The famous Harry Joseph Flynn was an American prelate of the Catholic Church who served as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis from 1995 to 2008. He previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette from 1989 to 1994.
Harry Flynn was born in Schenectady, New York, on May 3, 1933, to William and Margaret Mahoney Flynn. Orphaned when he was age 12, he was primarily raised primarily by two aunts. Flynn attended Siena College in Loudonville, New York, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English. He then attended Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Flynn was ordained on May 18, 1960, for the Diocese of Albany. After his ordination, Flynn taught English at Catholic Central High School in Troy, New York, and held pastoral positions in several parishes. In 1965, Flynn went to Maryland to become a faculty member and dean at Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary. Flynn was promoted to vice-rector in 1968 and rector in 1970. After returning to Albany in 1979, he was appointed director of a clergy continuing education and as pastor of St. Ambrose Parish in Latham, New York.
One day in 1986, Flynn’s secretary in Albany, New York, received a phone call from the papal nuncio for the United States. When she told Flynn to call him back, he realized that the pope was going to appoint him as a bishop. In an attempt to dodge the conversation with the nuncio, Flynn drove to a family cabin on Schroon Lake in New York.
Cardinal John O’Connor sent a New York state trooper to bring Flynn back to Albany to call the papal nuncio. Flynn later remarked “If I had 100 lives, I’d live every one of them as a priest – and none as a bishop! Flynn died on September 22, 2019, from bone cancer in Saint Paul, Minnesota at the age of 86.
