St. Benedict’s 'free spirit' retires after 39 years as priest

By ETHAN HARTLEY

Reverend Roland Simoneau couldn’t quite explain how, but he has known since he was a little boy that he was meant to be a priest.

“The most significant day of my life was when I first received the Holy Eucharist,” he recalled. “I remember everything that happened that day. I don’t remember much about my ordination or many other things in my life, but that was it. That was the day I believe I received the call from God to be a priest.”

On Friday, his last official day after nearly 13 years as the reverend at St. Benedict’s Church on Beach Avenue in Warwick, and his last official day working full-time at a parish as an ordained priest of the Catholic faith, Father Simoneau reminisced on the path that led him to teaching the Gospel.

Originally from Central Falls, Father Simoneau attended high school in Sacred Heart Academy, where he had to overcome a difficulty that he once thought would end his aspirations of priesthood.

“You had to learn Latin and memorize it and know it, and I could not do that,” Father Simoneau said. “I had priests, brothers, nuns, friends sitting down with me and hours of hours of study and I could not remember the prayers and the words just never came together in my mind.”

Father Simoneau got through high school by taking typing classes instead of Latin, and then the cycle repeated at Our Lady of Providence Seminary in Warwick Neck, which required two semesters of college-level Latin. Again, Father Simoneau was unable to learn the language, but a benevolent instructor took mercy on him and gave him passing grades because of how much he believed in Father Simoneau’s potential as a priest.

By the time he got to major seminary, Vatican II had been enacted, and knowledge of Latin was no longer a stern requirement to become ordained. He was sent to college in Maryland to take two years of finite mathematics as a substitute, which Father Simoneau passed with flying colors.

Father Simoneau would only learn about a year and a half ago that the cause for all his learning issues with Latin was because he had sustained a major head injury after falling down stairs as a child, which formed a lesion on the part of his brain that deals with processing and understanding languages.

Despite the undiagnosed physical disability, Father Simoneau’s persistence paid off, and he was ordained as a priest on Sep 14, 1978 in the church of St. Anne’s in North Providence.

“I snuck by on the skin of my teeth because I think God just wanted me to be a priest,” he said.

For 38 years Father Simoneau took that opportunity and channeled it into his homilies and his teachings. He said that, although the Catholic faith has evolved over the course of his priesthood, he feels it is changing in a positive way, with more priests feeling as though they craft an individualized approach to teaching about Jesus.

“I don’t think the fundamentals have changed but the way people perceive it have changed. Also the way it’s presented has changed greatly, and I think for the better,” Father Simoneau said. “‘Catholic’ means ‘universal,’ and so universal acceptance of different ways of doing things is a healthy thing. Sticking to one myopic approach is really not Catholic.”

St. Benedict parishioner and Senate Majority Leader, Michael McCaffrey, concurred with the notion that Father Simoneau was a unique kind of priest.

“He often did things his own way,” McCaffrey said, adding that he did a lot of good for the parish during his tenure.

Father Simoneau said he values the lessons of Jesus Christ – and trying to have a relationship with him – above all else. He said if anybody in the world appears to have everything under control, then “you’ve found a phony.”

“No one has it all together,” he said. “That ain’t the way the world works. The world is broken, and Jesus loves us in our brokenness. It’s as simple as that.”

Others who have spent significant time around Father Simoneau speak highly of him.

“He’s so open and accessible. He really has a way of drawing people into the parish and bringing them closer to God,” said Camille Vella-Wilkinson, who represents Warwick in the state House of Representatives and is a parishioner at St. Benedicts.

“He takes care of his parishioners like family,” said office manager, Barbara DiLibero. “If he hears somebody is sick or there’s a death in the family, he cooks for them. If he hears somebody is sick, the pot is out and he’s making soup and he delivers it.”

Vella-Wilkinson described how Father Simoneau prepares an authentic Easter Seder, with a Hebrew prayer at the beginning, and how he paid for finishing touches to renovations to the church out of his own pocket to make the church more “homey” without spending outside of the church’s budget.

“This is the magnitude of this priest,” she said. “He’s phenomenal.”

Father Simoneau, however, maintains an authentic humility, and doesn’t plan on stopping his religious works just because he’s retiring.

“In retirement, I won’t have the burden of the administration but I will continue to do what God wants me to do,” he said. “I will continue to visit the hospitals, visit people at home, do my masses and my confessions where I’m needed.”

Father Simoneau said his time at St. Benedict is time he will always look back upon fondly.

“I love this parish in particular for many reasons,” he said. “When they’re in church, most of them, they really get it and they’re not bumps on a log. They participate. They get themselves into it and the more they do that the more I find myself energized and the better I am able to present what the Faith is about. I feed off the people.”

As items were cleared out from his office and his desk, Father Simoneau smiled and offered a parting piece of advice.

“Just be yourself and do the best you can, and God makes up for the rest,” he said. “Just be kind.”

St. Benedict and St. Kevin Churches have been collaborating and Father Robert Marciano will be conducting masses at St. Benedict.