Monsignor Auer served overseas as part of 50-year career

For the first 12 years of his life, Monsignor John J. Auer grew up in the parish of St. Joseph’s Passionist Monastery Church, Irvington. His family then moved to St. William of York, Baltimore, until the time he was ordained.

Besides serving throughout Maryland for his entire career, Monsignor Auer, celebrating 50 years in the priesthood, served five years in Peru and Ecuador as part of the St. James Missionary Society.

In state, parishes served included St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Pasadena; Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Woodlawn (now St. Gabriel); 14 years at Holy Trinity, Glen Burnie; St. Brigid, Canton; and 13 years at Our Lady of the Fields, Millersville.

The priest resides at St. John the Evangelist, Severna Park, where he assists regularly and on occasion at other parishes or institutions such as Clifton Perkins State Hospital and Patuxent Institute.

If he had to name a particular moment in the priesthood that summarized what his career has meant to him, Monsignor Auer would remember the time he celebrated Mass “with a charismatic prayer group where it was obvious that the Holy Spirit was powerful in the minds and hearts of the group,” he said. “Their prayer and song showed it and lives and hearts were changed … even sometimes healings of physical problems.”

Catholic Review

The Catholic Review is the official publication of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.