This web site is a memorial to those individuals who were passionate about the reform of the
Roman Catholic liturgy as set forth in Sacrosanctum Concilium (the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy)
and who now, in eternal life, worship the God whom they served in this life.

Thomas Carroll

Thomas Carroll
August 6, 1909 – April 24, 1971


Thomas Carroll was born in Gloucester, MA, on August 6, 1909, the son of Thomas J. and Catherine (Smith) Carroll. He came from a family of seven children and has six sisters. He graduated from Gloucester High School in 1928 and went on to study Greek, Latin, and Philosophy at Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA. After graduation in 1932, Thomas decided to become a Roman Catholic priest. He studied at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, MA, and was ordained on May 20, 1938, by auxiliary Bishop Francis J. Spellman. He celebrated his first Mass at St. Ann Church in Gloucester.

Father Carroll's first assignment in the Boston archdiocese was as Assistant Director of the Catholic Guild for the Blind. While serving as Assistant Director of the Guild, he also served as an auxiliary chaplain at Avon Old Farms Convalescent Hospital in Connecticut and at the Valley Forge General Hospital in Pennsylvania from 1944 to 1949. In 1944, he was appointed chaplain to St. Raphael’s Hall in Newton, MA. In 1947, he became Director of the Catholic Guild for the Blind. In 1961 he published a book entitled “Blindness: What it is, What it Does, and How to Live with It.” In 1963, he founded the American Center for Research and Blindness in Newton.

In addition to his responsibilities as Director of the Catholic Guild for the Blind, Father Carroll was very active within the Archdiocese of Boston and the National Liturgical Conference. A pioneer in the U.S. liturgical movement, Father Carroll served as president of the National Liturgical conference from 1946-1949. He was also a member of the board of directors for the Sacramental Apostolate of the Archdiocese of Boston from 1947 to 1965; a delegate of the International Congress on Pastoral Liturgy in 1956; and founded the newsletter “The Mediator.” He is remembered for his leadership role in the second phase of the American liturgical movement: the years of the National Liturgical Weeks, culminating in Vatican II's promulgation of the Constitution on the Liturgy.

Father Carroll died suddenly on Saturday, April 24, 1971, at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Brighton. He was 61. The Most Rev. Thomas J. Riley presided at his funeral Mass on Wednesday, April 28, at St. Ann Church in Gloucester, MA. Interment was at Calvary Cemetery in Gloucester, MA. He was survived by his six sisters.

Tribute prepared by staff at the Boston Archdiocesan newspaper "Pilot."