Venerable Father Bill Atkinson, a quadriplegic Augustinian friar from Upper Darby who showed countless people how God is accessible to everyone, is on the pathway to potential sainthood.
A Delaware County Catholic group that enriches the lives of adults with intellectual disabilities is furthering his cause with the fourth annual Father Bill Atkinson Pilgrimage on Thursday, Sept. 25.
It features a prayer service, led by the Augustinian Prior Provincial, Father Robert Hagan, at St. Thomas of Villanova Church on the Villanova University campus, followed by a four-mile accessible pilgrimage and ending with prayer and a celebration at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Strafford.
Open registration for the event begins at 3:00 p.m. (preregister here), and the event starts at 3:30 p.m.
“The main goal of the pilgrimage is to give awareness to Father Bill Atkinson’s cause for sainthood. Along the way, we pray that he will become a saint,” said Mary Beth Malloy, board secretary of the Father Bill Atkinson Service Corps which is organizing the event.
“Everybody has so many intentions in their lives, whether it’s someone that’s sick in their family or just something that they’re praying very dearly for, so we take note of everybody’s intentions.”
Those intentions find a home inside a special box that will take a meaningful four mile journey on the bike of a young adult with Down syndrome.
“In this box, everyone puts their intentions, and they could be pictures of someone that’s sick or someone that’s hurting. We pray for all those intentions. Father Hagan will bless this box with everybody’s intentions in it,” Malloy said.
Hundreds of petitions have been received in the three years of the pilgrimage because of Father Atkinson’s prayerful example and “because of all the works that he’s done, interceding for people, since his passing,” Malloy added.
Priests at Our Lady of the Assumption will also bless the box of prayers at the conclusion of the pilgrimage, with a celebration to follow.
The entire event is meant to further the cause of the first quadriplegic person to be ordained as a priest.
Father Atkinson is fondly remembered as a humble man who overcame a tobogganing accident as an Augustinian novice, then enthusiastically offered service as a priest, teacher, coach and mentor at Msgr. Bonner High School for Boys in Drexel Hill, and found a way to be what God called him to be.
“I think his humility, his ability to accept disability, and trust in his faith in God throughout that process was unbelievable,” said Molly Shawhan, the executive director of the Father Bill Atkinson Service Corps.
“Father Bill was just a very real, authentic human. He had this ability to sit for hours at Ocean City on the boardwalk hearing confessions. He had this ability to reach into the hearts of the young men at Bonner and really impact their educational journey.”
His influence continues through the Father Bill Atkinson Service Corps, which brings young adults with intellectual disabilities into opportunities for service, learning and community. The organization reflects the impact he made on people as he helped them encounter God in the everyday.
“He had that ability to affect everyone, all of his students, all the people that he encountered day-to-day,” said Malloy. “Huge Eagles fan, huge Phillies fan. People related to him. He was just a regular guy, and we need to be able to relate to a regular guy who, at the same time, is saintly.”
The body of the man whom Malloy considered a saintly regular guy is currently interred where the pilgrimage will begin, at St. Thomas of Villanova Church.
“Our service corps members look to Father Bill. We have people that pray his prayer every single day,” said Shawhan.
“They will go up to his sarcophagus, and they will touch it, will close their eyes, kneel down, and pray. The relationship that Father Bill still carries with so many people in this community, and how many people, myself included, have cried at Father Bill’s feet in that church.”
Shawhan also can’t help but feel emotions when reflecting on an image of Father Bill that visualizes how a potential saint is living with Christ.
“We always take our service corps to Corr Hall Chapel here on campus at Villanova. There’s an incredible stained-glass depiction of Father Bill, and the light comes through it. Father Bill is in his (glorified) form, as he’s standing on top of a broken wheelchair,” said Shawhan.
She marvels at Father Atkinson’s trust, hope and faith in God, “and that mustard seed that Father Bill had; and now close to 20 years since Father Bill has passed, and the impact that Father Bill has had on so many lives. He’s now a servant of God, a potential saint in the making.”
For pilgrimage information and registration, visit www.friendsoffatherbill.org/pilgrimage.
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