Jan. 8, 2020

Father Francis J. Flynn retired effective Jan. 1, 2020. At the time of his retirement, he was pastor of St. Elizabeth Church in Elizabethtown, St. Philip of Neri Church in Westport, and St. Joseph’s Church in Essex.

Father Flynn was named pastor in Elizabethtown and Westport in 2012, taking on the responsibilities as pastor of the Catholic Community of St. Philip Neri and St. Joseph in Willsboro in 2015.

Bishop Terry R. LaValley has named Father Patrick A. Ratigan administrator of the three churches.

Father Ratigan retired effective June 26, 2019. At the time of his retirement, he was serving as pastor at St. Bernard’s in Saranac Lake and the oratories of St. Paul’s in Bloomingdale and St. John of the Wilderness in Lake Clear.

He was appointed to that position in 2014.

Father Flynn
A native of Massena, Father Francis J. Flynn was born Nov. 1, 1944. He studied for the priesthood at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers and at the North American College at Rome.

Father Flynn was ordained in December of 1969 at St. Peter¹s Basilica in Rome. In 1970, he received an STL degree from the Gregorian University in Rome.

Father Flynn¹s first assignment was as an assistant pastor at St. John’s in Plattsburgh.

In 1973, he joined the Ogdensburg Peruvian Apostolate, serving in Mollendo, Peru, until 1981.

Upon his return to the United States, Father Flynn was associate pastor at St. Joseph’s in Malone. In 1982, he was named pastor in Lake Clear and campus minister at Paul Smiths College.

Father Flynn left the diocese in 1984 to work with the Maryknoll order for two years. Upon his return, he was assigned to North Bangor where he served as pastor until 1995 when he was assigned as parochial vicar at St. Augustine’s in Peru.

For several months in 1996 he took part in a sabbatical program in Jerusalem.

Upon his return in June 1996, he was named pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Campus Parish in Potsdam. In 1999, he was named pastor in Bloomingdale and Gabriels where he continued in campus ministry at Paul Smiths College and served as a part-time prison chaplain at Camp Gabriels until moving to Constable in 2002. There, he served as pastor of the Catholic Community of Constable, Westville and Trout River until 2012.

Father Ratigan
A native of Saranac Lake, Father Patrick A. Ratigan was born Jan. 4, 1955. He served in the U.S. Army from 1972 to 1975.

Father Ratigan attended Wadhams Hall and the North American College in Rome.

He was ordained by Bishop Brzana on Sept. 24, 1983 at St. Bernard’s Church, Saranac Lake.

He has served as associate pastor at St. Mary’s Cathedral, as parochial vicar of St. Alexander’s Church, Morrisonville, and at Sacred Heart Church, Massena.

Father Ratigan served as a U.S. Army chaplain from 1988-2005, including one-year deployments to both Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom.

His military assignments included Fort McClellan, Alabama, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Fort Meade, Maryland, Fort Stewart, Georgia, Fort Hood, Texas, Fort Shafter, Hawaii, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, two one-year assignments in South Korea, and a one-year assignment in Egypt, as well as deployments to Haiti and throughout Central and South America.

He was named pastor in Brasher Falls and North Lawrence in 2005, and appointed pastor in Adams and Henderson in 2010.