Msgr. George Hancock celebrates Mass at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Grand Rivers in this undated photo. COURTESY OF ARCHIVES

Laid to rest at 102, Msgr. George Hancock was ‘everything you want in a priest’

BY ELIZABETH WONG BARNSTEAD, THE WESTERN KENTUCKY CATHOLIC

Fr. George Hancock in March 1953. COURTESY OF ARCHIVES

Msgr. George H. Hancock, a priest of the Diocese of Owensboro who died on Nov. 8 at the age of 102, was “the epitome of everything you want in a priest,” according to one of his longtime friends, Charlie Kamuf.

“He was absolutely one of the best persons that I have ever met,” said Kamuf, who spoke with The Western Kentucky Catholic on Nov. 16.

Kamuf was hired by Msgr. Hancock as the diocesan attorney in 1975, a role he serves to this day. Over the years, in working alongside him professionally and as a friend, Kamuf witnessed how Msgr. Hancock’s “main goal in life was to get more souls to Heaven.”

“Msgr. Hancock never retired,” said Kamuf. “(His) whole life was dedicated to make the world a better place.”

Tom Fusco, another longtime friend and as well as a parishioner, remembers when he first met Msgr. Hancock. The year was 1973, and then-Fr. Hancock pulled up in his Ford Falcon to minister to the Catholics in the Land Between the Lakes – who at that time didn’t have a parish within any reasonable distance.

“I said ‘You must be the guy saying Mass’ and he said ‘Yes I am’ and he said to give him a hand unloading the car,” said Fusco, in a Nov. 17 interview with The Western Kentucky Catholic.

Fusco said Msgr. Hancock was “a brilliant man – but also very approachable.”

“He was the greatest priest I’ve ever known,” said Fusco.

Path to priesthood

Msgr. Hancock was born on Feb. 2, 1919 in Waverly, the son of George Hiram Hancock and Virginia FreDella Fenwick. He attended grade and high school at St. Peter Parish in Waverly.

Msgr. George Hancock in an undated photo.

To get to school, young George Hancock and his little brother Franklin (whom he called “Bud”) and his little sister FreDella (known as “Freddie”) would take a horse and buggy to and from Waverly. They kept the horse at a neighbor’s house during the school day.

In The Western Kentucky Catholic’s February 2019 issue, which featured an interview with Msgr. Hancock on the occasion of his 100th birthday, he told the WKC that “From the time I was a little boy I wanted to be a priest,” reflecting that from all eternity, “there was an image in God’s mind that there was George Hancock, and he was going to be a priest.”

George graduated high school in 1937 – the same year that the Diocese of Owensboro was founded. (Prior to 1937, the Diocese of Louisville oversaw the territories in western Kentucky. In 1937, Louisville was elevated to an archdiocese, and the Diocese of Owensboro became its own entity.)

At the time, since the new diocese lacked funds to cover the cost of seminarian education as it does today, the young man would have to pay his way through seminary. A generous great-uncle stepped in to help George with the $300/year tuition costs.

He entered St. Meinrad Minor Seminary and went on to study philosophy and theology at the Catholic University of America. He did graduate work in church law at the Lateran University in Rome. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Owensboro by Bishop Francis R. Cotton at St. Stephen Cathedral on May 27, 1947.

Chancellor

His priestly assignments include associate pastor positions at Sts. William and Lawrence Parishes in Daviess County, and Sts. Joseph and Paul Parish in Owensboro while teaching at St. Frances Academy, which later became Owensboro Catholic High School. 

In an April 2021 article in the WKC, Msgr. Hancock said he taught for four years at St. Frances, and then for one year after it became Owensboro Catholic in 1952.

In this spring 2021 file photo, Msgr. George Hancock gathers with his former students of St. Frances Academy (today known as Owensboro Catholic High School). All are residents of the Carmel Home in Owensboro. (Left to right) Msgr. George Hancock, Joan Englert, DB Blanford, Marjorie Howard, Tom Englert, Lucille Rose, Martin Bumm, Margerie Hardesty, and Juanita Clark. (Not pictured was Anna Scheidegger; also not pictured was Bettie Hall who had recently passed away). COURTESY OF CARMEL HOME

Msgr. Hancock was also known for doing “street preaching” in his early years of priesthood. Traveling to Breckenridge and Hancock Counties on Saturdays, “he would stand on a little box and people would come by and he’d try to convert them,” said Kamuf.

“He told me that during the whole week he would have two (available) hours on Saturday afternoon,” said Kamuf. “The rest of the time he was administering his duties as a priest.”

Msgr. Hancock served as administrator and pastor at St. Peter of Alcantara Parish in Stanley from 1954 to 1963, and pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Leitchfield from 1962 to 1963. Msgr. Hancock served as presiding judge of the diocese’s Matrimonial Court from 1958 to 1983. In 1963 he was appointed the second chancellor of the diocese; a position he held until 1989.

In that same April 2021 WKC article, Msgr. Hancock said the previous diocesan chancellor, Fr. Robert Connor, had died suddenly. The bishop at the time, Bishop Henry J. Soenneker, was in Rome attending the Second Vatican Council, but returned home for Fr. Connor’s funeral.

Fr. George Hancock in 1947 – the year he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Owensboro. COURTESY OF ARCHIVES

“On his way back, he wrote me a letter that said ‘It’s four o’clock in the morning, and I’m writing you this letter to make you chancellor of the diocese,’” said Msgr. Hancock in the April 2021 interview.

Msgr. Hancock embraced his new role with obedience – and gusto.

“He always said his goal as chancellor was to have a parish in every county in the diocese,” said Fusco.

Msgr. Hancock did just that. As chancellor, he not only established but also helped build two new parishes in the Lakes area: St. Henry’s in Aurora and St. Anthony of Padua in Grand Rivers.

“He would work at the diocese during the week, and then Friday, Saturday and Sunday he would go to the Lake,” said Kamuf.

‘He pitched his tent’

Fusco said Msgr. Hancock slept in a tent so he could be available to celebrate Mass at the two parishes, which he helped build from the ground up – beginning with metal pavilions which over the years evolved into actual churches. He became fulltime pastor of the two parishes in 1989.

“He would do the 8 a.m. Mass in Aurora, then drove to Grand Rivers for the 10 a.m., then drove back to Owensboro,” said Fusco.

Ever frugal, Msgr. Hancock fundraised for building the two churches in what Kamuf described as “pay as you go” – building with what money the parishioners had raised, and then collecting more money to build the next part, so as to avoid borrowing money from the diocese.

Fusco recalled attending the outdoor Masses in Grand Rivers with his young family in the 1970s, complete with strollers and lawn chairs.

He said Marshall County and Livingston County, home to St. Henry’s and St. Anthony’s, respectively, had few Catholics at the time. But this did not deter Msgr. Hancock, who had a special place in his heart for those outside the Church – especially lapsed Catholics.

Msgr. George Hancock with Mark Vollman, employee of the Catholic Pastoral Center, in 1985. COURTESY OF ARCHIVES

Kamuf said Msgr. Hancock would “get them back to the Church, and many of them were eternally grateful.”

Whether working with Glenmary Home Missionaries, sharing vegetables from his garden, or donning overalls and helping to build his churches, Fusco said Msgr. Hancock never skipped an appointment or “missed a daily Mass.”

Kamuf agreed: “If he was supposed to be someplace at some time, he was there.”

Years later, said Fusco, the people of St. Anthony’s presented Msgr. Hancock with a plaque which stated “He pitched his tent among us” in a reference to John 1:14 (“And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…”, which in the original Greek translates as “And the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us.”)

“He was a priest to me, a confessor for me, and a friend to me,” said Fusco.

Saturdays with the Monsignor

Msgr. Hancock “retired” to the Bishop Cotton Apartments at the Carmel Home in Owensboro in September 2007, but his ministry was far from over as he made himself available to the residents and staff of the residence.

“During the day at the Carmel Home, Monsignor would get up at four o’clock in the morning and he and his sister (FreDella, who resides at the Carmel Home) would have Mass in his room,” said Kamuf. “Then he would go down to the chapel, some days he would hear confessions of the nuns and other friends.”

Kamuf said Msgr. Hancock was “a good listener.”

“His style was very simple; he was not judgmental; in other words you could tell him how bad you were and he’d say ‘Now wait a minute, we’ll get this worked out,’” said Kamuf. “He cared about people.”

Msgr. George Hancock celebrates a private Easter Sunday Mass on April 12, 2020 in the oratory (convent chapel) of the Carmelite Sisters in Owensboro. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, public Masses were suspended at the time, so the Mass was only for those inside the convent. COURTESY OF CARMEL HOME

Kamuf said Msgr. Hancock’s door was open to anyone needing to talk. In reference to Mitch Alborn’s book about visits to the author’s former professor, “Tuesdays with Morrie,” Kamuf came to refer to his own weekly visits with Msgr. Hancock as “Saturdays with the Monsignor.”

“And when you got through listening to him – I’ve talked to many a person – and they said ‘I just felt good from the advice that he gave me because it was so rewarding to me the way that he gave it,’” said Kamuf.

He said routine advice from Msgr. Hancock included “everything in life should be in moderation,” and “it’s not what happens to you – it’s how you cope with it.”

The Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus, who operate the Carmel Home, witnessed similar fatherly advice and care from Msgr. Hancock. 

Sr. Maria Carmelita Navarro, DCJ, said her favorite memory of him was seeing him in his electric scooter “in our chapel spending time with Jesus. He was so faithful to his prayer life, he said that’s the best way to safeguard our vocation.”

“He loved Freddie, his younger sister who lives in our Infirmary,” said Sr. Navarro. “He would visit her, bring her the newspaper and peel and cut peaches for her. He looked out for her, would even go to her room at night when she needed him. Always was so sweet and heartwarming to see him be a big brother to Freddie.”

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, while public liturgies were suspended and the Carmel Home was in lockdown, Msgr. Hancock celebrated private Mass for the Carmelite sisters from April 3-June 20, 2020.

Memorably, he celebrated a beautiful, private Easter Sunday Mass on April 12, 2020, in the oratory (convent chapel) of the Carmelites.

The heart of a shepherd

Kamuf recalls the second-to-last time he saw Msgr. Hancock, about two weeks before he passed away.

“I said, ‘Are you ready to go?’ And he said ‘Charlie, I’ve worked all my life trying to be a good priest and live according to the Word of God and I think I have, and I can’t wait to get to heaven to see what kind of spot I’ve got,’” said Kamuf.

And in one of the most powerful memories Kamuf retains of his friend, Msgr. Hancock told him, “Charlie, I’ve got my bags packed.”

Fr. Ray Clark was present, along with Fusco, Bishop William F. Medley, and the Carmelite sisters when Msgr. Hancock died on Nov. 8. Fr. Clark was also given the role of homilist at Msgr. Hancock’s Nov. 12 funeral Mass at St. Stephen Cathedral.

“Bishop Medley has remarked that Msgr. Hancock embodied the spirit of the Diocese of Owensboro,” said Fr. Clark in his homily, which referenced the prophet Elisha receiving the spirit of Elijah when the latter was taken up to Heaven. “I would like to take this opportunity to discern: What is this ‘spirit’ which Monsignor embodied? So that, like Elisha, we may ask to receive it twofold.”

“George Hancock wanted to be, above all, Fr. George Hancock,” Fr. Clark continued. “While he was ever the Monsignor, he had the heart of a shepherd and that heart beat steady for his 74 years of priesthood.”

Msgr. Hancock is survived by his sister, FreDella Hancock of Owensboro, a brother, Franklin (Agnes) Hancock of Morganfield and several nieces. 

The funeral Mass was on Nov. 12, 2021 at St. Stephen Cathedral in Owensboro. Burial followed in Resurrection Cemetery in Owensboro. Expressions of sympathy may take the form of Masses or donations to the Charitable Trust Fund for Retired Priests, 600 Locust Street, Owensboro, KY  42301.  

Originally printed in the December 2021 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.