CHICAGO—Bishop John Conway McNabb, OSA, 90, died Feb. 26, 2016, announced the Midwest Augustinians Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel in Chicago.
Bishop McNabb was one of the last surviving American bishops to attend the Second Vatican Council.
He had several ties to the Rockford Diocese, including living in Rockford in his retirement.
Bishop McNabb devoted decades of his life to founding the Diocese of Chulucanas in northern Peru. That work included initiating a partnership for a mission program with the Rockford Diocese and Bishop Loras T. Lane in 1966.
Bishop Arthur J. O’Neill dedicated priest volunteers to serve in the village of Montero, Peru, in what was, at the time, the Prelature of Chulucanas. The Rockford Diocese helped build the San Antonio de Padua Mission Church there.
The partnership between the Peruvian and Rockford dioceses continues today through the Heart to Heart Program for school supplies sponsored by The Junior Observer and the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women.
Bishop McNabb was born on Dec. 11, 1925, in Beloit, Wisconsin, to Clarence and Noreen McNabb. He met the Augustinians when he attended St. Thomas High School in Rockford.
He entered the Order of St. Augustine as a novice on Sept. 9, 1944, and made his first vows on Sept. 10, 1945. He made his solemn profession on Sept. 10, 1948.
Bishop McNabb held a B.A. in philosophy and an M.S. in library science from Villanova University. He had an M.Ed. from DePaul University in Chicago. He completed his theological studies at Augustinian College in Washington, D.C., and was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop John Boylan of Rockford on May 24, 1952.
He served as a teacher and administrator at Mendel Catholic High School in Chicago from 1953 to 1959. He was Secretary of the Province from 1959 to 1961. In 1961, he became the first rector of Augustinian Academy in St. Louis.
The following year, he was named Principal of Mendel Catholic High School, a position he held until 1964.
In his memoirs, “Led Where I Did Not Plan to Go,” Bishop McNabb explains how he received the call to become a missionary bishop to Chulucanas, Peru — and he didn’t even know Spanish.
He was named the first Prelate of Chulucanas by Pope Paul VI in 1964. Three years later, on June 17, 1967, he was ordained a bishop.
In 1989, 25 years after the creation of the Prelature, Pope (now St.) John Paul II raised Chulucanas to the status of a diocese. Bishop McNabb served as ordinary of the diocese until his mandatory retirement age of 75. He became bishop emeritus in 2000.
He is well known for establishing a pastoral plan for his diocese in the spirit of Vatican II with tremendous participation from the laity and the clergy. The program to revitalize the diocese was called New Image of the Parish.
He ordained several Augustinians to the diaconate and priesthood including the current Prior Provincial of the Midwest Augustinians, Father Bernard C. Scianna.
Bishop McNabb along with Archbishop of Piura Oscar Cantuarias and the Papal Nuncio of Peru Fortunato Baldelli, ordained his successor, Dan T. Turley, OSA, as the second Bishop of Chulucanas.
While Bishop McNabb could have retired to a quiet life in the monastery, he took on the pastorate of St. Clare of Montefalco in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, from 2002 to 2006. He then entered retirement at Tolentine Center and then at Siena Center in Rockford in 2010.
In 2012, he published his memoirs. In 2013, Bishop McNabb was honored by his order at the first Augustinian Gala at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago. In early 2016, he moved to Mercy Circle in Chicago, where he died.
He is survived by his sister Janet Marelli and many nieces and nephews.
Bishop McNabb’s body will be lying-in-state on March 4, 2016, 3-7:30 p.m. and on March 5, 9-10 a.m. at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel, 7740 S. Western Ave., Chicago.
His liturgical wake service is March 4 at 7:30 p.m. with
Archbishop Blase Cupich, of the Archdiocese of Chicago presiding.
On March 5, the Office of the Dead will be prayed at 10 a.m. with Very Rev. Bernard C. Scianna, OSA, Prior Provincial presiding.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. with Bishop Daniel T. Turley, OSA presiding and Bishop Robert F. Prevost, OSA, as homilist.
A luncheon will follow in the school dining hall and McCarthy Center.
Bishop McNabb will be buried at a later date in Chulucanas, Peru.
