This past fall, Msgr. Thomas Kane –now in his 64th year as a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington – had another special experience in his life as a priest, as he participated in Pope Francis’s Canonization Mass for St. Junípero Serra outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

In a recent interview, he reflected on the excitement of witnessing the papal Mass unfold in Washington. “That’s the pinnacle of the priesthood in a way. He’s the high priest of us all,” said Msgr. Kane, who turns 89 on June 13. “The oneness of the priesthood is a bond we all feel, young and old, retired and just ordained.”

Now he lives at the archdiocese’s Cardinal O’Boyle Residence for retired priests in Washington, and the focal point for his life as a priest remains the Mass, which he celebrates in the chapel for the Carroll Manor Nursing Home and retired priests’ residence. On a recent day, he celebrated Mass there, reading the Gospel, preaching the homily and saying the prayers of the Mass in a strong, yet gentle voice, now stepping to the altar with a cane, but elevating the Eucharist with faithfulness and devotion as he had in his more than six decades as a priest.

“It’s been a good run,” said the priest who smiled and said he’s had about a dozen different assignments over the years, but who’s counting? He served in parishes throughout the archdiocese, in the city of Washington and in the surrounding Maryland counties, and helped start a parish and build two schools.

“You don’t know what you’re signing up for in the beginning, but you’re open to it,” said the priest, who praised the diversity of the people of the archdiocese whom he’s gotten to know and serve, and make friends with at each assignment along the way. “It’s a miniature of the whole world,” he said.

After his birth in 1927, Thomas Kane was baptized at St. Peter Church on Capitol Hill, where his parents – William and Mary Kane – had grown up and were married. His father, a 50-year civil servant, worked for the Treasury Department. Thomas was the second child of seven. The devout Catholic family had a “deep respect for the priesthood,” he said. “I still have great respect for priests.”

When he was about three or four, the Kane family moved to the neighborhood near Nativity Parish in Washington. As he grew up in Nativity Parish, the future priest was greatly influenced by the parish priests and by the Franciscan sisters who taught at the school. The schoolchildren there went to daily Mass, the church was full for Wednesday night novenas, and men’s groups like the Holy Name Society were popular, he remembered. “Our lives focused around the life of the church… and the Catholic school.”

After his ordination to the priesthood in 1952, Father Thomas Kane – who was named a monsignor in 1984 – began serving as a parish priest, which he said provided a lifetime of blessings and special memories at each stop along the way. “You saw the faith in action. People lived it at each parish,” he said.

His first assignment was as a parochial vicar at St. Mary’s in Rockville, which he said was then “a country parish at the end of Veirs Mill Road.” Then he was assigned for nine years at St. Bernard in Riverdale. He joked that the longtime and legendary pastor there, Msgr. Thomas Dade, “couldn’t hang a picture,” but he was great at marshaling support from the parish and convinced the men there to help build the rectory and school’s classrooms after work and on weekends.

Father Kane then served as administrator of St. John the Evangelist in Silver Spring, where he said the parishioners had deep respect for the roots of the parish, which dated to colonial times. “You had a sense where we came from,” he said.

A special adventure of his priesthood came in 1968, when Father Kane was appointed as the founding pastor of St. Nicholas Parish in Laurel. “We started from scratch,” he said, remembering how Masses were first held in a movie theater, where he joked that you could still smell the popcorn. At first, the people didn’t know each other, but they worked together to establish a parish. Finally, they were able to attend their first Mass in St. Nicholas’s new church. “It was just a glorious day. The people were so proud of what they had,” Msgr. Kane said, noting that people there who were strangers at first now remain close friends almost 50 years later.

Then the priest served as pastor of Assumption and later Our Lady, Queen of Peace parishes in Washington, where he said he was inspired by the faith and goodness of the people. Assumption Parish operated a food pantry and clothes closet for the poor in the neighborhood, which continues today under the name of the Pope Francis Outreach Center. “The church is doing what it’s supposed to do” with that outreach, the veteran priest said.

Msgr. Kane later served as the archdiocese’s secretary of services for clergy, before returning to parish work, where as pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Rockville he helped coordinate the building of Mary of Nazareth School in Darnestown, which in 1994 opened as the first new parish elementary school in the archdiocese in 30 years. He also helped lead the effort to build the new St. Patrick School at his parish, which opened in 2005. “You know the benefit of Catholic schools from your own experience. You had the incentive knowing what a Catholic school can do for a community,” he said.

Now the priest enjoys living at the O’Boyle Residence with his fellow retired priests. “It’s an excellent community,” he said. Maintaining friendships with his brother priests is essential, he said. “It’s important we share that with each other,” he said.

Msgr. Kane, who over the years enjoyed carpentry and also sailing his boat on the Chesapeake Bay, says it’s important for priests to have hobbies or outside interests. He said he’s been impressed with “the young priests coming along now,” and he would recommend that anyone beginning service as a parish priest “see what the people need… and do your best to provide it to them.” Instead of looking at different pastoral circumstances as challenges, he preferred to regard them as opportunities to serve people.

“In every parish we’ve been in, we always accumulate friends who are happy we’re there,” he said.

Summarizing his life as a priest, Msgr. Kane said, “The whole thing has been a privilege… You make yourself available to the Church.”

And whether joining the pope at a Mass or celebrating Masses in parishes or in the chapel of his residence for retired priests, the priest said that remains the highlight and central work of his priesthood, bringing people to Christ and Christ to people through the Eucharist. “That (the Mass) is what you’re there for. That’s the summary of what we’re doing and what we’re about… If there’s anything we’re supposed to do, it’s bring people to worship,” Msgr. Kane said. “Everything else is secondary… It remains the focus of what we’re about, the priests and the people.”