In Memoriam: Fr Thomas A Kane, CSP - update with funeral arrangements

Fr Kane with the Landings team at Farm Street Church after his training session with them

The Paulist Fathers write: "With great sadness, we announce that our brother, Rev Thomas A "Tomaso" Kane, CSP, entered eternal life on Saturday, March 1, 2025. He died at Cleveland Clinic / Indian River Hospital in Vero Beach, FL, following a brief illness. He was 79 years old.

Fr Kane was a member of the Paulist community for 54 years and a priest for nearly 50 years. He was an esteemed teacher of preaching, liturgy, and the arts who inspired generations of students to "embody the message."

Fr Kane also was an international leader in a reconciliation ministry that saw countless Catholics return to the Church.

Thomas Anthony Kane was born on 27 June 1945, in Philadelphia, son of Thomas and Helen Chabalko Kane. His family lived in Philadelphia's Overbrook neighbourhood where he was an altar server at Our Lady of Lourdes Church. They also attended Mass at St Mary's Byzantine Catholic Church in Hazleton, PA, where his mother was raised.

"We grew up bi-ritual but our homebase was Roman Catholicism," he later remembered in an interview.

After graduating from St Joseph's Preparatory School, he entered the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's St Charles Borromeo Seminary. While there, he also took communications courses outside the seminary at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication as well as theatre history and playwriting courses at Villanova University.

In the summers of his seminary years, he studied communications at Notre Dame University in Indiana where he was very active with the campus film festival. He earned degrees at both St Charles Borromeo Seminary and at Notre Dame.

In the fall of 1970, he left the Archdiocese of Philadelphia formation program and entered the Paulist Fathers novitiate on September 17, 1970.

He made his First Promise on September 11, 1971, and his Final Promise on April 19, 1974.

With the Paulists, he earned a Licentiate in Sacred Theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Fr. Kane was ordained a priest on May 17, 1975.

After his ordination, he moved to Columbus, OH, where he served at the St. Thomas More Newman Center and earned a Ph.D. in Ritual Communication at The Ohio State University.

From late 1979 to 1982, he was part of the Paulist formation team in Washington, DC.

Fr.Kane began his 33-year tenure as a professor of preaching, liturgy, and the arts in 1983, first at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, MA, and then at Boston College's School of Theology and Ministry in Chestnut Hill, MA.

"Tom taught me (and my peers) how to celebrate Mass (and baptisms and weddings and funerals) and so I think of him at every sacrament," said Fr James Martin, SJ. "He was lively and funny and wise, reminding us not only about the rubrics, but also our gestures, our body language, and how we 'occupied the space' of the church."

In 1989, Fr Kane was an advisor on the Opera Company of Boston's production of Leonard Bernstein's complex musical theatre work "Mass" directed by Sarah Caldwell. He assisted with the choreography of the production's liturgical action and coached the tenor who portrayed the priest.

In the 1990s, Fr Kane created the acclaimed video series The Dancing Church Around The World, documenting liturgical dance throughout Africa, the South Pacific, Spain, and San Antonio, TX.

In 2008, while he continued teaching, Fr Kane took over as director of Paulist Reconciliation Ministries. As part of this work, he was director of Landings International, the Paulist Fathers' parish-based, small-group ministry with Catholics returning to the Church after a time away.

During his 16 years as director, in coordination with many lay leaders, Landings' publications were revised and expanded and online offerings were added. The ministry also grew extensively in Asia, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

"It's about going to the peripheries to talk with people on the edge to say, 'What about coming home to God?'" he said.

Ruby Almeida, Project Manager of Landings at Farm Street Church, Mayfair, in London, told ICN: " He was a man filled with joy and compassion and always there to offer advice and assist, right to the end."

During a tribute upon his retirement from Boston College in 2017, longtime colleague and theologian Fr John Baldovin, SJ, praised Fr Kane's legacy: "Your combined love of the arts, liturgy and preaching led you to become our premier liturgical videographer. You've brought the world to our screens and stirred our imaginations. You've helped countless people to expand their horizons and appreciate the cultural riches of the Catholic Church."

A great lover of travel, Fr Kane also was director of Paulist Pilgrimages from 2017 to 2023, leading groups of pilgrims on spiritual journeys around the world. He also frequently served as the Catholic chaplain on cruise ships.

In the last two years, Fr Kane was based at the Paulist Motherhouse in New York City where he loved attending operas, plays, and concerts at nearby Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and on Broadway.

In addition to his brother Paulists and lay partners in ministry, Fr Kane is survived by his sister and brother-in-law, Mary and Bill Eakins, as well as his three nephews and their families.

He also is survived by many dear friends around the country and the world, each with their own wonderful "Tomaso" stories.

Our prayer for our brother, Tomaso:

May the angels lead you into paradise,
may the martyrs come to welcome you,
and take you to the holy city,
the new and eternal Jerusalem

Arrangements

A wake service for Fr Kane will be held at 7pm on Friday, March 14, 2025, at the Paulist Center, 5 Park St, Boston.

Father Thomas Kane's funeral Mass on Saturday, March 15 will be televised for live streaming and broadcast from Boston, Massachusetts, USA beginning at 10am Eastern Daylight time. You will be able to access it at the YouTube address below. www.youtube.com/live/co-M-lzQU14

The Mass will be celebrated by Very Rev René Constanza, CSP, president of the Paulist Fathers. The homily will be preached by Rev Chris Malano, CSP.

The Mass will be followed by a luncheon.

Fr Kane's cremated remains will be placed in the columbarium at St Thomas the Apostle Cemetery in Oak Ridge, NJ, at 11am on Monday, March 17, 2025."

Watch a 2022 feature with Fr Kane: www.youtube.com/watch?v=25zl7g_wvPQ&t=72s