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.

William J. Deering

William J. Deering
1930 - 2005

Fr. William J. Deering, presbyter of the Diocese of Evansville died at the age of seventy-five on Octoer 14, 2005, in Evansville. Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1930, Bill Deering studies at Saint Meinrad Seminary in Indiana and was ordained to the presbyterate in 1956. A musician and a liturgist, Father Deering served as a pastor and teacher. He was active in the Composers' Forum, a group of composers who provided new compositions for vernacular liturgy in the United States in the early years following the Second Vatican Council. Other composers in the Forum included Theodore Marier, Sister Theophane Hytrek, SSSF, Robert I. Blanchard, Rev. Ralph C. Verdi, CPPS, Flor Peeters, Howard Hughes, SM, and Eugene Englert. Father Deering was a member of the National Pastoral Musicians Association and was also active in the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions, the National Organization for the Continuing Education of the Roman Catholic Clergy, and the Federation of Permanent Diaconate Directors.

Tribute prepared by NPM staff, published in Pastoral Music, February-March, 2006, pg. 8. Reprinted with permission.