Hard-working and faithful priest, beloved brother and uncle
Monsignor ShowfetyGREENSBORO — Monsignor Joseph Showfety, a founding father of the Diocese of Charlotte, passed away peacefully March 24, 2025, at Pennybyrn at Maryfield in High Point. He was 98.
Known for his industriousness and sense of humor, Monsignor Showfety played a key role in building the foundation of the Charlotte diocese from its start in 1972 as its first chancellor. One of North Carolina’s first native-born priests, he passed up an opportunity to play professional baseball to serve the Church for nearly 70 years, calling the priesthood “the greatest vocation in the world.” And as a child of immigrants who attended an integrated parish, he had a strong sense of fairness and cared for people.
“His attitude and work ethic brought about a lot of the things that we presently have in this diocese,” says Father Ed Sheridan, his close friend and former colleague. “He was very, very good at what he did, from his role as chancellor to his work as a priest and as pastor of the parishes he led.”
Funeral arrangements
A public visitation will be from 1 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 1, 2025, at Hanes Lineberry Funeral Home, 515 N. Elm St., Greensboro, NC 27401. A prayer service will be held at 7 p.m., followed by the family welcoming guests until 9 p.m.
The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 2, 2025, at his home parish of St. Benedict Church in Greensboro, the parish where he grew up and once served as pastor. Bishop Michael Martin, OFM Conv., will preside and Father Edward Sheridan will be homilist. A reception will follow the Mass in the parish center. A private burial will follow at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Greensboro.
The Mass will be livestreamed on the Diocese of Charlotte’s YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/DioceseOfCharlotte.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to: St. Benedict Catholic Church, 109 W. Smith St., Greensboro, NC 27401; or to Pennybyrn, 109 Penny Road, High Point, NC 27260.
Hanes Lineberry Funeral Home of Greensboro is in charge of the arrangements.
RESERVED FOR PRIESTHOOD
Young Joseph Showfety, pictured here with the Greensboro High School baseball team, turned down a chance to play professionally. Since the third grade, he knew he wanted to be a priest.Joseph Stephen Showfety was born on Jan. 5, 1927, in Greensboro, one of five children of Abdou and Edna Showfety. His parents were devout Catholics who had fled from Lebanon as children, then married and settled in Greensboro, where his father ran a successful clothing store downtown.
The family attended St. Benedict Church, the oldest Catholic church in Greensboro, and it was there young Joseph first felt called to be a priest.
The Showfetys lived just a few blocks away from St. Benedict’s on Chestnut Street. When he was in the third grade, Joseph memorized the Latin prayers and responses so he could serve Mass. Nearly every morning, he walked to the church to serve the 7 a.m. Mass, returned home for breakfast, then went to school.
The Daughters of Charity who ran St. Benedict Elementary School sensed he had a vocation, though classmates did not. The nuns admonished the girls, telling them not to flirt with Joseph Showfety – he was reserved for the priesthood.
The young Showfety loved playing sports – especially basketball and baseball – and at Greensboro (now Grimsley) High School, he became a star outfielder for the Whirlies. But not even an opportunity to play professionally in the minor leagues could change his mind about becoming a priest.
Graduating as World War II ended, he enrolled at The Citadel, then served 16 months in the U.S. Navy. Afterward, he attended seminary at Mount Saint Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and St. Mary’s in Baltimore.
Over the summers, he did mostly “census work” – visiting parishioners’ homes and updating the parish rolls. It was grueling work in the summer heat, especially in the black serge cassocks they wore at the time, but the young seminarian didn’t mind.
On May 19, 1955, he was ordained by Bishop Vincent Waters at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Raleigh.
‘DO-IT-YOURSELF KIND OF GUY’
Newly ordained Father Showfety gives his first priestly blessing to his parents, Edna and Abdou Showfety, after offering his first Solemn High Mass May 22, 1955, at Our Lady of Grace Church in Greensboro.From the start, Father Showfety was a hard-working, no-nonsense, detail-oriented priest – demonstrating the same work ethic his immigrant parents and the nuns at St. Benedict had instilled in him growing up.
“He was always a do-it-yourself kind of guy – if something had to be done, he was going to do it,” says his brother Bob, 90.
Nearly everywhere he served, Father Showfety oversaw construction or renovations.
In a 2016 interview, he recalled an early assignment where he arrived to find $1.73 in the church bank account. When he left, he described with satisfaction, the parish had a couple of thousand.
In 1959, only four years after ordination, he helped open Bishop McGuinness High School (then in Winston-Salem), serving as its first director while teaching three classes a day.
Later in his ministry, he returned to St. Benedict’s as pastor, revitalizing the struggling parish – repairing the crumbling steeples and leaky roof and shoring up the finances. In three years, the congregation grew by half to 150 families. And in 2000, the parish opened a new fellowship hall, dedicated to Monsignor Showfety’s parents who so loved the parish.
He was also fair and played by the rules, colleagues and family members recount.
His first parish assignment was the now-closed Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Newton Grove, where a church for black Catholics and a church for white Catholics on the same block were served by the same priests and nuns. Bishop Waters had ordered the two churches to integrate, and some parishioners left.
Having grown up at St. Benedict’s, which had welcomed black Catholics since its opening in 1899, young Father Showfety found the segregated situation distasteful and worked to bring people together.
DIOCESE’S FIRST CHANCELLOR
Monsignor Showfety (left) served as master of ceremonies for diocesan liturgies with Bishop Michael Begley, here pictured outside St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte.Over nearly five decades of active ministry until his retirement in 2002, he served at 12 parishes in North Carolina, at St. Benedict as well as in Asheville, Belmont, Charlotte, Concord, Elizabethtown, Hendersonville, High Point, Wilmington and Winston-Salem. He also was spiritual director of the now-closed Our Lady of the Hills Camp near Hendersonville and principal of the former Asheville Catholic High School.
Yet it was as the diocese’s first chancellor, from 1972 to 1979, that his impact resounds the most today.
In late 1971, Pope Paul VI approved dividing North Carolina into two roughly equal dioceses, carving the Charlotte diocese out of the statewide Raleigh diocese. The new Charlotte diocese’s
Bishop-elect Michael Begley chose Father Showfety as his second-in-command.
He was serving at Immaculate Conception Parish in Hendersonville at the time. The day he learned of his new post – Dec. 3, 1971 – he had just finished shoveling a path through a record 15-inch snowfall so people could get to First Friday Mass. The rectory phone rang. It was Bishop-elect Begley calling: “I want you to be chancellor.”
Father Showfety replied, “I want to build a new church in Hendersonville.” Bishop Begley answered, “I know you do. It’ll be built, but not by you. I want you in Charlotte.”
As chancellor, he would be responsible for the diocese’s day-to-day business operations and finances.
For six weeks, he shuttled between Charlotte and Raleigh to set everything up in time for the new diocese’s birthday: Jan. 12, 1972.
The operations of the entire Church in North Carolina had to be split down the middle – from parishes and clergy assignments to property deeds and bank accounts. It was a lot for only six people to do: two bishops, two chancellors and two attorneys.
He later recalled spending three days just transferring car titles at the DMV. “The police in that office asked me if I lived there,” he chuckled.
That good humor and work ethic set the tone for his seven years as chancellor – a role he felt deeply privileged to have and worked diligently to fulfill.
BISHOP’S ‘RIGHT-HAND MAN’
Setting up a diocese was new to both the bishop and his chancellor. Supported by the priests and the people of the diocese, they grew into their roles and forged close bonds serving side-by-side – traveling around the 46 counties of the diocese and working in a small house next to the new cathedral that they converted into an office.
As chancellor and master of ceremonies, Monsignor Showfety was Bishop Begley’s “right-hand man,” recalls Father Sheridan, who served alongside them as the diocese’s first schools superintendent. “He was very, very good at what he did. If Monsignor had not been a priest, he would have been an extremely good businessman.”
Bishop Emeritus Peter Jugis, who as a young priest served with Monsignor Showfety at St. Leo the Great Parish, noted his deep respect for Bishop Begley.
He recalls Monsignor Showfety’s “evident joy” at St. Leo Parish’s dedication of the Bishop Begley Activity Center in 1991. Everyone, including Monsignor Showfety, had worked hard on the project, and naming it in Bishop Begley’s honor in part “demonstrated Monsignor’s deep personal respect and connection with Bishop Begley.”
‘A TIRELESS GUY’
Monsignor Showfety loved large family gatherings. No matter where he was serving, he always made it home for Christmas, and “Uncle Joe” always had a gift for his 16 nieces and nephews. He also loved talking with others about his faith and the history of the diocese. (Photo provided by Annie Ferguson) Fellow priests saw firsthand the effort Monsignor Showfety put into making sure things ran smoothly for everyone caught up in the daunting, exciting experience of building a diocese.
He formed the diocese’s first finance council, negotiated health insurance coverage for clergy and staff, and structured a process for parish building projects.
“He was the right guy for the job,” says Father Frank O’Rourke, who served with him for decades. “He had both the priestly heart and was able to bring a good business background to the job, a well-respected man who took on a vast number of responsibilities. He was a tireless guy who put a lot of effort into everything he did.”
“It was a historic time,” says Monsignor John McSweeney, the first priest ordained for the diocese. “The Second Vatican Council had just happened and we were a new diocese – everything was new to us.”
In 1974, Monsignor Showfety secured a new diocesan headquarters on Morehead Street in Charlotte, moving operations from the small house next to the cathedral.
That was one of Monsignor Showfety’s proudest moments, Monsignor McSweeney recalls. “I well remember his excitement when he found that building … He wasn’t so much excited about the building, but about the fact that it gave our people a place to work.”
Besides all the other firsts he was a part of, he was among the diocese’s first “prelates of honor” appointed by Pope Paul VI in 1976, conferring on him the title of monsignor.
It was meant to be a surprise, but that day – as on most days – he was the one to open the mail. He couldn’t help but see the letter from Rome, he recalled later with a laugh, and he had to feign surprise when Bishop Begley made the announcement that afternoon.
One of the final projects Monsignor Showfety was involved in as chancellor was renovating St. Patrick Cathedral in 1979 to accommodate changes called for by Vatican II.
He rejected a plan to swap out the pews for folding chairs and the marble altar for a portable one, and instead had a new pipe organ installed and oversaw the design of one of the cathedral’s most remarkable features: the painted ribbed ceiling that still wows visitors today with its blue and silver motif of Eucharistic symbols and a crown and cross reflecting the diocese’s coat of arms.
‘HIS DOOR WAS ALWAYS OPEN’
Priest friends agree Monsignor Showfety cared deeply for his fellow priests and the people of the diocese, and it showed.
“Monsignor Showfety was always at his desk from early in the morning to late at night; his door was always open,” says Father Paul Gary. “As soon as a call arrived asking for a priest to visit a sick or dying parishioner, which was often, he would respond without any hesitation. He would say that if you took care of the sick, they would take care of you.”
“He always wanted to make sure he listened to people, to hear what the people of God had to say,” says Monsignor McSweeney. “He was very serious about always trying to do what was right when it came to how the Church should be. And he was very interested in the life of the priests. He was helpful to me when I was beginning my priesthood, and he wanted to make sure all of the priests had what they needed and were trying to do the best they could.”
As chancellor, Monsignor Showfety worked with Bishop Begley to develop educational programs for the diocese’s priests, and he was proud of setting up a priest retirement fund.
In 2006, he set aside his own money for the benefit of the diocese’s priests, establishing two endowments in honor of his late parents: one for seminarian education, and the other to support retired priests.
“He told me he loved being a priest and he loved priests,” says Jim Kelley, the diocese’s development director. “He knew that priests were core to how we live our Catholic faith, and he wanted to do all he could to support men as they discerned the priesthood and then support them in retirement, in gratitude for all they did.”
BELOVED ‘UNCLE JOE’
Mother Edna Showfety often said the day her son was ordained a priest was the proudest day of her life. She always reserved a special chair for him at the dinner table for family gatherings on Sundays and holidays.Showfety family members remember Monsignor Showfety’s good humor, and his love of his priestly ministry and his faith.
“He was the greatest teaser in the world,” says sister Evelyn Showfety Johns, now 102. “He was fun, and as a child the typical brother to me, the only sister in the family.”
To his 16 nieces and nephews, Monsignor Showfety was simply “Uncle Joe.”
“He was super, he was funny, he was friendly, he was vivacious,” says nephew Rob Showfety.
While it was a special thing to have a priest in the family, he’ll always treasure the times spent with Uncle Joe. “We threw the baseball, went to the beach, played golf, watched sports, talked sports. The privilege for us as a group of cousins was such to know him as a man and as our uncle.”
Niece Carol Ann Johns fondly recalls Uncle Joe teasing her every year on her birthday, June 6 – the same day an elaborate celebration had been planned for his graduation from seminary.
Driving back to Greensboro with his parents, she said, “the minute they got back in town, his brother Ray told them they had to get to the hospital because his sister Evelyn, my mother, was about to give birth to me. From that day on every June 6, whether we were together or over the phone he would tell me, ‘You stole my thunder!’”
Monsignor Showfety became a father figure to her, she says, supporting and guiding her.
She recalls one summer working as a counselor at Our Lady of the Hills Camp, when he was spiritual director. A close friend was getting married and she had no way to get to the wedding in Greensboro, so Uncle Joe bought her a plane ticket from Asheville to Greensboro – “my first time on a plane.”
Monsignor Showfety appreciated his family’s Lebanese roots, and in later years he relished weekly trips to a local Lebanese-owned restaurant. Yet his faith was never far from his mind, and he enjoyed deep discussions with family and friends – happy to talk theology over meals with restaurant staff and fellow customers.
“He was like a walking Catholic encyclopedia – even in a restaurant, he would be answering questions,” niece Carol Ann says.
“He loved being a priest and was extremely proud of his role in the formation of the Charlotte diocese,” says nephew Rob. “He loved talking about its history, its beginnings and also the growth of the Catholic population in western North Carolina.”
Monsignor Showfety is survived by two of his four siblings: Robert (Bob) E. Showfety of Atlanta and his wife Mary, and sister Evelyn Showfety Johns of Tennessee; and 15 nieces and nephews.
He was predeceased by his parents; two of his brothers, Michel Showfety and Raymond Showfety; and a niece, Mary Patricia Showfety.
— Christina Lee Knauss, Annie Ferguson and Patricia L. Guilfoyle
Five decades of service
- May 19, 1955: Ordained by Raleigh Bishop Vincent Waters
- 1955-2002: Served at the following parishes: Our Lady of Guadalupe, Newton Grove; St. Mary’s, Wilmington; Our Lady of the Snows, Elizabethtown; Our Lady of Fatima, Winston-Salem; Immaculate Conception, Hendersonville; St. Eugene, Asheville; St. James, Concord; St. Peter’s, Charlotte; Immaculate Heart of Mary, High Point; Queen of the Apostles Belmont; St. Leo the Great, Winston-Salem; and St. Benedict, Greensboro
- 1959: First Director, Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School (then located in Winston-Salem)
- 1963: Spiritual Director, Our Lady of the Hills Camp
- 1966: Principal, Asheville Catholic High School
- 1972-1979: Chancellor, Diocese of Charlotte
- 1972-2002: Served in additional key diocesan leadership roles, including: Vicar General, College of Consultors, Asheville Vicar, Seminarian Formation Committee
- 1976: Named Prelate of Honor by Pope Paul VI
- 2002: Retirement
Read more
- Monsignor Showfety celebrates his 65th jubilee
- Setting a foundation for the Diocese of Charlotte
- Parishioners restore Greensboro's oldest church to its original splendor
- Diocese's first chancellor celebrates his 60th anniversary of priesthood
What others remember about Monsignor Showfety
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What others remember about Monsignor Showfety
BOB SHOWFETY, Younger brother
His younger brother Bob Showfety, now 90 and living in Atlanta, recalls his brother’s strong dedication to his family, faith and schoolwork, and his love of sports, playing basketball and attracting attention as a star outfielder on the high school baseball team. He also adored the game of golf.
“Wherever he was located, he would find a local course and often go golfing with people in his parish,” he said.
Bob Showfety recalled that when his brother was released from the U.S. Navy at the end of World War II, the brother he knew as “Joe” received an offer to play professional baseball in the minor leagues at the same time he was considering seminary. The seminary won out, of course.
Bob Showfety called his brother a “good guy who went by the rules,” with a sense of humor that always shone through no matter what was going on.
“He was always a do-it-yourself kind of guy – if something had to be done, he was going to do it.”
CAROL ANN JOHNS, Niece
While he was Father or Monsignor Showfety to his parishioners and coworkers, to his many nieces and nephews he was “Uncle Joe.”
Carol Ann Johns said her special relationship with her Uncle Joe started on the day she was born. He had just graduated from St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, completing his studies for the priesthood, and was driving back to Greensboro with his parents, where an elaborate celebration had been planned.
“The minute they got back in town, his brother Ray told them they had to get to the hospital because his sister Evelyn, my mother, was about to give birth to me,” she said. “From that day on every June 6, whether we were together or over the phone he would tell me, ‘You stole my thunder!’”
That good-natured joke was a hallmark of his personality, she said – one that combined the holiness and intelligence of the priesthood with a constant sense of humor and fun.
Over the years Uncle Joe became a father figure in her life, guiding her and helping her along the way.
She was a counselor one summer at Our Lady of the Hills Camp in Hendersonville where he was the spiritual director. A close family friend was getting married, and she had no way to get to the wedding in Greensboro, so Uncle Joe bought her a plane ticket from Asheville to Greensboro – “my first time on a plane.”
She recalls beautiful, large family gatherings in Greensboro for Christmas. No matter what parish he was serving, Uncle Joe always made it home after celebrating Mass and always had a gift for every niece and nephew. “One year they were these adorable handmade sock puppets, and later on he would bring beautiful religious jewelry someone he knew made. I still have several of the pieces. He never forgot one of us.”
There were long, serious theological discussions with Uncle Joe while Johns was in Divinity School at Wake Forest University. Later in his life after he retired, he would also combine his heritage with his role as a priest by making weekly visit to a local Lebanese restaurant where he would enjoy a meal and talk theology with the workers and guests.
“He was like a walking Catholic encyclopedia – even in a restaurant he would be answering questions,” she said.
Johns now lives in Tennessee where she cares for her mother Evelyn, now 102, who recalled her brother’s keen sense of humor.
“He was the greatest teaser in the world,” said Evelyn said. “He was fun, and as a child the typical brother to me, the only sister in the family.”
ROB SHOWFETY, Nephew
Rob Showfety, who lives in Winston-Salem, has a whole list of adjectives to describe his Uncle Joe.
“He was super, he was funny, he was friendly, he was vivacious. And as a priest, he was also old-school and traditional. He loved being a priest and was extremely proud of his role in the formation of the Charlotte diocese. He loved talking about its history, its beginnings and also the growth of the Catholic population in western North Carolina.”
There were regular large family gatherings, including Sunday dinners at his grandmother’s, where special chairs were reserved for his grandfather – and for Uncle Joe.
“She always made sure one was left for him,” Showfety said. “She was known to have said that the proudest day of her life was when he became a priest.”
While it was a special thing to have a priest in the family, Showfety will always treasure the times he got to spend with him when he was just “Uncle Joe.”
“We threw the baseball, went to the beach, played golf, watched sports, talked sports,” he said. “The privilege for us as a group of cousins was such to know him as a man and as our uncle.”
Priests who worked alongside Monsignor Showfety during the early years of the Diocese of Charlotte after its establishment in 1972 say he was vitally important in his role as chancellor in building the diocese to what it is has become today:
FATHER EDWARD SHERIDAN
“He was very, very instrumental in setting up the diocese for all of us and especially for Bishop Begley – he was the right-hand man for Bishop Begley,” said Father Ed Sheridan, who served as the first superintendent of education. “If Monsignor had not been a priest, he would have been an extremely good businessman because he was extremely good in regard to the details, taking care of all the financial and material things that had to be done.”
Father Sheridan had an office near Monsignor Showfety and Bishop Begley when the first chancery was located in a house on Buchanan Street in the neighborhood near St. Patrick Cathedral. From there he got to see all the many things – from large to small – that his colleague in his role as chancellor had to take care of to make the diocese a reality.
“His attitude and work ethic brought about a lot of the things that we presently have in this diocese,” Father Sheridan said. “He was very, very good at what he did, from his role as chancellor to his work as a priest and as pastor of the parishes he led.”
MONSIGNOR JOHN MCSWEENEY
As the first priest ordained for the new Charlotte diocese in 1974, Monsignor John McSweeney witnessed the hard work Monsignor Showfety put into making sure that things ran smoothly for the diocesan priests – and for everyone else caught up in the daunting, exciting experience of building a diocese.
“It was a historic time – the Second Vatican Council had just happened and we were a new diocese – and he wasn’t quite sure of everything we were going to do, and neither was I – everything was new to us,” Monsignor McSweeney said. “He was very serious about always trying to do what was right when it came to how the Church should be. And he was very interested in the life of the priests. He was helpful to me when I was beginning my priesthood, and he wanted to make sure all of the priests had what they needed and were trying to do the best they could.”
As chancellor, Monsignor Showfety worked with Bishop Begley to develop a wide variety of educational programs for the priests, and also made himself available to help Monsignor McSweeney and other priests as they took on new roles as pastors.
The door of his office was always open to someone who needed assistance or guidance – from clergy to staff and the laity.
“He always wanted to make sure he listened to people, to hear what the people of God had to say,” Monsignor McSweeney said.
Day by day, month by month and year by year, Monsignor Showfety found joy in the progress the diocese was making as it grew. One of his proudest moments was purchasing a building on Morehead Street in downtown Charlotte that enabled the diocesan offices to move from the small house on Buchanan Street.
“I well remember his excitement when he found that building and we were able to buy it as a headquarters for the diocese,” Monsignor McSweeney said. “He wasn’t so much excited about the building, but about the fact that it gave our people a place to work.”
Through all the hard work, Monsignor Showfety’s love and concern for people and his pastoral side showed through.
“He was always a good person, and he treated everybody right,” Monsignor McSweeney said. “He was just a great guy who loved his priesthood, and he’s a part of the history of this diocese.”
FATHER FRANK O’ROURKE
As among the first 10 priests ordained for the Diocese of Charlotte, Father Frank O’Rourke well remembers the work Monsignor Showfety put in to get the new diocese up and running.
“He was a good priest who brought a lot to the job,” Father O’Rourke said. “He had both the priestly heart and was able to bring a good business background to the job, a well-respected man who took on a vast number of responsibilities. He was a tireless guy who put a lot of effort into everything he did.”
Ordained in 1975, Father O’Rourke recalls how well everything in the new diocese was running when he started his ministry in North Carolina, with offices newly established on Morehead Street and many departments up and running to serve the needs of the faithful.
Much of that could be credited to the work Monsignor Showfety did alongside Bishop Begley, he said. “Looking back, he was the right guy for the job.”
Younger priests also remember Monsignor Showfety as a mentor and role model for their own ministry:
FATHER MARK LAWLOR
When Father Mark Lawlor, pastor of St. Therese Parish in Mooresville, was first ordained to the priesthood in 1995, Monsignor Showfety sent him a letter that read: “Welcome to the greatest vocation in the world!”
That love for the priesthood and the support he offered to seminarians and priests are two of the things Father Lawlor will remember most about Monsignor Showfety. As a seminarian, he enjoyed meeting with Bishop Begley and Monsignor Showfety and listening to their stories about the early days of the diocese.
“He was truly a great leader in the diocese and left a great legacy, as well,” Father Lawlor said. “Monsignor Showfety was a hard-working priest who was very gracious to me and to other priests, and he was 100 percent dedicated to the Church.”
FATHER PAUL GARY
Father Paul Gary, now pastor of St. Luke Parish in Mint Hill, served under Monsignor Showfety from 1985 to 1988, when the elder priest was pastor of St. Leo the Great Parish in Winston-Salem.
“Monsignor Showfety was always at his desk from early in the morning to late at night. His door was always open,” Father Gary recalled. “As soon as a call arrived asking for a priest to visit a sick or dying parishioner, which was often, Monsignor would respond without any hesitation. He would say, if you took care of the sick, they would take care of you.
“As one of the original priests of the Diocese of Charlotte, Monsignor was well respected among the clergy. It was a great honor for me to serve with him as a young priest.”
Known for his strong work ethic, Monsignor Showfety built or renovated church properties wherever he was assigned, including one of his final efforts as chancellor of the diocese in 1979, when he led renovations at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte. Father Gary remembers one of Monsignor Showfety’s rebuilding initiatives:
“Monsignor was a builder. St. Leo’s Parish had nothing in the bank when Monsignor was assigned there – it was broke. In the ‘spirit of Vatican II,’ the church had been renovated and everything that was beautiful was taken out, leaving it bare. Monsignor was so frugal that he soon had enough to restore the church, little by little. The bell tower was the first on the list to be restored. Everyone noticed it at once when the bell began to ring again. Monsignor had a good relationship with Francis Gibbons of Baltimore, who had renovated St. Patrick Cathedral under Bishop Michael J. Begley. Gibbons came in and rebuilt the ambo using the discarded pieces of marble from the old altar. Major renovation of the church followed after I left.
“After the church was finished, Monsignor knocked down the old office and built a parish hall to encompass a new social hall, kitchen and offices. The new building (the Bishop Begley Activity Center) was dedicated to Bishop Begley, an old friend of Monsignor Showfety, who also served as pastor of St. Leo's before becoming the first Bishop of Charlotte.”
He added, “Monsignor Showfety would say that if the people liked how you used their money, they would continue to support the parish financially. When the parish hall was built, St. Leo's Church did not have to take out any loan from the Diocese of Charlotte. The parishioners, themselves, were allowed to loan St. Leo’s money, without interest, and all of it was paid back.”
BISHOP EMERITUS PETER JUGIS
I was Monsignor Showfety’s parochial vicar at St. Leo the Great Parish in Winston-Salem, and I was privileged to witness Monsignor Showfety’s evident joy at the festive dedication of the Bishop Begley Activity Center at St. Leo’s Church on Sept. 15, 1991. Monsignor and the parish had worked hard to bring this major capital project to completion, and we were all proud of the accomplishment. But why was the new building named in honor of Bishop Michael Begley? Besides being a beloved former pastor of the parish who later became bishop of the diocese, the naming of the activity center also demonstrated Monsignor’s deep personal respect and connection with Bishop Begley, who had chosen Monsignor to assist him in the governance of the diocese and serve as the first chancellor of the Diocese of Charlotte. Monsignor was happy to honor Bishop Begley in this way with the naming of the new parish center.”
Share your memories and condolences: To share messages of condolence for the Showfety family, go to https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/greensboro-nc/joseph-stephen-showfety-12296051.