Neighbors and friends will gather Friday night, April 23 at Florian Hall to pay tribute to a beloved Dorchester priest.

"A Tribute to Msgr. Bill Francis" will draw a full house to the function hall on Hallet Street in Neponset, to salute the priest's decades of service in Boston's neighborhoods.

"We have 400 tickets and they're all sold," says Buddy Summers, a Boston Police Officer who helped organize the event. Among the invited guests are Mayor and Mrs. Thomas Menino, Boston Police Commissioner Kathy O'Toole and longtime Boston newspaper and radio commentator Mike Barnicle. Msgr. Francis has been a Boston Police Dept. chaplain since 1978, and has ministered to scores of police officers and their families over the years.

The tribute comes at a time when Msgr. Francis continues his long convalescence from an injury he sustained last summer. The priest, pastor of Holy Family parish in Uphams Corner, was hospitalized over Labor Day with injuries from a fall in his rectory. After several surgeries and a long hospital stay, he has been living and having rehab at Marian Manor in South Boston since December.

The South Boston native entered the seminary in 1950 after his graduation from BC High. He was ordained in 1958 by his uncle, then-Archbishop Richard J. Cushing, and his first assignment was to St. Rose parish in Chelsea.

In 1961, he volunteered to work in South America in the Archidocese's St. James Missionary society.

It was during that assignment that Msgr. Francis became fluent in Spanish. "We were sent to the Maryknoll school in Cochabamba, Bolivia, just before the jungle in Bolivia," he says.

"I went down to Peru in 1961 and lived in the mountains for a couple of years," the priest was saying this week. "I did some more years down on the coast. I was outside Lima. They were extremely poor people who had come from the mountain area into the big city- they lived in shacks."

After 10 years in South America, he returned home to Boston. "My mother was sick, and I wanted to be closer to her." He lived in St. Stephen's parish in the North End during that time, and traveled the country recruiting priests to serve in the St. James program in South America, and in 1974 he was assigned to the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, where he was oversaw the Spanish program.

He was named pastor of Dorchester's St. Paul's parish in 1976, and has worked here ever since. The parish was merged in 1994 with St. Kevin's, and took the name Holy Family parish.

Over the years, "Father Francis" has helped scores of persons get a head start. His parish, once heavily populated with recent Irish and Italian immigrants, is now comprised of many new residents, among them Haitian, Latino, and Vietnamese, and his church on Lingard Street has been a hub of activity for thousands. Some years ago, he converted the church basement to a homeless shelter, and the parish has thrived.

"It is one of the best," he says. "It's multi-cultural - a welcoming parish. People have lived in that area for years and always welcomed newcomers."

Rev. Bill Francis himself is one of the best. He deserves the accolades that come his way. He has made a great difference in many lives, both here and in his missionary work in Peru.

Ad Multos Annos, Father. Get well, and return to your great works of charity. We will be among the guests tomorrow night at Florian Hall. He's always been there for us; we will be there for him.

-Ed Forry