Please make sure your DISPLAY option is on in order to view the graphics.
Faithful servant and beloved priest of the most high God

FROM FR JOSEPH:

Dear brothers and sisters in Our Lord & Our Lady,

Many of you attended Fr Bill's viewing (wake) this past Thursday, February 24 and his Mass of Christian Burial for a Priest the following day. Both of these were at Saint James the Apostle Church in Springfield, which was Fr Bill's childhood parish.

Father Bill was my immediate predecessor as pastor of St Antoninus Church, where he served from 1999 to 2012. He was a faithful priest and a dear friend.
I will miss his friendship and his inspiring witness of love of Jesus and of His Word.

Please join us for our 10am Mass on Sunday, March 20, as we gather to give thanks for Fr Bill’s life, his faith and his faithfulness to Jesus, and as we celebrate what would have been Fr Bill's 66th birthday. Please come ready to share memories and tributes to Fr Bill, as we offer prayers on his final journey home - where the celebration will have no end.

We will gather in the church hall for food, fellowship & tributes after the Mass.

Below are some tributes to Fr Bill from three parishioners as well as the recording of his Funeral Mass.

Please pray for the soul of Fr Bill, faithful servant and beloved priest of the most high God.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

In Jesus thru Mary,
Fr Joseph
Below, listen to a stirring tribute to Fr Bill Halbing by Fr Joseph Meagher during his homily at Fr Bill's Funeral Mass, Feb 25, 2022.
Here is the full live-stream recording of the Funeral Mass:

Mass of Christian Burial for a Priest
Rev. William Halbing
Friday February 25, 2022 @ 10am

Click below to watch.

Published Obituary

Reverend William J. Halbing

Rev. William J. Halbing, 65 of Linden went home to the Lord on February 21, 2022.

Relatives, friends and parishioners are invited to attend a visitation for Fr. Halbing at St. James Church, 45 S. Springfield Ave. Springfield on Thursday February 24 from 3 - 7 PM, with a Vigil Prayer being offered at 6:15 PM. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at St. James Church on Friday February 25 at 10 AM. Interment will follow at Gate of Heaven Cemetery. Arrangements are in the care of the Galante Funeral Home in Union.

Born in Orange, Fr. Halbing was raised in Union. He graduated from Seton Hall University and Immaculate Conception Seminary, and was ordained as a Catholic Priest in Newark, NJ on October 30, 1982 by Most Rev. Peter L. Gerety. 

Father Halbing was blessed to serve the faithful in many different communities throughout his priesthood. He began his service at Divine Mercy in Rahway, serving from 1983 to 1994, and then was a Parochial Vicar at St. Paul of the Cross in Jersey City. Fr. Halbing was proud to be named Pastor of SS. Joseph and Michael in Union City in 1997, later transferring as Pastor to St. Antoninus in Newark until 2012. After a brief time at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Scotch Plains, Fr. Halbing served the faithful at St. Mary Parish in Middletown and St. Matthew in Ridgefield, until residing at and serving St. John the Apostle in Linden since 2020.

Father Halbing was predeceased by his loving parents George and Bernadette (nee Mulligan) Halbing. He was the dear brother of George Halbing and his wife Susan and Paul Halbing; cherished uncle of Brian, Diana and Matthew, and loving great-uncle of Tyler, Brandon, Lillianna and Maxwell.

Below is a powerful video testimony from Fr Bill's friend who was with him when he passed. He shares with us
Fr Bill Halbing's final words before breathing his last.


My Tribute to Father Bill
by Laureen Isekenegbe

I came to know Father Bill while being a parishioner at St. Antoninus, during his installment as the parish priest in 1999. To me, Father Bill was a beloved priest whom I respected and loved. I loved his devotion to God and his zeal as a Bible scholar. Father Bill has never failed in his preaching and his stance as a faithful man of God. Father Bill was instrumental in the charismatic renewal and being open to allowing fellow charismatic priests to teach us, his flock, whether it was Father Suarez, or Father Hampsch (both deceased) on his famous Healing The Family Tree. 
 
Father Bill loved children and to me personally, he loved my son so much that he hung a photo of my son in the rectory.
 
I remember when I had surgery in 2006, and though the outlook was bleak at that time, Father Bill, Lauretta Cavanaugh (deceased), Theresa Disla and Evelyn Matos, prayed over me three days before surgery. During the surgery, nothing was found and we all declared that a miracle had occurred. Father Bill came to the hospital and told the nurses that they should be doing the back flip because a miracle had occurred. One week after that surgery which left me with a cut equivalent to a cesarean section, Father Bill had me brought to church, carried up the steps on a chair, to testify of God's greatness. How could I not have loved Father Bill. He will be dearly be missed. May his soul rest in eternal peace

Just one more soul!
by Eileen O'Hara

That was Fr. Bill’s daily mantra...just one more soul, Lord. Give me one more soul! And he never stopped pursuing those souls in almost every state of the Union & across many countries of the world whether at Masses, conferences, retreat days, pilgrim- ages, healing services, teachings, hospitals, nursing homes, funeral homes, Bible Studies for which he was famous & in restaurants, airplanes terminals, cars, living rooms, front porches, confessionals, share groups, on the streets, wherever he met God’s children...he wanted their souls
for Jesus. In the waiting room at the hospital before his stress test, he was praying over people for healing. His hunger for souls for Jesus was insatiable. He started out as a young priest & never stopped.

And God gifted him with so many of the Charismatic gifts to reach those souls. He did what Jesus did. He prayed for healing for people & those healed & those witnessing or hearing about the healings opened the doors of their hearts to receiving the Word & he was a master with the Word of God which he studied, pondered & shared daily. The signs & wonders preceded the words of salvation.

He was a great teacher & loved teaching at every level & he got everyone’s attention at every level whether with the school kids whom he delighted in all the way up to the elderly he revered. He got people’s attention & kept it with his many stories, his humor & even theatrics to get his points across. He basked in the glow of all the affirmation he received grateful that he was able to use his priestly gifts to touch the hearts of the people he was called to serve. He loved being a priest even though it came with a lot of challenges & surprises he hadn’t bargained for.

He loved his Mama & kept encouraging her to get into the Word which she started to do at 74. He was thrilled! Who knows how many Bibles around the world got dusted off & used! His enthusiasm, his mastery of the Good Book & his presentation sparked the interest of so many who came in person or tuned in online. All through the Chinese virus lockdowns, he did a Bible study every night for 2 years & people went deeper very quickly & they hungered for MORE.

He prayed for all his family members & shared with great affection the antics & the hopes of the little ones. He peppered some of his homilies & talks about the delight he had in them & their antics & comments made in the unfettered innocence of childhood. It fed the child in him as well. He loved to pop the plastic Word; he lived it. He woke up, shook up & energized all the people he preached to, including himself.

There are many grieving hearts among us at this anguish of separation. We rejoice in his running the race stunningly & in God’s time, wearing the crown in the Kingdom he longed for. He made the poignancy of death more real for us all as he was our anchor in these tumultuous times & our link with the heavenly realm. He was always there... everywhere it seems & we kind of counted on his getting us into the Kingdom & presiding at our own send-offs. Now it is up to us to give him the glori- ous grateful send-off he deserves & to press on & carry the torch of Truth & the thirst & zeal for souls that characterized him. For that is really all that matters. It is all about souls & where they will spend eternity.

So let us not neglect to continue to pray for him for one needs to be perfect to come before the Father. And if he is already there, he will know what to do with those prayers. He will give them to Our Lady to help souls that need Christ's mercy most. We can only imagine what he is experiencing once there. A joy beyond our capacity, of seeing the Jesus he preached about & loved so passionately face to face & meeting the father he never knew on earth for the first time & rejoicing in the great reunion of the souls of those he loved & served & who
made it home in many cases be- cause of his
ministry. Lord, let us learn never to take anyone for granted & to thank You for the gift of this special servant of Yours. We love him with the love of the Father which he taught us to receive.

How Fr Bill brought me to Jesus
By Theresa Carey
 
It had to be around 1996.. Fr Bill was a visiting priest at Sacred Heart Church, now known as Good Shephard Church in lrvington, NJ. He preached the gospel that Sunday. I don't remember what the gospel was about, but what l do remember is that when he finished, I felt that the Lord had put a new heart in my chest. I didn't know Fr. Bill and he didn't know me. I was in a relationship that was putting me in danger of losing my soul. I was bound and could not let it go, but when Fr Bill finished preaching,l was different. The love and power of the Holy Spirit has moving. I was blessed from the words he spoke and able to leave the relationship l was in and thus continue my walk with the Lord. Years later when When Fr. Bill became the pastor of St. Antoninus as few years later, l realized he was the same priest who preached that truth in love that had set me free. I continued to be blessed by Fr Bill’s ministry- I joined his Hebrew class, prayer meetings, and Bible study.
 
Fr. Bill's prayers of healing blessed Eleanor, my mom, Eleanor. The doctor told my mom she had spurs on her feet. Fr. Bill asked the Lord to heal her feet. He said she was not a cowboy she doesn't need spurs. Mom was healed. Never complained about her feet again.
 
A friend called me one night asking me for prayers. He was very ill, had lost a lot of weight and was very week. I knew he needed someone knowledgeable an anointed and filled with The Holy Spirit to pray for him, so i called Fr. Bill at around 11pm that night. Fr. Bill agreed to pray for him. I drove my friend’s truck to St. A's because my friend was too weak to drive. Fr Bill met us at the door. My friend was a Jehovah's Witness and was never in a church or ever had dealings with a priest before. Fr. Bill began to preach and pray with my friend. Told him God was healing him, but didn't want him to go back to his old ways. He was healed. I was going to drive him back to his home because he was so weak on our way to the Fr. Bill, but when Fr. finished with him he was able drive home himself after dropping me off. He was no longer weak. I saw him days later. The Lord had really used Fr Bill and blessed him. Thanks be to God!

Fr Bill had been in the Charismatic Renewal since 1975 and was an anointed and a much sought after Bible teacher & preacher. Watch Fr Bill Halbing' s talk: "Heaven"- Mar 16, 2019

Watch Fr Bill Halbing' s recent brief talk on "Charismatic gifts", just just 2 weeks ago ( Feb 7, 2022)
973-623-0258
337 South Orange Ave, Newark NJ 07103 
Rev. Joseph A. Meagher (Pastor)