WEST END -- The last 50 years have brought tumult and change to our world and to our Church, but through it all the priests of the Archdiocese of Boston have provided spiritual guidance to the faithful, said Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley during a Mass for priests celebrating their 50th anniversary of ordination at the archdiocese's Regina Cleri residence, May 9.

Since those priests were ordained in 1967, the world has seen the "polarization of liberal and conservative that followed the (Second Vatican) Council, the Vietnam War and the loss of confidence in our institutions, the questioning of all authority, the drug culture, sexual revolution, the divorce mentality, the assassinations John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King and the attempt on the life of John Paul II, and more recently September 11th and the Boston Marathon bombings, and, so devastating to our Church community, the sexual abuse crisis," said Cardinal O'Malley in his homily.

Yes, he said, "the last 50 years have not been a circus, especially for our Catholic priests, but you have been the shepherds, guiding God's people through perilous terrain, bringing them the strength and the solace through the word of God and the sacraments of your priestly ministry."

The priests celebrating 50 years of life in the priesthood are:

-- Father Wallace E. Blackwood

-- Father Clarence Burby, SJ

-- Father Allen L. W. Butler

-- Father Edward G. Carroll

-- Father Leonard Copeland, OCD

-- Father Francis J. Daly

-- Father Brendan Darcy, SMA

-- Father Joseph K. Fagan

-- Father Gerald Finnegan, SJ

-- Father David Gill, SJ

-- Bishop Arthur L. Kennedy

-- Father Robert Mallonee, SVD

-- Father John W. O'Brien

-- Father Gerald J. Osterman

-- Father C. Paul Rouse

-- Father John Surrette, SJ

-- Father Desmond A. Tynan

-- Father Thomas J. Walsh

-- Father Arthur F. Wright

Thanking them for their years of commitment to the Church, the cardinal praised their "years of service,'' "fidelity to prayer," and their "pastoral work."

"You have borne the heat of the day, and we are all grateful and indentured to you. The thousands of people whose lives have been touched by your ministry are the fruits of your labor," he said.