[1] His father was a first-generation Irish American whereas his mother hailed directly from Ireland, where her parents lived on Achill Island, County Mayo.

And from the earliest years of grade school, my mother used to recall that as a youngster I would, coming back from church, offer a Mass of my own using a bath towel or something as a chasuble and that sort of routine.

On 28 February 1942, Murphy was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Cleveland by Bishop James McFadden at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

[2] He was appointed to the faculty of St. Mary's Seminary as professor of moral and pastoral theology in 1943, becoming dean of students in 1944 and vice-rector in 1948.

[1] Murphy was named Coadjutor Bishop of Erie, Pennsylvania, on 20 November 1978; he was only the third U.S. appointment of the newly elected Pope John Paul II.

Murphy soon visited every parish in the diocese and reorganized the diocesan administration to improve pastoral service to Catholics, delegating some of the bishop's authority and allowing more participation of religious and laity.

[3] He founded the Emmaus Program, an annual convocation of diocesan clergy for their continuing education and spiritual formation, in 1983.

He wrote an open letter to Pennsylvania Governor (and future U.S. Attorney General) Dick Thornburgh in 1986 voicing his opposition to the death penalty, saying, "We are disappointed, frightened, angered even to the point of vengeance when the lives of others become so warped and twisted that they have become destructive of life itself.