Chuck O'Malley

"Oh, their simplicity is beautiful. I wouldn't change a word of it."

- Fr. O'Malley, about a first grade play he just saw.

Father Charles "Chuck" O'Malley was the protagonist of the movies Going My Way? and The Bells of Saint Mary's.

Going My Way?
Originally from East Saint Louis, O'Malley was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest. In the 1940s he was sent to St. Dominic’s Church in New York City. The Bishop wanted O'Malley to take charge of the parish, while leaving the older Father Fitzgibbon as pastor. As part of this Fitzgibbon was led to believe that the younger man was his assistant.

Fr. O'Malley did not make a good first impression with the older Fitzgibbon. Highly traditional Fitzgibbon did not approve of Fr. O'Malley playing golf or associating with Fr. Timmy O'Dowd.

Many of the parish youths were getting in trouble with the law, being part of a gang led by Tony Scaponi. Fitzgibbon tended to look the other way since the boys were in church on Sunday, but O'Malley took it upon himself to get the boys to change their lives. Befriending Tony Scaponi O'Malley was able to convince many of these boys to form a church choir.

Meanwhile unhappy over the state of affairs Fitzgibbons goes to see the Bishop. Initially intending to ask for O'Malley to be transferred away, he realized what O'Malley's true purpose was and instead asked the Bishop to name O'Malley as the new pastor of St. Dominic's.

Distressed over the recent events Fitzgibbons ran away, leading to a search. After returning to the parish he and O'Malley begin to bond. Fitzgibbons tells O'Malley that he'd like to return to Ireland to see his 90 year old mother, whom he hadn't seen in 45 years since leaving as a young priest.

After an executive heard St. Dominic's new choir, he donated enough money to pay off the mortgage on the church. Fitzgibbons and O'Malley become friends, with Fitzgibbons even joining O'Malley on the golf course.

As things started to look up St. Dominic's was nearly destroyed in a massive fire. Meanwhile O'Malley is about to leave for his next assignment. Before leaving he surprises Fitzgibbons by flying the elder priest's mother in to see him, and putting Tony Scaponi in charge of the church choir. Fr. O'Dowd is named the new assistant priest.

The Bells of St. Mary's
O'Malley was later assigned to St. Mary's parish. This was an inner city parish with a run down school building. His assignment there was to recommend whether or not the church school should be closed and the children sent elsewhere.

Fr. O'Malley and the Superior Mary Benedict both wanted to keep the school going, but disagreed about how to do that. The pair hoped Horace P. Bogardus would donate the building he put up to the parish. Meanwhile the pair found themselves in disagreement with a variety of issues that were going on with the parish.

Eventually Bogardus agreed to donate his new building to the parish. At the same time Mary Benedict was diagnosed with tuberculosis. When her doctor refused to tell her of her diagnosis Fr. O'Malley made sure to tell her about why she was being transferred to a warm climate to help manage her heal, less she think the transfer was because of her disagreements with Fr. O'Malley.

Trivia

 * In both films Fr. O'Malley was played by Big Crosby.