By Elena Perri • Posted February 6, 2025

The late Augustinian Father Bill Atkinson was a larger-than-life figure in the classroom at Msgr. Bonner High School in Drexel Hill where he taught theology for almost 30 years.

Despite being confined to a wheelchair, Father Bill, a 1963 Msgr. Bonner alumnus, commanded the respect of all his students.

Father Bill’s cousin Mary Moody is on a mission to keep his legacy alive and ensure that people know about him and the impact he had on others throughout his life.

Father Bill, whom the Catholic Church declared a Servant of God in 2021, was the first quadriplegic to be ordained a priest. He was seriously injured in a tobogganing accident during his novice year at Good Counsel Novitiate in New Hamburg, New York, which left him paralyzed from the neck down with limited movement of his head, neck, shoulders, and arms.

Pope Paul VI granted Father Bill a dispensation, paving the way for him to be ordained to the priesthood in 1974. He ministered faithfully until his death in 2006.

To keep Father Bill’s legacy alive on his journey to sainthood, Augustinian friars, family members, caregivers, and friends are raising funds to build three life-sized bronze sculptures depicting him in his wheelchair.

The bronze memorials of Father Bill, complete with a bench where visitors can pray and reflect, will be visual reminders of his extraordinary life and the lives he touched.

Moody, Richard Heron, Father Bill’s nurse for more than 25 years, and Augustinian Father Michael DiGregorio are members of the Bronze Sculpture Committee that was formed to raise the funds for the sculptures.

Moody said the committee has commissioned Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz to design and create the sculpture.

Approximately $50,000 has been raised so far, and the committee has given Schmalz a $35,000 deposit to begin working on the sculpture, Moody explained.

The first sculpture will be placed near the baseball fields at Msgr. Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High School. Another sculpture is planned for the Healing Garden at St. Augustine Parish in the Old City section of Philadelphia, and a third one will be installed at the international headquarters of the Augustinian order in Rome, Italy.

While raising money has proven more challenging than she anticipated, Moody said she is hopeful about receiving grant funding for the sculptures this year. The committee’s goal is to raise $120,000 so that the first sculpture can be completed.

Last June, Father Bill’s remains were reinterred at the Church of St. Thomas of Villanova on the campus of Villanova University in a sarcophagus that was handcrafted in Italy.

This development has created the opportunity for people to make pilgrimages to Father Bill’s crypt and pray for his intercession.

Moody was among the 50 members of St. John Chrysostom Parish in Wallingford who traveled to her cousin’s crypt on Saturday, Feb. 1. Father Ed Hallinan, pastor of St. John Chrysostom and a 1974 graduate of Msgr. Bonner High School, led the pilgrimage.

“We picked that date because it coincides with the date of Bill’s ordination 51 years ago,” Moody said.

Father DiGregorio, who was prior provincial at the time Father Bill’s cause for canonization was opened, shared information about Father Bill’s life, his canonization process, and the reinterment of his remains at the Church of St. Thomas.

Moody noted that Father DiGregorio wants people to know about Father Bill and not only those who live in the Archdiocese, but people from across the United States.

“We need people to realize that we have the possibility of a future saint not only from Delaware County in Pennsylvania but from the United States,” she said. “We want people to know about what he went through and what he was able to do and how he touched the lives of thousands of students that he taught at Bonner.”

She added that countless people have been helped after praying to Father Bill and asking for his intercession.

“I’m not saying they’ve been cured, but they have found peace and healing,” Moody said. “We’re trying to spread the importance of the power of prayer.”

Moody is hopeful that her cousin will one day be canonized a saint.

“We feel that he offers people hope,” she said. “The key to his sainthood is that he provides hope to people.”

For more information about Father Bill and the Bronze Sculpture Project, visit: https://frbillatkinson.org.