Little Neck-Douglaston Parade The Douglas S. MacKay Community Service Award

Reverend Monsignor Michael J. Cantley was born February 8, '929 to Michael and I Eva Baust Cantley in Flushing, NY. After his father's death in 1936, he and his sister and Mother moved to Woodside and he was educated at St. Theresa's School. Following his graduation he attended the Diocesan preparatory seminary, Cathedral College in Brooklyn and the Immaculate Conception Seminary at Huntington, NY.

He was ordained June 4, 1955 and assigned to Blessed Sacrament Parish. After four- teen months in parish service, Father Cantley was assigned to the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. for studies leading to the SDC (Doctor of Sacred Theology) degree, to prepare to teach in the main seminary in Huntington. While Father Cantley was studying, the assigning Bishop, Thomas E. Molloy died and the Diocese of Brooklyn, which comprised the whole of Long Island was split into two: Brooklyn, including Queens, and the new Diocese of Rockville Centre. Father Cantley remained a priest of the Brooklyn Diocese, and remained in service to it until 1972, teaching during that time at St. Joseph's College in Brooklyn.

In 1973 Bishop Francis Mugavero assigned Father Cantley to the Seminary to teach. During this time and after, he taught at St. John's University and the Pastoral Institute of the Diocese. He remained in a teaching position until 1981 when he was asked to be the Administrator of St. John Vianney Parish in Douglaston.

In 1983 he was appointed Pastor of St. Anastasia's Parish in Douglaston and remains in that position today. He was made a Prelate of Honor by Pope John Paul II in 1986 with the title Monsignor.

Monsignor Cantley is a member of many learned Societies including the Catholic Biblical Association, The Catholic Theological Society with publications in the new Catholic Encyclopedia, the Encyclopedia for Home and School, the American Ecclesiastical Review, The Tablet, with book reviews in the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, and has written a history of the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception. He was a member of the Tablet Board of Directors, the Secretary to the Bishop for Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs, the Racial Harmony Committee, the Liturgical Commission of the Diocese and has worked on the Marriage Tribunal of the Diocese of Rockville Centre and Brooklyn.

If you are unable to view the parade top banner then click here to refresh the page.