So he helped at Most Holy Redeemer parish in Tampa for a few years before moving to “a beautiful, little old house on Lake Chapman” in Lutz, helping out at parishes as needed.

“I was living alone,” said Monsignor Daly, 84. “And I was getting lonelier and lonelier.”

He was also getting older and wondered if he should move to the St. John XXIII Residence in Lutz, a retirement home for Catholics.

“One day, the Lord gave me a very big hint,” Monsignor Daly said.

He fell.

“I lost a lot of blood; I was actually on the floor for five hours before anyone found me,” he said.

A neighbor called an ambulance.

Monsignor Daly spent three weeks in the hospital. Shortly after he got home, on Jan. 9, 2024, he moved to St. John XXIII, where all the residents have something in common, said Megan Mehaffey, the Diocese of Saint Petersburg’s Priest Wellness Coordinator.

“They lived their life in service to God.”

A Home for Devout Catholics

In 2021, the diocese received a $10 million bequest from the Charlotte S. Rhodes Trust, said Monsignor Mike Muhr. The bishop appointed Monsignor Muhr to chair a committee created to fulfill Rhodes’s wishes for the gift.

Rhodes wanted the diocese to use it to build a retirement home for diocesan priests, nuns, and needy or disabled elderly Catholics. She provided a timeframe in which the project had to reach groundbreaking. But due to the pandemic, hurdles the diocese faced felt insurmountable.

“At that time, we knew it would be much harder to get things rezoned, and much longer to get permits,” said Monsignor Muhr, one of several who attended a meeting to discuss the project. At first, “the consensus of the group was ‘we can’t meet the deadline.’”

But at the meeting, Robert Bennett, co-founder of Angels Senior Living and a parishioner in the diocese, proposed an idea.

Angels Senior Living at The Reserves of Idlewild in Lutz was already under construction, Monsignor Muhr said. Bennett suggested the diocese build the third floor.

The diocese did and named it the St. John XXIII Residence because St. John XXIII “was an older man, a pope filled with hope, and nothing had been named after him yet in the diocese,” Monsignor Muhr said.

In every room, “there’s a citation of scripture on the floor,” Monsignor Muhr said, now covered by flooring.

In Oct. 2022, Bishop Gregory Parkes blessed and dedicated the residence, which has 22 units and offers independent and assisted living.

Amenities the Faithful Can Appreciate

St. John XXIII is “warm, prayerful, friendly for people with ambulatory and mobility issues,” said Deacon Peter Burns, coordinator of pastoral services at the residence.

Residents get meals, transportation, and access to home healthcare, among other services, said Michael Bing, executive director of Angels Senior Living at The Reserves.

There are also amenities uniquely important to Catholics, including “the closeness of the Eucharist,” said Monsignor Muhr.

There is Mass six days a week, in a chapel that seats 40, plus opportunities to pray the rosary and stations of the cross. There is weekly adoration and a weekly Bible study.

“We pray, reflect, and unpack the upcoming Sunday Gospel,” Burns said. Several priests who live there attend every week, “open to learn, open to grow.”

If lay residents want to go to confession or need anointing of the sick, Burns arranges it.

Religious artwork lines the halls. The sunroom has religious statues.

“I wish my office was in there,” said Bing. “It’s so peaceful.”

That’s important for the residents, he added, who are there “to be around other Catholics for the end of their life.”

A Beginning More Than an End

The building has about 81 residents, a little more than 40 of whom are Catholic. About half the Catholics live at St. John XXIII.

Most of them are lay people, for whom there’s a vetting process that involves a parish priest confirming that they’re faithful. Currently, ten of the residents are priests.

Among them, “you’re talking more than 550 years of priesthood,” said Burns.

Monsignor Daly has been a priest for 59 years.

Before he decided to move to the residence, “I had this dreadful fear of losing my independence,” he said. “I’m actually more independent here than I was before.”

He lives a couple doors down from the chapel. He’ll routinely “pop in and spend a quiet moment with the Lord,” he said.

When asked how living at St. John XXIII provides hope, he said, “We hope for something we don’t have already.”

At St. John XXIII, Monsignor Daly has what he needs.

“But I’ve got a lot of hope for the world to come,” he said. “I hope I die in a state of grace and that I’ll be with the Lord one day. That’s the only thing I hope for.”