Both pairs of Fitzgerald’s grandparents were Irish immigrants who came to the American West to work in the mines, including one in Park City.
Young Terry, as he was called, was reared an only child in Sugar House, but his mother, Margaret O’Connor Fitzgerald, had 12 brothers and sisters, putting her son at the center of a large and devoted Irish Catholic clan.
Fitzgerald got his education at the hands of nuns and priests at Judge Memorial Grammar School and High School, moving from year to year with the same 52 students. It was a welcoming Catholic cocoon, incubating many of Utah’s future priests and lay leaders.
The eager student, who revered the men who taught and mentored him, never considered any other profession.
The next step was to leave the Beehive State for Mount Angel Seminary in St. Benedict, Oregon, for a college degree and rigorous training as a “churchman.” There, he studied literature and philosophy, Latin and liturgy, as well as how to preach, baptize, celebrate the Eucharist, perform marriages, hear confessions, and administer last rites.
In 1962, Fitzgerald was ordained a priest by Bishop Joseph Lennox Federal at Salt Lake City’s Cathedral of the Madeleine, the same sacred space where he was baptized.
After three decades serving various parishes, Fitzgerald was asked to head Utah’s Catholic Community Services, where his diverse experiences and deep compassion paid off. He gave freely and often, his colleagues said, to those in need — the poor, prisoners, immigrants.
Former Utah Bishop John Wester said of his deputy: “His door is open to princes and paupers and everybody in between.”
That included members of other faiths, particularly leaders of Utah’s predominant religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
President Thomas S. Monson, who died in 2018, was a longtime friend of Fitzgerald. At the latter’s retirement, Monson praised the priest’s “many years of dedicated, Christlike service he has provided” and noted the monsignor’s “tireless efforts to serve.”
‘The wellness of the diocese’
To the Rev. Samuel (Sam) Dinsdale, Fitzgerald was an example of “compassionate leadership, with a strong sense of justice and fairness, who had a special awareness of those on the fringes, those who were vulnerable or in need. His primary concern was the wellness of the diocese.”
He was “so selfless, known for his fairness in difficult situations,” Dinsdale, pastor at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Holladay, said Thursday. “Bishops and church leadership would put him in positions to help rectify difficult situations, and he used his creativity and energy to fix them, earning everyone’s respect.”
The diocese, Dinsdale said, “will feel his absence.”
And not just the men.
“He was a gift to the diocese and the church,” Karla McKinnie wrote on social media. “We are grateful for his support of the Sisters of the Holy Cross throughout his life.
Monsignor Martin Diaz, formerly at the Cathedral of the Madeleine but now retired and serving as a pastor at Christ the King Catholic Church in Cedar City, echoed that sentiment.
In his love for the diocese, Fitzgerald “made sure that every place in Utah had a Catholic church and that Catholics across the state were well served,” Diaz said. He had an extraordinary ability “to build and to foster development of the various parishes and missions.”
The energetic vicar general “gave of himself day in and day out,” Diaz said. “In so many ways, the diocese is what it is because of his work.”
And so, the priest said, is the cathedral.
At the end of the day, Fitzgerald was “a marvelous leader, a priest’s priest,” Diaz said. “Many priests would go to him for confession and counseling, he guided them, especially those from other countries. He was a friend to so many.”
Diaz believes his mentor is “looking down from heaven — and smiling.”
