Father Richard Gardiner, a priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington for 59 years, died June 21 in Elkton, Florida, where he was retired. He was 84 years old.
Father Gardiner was born June 21, 1941 and grew up on a farm near Waldorf, Maryland, where his father grew tobacco, corn, wheat and hay. The late priest once said that growing up on a farm taught him lessons about life and faith that he brought with him to the priesthood.
“I was called from the field, as it were,” said Father Gardiner, said in a 2017 interview with the Catholic Standard as he marked his 50th anniversary as a priest of the archdiocese. “I certainly learned the value of hard work.”
In that interview, Father Gardiner recalled growing up “in a very Catholic family.” His father’s first cousin, Father Philip Edelen, was a priest of the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina, who served as an Army chaplain in World War II and was killed in the Normandy invasion in 1944. Father Gardiner’s cousins included an Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister who served as a missionary in Peru, and a Mercy Sister. A distant cousin was a Holy Cross Sister.
Father Gardiner attended Our Lady of the Angels Seminary in Albany, New York. He was ordained as a priest on May 6, 1967 by then-Archbishop Patrick O’Boyle at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, in the era immediately following the close of the Second Vatican Council.
“There were big things happening in the Church,” he told the Catholic Standard in that 2017 interview. “It was a blessing in many ways. You were there at times of changes in the Church and society.”
His first assignments were as a parochial vicar at three successive parishes in Washington, D.C. – Immaculate Conception, Our Lady Queen of Peace and Nativity. During those years and throughout his priesthood, he was active in youth ministry.
From 1983 until his retirement in 2011, Father Gardiner served as administrator and then as the pastor of Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in Solomons. His leadership there coincided with a period of great growth in Calvert County, and Our Lady Star of the Sea grew from around 200 families when he arrived there to 1,100 families when he retired.
“It was a strong faith community. It kept growing, but it kept that same close-knit family atmosphere,” he said in his interview with the Catholic Standard. The parish church and school, located on a picturesque setting along the Patuxent River, continued to serve a small number of watermen engaged in catching crabs and oysters for a living, but it also served people who worked at the nearby Navy base and nuclear power plant.
In 2010, the new Our Lady Star of the Sea Church that seated 800 people was dedicated for the growing parish. During Father Gardiner’s time at the Solomons parish, Our Lady Star of the Sea collaborated with six nearby congregations to establish the SMILE ecumenical ministries that operates a food pantry and thrift shop in Lusby.
Reflecting on his priesthood, Father Gardiner told the Catholic Standard that “the greatest blessing has to be all the people, all the support they gave. A parish priest depends on the people for his spirituality and his strength. They were great every place I was.”
Washington Auxiliary Bishop Juan Esposito will celebrate the Mass of Christian Burial for Father Gardiner on Wednesday, July 8 at St. Peter's Parish in Waldorf, Maryland. A visitation will take place one hour before the Mass, beginning at 10 a.m. that morning.
Interment will follow immediately after the Mass, at St. Peter's Cemetery in Waldorf.
(Mark Zimmerman, editor of the Catholic Standard, conducted the 2017 interview with Father Gardiner on which this article is based.)
