselor and assistant to the president at Gonzaga Prep in Washington, D.C., where he helped establish the school’s football field.

A typical Jesuit, he is very well educated, with master’s degrees in classical languages and in counseling to round out the weighty religious credentials.

He taught theology, Latin, Greek and, later, Advanced Placement psychology. He has coached freshman football, junior varsity baseball, and middle school basketball.

From 1986 to 1992, Father Whatley lived independently under the authority of the Maryland Jesuits and put his counseling skills to use with at-risk youth. He substituted for vacationing or traveling pastors during weekends, and two Sundays a month he celebrated Mass at the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women in Jessup, a duty he came to cherish and one of his fondest memories.

“It gave me a totally different outlook on people who I would consider criminals,” he said. “When I left, I saw them more as confused, and I saw signs of how the mercy of God can work in an individual.”

Father Whatley came to know the Archdiocese of Baltimore. His close friend, Jesuit Father Thomas Roach, introduced him to his brother, Father Michael Roach, pastor of St. Bartholomew in Manchester. He met more Baltimore archdiocesan priests.

It was the draw of the congregation that ultimately led Father Whatley to parish priesthood. He met with Bishop P. Francis Murphy, auxiliary bishop of Baltimore, on a monthly basis and in 1992 began the five-year incardination process to become a priest of the Baltimore Archdiocese.

Before becoming pastor of St. Mark, Father Whatley served associate pastorships at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Essex and Sacred Heart in Glyndon. He touted the then-pastors of those respective parishes, Monsignor Joseph L. Luca and Monsignor Lloyd E. Aiken, for their mentorship and support.

“Both those men made those years very, very easy for me,” Father Whatley said.

Throughout Father Whatley’s pastorship, daily Mass has been his sustenance.

“I call the people who come ‘the prayer warriors,’” he said. “I tell them, ‘You have to pray for this person, or that person,’ and I know that they pray. I have seen the result.”

Father Whatley has also seen the fruits of his parishioner’s support for St. Mark School, the parish pre-K-8 institution.

He commends his parishioners’ commitment to social justice, which he called “their strongest characteristic.” The social justice subcommittee joins in an ecumenical effort with other Catonsville churches to serve a surprising number.

“People see the big homes, but there are many very needy people around here,” Father Whatley said, noting that the social justice group collects toiletries and clothing for the nearby men’s shelter, among other charitable acts.

His personal affinity for Our Daily Bread Employment Center in Baltimore, which has served meals to those in need for 38 years, stems from generational gratitude that the Franciscans cultivated via his father.

“My parish always does a great job with the casseroles,” Father Whatley said.

In retirement, he plans to re-establish his train garden and keep his mind and spirit active.

“I just don’t think I have gone through Scripture as much as I would like to,” he said, adding that he is currently working his way through the New Testament in the original Greek and also hopes to revisit the Old Testament.

“This is the word inspired by the Holy Spirit centuries ago, and it still gives meaning for today,” he said. “The way that the Bible holds together is incredible.”

Beyond that, Father Whatley will “live life one day at a time.”

Father Whatley will celebrate his final Sunday Mass as pastor of St. Mark June 20 at 11 a.m. 

Also see

Father William Au, pastor of the Shrine of the Sacred Heart, is set to retire

Father Demek retires after nearly 50 years as a priest

Father Gills retires after a ministry that took him around the world and around the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Father Foley, pastor to retired priests, set to retire himself

‘Unflappable’ pastor who shepherded major parish projects ready to retire

Approaching retirement, Monsignor Barker reflects on shepherding one of the largest parishes in the Archdiocese of Baltimore

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