The sisters say goodbye to a beloved bishop and friend, Tom Gumbleton

Sr. Jane Herb, president of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, opened the service by stating, “It is our honor to have Bishop Gumbleton come home to IHM. Tom embodied what IHM stands for. He was a man of deep faith, with a courageous spirit and always stood up for justice. As you know, IHMs are educators through and through. Tom was for us, and I am sure for all of us, a master teacher in becoming doers of the word.”

The prayer service, created by Immaculate Heart of Mary Sr. Peggy Schmidt, celebrated Gumbleton’s lifelong commitment to living his episcopal motto, “Be Doers of the Word.” It was simple, contemplative, and gently highlighted the wide-ranging – sometimes risky – actions this prophetic bishop took for peace and justice.

I wondered how this unique prayer and visit had come about. The following week I had the privilege of interviewing not only Schmidt, but also Gumbleton’s longtime friend and biographer, Sister Sue Sattler; his friend Brian Joseph, who oversaw all funeral arrangements; and his dearly beloved sister, Irene Gumbleton, also a Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The last three accompanied the bishop during the last weeks, days and hours of his life. Below I share an account of this wonderful time of guidance, some cherished memories and how this special IHM broadcast came about.

In the mid-1970s, Schmidt was appointed assistant pastor for parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit, and had worked with Gumbleton for four years in his role as pastor for parishes. She remembers him as “a very good administrator” who valued reciprocity with colleagues. As the only woman at the monthly meetings of priest-ministers, she sometimes wondered whether she should be present. “If you don’t go, I won’t go either,” her boss told her kindly but firmly.

Schmidt quickly recognized her boss’ deep respect for people. She believes it is important to understand that “He was not a rebel. … But he challenged the system for the sake of the poor and the oppressed.” Gumbleton always carried a thick stack of pink telephone messages with him. Between meetings he called those who sought his advice. “He wore his collar all the time,” Schmidt recalled. ‘And do you know why? Because if anyone needed a priest, they would know (he was available).”

Although she was concerned about the short timeline, the experience of being asked to create Gumbleton’s prayer service was “an absolute grace.” Featuring materials from Irene Gumbleton and Sattler: “It just came together. I didn’t decide to make it all about peace, but peace and Tom were one, so it turned out that way. And I know enough about the Spirit, (to know ) It was truly a gift from God.”

The idea to have the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary organize the first public service for Gumbleton came from his old friend Brian Joseph, a funeral director who helped him during his decline. Joseph, owner of Verheyden Funeral Homes in Detroit, describes his mission as “always striving to celebrate the lives of people who have made our community a better place to live… and that was Tom Gumbleton.”

Joseph told Irene Gumbleton, “We are going to take the bishop to the people. … He would go to the people, wouldn’t he? We don’t have to let people come to him…and it all starts with the IHM community. .” Joseph’s team organized a series of public funeral events throughout the archdiocese so that people did not have to travel far to say goodbye to their beloved bishop and friend.

With three paternal aunts and a sister in the IHM community, Gumbleton was part of the IHM “family” from childhood. “We just grew up with the IHMs,” Irene Gumbleton recalls. “And we went to IHM schools. So our roots were actually with the IHM sisters. Tom had great respect for them and for his education with them.”

Sattler recalled that Juliana Casey, IHM, had collaborated with Gumbleton on the U.S. bishops’ 1983 pastoral letter on peace and that the community’s legendary post-Vatican II president Margaret Brennan once named him “honorary IHM.” had appointed. For Sattler, “It was such a privilege and a blessing to have him among us as we would celebrate our own sisters.”

Joseph was most moved by the five minutes of silence during the service, in which people were asked to simply remember their bishop: “I sit in the back and look at everyone. And you saw the Holy Spirit in the midst of everyone. Nobody moved. in deep prayer. The visual gave the true holiness,” he recalls.

Sattler, Joseph and Irene Gumbleton had gone through a difficult week after Easter and watched their beloved friend slowly move toward God. Gumbleton lived in a spartan studio apartment in southwest Detroit, a few doors away from Sattler, who knew him and prayed with him regularly for years, along with others in their small faith community. Sattler also worked with him on justice in Central America and co-wrote his biography, No Guilty Bystander (Orbis 2023), with Frank Fromherz.

After Gumbleton stopped driving, Sattler became his unofficial driver and the two often shared an evening meal and/or some gelato. She describes her friend as “one of the freest people I have ever met,” who “prayed and consulted the Spirit” when making difficult decisions.

Like Irene Gumbleton and Joseph, Sattler was concerned about Gumbleton’s increasingly frequent falls, but the trio decided to wait until after Easter to broach the idea of ​​assisted living. Sattler called him every morning: “I’d say, how are you?” she remembers. “And he said, ‘Very well, I’m going to let God love me all morning.’ Because Gumbleton showed a significant drop in energy, his doctor sent him for tests and he was admitted to the hospital on Easter Wednesday.

That night his condition deteriorated dramatically. Irene and Sattler immediately went to his bed. The next morning, Joseph called a Capuchin priest friend to anoint the bishop. Sattler describes the moment when she, Irene and Joseph surrounded Gumbleton’s bed while his cousin and power of attorney were present by telephone from Peru:

It was so beautiful. Very peaceful. Father David had each of us say what we wanted to thank Tom for in our lives. Then I leaned up and said, ‘Tom, all we want is what you want’… and he stretched out his arms and nodded his head. It was so clear. And we said, ‘We have to let him go.’ He communicated so clearly that he already saw the face of God. …And he died within an hour.

Irene Gumbleton is the last surviving of the nine Gumbleton siblings. She is just 13 months older than Tom and describes herself as an “Irish twin” of the brother with whom she played tennis and went cross-country skiing into their senior years.

When asked what she wanted people to remember about her brother, Irene Gumbleton replied: “He stood up for what was right. … He was just very moral. And he put into practice what the gospel teachings were. And if we could all be like this, then be like this. If we are doers of the Word and accepting and inclusive of anyone and everyone in the church, we would be a much better church.”