Deceased Friars
Our Capuchin brother, William (Bill) Graham, OFM Cap., passed to his eternal life in the Lord on Sunday, July 5, 2026, at our motherhouse, St. Augustine Friary in Pittsburgh, PA. It seems only fitting that he returned home to that friary on Friday, July 3, 2026. Sandwiched between those days was the celebration of American Independence Day on the 4th of July. He had often joked that he was born on Halloween, October 31, 1946, and we were gifted with another holiday to remember the bookends of his life. Anyone who knew Bill well would know that no other day could have been more appropriate for him. At heart, he was always a political junkie and dying soon after our national holiday was icing on the cake.
Bill was one-of-kind in so many ways. We know of no other friar who was an elected delegate to a party's political convention. In February 1976, he asked for and gained permission to run for the position as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. The permission was given, and during that convention in August he was interviewed on national television about his support for then candidate-to-be Jimmy Carter as a Catholic priest. It was a controversial choice (Bill seemed to thrive on controversy), but Bill was convinced Carter was the right candidate for the time, although the party’s stance on abortion was not ideal. Few friars knew that the following year, in August 1977, he was so energized by his political experience of making a difference that at the advise of friends, he asked the Provincial Minister for permission to run for office as a Pennsylvania congressman in the 1978 congressional elections. While the request was not granted, he remained the junkie. In the end, politics is all about relationships, isn’t it: People dealing with people?
Our Capuchin brother Victor Kriley, OFM Cap., 88, died on March 7, 2006, at Embassy of Saxonburg under the care of Bridges Hospice Care in Saxonburg, PA. He had been a resident at Embassy since December 2012, and had benefitted from the support of caregivers for more than 13 years. After many years of service in the United States and in Papua New Guinea, these final years allowed him to benefit from the encouragement and love of his large number of relatives – brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews – who had always seen our brother as a friend and a hero. In the same way, Victor himself once wrote this when he celebrated his Jubilee as a priest:
Sometimes in ministry I have met people who did not seem to have any other members of their family that they communicated with -- no members of the family cared for one another. I could not understand that and didn't really believe it until a death happened in that family. Other members hardly had time to come to the funeral to pay their respects to a brother or a sister. I am blessed with a wonderful family. It was very common for my sisters and brothers (along with their spouses) to make special efforts to come together for an evening - sometime each month. I'm grateful for my family and how we have stayed close to one another.
The family continued that “closeness” throughout his life; many were there at his funeral, together in prayer, as he went on to meet Sister Death.
We remember the brother who passed on to eternal life
in the Lord Jesus during our previous triennium.