Father Joseph Mary Hammond, CHS, a native of Ghana who had served in Hispanic ministry in the Diocese of Knoxville since 1998, died Saturday evening, Aug. 9.
Father Hammond, who was 79, had been in residence at St. John Neumann Church in Farragut. He was a priest of the Crusaders of the Holy Spirit community.
He had been facing serious health challenges in recent weeks. In an Aug. 3 e-mail, St. John Neumann Parish stated “we humbly ask for your prayers for our beloved Father Joseph Hammond during a difficult time… . As a community of faith, we find strength in coming together in prayer, especially for those who have served us so faithfully. Please join us in praying for Father Hammond’s peace, comfort, and the grace to feel God’s presence with him.”
“Father Joseph was a loving, humble, and good priest and will be deeply missed. I am grateful for his wonderful service in our diocese,” Bishop Mark Beckman said.
Visitation will be held Friday, Aug. 15, beginning at 6 p.m. at St. John Neumann Church. A bilingual Scripture service will follow at 7:30 p.m. The funeral Mass, celebrated by Bishop Mark Beckman, will be held on Saturday, Aug. 16, at 10 a.m. at St. John Neumann Church.
Father Hammond served for many years as the Five Rivers Deanery coordinator of Hispanic ministry after being appointed to the role by Bishop Joseph E. Kurtz in June 2001.
“I will be getting more involved with the people, getting to know them and saying Mass more often,” Father Hammond told The East Tennessee Catholic for its issue of June 24, 2001.
He served as part-time associate pastor at both Notre Dame in Greeneville and St. Patrick in Morristown and celebrated Masses in Spanish for those two parishes as well as for Good Shepherd in Newport and the Hispanic workers at the Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Scott Strawberry & Tomato Farms in the town of Unicoi. At that time, Unicoi County did not have a Catholic parish but was part of the territory of St. Mary in Johnson City.
Father Hammond became the full-time associate at St. Patrick in April 2005 and continued in his deanery Hispanic Ministry role until Bishop Richard F. Stika named him pastor of the Morristown parish in 2010.
Knoxville’s founding Bishop Anthony J. O’Connell invited Father Hammond to serve in the diocese in late winter 1998. Father Hammond visited East Tennessee at that time and first served as a volunteer at Notre Dame and at St. Patrick until he could obtain a resident visa in the United States.
Father Hammond was born July 21, 1946, and grew up in Accra, the capital of Ghana in west Africa, as one of three sons of Joseph Hammond and Rebecca Quarshie. Raised a Methodist, he was baptized as a Catholic when he was 9.
He became a Brother in the St. John of God order in Ghana, a Spanish order that does hospital ministry, and in 1972 traveled to Spain to study nursing.
“(The order) had a hospital, and I had been thinking about becoming a Brother before,” Father Hammond told The East Tennessee Catholic in 2012. “One of the priests there recommended me, so I went with them.”
Serving as a nurse “was great,” Father Hammond said. “I was taking care of the people when they were sick and giving comfort, especially to those who were dying. Sometimes they were left alone, and I tried to give them consolation and help them to die in peace.”
In 1979, he went to Liberia, where he worked in St. John’s Hospital in the capital of Monrovia. Five years later, he traveled to London to study for the priesthood with the Crusaders of the Holy Spirit at the Mill Hill Missionary Institute.
“I had a confessor, Father Byrne, who was an SMA (Society of African Missions) father. He suggested I become a priest,” Father Hammond recalled in 2012. “I said yes, so he gave me the address of the CHS order, and I wrote to them, and they accepted me.”
CHS priests also serve in England, Ireland, Venezuela, Colombia, and Argentina.
Father Hammond was ordained a priest on Aug. 5, 1989, at St. Patrick Church in Birmingham, England, by Bishop Joseph Francis Cleary.
A Father Baffoe influenced his priestly vocation, Father Hammond said.
“I think the way he celebrated Mass is what caught my attention,” he said. “I liked the reverence in the way he said Mass and his personal holiness.”
Father Hammond said he became a Catholic through the school he was attending as a youth.
From London, he went to Venezuela and served in parish work in the town of Guanarito for six years.
“I served in the towns and villages around Guanarito. I was in a parish where the previous pastor was a Franciscan priest who came there once a week,” Father Hammond said. “I was the first resident priest there for some time, and then also I had 15 substations, and I tried to visit those stations—more towns, more villages—where there was no priest at all. I tried to visit all of them.
“On Saturdays and Sundays, I said four Masses (daily). I did baptisms, first Communions, and weddings whenever I was there. Right after I had gotten there, I had four weddings that year. The next year, the number shot up to 12, and it kept increasing. The presence of a priest also helps the people to come, and they can get their catechesis and so on.”
Father Hammond returned to his home parish in Accra for two years, serving there until his superior asked him to come to the United States, where at the time the CHS order had only one other priest, who was serving in New York state.
After arriving in America, Father Hammond contacted Father Tom Powers, whom he met when he was studying for the priesthood in London. Father Powers served in the Diocese of Knoxville in the early 1990s before retiring to Greer, S.C. Father Powers introduced Father Hammond to Bishop O’Connell, who issued his invitation with a view to Father Hammond serving in the diocese.
Father Hammond spent time with Jack Kramer, then the diocesan director of Hispanic Ministry, and met with future Monsignor Bill Gahagan, who was serving as pastor of St. Mary in Johnson City. Father Hammond said at that time that he was appreciative of the hospitality shown to him during his stay in the diocese, especially thanking now-Monsignor Al Humbrecht and Father David Boettner of Sacred Heart Cathedral. The monsignor at that time was pastor of Sacred Heart, and Father Boettner, now rector of the cathedral, was associate pastor there, and they invited Father Hammond to live at the cathedral rectory during his first visit to East Tennessee.
In early 2011, Father Hammond became a U.S. citizen, and his parish family at St. Patrick in Morristown helped him celebrate the occasion. He was among more than 165 people from 59 countries who took part in naturalization ceremonies Feb. 18 at the City-County Building in Knoxville. U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan presided and led the new citizens in the Oath of Allegiance.
“It was great,” said Father Hammond. “It was very moving and emotional, especially when the judge came and read the orders and rights and all the things you are supposed to do.”
The St. Patrick pastor said he had no trouble with the citizenship exam.
“The questions and answers were very straightforward and very easy,” he said.
About 15 St. Patrick parishioners attended the ceremony in Knoxville, and more than 200 turned out for a “Citizenship Celebration” for their pastor Feb. 26 at the parish center. At that event, Father Hammond received a new Marian chasuble, stole, and alb purchased by several parishioners.
The Cabrera family of St. Patrick joined their pastor in becoming U.S. citizens. José, wife Ana, and sons Eddie and Fermin Cabrera took part in the ceremony in Knoxville.
Father Hammond said that as a new citizen he was looking forward to being able to vote. He said with a laugh that now he is “one more crazy American.”
“Becoming crazier every day,” he added.
He told The East Tennessee Catholic that “I prefer the pastoral work” when asked what gave him the most joy as a priest. “I go to the hospital and visit the sick and visit them in their homes. I find comfort doing that rather than sitting in the parish office.”
Father Hammond offered advice in the 2012 article to young men considering a vocation to the priesthood.
“I would say let the grace of God work through you,” he said. “Listen to Him and do what He tells you in your heart. Pray during your discernment and give God the control.”