Father Mike Gould, Merna native, served 70 years as Maryknoll missionary
A memorial Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, May 31 at 10 a.m. at St. Patrick Church of Merna in Bloomington for Father Michael “Mike” Gould, who was a Maryknoll priest for 70 years.
A funeral Mass and burial were celebrated in Ossining, NY on Feb. 4 for Father Gould, who died on Jan. 25, 2025. He was 97 years old.
Father Gould was born on Aug. 13, 1927 in Merna, one of ten children of Eugene and Angela Kinsella Gould. He attended Merna Elementary School, and graduated from Holy Trinity High School in Bloomington.
THE MEN OF MARYKNOLL
As it was described in a Catholic Post profile on the occasion of his Father Gould’s 65th priestly anniversary in 2019, while at Trinity he came upon a book, “The Men of Maryknoll.”
He became the quick study and jack-of-all-pastoral trades that missionary priests must be.
Written in World War II, the book told the stories of Maryknoll missionaries in China, Japan, the Philippines and South America. “It stayed in my mind,” he was quoted as saying.
ORDAINED IN 1954
Ordained a Maryknoll priest in 1954, he was assigned to the Maryknoll Mission Region in Bolivia.
He became the quick study and jack-of-all-pastoral trades that missionary priests must be, learning to fly an airplane to reach remote areas.
He helped to train local lay leaders and catechists, organize agricultural cooperatives, and build medical dispensaries, schools, and 30 churches.
500 BAPTISMS A YEAR
Along the way he averaged 500 baptisms a year for much of his time in Bolivia – nearly 60 years.
Returning to the U.S. in 2017, he assisted in the Diocese of El Paso, then moved to a Maryknoll residence in California in 2019, and finally to New York in 2024.
Father Mike is survived by his brothers, David (Phyllis) Gould and Tim (Ann) Gould; his sisters, Angela (Jim) Bergin, and Sister Charlotte Gould, O.P.; and his many nieces and nephews.
He was predeceased by his twin brothers, Mark and Paul, and his sisters, Margaret Anne Cusick, Mary Elizabeth Maher, and Rita Schulze.
The 10 a.m. Memorial Mass at St. Patrick Church of Merna in Bloomington on May 31 will be followed by the blessing of a family memorial stone at Holy Cross Cemetery.
