BLOOMINGTON — A funeral Mass was offered on Tuesday, Aug. 12, at Holy Trinity Church here for Msgr. Thomas W. Maloney, who served as chaplain of Central Catholic High School for 14 years and was pastor of parishes in Chenoa, Lexington, and Normal.

Msgr. Maloney, a former vicar of the Bloomington vicariate who was granted senior priest status in 2002, died at his home in Lexington on Friday, Aug. 7, 2009. He was 73.

Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, was principal celebrant of the funeral Mass. Msgr. Doug Hennessy, pastor of Holy Trinity, was homilist. Burial was in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Bloomington.

Born March 13, 1936, in Bloomington to Thomas William and Fauntella Rose (Brannon) Maloney, he attended Trinity Grade and High School. After earning a degree in sociology from St. Benedict’s College in Atchison, Kan., he spent four years in the education field, as a teacher at Trinity High School and Corpus Christi in Galesburg, as well as principal and superintendent of Unit District No. 54 in Camp Grove, north of Peoria. He also assisted his father setting ceramic tile.

While at Camp Grove, he was invited by Father John King, pastor of St. Patrick’s Parish there who also knew him from grade school years in Bloomington, to consider the priesthood. In 1962, Msgr. Maloney entered Conception Seminary in Conception, Mo. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria by Bishop John B. Franz at St. Mary’s Cathedral on May 21, 1967.

His first assignments were as parochial vicar at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Peoria; St. Patrick’s, Ottawa; St. Monica’s, East Peoria; and Epiphany, Normal.

In 1976, he began 19 years of service as pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish in Chenoa and St. Mary’s, Lexington. From 1980 to 1994 he was also chaplain of Central Catholic High School in Bloomington.

In 1995, he was named pastor of Epiphany Parish in Normal, and oversaw two major building programs as the parish responded to growth.
Msgr. Maloney was named a prelate of honor with the title of monsignor in Jubilee Year 2000. He retired for health reasons two years later.

He is survived by three sisters, Mary Jean Kraft, Normal; Louise Ralph, Springfield; and Marjorie Handley, Decatur. He has 19 nieces and nephews, and 65 great-nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, two nieces and two brothers-in-law.