Respected Mariologist, Official of the Holy See, and parish priest, Monsignor Arthur Burton Calkins, died on February 3 of this year. Here are two sources for additional information:
- Reverend Msgr. Arthur Burton Calkins: April 18, 1945 ~ February 5 [sic], 2024 — the obituary on the funeral home’s website, and
- Mariologist Father Arthur Burton Calkins Has Passed Away (Update) — a posting on Gloria TV
Monsignor Calkins has been mentioned once before on our website for something he wrote as a Mariologist (cf., So, You’re a Slave…). As I also mentioned in that piece, there is something else that binds me to the good Monsignor: He baptized me at Saint Edward the Confessor Parish in Metairie, Louisiana in 1970. That was his first assignment as a priest of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. He was ordained in May, and I was born in June.
His assignment at Saint Edward’s was brief, and other pursuits, both academic and professional (as well as his rocky relationship with bishops) led him outside the Archdiocese. Although we had corresponded, I did not meet him again in person until I went to Rome in 2007, when he was amazingly generous with his time taking me all over the Eternal City, to various basilicas and other Catholic points of interest. His explanations of these sacred destinations were informative and edifying. I can remember his childlike eagerness to have me hear the rush of water from the fountains in the church of Tre Fontane Abbey, not far from the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the Walls — where he also took me. While in the Tre Fontane area, we went to see the spot of the apparition of the Virgin of Revelation to Bruno Cornacchiola — the story of which I had heard before but which Monsignor happily told me again. He loved to speak of Our Lady; for him, Mariology was obviously not a dry academic pursuit.
As an official of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei (PCED), he worked to help our community at the Holy See. His Australian successor in the office would continue that work.
One funny story comes to mind. During one of our ambulations around the City, we were standing just outside the Piazza of Santa Maria Maggiore when Monsignor Calkins was approached by a Franciscan friar he knew. Speaking in Italian, he mentioned to the friar the he baptized me as an infant. The friar took a good look at me in my habit, turned to Monsignor, and said, “It worked!”
May God rest his kind soul.
