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sma – our objectives

spirituality & lifestyle

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SMA PARISHES

SMA Irish Province is responsible for the pastoral care of 4 Parishes:

Ireland:

Diocese of Cork & Ross
SMA Parish of St Joseph, Blackrock Road, Cork
SMA Parish of St Joseph, Wilton, Cork

England:

Diocese of Brentwood
Our Lady of the Rosary and St Patrick Parish, Walthamstow, London

Australia:

Archdiocese of Perth
Parish of Christ the King, Beaconsfield, West Australia

SMA Mission Statement

The Society of African Missions (SMA) is committed to preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ chiefly in Africa and to people of African origin.

We regard

• solidarity with the poor and the powerless,
• commitment to reading the signs of the times,
• activities for justice and peace,
• dedication to building a better world, including care for the environment,

as constitutive dimensions of witnessing to the Good News. We do this through education, health care, development projects and conscientisation for justice. We also help in caring for African immigrants in Europe and the USA and draw attention to those structures that oppress them and other people of the Third World.

Though the obstacles are many, the Society of African Missions is filled with hope, a hope that is rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. in the service of this Gospel, whose power we have witnessed in the birth of new Christian communities throughout Africa, we seek to give prophetic witness to the

• word that is truth,
• word that illumines and gives life,
• word that liberates and transforms

in fundamental continuity with the traditions of the Society and in imitation of the life and example of the Founder, the Society will continue to give joyful witness to the Gospel, chiefly among Africans and people of African origin. That witness springs from a vibrant missionary apostolic spirituality, which is grounded in a deep relationship with Jesus Christ. on this basis, the missionary apostolates of SMAs are undertaken in a spirit of collaboration and dialogue, continually highlight the link between faith and justice, and aim to promote the integrity of creation in all its aspects. Open to the Spirit of Christ, the Society remains open to undertake “new and bold initiatives” in obedience to the command of Christ, who has commissioned us to “go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation”(mk 16:15).

The apostolate of the Society of African Missions is of its nature specifically missionary. We are not “extra clergy” but missionaries engaged in the Church’s mission ad gentes. Called “to bear witness to the Risen Christ among the nations” (Redemptoris Missio, no 66), we reach out, not only across geographical barriers, but across social and cultural barriers, to those who are most abandoned and marginalised, to the victims of war and violence, to refugees in Africa and outside it, to women and children, and to all those who await the Gospel of hope.

SMA missionaries live and work in solidarity with our African brothers and sisters struggling for justice and peace in the midst of political turmoil and social disintegration: members are prepared to dedicate ourselves with courage to stand by the people in places like Liberia, Ivory Coast, Congo and other troubled regions of the continent of Africa.

The Society of African Missions [SMA]
Jubilee 1856 – 2006

In 2006 the Society of African Missions (SMA) will reach an historic milestone in its existence as a Missionary Society. Founded on December 8th 1856 in Lyons in France, the SMA has a unique opportunity in our lifetime to both look back with gratitude for the 150 years of solidarity with Africa and to look forward with renewed hope and dedication to continue its work of mission.

Looking back on the life of the Founder, Bishop de Marion Bréssilac (1813-1859), one could easily conclude that the Society’s coming into existence was a chance or accidental happening. At first a diocesan priest in France, the Founder had very early in his priesthood volunteered to work as a missionary in the East and was assigned to India. This he did for 12 years. Had he not run into a variety of difficulties there, it is conceivable that he would not have resigned as he did in 1854, and in all likelihood would have spent all his active days there. That events transpired as they did was instrumental in his founding a new Society, with the approval of Rome, for the evangelisation of Africa. Thus 2006 gives all in the SMA, and all connected with it, the opportunity to give thanks to God:

• For what has been achieved in Africa, under His grace, in the course of 150 years;
• For the dedication of generations of SMA’s and loyal bands of lay co-workers in partnership;
• For where the Society is today with an ageing membership in the older Provinces but with emerging new Units in Africa itself, in Asia and in Poland.

Indeed the focus of our celebration will be very much towards the future. Undoubtedly it will be a moment of opportunity and grace from God for all connected with the SMA – members and lay supporters – to renew our commitment to nurture the growth of the reign of God, especially in Africa.

It will be an occasion for more people not only to learn of the SMA and its work, but also to become active participants as an expression of their baptismal call. We invite you to take a look at the various events planned for 2006, and to take part where possible (keeping in mind especially the national celebration in Knock on May 27th). Let us pray for God’s blessing and guidance for the Jubilee year and beyond.

The Members of the Irish Province are engaged in various activities:

Members in Africa

• in SMA Parishes
• in Administration
• in Formation
• in Education
• in Diocesan Pastoral Action

Members outside Africa

• in Adminsitration
• in Promotion of Mission
• in Society Parishes in Ireland and Britain
• in Pastoral Ministry not directly realted to SMA

Work of the SMA
A large number of SMA members work in urban and rural areas, utilising new pastoral and missionary approaches, both within Africa and outside it. They are engaged in

• primary evangelisation
• running SMA and non-SMA parishes
• chaplaincies
• different ecclesial movements
• inculturation
• development projects for Justice, Peace and Environmental Care.

Some SMA members are engaged in other Apostolic Activities including

• socio-economic projects (with prisonres, street children, etc)
• projects of solidarity with the marginalised, with those infected by HIV-AIDS
• health projects
• agricultural development
• providing material and spiritual assistance to refugees and displaced persons
• promoting reconcilaition among people of different ethnic groups
• the media: audiovisuals, press, radio, television
• the encounter with followers of other religions (Islam, African Traditional Religions), or just being present to them
• welcoming and accompanying Africans in our countries of origin in Europe and America

Some SMA members are called upon to serve in Administration

• in the service of the Generalate, the Provinces, the Districts and the Regions of the Society
• in the promotion of Justice, Peace and Environmental Care at various levels
• in the service of Church Organisations at Diocesan and International levels

SMA members are involved in different kinds of Formation work

• parishes (among the laity, in ecclesial movements)
• seminaries and schools of theology
• secondary schools, colleges and univeristies
• centres of research and promotion
• the new Districts of the SMA

SMA members are involved in areas of Animation and Promotion within and outside Africa

• missionary animation
• vocations ministry
• gathering financial reources for SMA activities and for the needs of Africa

There is a considerable number of elderly SMA members who are retired or if more active are engaged in promotion work and in chaplaincy service.

SMA House, Ranelagh Road, Dublin

The SMA House in Dublin is located at No 82 Ranelagh Road, Dublin 6.

Use of SMA House

• Residence for the House Administration, SMA Promotion staff, SMA lecturers at various institutions, SMA and other priests studying at nearby institutions.
• Promotion and Mission Animation Offices: the Family Vocations Crusade for Dublin and Leinster, Missionary Association Cards distribution.

 

Dublin:
African Missions, 82 Ranelagh Road, Dublin 6.
Tel: 01 4968162 / 01 4968163
Fax: 01 4968164
e-Mail: [email protected]

Irish Antenna Africa-Europe Faith and Justice Network Study Day

Took place on March 9th 2004 at Marino Institute of Education, Griffith Avenue, D9.

Keynote speaker: Michael McCabe SMA, President of AEFJN Executive, Rome
Theme: The Mission of Justice – Leadership and Justice in a globalized world

Other speakers:
Jim Loughran, Amnesty spoke on the Arms Trade –
Conall O’Caoimh, Comhlámh/Dóchas spoke on the topic: Trade not Aid –
Anne Reilly, Debt and Development Coalition: The African Debt Issue

For the text of Fr Michael McCabe’s lecture: … here

INTERMENT AT KAGORO…

To a moving rendition of the Irish hymn “Ag Críost an Síol” a group of Irish missionaries gathered at the SMA cemetery in St. Joseph’s Parish, Kagoro in Nigeria on 08 March 2005. With them was a huge gathering of local Catholics. The occasion was the re-interment of the remains of seven valiant Irish missionaries, three sisters and four priests. All of them had lain buried for periods of between seventy and twenty years at St Piran’s cemetery, Jos located in that city in an area likely to be redeveloped for secular purposes in the near future.

• Fr Florrie O’Driscoll SMA, from Aughadown, Skibereen, Co Cork, was only six years in Jos and was already appointed as Regional Superior when he died in 1935 aged 30 years.
• Fr Anthony O’Dwyer SMA, from Clonlee, Co Galway, was 27 years old when he died in 1937. He attended two SMA priests who were suffering from yellow fever – his classmate, Fr John Marren from Co Sligo who died in his presence and Fr Pat McAnally from Belfast who survived— contracted the disease himself and died a week later.
• Fr Andrew Geraghty SMA, from Rochfordbridge, Co Westmeath, died in 1940 as a result of a fall from a horse, the normal mode of transport for priests at the time in the Jos area. He was aged 29 and was only thirty months on mission.
• Sister Fidelma Reynolds OLA, from Ballykilcline, Co Roscommon, was about to return to Ireland on her first leave after eight years in Nigeria working in healthcare and maternity when typhoid claimed her in 1947. She was aged 37 years.
• Fr Michael Harrison SMA, from Athlone, died in 1974 aged 70 years. He was SMA Regional Superior for a period and also served as Vicar-General of Jos. A renowned builder, many fine churches in Jos city are the fruit of his labours.
• Sr Maura O’Leary OLA, from Inchigeela, Co Cork died in 1975 within six hours of contracting typhoid. She was 57 years of age. She had been Principal Tutor in the Jos School of Midwifery.
• Sr Ita McGuane SSL, from Tubber in Co. Clare was killed in a car crash in August 1978 when she was moving to her new appointment in kano having served for ten years as Principal in St Louis Secondary School, Jos.

The transfer of their remains to the newly-prepared cemetery in Kagoro was celebrated in a Mass presided over by Bishop John Moore SMA of Bauchi Diocese, assisted by Fr. Maurice Henry, SMA Regional Superior, who preached the homily.

In his letter to mark the re-interment, the Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria, Archbishop Renzo Fratini, wrote: “ I pray that this may be an edifying occasion, and that it may serve to highlight the achievements of the mission to Northern Nigeria, entrusted to the SMA, and to enkindle the spirit of evangelisation in the region in our own day”.

The story of the success of the seed planted by these early Irish missionaries is seen in the twenty-million strong Catholic Church led by fifty mostly indigenous bishops and Archbishops. Also a quarter of the seventy SMA missionaries still in Nigeria at the start of the twenty-first century are Africans, drawn from seven different countries on the continent. The hope of all was adequately prayed for by the Nigerian Provincial Superior of the St Louis Sisters, Sr Patricia Ojo, at the Mass: “May the young African members of the SSL, OLA, and SMA congregations remain steadfast and faithful in their continuing efforts to bring Christ to the peoples of Africa, and the peoples of Africa to Christ”.

Suggestions for Prayers of the Faithful for World Refugee Day 

Some or all of the following could be used:

Introduction:
God our Father on our pilgrimage of life we turn to you in hope and confidence

For the leadership of the Church; that we may continue to be at the service of human mobility and pursue the globalisation of solidarity, caring for those who fall by the way side.
Lord Hear Us.

For those who gave generously in service our Irish Emigrants over the years. As we mark 50 years of service of the Irish Chaplaincy in Britain let us remember the many priests, brothers, sisters and lay people who cared for those who were forced seek a new life in Britain.
Lord Hear Us.

For those who come to our land, may they find a welcome, may they not be exploited and may they find a place to celebrate their unique culture. May the life of Saint Patrick remind us of the blessing and graces that a migrant can bring to our shores.
Lord Hear Us

We give thanks or those who continue to remember and look after elderly relations abroad. May distance not inhibit our duty to care for those we love. We give thanks for the benefits of new technologies that allow us to communicate more effectively and that give us the freedom to travel more frequently to spend time with those we love.
Lord Hear Us.

We remember those who die away from home. We remember those that have died without family or friend to accompany them in their last hours.
Lord Hear Us

We ask that our church communicates the gospel  by recognising and celebrating the rich diversity and giftedness of peoples and cultures among us.
Lord Hear Us

We ask for the courage of the Spirit to speak out on behalf of our brothers and sisters who are exploited and oppressed by unjust structures, violence and warfare, so that their human dignity will be respected and their human rights are protected.
Lord hear us

We pray that those seeking a new life and safety in our country, that they may find welcoming hearts and support among us, as they adapt to the challenges of a new environment and new way of life.
Lord hear us

We pray for our political leaders and legislators, that the transforming power of the Spirit will help them make decisions that create an inclusive and just society for all people.
Lord, hear us

We thank God for the gift of communication and pray that we use this gift to help us embrace diversity and so build bridges of friendship, love and service in our local community.
Lord, hear us

Conclusion:
Spirit of God
Through the witness of our lives,
standing in solidarity with all peoples,
may we spread the warmth of your love,
the light of your wisdom,
and the fire of your justice,
so that all may live I peace and security.  We make these and all our prayers through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen

SMA Provincial Assembly 2007

See pictures >>> here

Fr James G (Jim) Lee SMA

THROUGH WAR… AND PEACE….

Jim Lee was ordained 53 years ago and has been in Africa for most of the time since. Now 81 years old he is one of the longest serving SMA missionaries in Africa.

He spent his early missionary career in Nigeria where he spent many years at St Leo’s Teacher Training College, Abeokuta . Since 1976 he has been on assignment in the Archdiocese of Monrovia, Liberia.

“I was strongly influenced by my early contacts with Canon Cahill, the Parish Priest of Dromaroad and a brother of Fr Thomas Sexton Cahill SMA who died in 1942. He encouraged me to become a missionary priest when I expressed interest in priesthood. So I came to SMA”.

Armed with a theology degree from Maryknoll, NY, and a catechetics diploma from Lumen Vitae, Belgium, much of his missionary life was spent teaching. More recently he has been involved in the pastoral and social development areas and for many years he has been Administative Assistant to the Archbishop of Monrovia. This involves being largely responsible for the finances of the Archdiocese though nowadays he has able lay assistance. He continues in that role with the current Apostolic Administator of Monrovia, Fr Andrew Karnley. Every week-end he travels the nine-mile journey to Holy Family Parish, Colwell, as pastor to a community for many years without a priest.

Jim has worked in Liberia under the civilian government of President Tolbert and the military rule of Samuel Doe, Prince Johnson and Charles Taylor. He is now happy to see civilian rule restored under the current Acting President Bryant and is looking forward to full democracy being implemented after the forthcoming elections.

He has been in Liberia throughout the 15 years of civil war. “This was a terrible time for the country and people… For me it was difficult and frightening, but somehow I accepted it and struggled to be of help to the suffering people. I am grateful for lots of help I received from Ireland and from the Irish SMA Province”. He experienced the war conditions at first hand and saw it “having a devastataing effect on the country… Thankfully things are now moving towards normality but the scars of war will take a long time to heal”. He is full of praise for the work of the 15,000-strong UN Peacekeeping Force and especially for the Irish Army contingent who “have been simply wonderful and very kind to the people.

The long years of service to Liberia has not gone without recognition. In 2004, Jim was admitted to the Humane Order of African Redemption by the Government of Liberia with a grade of Knight Grand Band in recognition of his efforts in humanitarian assistance.

What of retirement? “I want to work until I am unable… and I want to die out there”, he says unwilling to whittle down any of the commitment he made to pursue his missionary vocation.

Would you like to join Fr Jim?
Would you like to hear more of the life stories of peoples in Africa?

Why not contact the SMA Vocations Director?

Fr Daniel M (Dan) McCauley SMA

A FULL AND CHALLENGING LIFE….

Dan McCauley is from near Strabane Co Tyrone. A big influence on his decision to join SMA was his uncle, the late Fr Dan McCauley SMA who ministered for many years in Ondo Diocese, Nigeria and who died in 1990.

Dan is a product of Ballinafad College, formerly a minor seminary of the SMA located in Co Mayo, where aspirants to the Society received their secondary education. He studied philosophy and theology at Dromantine, Co Down, and was ordained in 1970 in St Colman’s Cathedral, Newry, by the late Bishop Eugene O’Doherty.

Following ordination, Dan was appointed to Nigeria in 1971 and began his time there by learning the Yoruba language and customs of the people before undertaking work in the Diocese of Ilorin where he spent 23 years. In 1995 the new Vicariate Apostolic of Kontagora was created from part of the Diocese of Ilorin. Dan transferred to the Vicariate and is currently the Vicar General under the Vicar Apostolic, Bishop Tim Carroll SMA. He is resposible for the pastoral administration of the Cathedral and St Michael’s Parish, Kontagora.

After 34 years in Nigeria, Dan is still drawn to the work there. What is the attraction? “One thing is being part of a team that is involved in the development of a new territory as it moves towards the day when it will become a fully-fledged diocese”, he says. “But also, the people… the people are joyful, generous and welcoming despite economic harshness, insecurity and the many other problems they have to face”.

Dan’s busy daily schedule in the cathedral parish “is varied and unpredictable”. The needs of parishioners – prayer, blessings, visiting the sick, wedding preparations, marital problems – take priority. Much time is devoted to meeting catechists and scheduling baptism classes. Development work too is demanding – well-digging projects, transportation, etc. Being at the central parish means frequent visits from diocesan personnel needing accommodation and hospitality. Other activities include the Parish Council, meetings of Small Christian Communities and hosting and attending the Vicariate’s Pastoral Council, Catechetical Committee and Health Committee.

“All in all, a pretty full life… a life that is busy and challenging” he says.

Would you like to join Fr Dan?
Would you like to hear more of the life stories of peoples in Africa?

Why not contact the SMA Vocations Director?

Fr Michael O’Shea SMA

WRITING AND TEACHING…

Fr Mick O’Shea, theologian, writer and missionary, has worked for SMA in Zambia and Benin (Africa) and India and The Philippines (Asia) as well as undertaking studies in Italy and Ireland (Europe).

In 1962 the SMA Vocations Director wouldn’t take no for an answer (when Mick told him he wasn’t interested in becoming a missionary) – so Mick came to SMA that same year!

Immediately after ordination he was sent to Maynooth for further studies in theology. He was later to undertake studies in Spirituality in Rome. There he began research into the life of the Founder of SMA, Bishop de Marion Bresillac. He wrote a study on the Spirituality of the Founder – Mission or Martyrdom?

Mick has undertaken pastoral work in Zambia. Later he taught in the Major Seminary at Mpima where he is currently professor of Church History and also teaches English.

He was also involved in Formation work for SMA in Calavi (Benin) at the International Spiritual Year programme there and in both the Philippines and India he spent some time as Director of Studies.

Formerly a keen canoeist, he likes to keep fit by cycling, jogging and he also loves walking in the forest near his present location in Zambia.

He is currently engaged in writing a biography of Bishop P J Kelly SMA (1895-1991), the former Bishop of Benin City in Nigeria.

“I suppose the ‘African adventure’ appeals to me”, he says.

Interested in giving a hand?
Interested in continuing the work being done by Fr Mick?

Contact the SMA Vocations Director.

Fr Owen Maginn, SMA

STILL GOING STRONG AT 84…

“I didn’t know a lot about SMA when I felt I wanted to be a priest. So I applied to a number of places before deciding on SMA”

“The call to the missions was there at the beginning. I keep going to Africa because there is a sort of a pull there. I like it. I like the people and I get on well with them. And I am happy in the work that I’m doing”.

Fr Owen celebrated his Diamond Jubilee, 60 years, as a priest in 2003. The main celebration was in Zambia. He works in the Diocese of Ndola and for many years was the confidential secretary to the bishop until the bishop’s death early 2004.

At 84 years he still manages to teach the nearby Franciscan Brothers Scripture and Catechetics. He celebrates Mass and preaches in the local Bimba language every Sunday. He even finds time to be with the young people of his parish who hold him in high esteem.

“I begin my day with prayer and Mass on five days and I have Mass in the evenings on the other two days… Because of my age I have slowed down a lot… I work in a very rural area… with the youth on Saturdays and adults on Sundays… It’s a contribution to the local church”.

“There are things that I do that would not be done unless I was there becasue of the shortage of priests. On Saturdays I do the shopping…there is always need for food in the bishop’s house where I live… I also help by doing any other small things I would be called upon to do. There are always little jobs to be done… Then in the evenings I would meet the people, talk to them”.

Interested in giving a hand?
Interested in continuing the work being done by Fr Owen?

Contact the SMA Vocations Director.

Fr Malachy Flanagan SMA

USES ORGANISATIONAL SKILLS…

“I came to know of SMA from Fr Peter Devine SMA who comes from my parish. When I felt I wanted to be a priest he encouraged me to become a missionary with SMA”

“I am drawn to missionary work… I feel attracted to reach out to the most abandoned… to be a messenger and instrument of hope… to build up a local indigenous church… to help people in their struggle against illiteracy and injustice and lack of basic health facilities”.

Fr Malachy has spent most of his missionary life in areas of Primary Evangelisation in the Borgu area of Ilorin Diocese and now in the Vicariate of Kontagora where the bishop is Bishop Tim Carroll SMA. He has therefore been working at the frontline of the missionary apostolate, in areas where the Gospel is yet unknown, telling people for the first time about the love of Jesus Christ.

At present he is engaged in administratve work as the Secretary/Chancellor of the Vicariate. This is mainly routine office work and the day-to-day running of the Vicariate, including the adminsitration of its finances. ” I get very few opportunities for direct pastoral action. However, at week-ends I help with parish work. I am responsible for diocesan building projects and for many water development projects which I supervise regularaly. In the dry, desert conditions around Kontagora the provision of clean drinking water is a necessity. The Vicariate makes a huge contribution to well-digging and water purification systems”. Malachy also finds time as advisor to the diocesan Laity Council.

Interested in giving a hand?
Interested in getting involved in the work being done by Fr Malachy?

Contact the SMA Vocations Director.

Fr Don (Daniel) Burke SMA

MULTI-NATIONAL CAREER…

Don comes from Waterford City but his subsequent career would make him a citizen of the world. After his schooling there he started his career as a clerk working in Cork City where he also took up studies at the School of Commerce and qulaified as a Chartered Secretary. A chance riverine outing with the Legion of Mary brought him into contact with Fr Moran OP a Dominican priest who invited him to consider being a priest. Later he came in contact with Fr Tom Hurst SMA, a jovial retired missionary who impressed Don considerably. These contacts were instrumental in his decision to come to SMA to test his vocation. “The homefront did not appeal to me, I wanted the experience of mission that Fr Hurst had”. In joining the Society Don followed in the footsteps of his older brother, Maurice who was already a member of SMA.

Assigned to Lagos he quickly got involved in the slums of the city working with street children. This led him to set up the Boys Town in Lagos to cater for the youngsters he constantly met on the streets.

Subsequently he was sent to Poland where he was instrumental in setting up the Polish Foundation of SMA. He experienced Poland at first as behind the “Iron Curtain” of the communist regime and saw it emerge as a capitalist country.

He is now back in Africa, in Zambia, where he provides much-needed chaplaincy work in four institutions.

Don has always had a keen interest in the local culture and wherever he has been assigned he has spent time studying the local language.

Interested in giving a hand?
Interested in getting involved in the work being done by Fr Don?

Contact the SMA Vocations Director.

Zimbabwe – a growing humanitarian and governmental crisis

There has been a renewed appeal for prayer and a call to act in solidarity from Catholic bishops in Zimbabwe and the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference for the suffering people of Zimbabwe. Pervasive corruption of the regime led by President Robert Mugabe and the flagrant violations of human rights continue to intensify. According to the Bishops, “the suffering population becomes more insistent, generating more and more pressure through boycotts, strikes, demonstrations and uprisings, the State responds with ever harsher oppression through arrests, detentions, banning orders, beatings and torture. …the situation is extremely volatile.”

As Zimbabwe confronts this growing humanitarian and governmental crisis the Bishops ask for ‘concrete action’ to inspire hope and prayers on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe. They insist that a peaceful resolution of the country’s problems can be worked out through national dialogue, respectful negotiation, and the preparation of a new constitution that would safeguard the rights of the country’s people.

As part of their recent Pastoral Letter the Bishops offered a prayer for their country:

God Our Father,
You have given all peoples one common origin,
And your will is to gather them as one family in yourself.
Give compassion to our leaders, integrity to our citizens, and repentance to us all.
Fill the hearts of all women and men with your love
And the desire to ensure justice for all their brothers and sisters.
By sharing the good things you give us
May we ensure justice and equality for every human being,
An end to all division, and a human society built on love,
Lasting prosperity and peace for all.
We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Reflections

Pope’s Missionary Intention for December 2008

“That especially in mission countries Christians may show with acts of fraternal love that the Child born in the stable at Bethlehem is the luminous Hope of the world. “

Each Month the Pope also has a General Intention that he commends to the faithful for prayers.  For December the Intention is:

That in the face of a spreading of a culture of violence the Church through her apostolic and missionary activity may promote with courage the culture of life.

Reflections

Pope’s Missionary Intention for June 2008

“That the International Eucharistic Congress in Quebec, Canada, may lead to ever deeper understanding of the Eucharist, the heart of the Church and source of evangelisation.”

SMA in Philippines

Celebration in the Philippines 

Good Shepherd Parish, Manila, in the Philippines is run by SMA missionaries. Mission Sunday – 21 October – was a special day for the Parish when Bembolio De Los Santos SMA was ordained to the Diaconate.

He was ordained by Bishop Jesse Eugenio Mercado, Bishop of Paranaque, in a colourful ceremony that was witnessed by his family, SMA members and a host of parishioners.

Bembolio comes from the island of Negros where he was born on 9 February 1974.  He came to SMA and undertook his philosphical and theological studies including a Spiritual Year at SMA House in Silang. He joined the Society in 2003 as a temporary member and took his permanent Oath of membership of SMA on 19 October 2007.  He spent one year on pastoral assignment in Ghana where he had the opportunity to experience SMA missionary work.  He hopes to be ordained to the priesthood in May 2008.

Blackrock Road Parish | Organisations | School | SMA Parishes

Blackrock/Ballintemple Community Centre
St Joseph’s SMA Parish, Blackrock Road, Cork

OLA Sisters celebrate their founder

The SMA and OLA

The Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles (OLA) was founded by Fr Augustin Planque SMA. Fr Planque was the successor of the SMA founder, Bishop de Marion-Brésillac. As Co-Founder of SMA he made a major contribution to the Society which he led for almost 50 years, 1859-1907.

Left to right: Mgr Andrew V Thanya-anan (Apostolic
Nunciature), Sr Nuala Harty OLA, Sr Eileen Cummins
OLA (Superior General), Sr Mary Crowley OLA (Provincial),
Cllr Catherine Clancy (Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork), Sr
Joan Murray OLA, Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA (Provincial)

“If there aren’t Sisters to train the girls there will be no Christian families” he said. Realising the great need there was for sisters to work alongside the SMA missionaries and to bring their own particular charism to the work of mission in 1876 he founded the OLA.

Augustin Planque SMA died on 21 August 1907. OLA Sisters are commemorating the centenary of his death and launched the celebrations on 20 August.

Ardfoyle Convent was en fête for the opening of this special year of prayer and celebration. Flags of the various countries where Irish OLA Sisters work were displayed. Bishop John Buckley (Cork & Ross) was the main celebrant at the Mass. Irish SMA Provincial, Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll, preached the homily. OLA Superior General, Sr Eileen Cummins was present. The Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland and the Lord Mayor of Cork were represented in the gathering of more than 250 OLA well-wishers.

AFRICA/NIGERIA

13/5/04
Calm charged with tension in Kano northern Nigeria after recent clashes. Fides sources say hundreds were killed in the violence
Kano (Fides Service)- “The situation is still tense although at the moment there is no fighting and the city lives in relative calm” say local Church sources in Kano, northern Nigeria, where Muslim extremists recently attacked Christians (see Fides 12 May 2004). “The police appears to have public order in hand. There were small skirmishes last night, but nothing very serious”.
According to Fides sources at least two Catholic churches were torched including the cathedral and compound and churches of other Christian confessions. Many homes and shops belonging to Christians were sacked and looted. Our sources say that hundreds of people were killed. But Nigerian authorities say 25 persons were killed.
The clashes in Kano follow violence which exploded earlier this month in Plateau state central Nigeria where at least 200 were killed in clashes between Muslim Fulani herdsmen and Christian Tarok farmers (see Fides 6 and 11 May 2004). Christian extremists are said to have massacred many Muslim herdsmen.
In this climate of violence radical Muslims in Kano warned they would take justice in their own hands if the government did not do everything possible to identify and punish those responsible for the crimes in Plateau state. With regard to this new outbreak of violence one Christian leader in Kano said if the situation continues, Christians will move elsewhere to safer areas rather than live in fear. – (Agenzia Fides 13/5/2004)

12/05/04
Clashes in northern Nigeria. “At least one Catholic church has been destroyed by Muslim extremists” Fides receives dramatic report
Kano (Fides Service)-“The situation in Kanu is tense. The curfew in fo! rce until yesterday was lifted this morning but people are still afraid to leave their homes although police and army troop patrol the streets” local church sources in Kano told Fides. Over the last few days Kanu, in northern Nigeria, has been the scene of episodes of violence and Muslims have attacked Christians and Christian places of worship. According to Fides sources at least one Catholic church and adjoining parish centre has been torched by Muslim extremists and “very probably other churches and homes”.
“We know that many people were injured but not the exact number. It is difficult to have a clear picture of what is happening since it is not safe to leave the house. Groups of armed extremists have been seen in three other districts of the city. Yesterday, 11 May, rioters attacked the university destroying several campus buildings ” the local sources told Fides.
Violence in Kano follows on violence in Plateau state central Nigeria earlier this month in which at least 200 were killed in clashes between Muslim Fulani herdsmen and Christian Tarok farmers (see Fides 6 and 11 May 2004). Christian extremists are said to have slaughtered Muslim herdsmen. “ Attacking the Christian community in Kanu Muslims claim they are taking revenge for the violence against Muslims in Plateau” the sources told Fides. Armed with machetes and knives the aggressors stopped cars looking for Christians and made people recite Muslim prayers to prove their identity.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has called on all Nigerians to remain calm and urged Muslim leaders to calm their people. “I ask you to stop our Muslim brothers because an eye for an eye will and a tooth for a tooth only cause our country drown in blood ” the President told Muslim leaders.
About 10,000 Nigerians have perished in tribal and religious clashes since 1999. – (Agenzia Fides 12/5/2004)

06/5/04
“This is not a war about religion” local Church sources in Nigeria tell Fides with regard to violence in central Nigeria
Lagos (Fides Service)- “We will never tire of repeating that this is not a battle between Christians and Muslims it is a question of ethnic identity and politics ” a local Church source in Nigeria told Fides with regard to reports of fighting in Plateau state, central Nigeria. “We must be prudent with our speech: we must be wary of speaking of genocide, as some people have called it” the sources told Fides.
Abdulkadir Orire Nigerian Minister of Justice has said that at least 200 people were killed in clashes Yelwa. The attackers used automatic weapons and many in Nigeria are wondering where they came from. “Peopel talk of fighting between Muslims and Christians when in fact the reasons for the conflict are political, social and ethnic” the sources told Fides. The fighting is among Muslim Fulani herdsmen who want to take better land occupied by Christian Tarok tribesmen
On 26 February this year at least 48 people including women and children were massacred in a community of the Church of Christ of Nigeria at Yelwa. Plateau State was the scene of violence in 2001 when more than a thousand people perished in clashes between Christian and Muslim tribesmen. In 2002 about a hundred people were killed in ethnic clashes. – (Agenzia Fides 6/5/2004)

27/05/04
Clashes in Plateau state, Nigeria
Reports have been received in Rome of Clashes in Plateau state, Nigeria, in which at least 48 protestant Church of Christ worshippers killed in church:
Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria: 48 worshippers, including women and children, were slaughtered on 26 February at Yelwa, when a church belonging to the Church of Christ of Nigeria was attacked by a gang of armed men who opened fire indiscriminately. This was the most violent in a series of episodes of violence in the past two weeks in Plateau state, central Nigeria. At least 100 people have been killed and thousands have fled their homes. Local sources told Fides that a gang equipped with modern arms has been attacking villages over a vast area, involving at least four districts and that according to eyewitnesses “the gang was not local and the operations appeared to be carefully planned. The attackers all wore the same black overalls and the attacks were obviously co-ordinated”. The army sent reinforcements and set up road blocks in Yelwa.
Plateau State has been the scene of violent clashes in the past. More than 1,000 people were killed in violence between Christians and Muslims in 2001. In 2002 the victims were counted in the hundreds. Rather than religious or ethnic disputes the clashes were over land claims and episodes of cattle stealing. – (Agenzia Fides 27/2/2004)

Useful Links for the Mission-minded

Trafficking:
http://www.ruhama.ie/
http://www.antislavery.org/

HIV/AIDS
http://www.leratong.co.za/
http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/
http://www.openhearthouse.ie/
http://www.hivireland.ie/
http://www.unaids.org/
www.un.org/milleniumgoals

Ecology:
www.columban.com/ecology.htm
http://www.climatecrisis.net/
http://www.sustainable.ie/
http://www.foe.ie/

Children:
http://www.sistersofmercy.ie/
http://www.unicef.ie/
http://www.childrensrights.ie/
http://www.preda.ie/
http://www.ispcc.ie/
http://www.barnados.ie/

Volunteering:
http://www.volunteeringireland.ie/
http://www.volunteer.ie/

Human Rights movement:
http://www.atd-fourthworld.org/
http://www.oct17.org/

Schools Projects:
http://www.amawele.org/

Justice and Peace | Cois Tine

about sma | mission statement | sma objectives | sma life | contact us

sma – our objectives

ministry – core values

motivated by the gospel of christ and faithful to the charism of our founder in the mission entrusted to us, we will give prophetic witness to the compassionate love of god for the world (cf. john 3:16). attentive to the ever-changing signs of the times, and in a spirit of openness and dialogue, we will cooperate with local churches, and with all who share our objectives. we will exercise, chiefly among africans and peoples of african origin (cf. sma constitutions and laws, art. 2), a ministry of service and empowerment.

objectives

1 primary evangelisation and inculturation

• the sma will review its apostolic commitments in the light of the gospel, the sma charism, and the missionary priorities of the local churches.
• in fidelity to our charism, sma members and associates will be willing to proclaim the gospel and establish christian communities in places where the need for missionaries is most urgent. priority will be given to areas of primary evangelisation in all appointments of sma members.
• the sma is ready to cooperate with local churches, especially in africa, in their programmes of inculturation.

2 other apostolic activities

• the sma will continue to be involved in diocesan pastoral programmes in a missionary spirit.
• the sma will propose to members, who are returning to their countries of origin, apostolic activities in line with the sma charism and priorities, both within and outside sma structures.
• the sma will continue to coordinate all efforts to promote the use of the media in the service of its apostolate at every level of the society.

3 the promotion of human values

• in cooperation with other organisations, public and voluntary, notably the african networks (aefjn and afjn ), the sma will continue to involve its members and associates in initiatives on behalf of africans, especially refugees, street children, aids victims and other marginalized groups, both within and outside africa.
• the sma will support the peoples of africa in their efforts to change unjust structures and to create structures in keeping with the dignity and rights of all men and women. in cooperation with other groups, the sma will seek to remedy injustices, which arise within the church or from church practices.

4 inter-religious and ecumenical dialogue

• in spite of the difficulties involved, the sma will strive to promote a better understanding of islam and to cooperate with muslims.
• sma members and associates will acquire a thorough knowledge of the languages, cultures, and traditional religions of the peoples among whom they work, especially in africa, in order to facilitate a better understanding of them and more effective communication with them.
• the sma will strive to promote ecumenical dialogue and cooperation with the various christian churches.

5 collaboration

• in their various ministries, sma members will continue to cooperate at all levels with the local church, other missionary institutes, the laity, and sma lay associates.
• in cooperation with diocesan programmes, the sma will intensify its involvement in the empowerment and training of laypersons for leadership roles in africa.
• the sma will develop general criteria for lay associate members.
• the sma is open to the various forms of lay association (juridical and non-juridical) in all its units.

6 missionary and vocations animation

CONOR LENIHAN TD Minister of State visits SMA, Blackrock Road, Cork

On Tuesday, 11 May 2005, the Society of African Missions was host to a representative gathering of Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, Franciscan Missionary Sisters of St Joseph, Mercy Sisters, Little Sisters of the Assumption, Holy Rosary Sisters, Bon Secours Sisters, Presentation Sisters and Brothers, Christian Brothers, Good Shepherd Sisters, St Louis Sisters, Augustinian Community, Sacred Heart Missionaries, Society of St Patrick and the Society of St Columban.

The occasion was the visit to SMA House, Blackrock Road, Cork of the Minister of State for Development Cooperation and Human Rights, Mr Conor Lenihan TD. The Minister had come to Cork for a public meeting. He took the opportunity to meet missionaries because of their long-standing commitment to the spiritual, material, medical and educational development of peoples in Africa and elsewhere.

Minister’s Talk
The Minister told the meeting that “the Government has decided to prepare a White Paper on Ireland’s official programme of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA). The White Paper will set out clearly the Government’s policy for the future direction of its official programme of ODA which is managed by Development Cooperation Ireland, a Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs”.

“The record of the Irish Church and Irish clergy of all denominations shows the enormous contribution and the footprints that you have left in Africa and other places around the world”, he said. “If one has to look for an area of moral leadership in Ireland where the Church and churches and churchmen and churchwomen have shown huge leadership, it is in the area of development, particularly in relation to Africa. I was absolutely astounded and perhaps I shouldn’t have been. But everywhere I went in Africa, I found a footprint left by Irish missionaries, priests and nuns and brothers… there is a footprint there that preceded the creation of our own aid programme which stands at €545m this year.

“I’m been my job since September. But in this room there is several hundred years of experience of development, individually and collectively.

“I am here in Cork to speak on Overseas Development Assistance, but it is you missionaries who have led this whole issue in Ireland… The truth of the matter is this. There has been a lot of social commentary about our most recent ascent to affluence. A lot of people have said that in moving from that relatively poor, high emigration, high unemployment society to a society of full employment that there has been some loss in the value system and that we have become individualistic and materialistic. And I have to say that this is outright rubbish. An example I use to show and make this point clear is that, when this country was affected by high emigration and high unemployment and by a culture of failure in the 1980s and when Bob Geldorf led an appeal even in those stressed times in Ireland to give generously to express solidarity, there was a huge response. And when you flick down the years and see the tsunami response from a much different society, of inward migration as distinct from emigration, of full employment, a society of affluence and plenty, yet the value system of generosity hasn’t changed at all in those twenty years. And that is a tribute to yourselves because you have led the way in this regard, you are the people who preached and talked about this issue about world poverty and poverty at home as well… You have led the way in this area and that is why I am here tonight to acknowledge that contribution and to listen to what you have to say.

“Ireland now is in a position of affluence… and we are leaders in development. We are the ninth largest per capita contributor to overseas aid. That is only the contribution that the State makes, not to talk of what you and Irish NGOs do on the world scene. So we are leaders in this area. There are only five countries who have achieved the 0.7% of GNP and we are in the chasing pack of four or five countries which can actually attain it before the 2015 deadline set by Kofi Amin and the UN. And we will achieve that. It is my view that we can not only achieve it, but we can exceed it, as countries, for instance, like Norway have done. We can do it and we will do it because we are building on a very strong foundation built by yourselves and your ‘fore-fathers’ so to speak… There is also another issue… Ireland has a tradition of giving. The memory and legacy of famine still lives on in our minds and in our culture… And we were conquered and we were colonised… But because we did liberate ourselves from oppression we can also give something that other counties simply cannot give who have not had these experiences… We do also receive kudos in return for what we do… we get respect on the international front for the role that we play in development and for what we have achieved we gain an influence beyond our weight… For what you have contributed to this I say thank you.”

Questions and Issues
After his contribution the Minister answered questions from the audience covering such issues as:

• G8 and Third World Debt and the necessity for Ireland, which is committed to 100% release from debt, to lobby G8 members to help developing countries overwhelmed by their incapacity to ever meet these debts many of which would seem to be unjust
• The need to have an immigration policy that would be fair and efficient for asylum seekers
• Concern about the delays in the present process that impact negatively on the mental health of applicants
• A recent situation when an immigrant had been in Ireland for three years and had permission to work; but when he applied for a work permit the fourth year to the Department of Labour he received a message “on information received from the Department of Justice your work permit cannot be renewed”
• The lack of trust or the apparent reluctance of the Department in the past in funding projects through missionaries, indeed Irish missionaries, already working in areas of grave need, a situation which some would argue still prevails today

IMRS
In introducing the Minister, Fr Martin O’Farrell SMA, Director of the SMA Development Office, spoke of the cordial relations that have existed for many years now between the Department of Foreign Affairs and missionaries, especially in Africa. The cooperation and encouragement that was received was appreciated.

He then explained the new company recently set up by the Irish Missionary Union called the IMRS. The primary role of the company is to support the development work of Irish missionary organisations and their partners in the development world. The initial emphasis of the company is on the sourcing and allocation of funds for missionary development personnel and projects. One such source is the Ireland Aid under the auspices of the Department of Foreign Affairs. This year Ireland Aid provided €12 million to IMRS and there is a draft proposal to raise the amount to €20 million over the next three years.

SMA Logo | Full List of Rules

SMA International Logo Competition
June 1, 2004 – January 31, 2005

Irish Province Results

In compliance with the Rules of the Competition each SMA Unit is to select three semi-finalists from the designs submitted to the Unit. These are to be forwarded to Rome for the final adjudication.

The Irish Province received 12 designs from nine contributors – one contributor submitted three designs, another two designs. The Irish Jury assessed these submissions and selected the following

Three of the designs were selected as the winners of the Irish Province section and have been forwarded to the International jury in Rome for the final selection.

The three logos adjudged the best for the Irish Province section were:

Irish Unit Prize:
Each of the chosen three semi-finalists from the Irish Unit will receive a copy of Architectures of Nigeria by the renowned Fr Kevin Carroll SMA.

International Design Competition
to design a new Logo for the
Society of African Missions (SMA) – Worldwide
(Celebrating 150 Years of Service in Africa 1856 – 2006)

1. Open Competition:
   The SMA International Logo Competition is open to individual artists of all ages whether professional or amateur and to interested persons, of any age. (Entrants under 18 years of age must have the authorisation and agreement of parent/guardian).
2. The winning design shall reflect the internationality, image and Christian mission of SMA.
   
3. Irish Entries:
   The Competition is being conducted simultaneously in the various units of the Society of African Missions. The following rules are for applicants from Ireland (including Northern Ireland), the Irish Province Unit of SMA.
4. Web-site:
   Preliminary information about SMA can be found on our website: www.sma.ie.
5. One-design per person:
   The first design submitted by each individual shall be the only design considered by the SMA in respect of that individual.
6. Your submission must be accompanied with your full name and contact details (mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address and, in the event that you are a minor, the written consent of your parent/guardian).
7. Closing Date:
   Closing date for entries is 31 January, 2005 and only designs which are received on or prior to 31 January, 2005, will be considered by the SMA.
8. Where to send entries:
   In order to enter in the competition all designs must be submitted either by post to:
   SMA Logo Competition
   African Missions
   Blackrock Road
   Cork
   OR by email to [email protected] [preferred format for e-mail entry: jpeg].
9. The SMA is not responsible for any lost, late, misdirected, damaged, illegible or undelivered mail for whatever reason or for any delayed, illegible, incomplete or garbled email transmissions. The SMA will not return any submissions made to it in connection with this competition.
10. By entering this competition, you acknowledge and agree that the SMA may use the submission made by you for whatever purpose it deems necessary or desirable. Accordingly, you irrevocably and unconditionally grant to the SMA and to its successors, assignees and licensees a license to use in whatever manner the SMA considers appropriate (which shall include, without limitation, publishing, broadcasting, performance, display, exhibition, making available to the public) your submission in any and all media, by any manner or means the SMA deem necessary or desirable. Further, you irrevocably and unconditionally waive any and all moral rights in respect of the use of your submission in the foregoing manner.
    You represent, warrant and undertake to the SMA that you own the necessary rights to all copyright in relation to the submissions made in order to give effect to the foregoing.
11. Judging the Irish winners:
    On or about 28 February, 2005 three semi-finalists will be selected by each SMA unit throughout the world. Each of the semi-finalists shall be entered into the international competition representing their unit.

    Judging the finalists:
    On or about 31 March, 2005 the SMA jury shall select their top ten (10) finalists. Each of the finalist’s and semi-finalist’s submissions may be published on the SMA website, in the SMA publications or by any other means available to the SMA.

    Judging the overall winner:
    The winning design shall be chosen by the jury on or about 1 May, 2005 and shall reflect the internationality, image and Christian mission of the SMA taking into account the originality, creativity and ability of the design to reflect of the image of the SMA.

12. The jury’s decision is final and the SMA shall not entertain any representations made on behalf of any participating individual.
13. The winner will be notified by the SMA by means of mail or email and shall, if required (for no additional consideration) execute such documentation as is required by the SMA to transfer all the rights in the design to the SMA. In the event that the additional documentation is not returned within the timeframe stipulated by the notification, the SMA shall be entitled, without giving notice, to award one of the other finalist’s designs the prize. In the event that an alternate winner is chosen, the requirements placed on the initial winner shall also apply to the alternate winner.
14. In the event that the winner is a minor, (s)he must provide such written consent/agreement of his/her parent/guardian as may be required by the SMA. Notwithstanding this, the winner, and his/her parent/guardian as the case may be, agrees that by entering this competition the SMA and any authorised third parties may use the winner’s name, photograph or any other likeness, biographical information and statements concerning the competition for the purpose of advertising or promotion.
15. SMA shall record, process and hold personal information submitted to us in accordance with applicable privacy laws. By making a submission you hereby consent to our recording, processing and holding of your personal data for the purpose of this competition.
16. Prize:
    The winning designer will receive a return trip to Lyon (France), birthplace of the SMA in 1856, during the SMA 150th Anniversary celebrations in 2006. The prize will include return transport (economy class) to Lyon and accommodation and meals at an SMA location for one week for the winner (and his/her parent/guardian where relevant). All taxes and other expenses are solely the responsibility of the prize-winner.
    The Irish Province Unit will present a prize to each of the three semi-finalists from Ireland.
17. The prizes are not cash redeemable and have a value of €0.01.

International Design Competition
to design a new Logo for the
Society of African Missions (SMA) – Worldwide
(Celebrating 150 Years of Service in Africa 1856 – 2006)

1. Open Competition:
   The SMA International Logo Competition is open to individual artists of all ages whether professional or amateur and to interested persons, of any age. (Entrants under 18 years of age must have the authorisation and agreement of parent/guardian).
2. The winning design shall reflect the internationality, image and Christian mission of SMA.
   
3. Irish Entries:
   The Competition is being conducted simultaneously in the various units of the Society of African Missions. The following rules are for applicants from Ireland (including Northern Ireland), the Irish Province Unit of SMA.
4. Web-site:
   Preliminary information about SMA can be found on our website: www.sma.ie.
5. One-design per person:
   The first design submitted by each individual shall be the only design considered by the SMA in respect of that individual.
6. Your submission must be accompanied with your full name and contact details (mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address and, in the event that you are a minor, the written consent of your parent/guardian).
7. Closing Date:
   Closing date for entries is 31 January, 2005 and only designs which are received on or prior to 31 January, 2005, will be considered by the SMA.
8. Where to send entries:
   In order to enter in the competition all designs must be submitted either by post to:
   SMA Logo Competition
   African Missions
   Blackrock Road
   Cork
   OR by email to [email protected] [preferred format for e-mail entry: jpeg].
9. The SMA is not responsible for any lost, late, misdirected, damaged, illegible or undelivered mail for whatever reason or for any delayed, illegible, incomplete or garbled email transmissions. The SMA will not return any submissions made to it in connection with this competition.
10. By entering this competition, you acknowledge and agree that the SMA may use the submission made by you for whatever purpose it deems necessary or desirable. Accordingly, you irrevocably and unconditionally grant to the SMA and to its successors, assignees and licensees a license to use in whatever manner the SMA considers appropriate (which shall include, without limitation, publishing, broadcasting, performance, display, exhibition, making available to the public) your submission in any and all media, by any manner or means the SMA deem necessary or desirable. Further, you irrevocably and unconditionally waive any and all moral rights in respect of the use of your submission in the foregoing manner.
    You represent, warrant and undertake to the SMA that you own the necessary rights to all copyright in relation to the submissions made in order to give effect to the foregoing.
11. Judging the Irish winners:
    On or about 28 February, 2005 three semi-finalists will be selected by each SMA unit throughout the world. Each of the semi-finalists shall be entered into the international competition representing their unit.

    Judging the finalists:
    On or about 31 March, 2005 the SMA jury shall select their top ten (10) finalists. Each of the finalist’s and semi-finalist’s submissions may be published on the SMA website, in the SMA publications or by any other means available to the SMA.

    Judging the overall winner:
    The winning design shall be chosen by the jury on or about 1 May, 2005 and shall reflect the internationality, image and Christian mission of the SMA taking into account the originality, creativity and ability of the design to reflect of the image of the SMA.

12. The jury’s decision is final and the SMA shall not entertain any representations made on behalf of any participating individual.
13. The winner will be notified by the SMA by means of mail or email and shall, if required (for no additional consideration) execute such documentation as is required by the SMA to transfer all the rights in the design to the SMA. In the event that the additional documentation is not returned within the timeframe stipulated by the notification, the SMA shall be entitled, without giving notice, to award one of the other finalist’s designs the prize. In the event that an alternate winner is chosen, the requirements placed on the initial winner shall also apply to the alternate winner.
14. In the event that the winner is a minor, (s)he must provide such written consent/agreement of his/her parent/guardian as may be required by the SMA. Notwithstanding this, the winner, and his/her parent/guardian as the case may be, agrees that by entering this competition the SMA and any authorised third parties may use the winner’s name, photograph or any other likeness, biographical information and statements concerning the competition for the purpose of advertising or promotion.
15. SMA shall record, process and hold personal information submitted to us in accordance with applicable privacy laws. By making a submission you hereby consent to our recording, processing and holding of your personal data for the purpose of this competition.
16. Prize:
    The winning designer will receive a return trip to Lyon (France), birthplace of the SMA in 1856, during the SMA 150th Anniversary celebrations in 2006. The prize will include return transport (economy class) to Lyon and accommodation and meals at an SMA location for one week for the winner (and his/her parent/guardian where relevant). All taxes and other expenses are solely the responsibility of the prize-winner.
    The Irish Province Unit will present a prize to each of the three semi-finalists from Ireland.
17. The prizes are not cash redeemable and have a value of €0.01.

SMA International Logo Competition
June 1, 2004 – January 31, 2005

Irish Province Results

In compliance with the Rules of the Competition each SMA Unit is to select three semi-finalists from the designs submitted to the Unit. These are to be forwarded to Rome for the final adjudication.

The Irish Province received 12 designs from nine contributors – one contributor submitted three designs, another two designs. The Irish Jury assessed these submissions. Three of the designs were selected as the winners of the Irish Province section and have been forwarded to the International jury in Rome for the final selection.

The three logos adjudged the best for the Irish Province section were:

Irish Unit Prize:
Each of the chosen three semi-finalists from the Irish Unit will receive a copy of Architectures of Nigeria by the renowned Fr Kevin Carroll SMA.

The ten finalists selected by the international jury in Rome may now be viewed at:

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/missions.africaines/nouveaute/concours_logo/concours.htm

The winning entry will be selected in May 2005.

SMA Logo | Full List of Rules | Result

SMA International Logo Competition
June 1, 2004 – January 31, 2005

The Society of African Missions (SMA), an international Catholic missionary organization, celebrates more than a century of service in Africa. As part of our celebrations for our (upcoming) 150th Anniversary in 2006, and in keeping with our tradition of respect for the arts, SMA announces a worldwide competition to select a new LOGO. We invite artists and all interested persons to submit original designs that communicate in vibrant visual imagery, the unique identity and exciting mission of SMA today!

Entries must be submitted through the SMA Unit nearest to you.
SMA Units are: all locations where SMA have Provinces, Districts or Foundation

Ireland (including NI) France-Lyon France-Strasbourg The Netherlands
Italy Britain Spain Poland
USA Canada Argentina The Philippines
India Africa

Closing Date for Entries:
31 January 2005.

Stage 1:
End of February 2005: From all the Irish entries three semi-finalists will be chosen. These designs will be posted on our website.

To see these designs… here

Stage 2:
End of March 2005: The Irish semi-finalists, along with the semi-finalists from the other SMA units, will be sent to a jury of SMA judges at our international headquarters in Rome.

Prizes
Overall Prize:
The grand-prize winning design will be chosen by the jury in May 2005. The new logo will be introduced officially at SMA’s 150th anniversary ceremonies in June 2006 in Lyon, France, the place where SMA was founded in 1856. The winning artist will be invited to attend those ceremonies as a guest of honour.

Irish Unit Prize:
Each of the chosen three semi-finalists from the Irish Unit will receive a copy of Architectures of Nigeria by the renowned Fr Kevin Carroll SMA.

Get to know us! Learn about our faith-filled history, our commitment to African arts and culture, and our exciting work as missionaries in Africa and around the globe. Let our story inspire you to tell it to the world through a dynamic new logo that captures the essence of SMA.

For complete contest rules, click HERE. For samples of existing LOGOs, click HERE.

Submit inquiries and designs to: [email protected]
or by mail to: LOGO Competition, African Missions, Blackrock Road, Cork.

• People have lived in the region for centuries.
• From 1820, the shape of modern Liberia began when freed slaves from America (to become known as Americo-Liberians) settled in this part of West Africa’s coast.
• Liberia was declared an independent republic in 1847.
• 1880-1980 the country experienced ebb and flow of conflict and quiet, as the settler government met more or less opposition from the indigenes.
• 1980: the growing tensions and animosities between the Americo-Liberian ruling dynasty and the Liberian indigenous peoples, exploded in a coup d’etat, led by a relatively uneducated army sergeant, Samuel Doe. The elected prersident (William Tolbert) and nearly all his cabinet were killed in public execution. The seeds for the present decimation and horror had been sown.
• 1985: Samuel Doe was “elected” in an overly sham election. But opposition forces were determined to topple him.
• Late 1989: Liberia was overrun by Charles Taylor who initiated a campaign of unspeakable atrocity. Civilian casualties were enormous; refugees poured into Ivory Coast, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Liberia was beginning to be devsated and reduced to ruins.
• October 1992: Taylor was in control of more than 90% of the country when he launched an infamous 4-month artillery barrage of the capital, Monrovia.
• Mid-1994: The protagonists were hammering out one of the now legendary-many-but-short-lived-peace accords. This led to Taylor becoming President in 1995.
• Monrovia was razed again in April 1996. In late 1996, the Economic Union of West African States sent a peacekeeping force (known as ECOMOG) to initiate another peace.
• In 1997, after a campaign of overt intimidation, Taylor won a landslide vistory in the elections for Presidency.
• From 1999 Guinea and Ivory Coast, supporting respective rebel groups, became embroiled in the efforts to topple Taylor, who was supporting the destablisation of these countries ( as well as Sierra Leone). Another round of vicious fighting, with innocent civilians caught everywhere in the midst of it, was in motion.
• 2001: the UN imposed trade, arms, and travel restrictions on Taylor and his government (springing mainly from the trading of arms and diamonds). Through 2002 and into 2003, the fighting continued whilst the UN continuously extended the sanctions imposed.
• June 2003: Taylor was indicted by the UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone. By August, his position as president was untenable. He resigned, and sought, and was granted, asylum in Nigeria.
• September 2003: Thousands of UN peace-keeping troops began to arrive.
• October 14th. 2003: Charles Gyude Bryant was sworn in as Liberia’s Head of State using the title “Chairman” with a promise of a fresh start and an end to 14 years of conflict.

Visit of Lesotho Ambassador to SMA, Blackrock Road, Cork

Provincial Superior, Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, with Ambassador Ramaila	H E ‘Mannete ‘Malethole Ramaili Ambassador of the Kingdom of Lesotho to Ireland speaking to the SMA
(From Left): Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Ms Claire Corcoran (Tourism Attache, Lesotho Embassy), H E Ambassador ‘Mannete ‘Malethole and Fr Martin O’Farrell SMA (Development Officer)

Homily preached by Fr Kieran O’Reilly SMA, Superior General,
at the Mass to launch the 150th Celebration of the
Founding of the Society of African Missions,
at St. Joseph’s Parish, Wilton
Sunday, March 19th 2006

FAITHFUL TO OUR MISSIONARY CALLING

Your Grace, Archbishop Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland
Your Excellency, Archbishop Lazzarotto, Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland,
Bishop John Buckley, Bishop of Cork and Ross,
Bishop John Magee, Bishop of Cloyne
Bishop Lewis Ziegler, Bishop of Gbarnga, Liberia.

Lord Mayor, Alderman Deirdre Clune
Minister Mícheál Martin
Members of the Civil Authorities.

Members of the Society of African Missions,
Members of other Mission Societies and Congregations,
Sisters of our Lady of Apostles.
Sisters of other Mission Institutes.
Families, Friends and supporters of the Society of African Missions.

I am very happy to be here in St Joseph’s Parish Church, Wilton, to celebrate this special occasion with you. Today, the Irish Province of the Society of African Missions opens its celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of the Founding of the Society.

Origins
The Society has its origins in France, at Lyons, in the middle of the 19th century. It was founded by a Missionary Bishop, Bishop Melchior de Marion Bresillac who had been the first Bishop of the Diocese of Coimbatore in South India. He had worked in India for thirteen years and on returning to Europe he had, at the request of the Roman authorities, founded a Missionary Society dedicated to work among the most abandoned in Africa.

His place of missionary endeavour was to be along the West Coast of Africa – in today’s terms a territory that stretched from Sierra Leone to the Niger River in Nigeria. He was made Vicar Apostolic of this territory that fronted the Bight of Benin.

Four guiding principles for his work
Before leaving for India, in 1842, at the age of 28 he made a retreat and wrote down the following resolutions in his diary, setting out in four short sentences the future direction of his life and the inspirational ideals that have played a significant part in the life of our Society.

1. To be a missionary with all my heart
2. To neglect nothing that will advance the work of God
3. To seize every opportunity of preaching the word of God
4. Lastly, and it is for this above all that I implore Your blessing, to use every available means, all my strength, all my mind, towards the training of a native clergy.

These remained his missionary objectives throughout his life… and are part of the identity of the Society of African Missions to this day.

Early years of the SMA
The first years of the Society’s life were marked by tragedy and set backs. Not least of these, was the death of Bishop de Bresillac, at Freetown, a short time after his arrival there, in 1859. This tragic event was to be repeated on many occasions over the following years. Young missionaries, not long arrived on the West Coast of Africa, succumbed to the difficult climatic conditions and the diseases prevalent at that time.

The young Society without its energetic and dynamic Founder survived, through God’s grace, and under the guidance of Fr Augustin Planque, successor to Bishop de Bresillac, who courageously carried the work forward. It was Fr. Planque who recognised the importance of the need of Sisters to work also in that difficult and demanding environment to assist with the women in the area of evangelisation. It was he who founded the Congregation of our Lady of Apostles who have worked in West Africa for over 120 years. I would like to pay special tribute to them for their work and commitment to the work of Evangelisation and for their generous support and collaboration with our Society. I am happy to see many of them here to day as we celebrate together the missionary life of our Society.

When the Society began its life, it was a fact that all missionaries travelled, one might say on the “coat tails” of the different colonial powers of the day. The two colonial powers that exercised the greatest influence in West Africa, at this time, were the French and British Empires. As the work of the first missionaries expanded and spread along the West Coast it was imperative to have English speaking missionaries to evangelise the territories under British colonial rule. With this in mind, the Society first came to Ireland in the 1870’s.

Ireland in the mid to late 18th Century.
It is well to recall that the situation in Ireland in the late 1870’s early 1880’s was very unsettled, agrarian unrest was widespread. In 1879, Michael Davit founded the Land League the political situation remained uncertain. Under Parnell, the struggle for Home Rule was entering a new phase. The main task for the Catholic Church was to rebuild after the granting of Catholic Emancipation and the end of the Penal Laws and to plan for the pastoral care of the millions who had been forced to leave Ireland following the Great Famine.

First Contacts
The first contacts between Ireland and the SMA took place in South Africa and were made through Fr James O’Haire, who was acquainted with some of the early SMA missionaries in South Africa. Through Fr O’Haire’s contacts with Bishop Delaney, the first SMA presence in Ireland was here in Cork on the north side of the city, in Mayfield. After a brief stay there the Society moved in the early 1880’s to Blackrock Road and opened there an Apostolic school and a Church. Moving here to Wilton in the late 1880’s when the Society purchased this property. From these two houses – hundreds of missionaries have passed through having prepared themselves for work in Africa.

Many of those whose memory we hold dear are from your families, they were your friends and neighbours, they are buried here and in the many cemeteries dotted throughout Africa. Many are buried in the adjoining cemetery but many are also buried in the small cemeteries along the West Coast of Africa, in Asaba, Ekpoma, Oke Are, Ibadan Lagos – Nigeria: Ouidah in the Benin Republic, Kumasi in Ghana, Monrovia in Liberia, In East Africa in Francisdale in Zambia, Nairobi in Kenya, and also in North Africa in Egypt.

Builders of the Irish Province
While this day focuses on the celebration of the work of the Society over 150 years it is good to recall the lives of those who have built the Irish Province of the SMA, in particular, men like Fr. Joseph Zimmermann, from Switzerland, who was instrumental in building up the Irish Province, over a twenty eight year period. He also contributed in no small way to a better understanding, in the Irish Church of the time, on the need for missionaries to the lands where the Gospel had not yet been preached.

The early benefactors like Count Blake and Mr Himsworth – one of the first to respond to appeals for financial help, and who contributed generously to the building of our house in Blackrock Road. Their support and the generous support of our many benefactors has enabled the Irish Province to grow and to contribute significantly to the growth of the wider Society of African Missions, the Church in Africa and the spread of the Kingdom of God. The early efforts culminated in the establishment of the Irish Province of SMA on 15th May 1912.

Africa
Africa, at the turn of the 20th century was still a mysterious continent. The coast had been explored but much of the interior was unknown. The coming of explorers, adventurers and the colonial powers was beginning to have a significant effect on the peoples and cultures of Africa that had remained largely isolated for centuries.

This was the world to which the young Irish Missionaries of the late 1890’s and early 1900’s left family and friends here in Ireland, knowing that they, more than likely, would not return again. The early years of the Society saw a continual flow of young men from Ireland willing to accept the missionary calling and follow in the footsteps of our Founder and the early missionaries.

Members of the Society Priests and Brothers
Ordinations to the Missionary Priesthood

Phase 1. Ordained Lyons, Egypt and Cork there were 123 – 1878-1926

Phase 2. From Dromantine – 587 Members – 1926-1971

Phase 3. From Maynooth – 73 Members – 1971 – 1999

Brothers
Over these years, the number of Brothers who served in our Province numbered up to 35, among them the first two members of the Society in Ireland to die in Africa. Brother Alphonsus Nolan who died in 17th October 1880, of tuberculosis aggravated by dysentery and Brother Jerome Killen who died in Lagos on 5th December 1880.

(In the Society’s house of formation in Dromantine, in County Down over 587 priests were ordained for the missionary priesthood in a period or 45 years (1926-1971). In all, Seven Hundred and eighty priests have been ordained for the missionary priesthood in the Irish Province.)

Phase 4. Our own time.
The Society has entered into a new phase of presence in Ireland. In the Irish Province today the number of candidates coming forward has diminished and all but dried up. This is not just a phenomenon experienced by our Mission Institute but also by other Mission Institutes. The Society still invites young men to come and join us but many factors in our present cultural climate do not facilitate and encourage young people to respond to the call to Mission. However, we will continue to invite and trust that the Spirit will still lead young men to join the Society. We must listen and discern what the Spirit is saying to us through this reality. It is a time of soul searching in the light of the great missionary tradition that we have known in Ireland.

Growth of the International Society
As the Society grew in Ireland there was a corresponding growth in France and Holland. Territories were assigned to the different Provinces: the Irish Province was assigned Western and Northern Nigeria and in 1906 Liberia. This year we celebrate the centenary of our Society’s missionary involvement in Liberia and I am indeed very happy to have Bishop Lewis Ziegler from the Diocese of Gbarnga, in Liberia here with us.

The Nature and Purpose of our Society
From the beginning, the focus and direction of our Society has concentrated on Africa. This has been our central interest over the past 150 years. This focus is the basis for our planning and organisation for the future. We remain faithful and committed to the vision of our Founder, to work among the most abandoned in Africa. Our focus on Africa at this time is important as the challenges and needs of mission in Africa are more demanding than ever. Solidarity with Africa in Africa and outside Africa is our engagement now.

In our work of mission, as evangelisers, we do not only engage in proclaiming the Gospel, or converting individuals to Christ but also, in the words of Evangelii Nuntiandi, The missionary Encyclical of Pope Paul VI

“bringing the Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new” – (EN, 24).

It is a process which embraces, again in the words of Evangelii Nuntiandi,

“both the personal and collective consciences of people, the activities in which they engage, and the lives and concrete milieux which are theirs” – (EN, 19).

This is a dramatic development in the understanding of Mission.

The Missionary Encyclical of John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio expresses it in this way

“The Kingdom of God is all embrasive, bringing the good news into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new.” – RM, 13.

This is a significant development in understanding what missionaries are about in our time and it is very different from when our Society was founded and the early missionaries departed from our shores to preach the Gospel.

The context of mission is more challenging and demanding than it has ever been. Issues of Justice, Peace and the Integrity of the created world in which we live are now at the centre of the Mission agenda. It is a difficult and often unrewarding task in our times to uphold such issues, but to do so is firmly rooted in the conviction that Jesus Christ, in his saving mission, has given dignity and worth to each and every human being. This is the fundamental cornerstone on which we engage in mission today.

As a missionary Society we have been part of that movement in the Church that specifically oriented its identity and work to going to the Nations following the injunction of Jesus at the end of Matthew’s Gospel:

“Go, therefore make disciples of all Nations” – Matthew 28.19

An important task in our time is, I believe, that of building communities that are “salt and light” to the world (Matt 5:13-16). The disciple is to witness to the Gospel with the aim of transforming the world, a witnessing based on the experience of their encounter with the Risen Lord. They are to be “the fragrance of Jesus Christ” 11 Cor 2:14

Builders of a better world after the vision of the Prophet Isaiah from the first reading in today’s liturgy of the Word:

“Building a better world where war and destruction will be no more:
He will wield authority over the nations
And adjudicate between many peoples
These will hammer their swords into ploughshares
Their spears into sickles
Nation will not lift sword against nation
There will be no more training for war”. – Isaiah 2:4

Africa Today
Africa continues to experience rapid change leading, to among other consequences, a great rich/poor divide, a rapid movement into large conurbations where millions are now in search of a life for themselves and their families. These are the “new frontiers” of mission as defined by John Paul II in his missionary encyclical, “Redemptoris Missio”. This is the world of mission in Africa today. There remains also the geographical locations of mission, remote areas of Primary Evangelisation, where our missionaries’ presence is valued and welcomed…. where they work with the local people to guarantee education facilities for the future generations through establishing schools etc.

I believe that Our Missionary commitment calls us to stretch to the limit our charism of missionary service, after the example of our courageous missionaries – drawing strength from their labours and inspiration from their courage. The pastoral challenges include serious medical and health issues, the need to engage with the serious deficiencies of the education system in many of the countries where we work and to plan and collaborate with the local Church on all issues effecting the life of our people and communities.

Who are the Agents of the Missionary Enterprise of the Society today?
I have spoken about the number of Priests and Brothers from Ireland who have contributed significantly to the SMA. Today, our Society is engaged in a great journey with the Churches, who though us, received the gift of faith, where we have served as missionaries, over the last one hundred and fifty years. We now invite young men from Africa to join us for Mission to other parts of Africa.

We also have members coming from India, Poland, the Philippines, and Argentina and they now live in international missionary communities, in Africa. My recent visits to the Central African Republic, Tanzania and Kenya highlighted for me the new “identity” of our young missionaries. The greater percentage of our young missionaries, let us say those under 40 years of age, numbering nearly 90% of missionaries under 40 in the Society, now come from these new Units of the Society. It is an exciting time for our Society and other mission Institutes like ourselves.

Core of our Work
The challenges facing those engaged in mission are many but the centre of Mission remains for all generations of missionaries and that is the person of Jesus Christ, as the one who has come from the Father to bring a unique message of love to the world. Witnessing to the person of Jesus and establishing communities based on his vision of harmony and respect communities that are “light and salt”.

The world of the early church was divided on many levels, Paul in the Letter to the Galatians describes religious divisions and states that for those who are “in Christ” there is another reality:

“Since all of you are in Christ, there can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither slave nor freeman, there can be neither male nor female.” – Galatians 3:28

This is the reality that Missionaries are called to live in a dramatic way in the world in which they witness to Christ. They are confronted in their life and ministry by many of the divisions that exist in our world: The differences between ethnic identities, the social divisions that create all kinds of tensions that lead to dissension and discord.

The witnessing communities established by the Missionaries of tomorrow are called to cross boundaries and cross over to the “other person” to establish the values of the Kingdom. It is not an easy task. Many factors cultural, historical and social, challenge the vision of a world that can live in harmony.

Paul insists upon the unity of the Christian community (the body of Christ). We have been given a new identity in Christ, an identity that supersedes all others. That is one of the great challenges for Christian mission to bear witness to that reality. Any form of segregation in the community, ethnic, racial or social, is, for Paul, a denial of the Gospel, it is a counter witness to the Gospel.

One of the main tasks of Mission in our time is about creating witnessing communities as presented in the Gospel of Matthew that will be seen as radically witnessing to what the Gospel means : “as light on a hilltop and as salt that savours food” in a world that is broken and divided. Showing that in Christ a new world is possible, a Kingdom of Truth and love is possible.

That is the great missionary task, then, is about creating communities marked by a radical unity, flowing from their new identity in Christ.

I ask you to pray at this celebration today that this missionary challenge will become a reality in our time.

Conclusion
Looking to the future

The Society, from her foundation has endeavoured to live the vision of our Founder to go to the “most abandoned” with the good News of Salvation. The work of our Society continues in Africa and also here in Ireland where the vision and the passion for Mission of our Founder is still our guiding light.

The words from the Book of Proverbs comes to mind as we take stock of these past years:

“Many are the plans of the human heart
But the purpose of Yahweh – that stands firm.” – Proverbs 19:21

From the very beginning, the Society faced many challenges in discerning how best to communicate the message brought by Jesus Christ, we are still engaged in that search – I believe it never ends. The mystery of how to present the reality of Christ is not exhausted.

The “purpose of Yahweh” is still being fulfilled with the missionaries of our time. Today, the missionaries of our Society come from 24 countries, committed to Africa and the Spread of the Gospel. Quiet a change from the early days when three countries provided the candidates.

The presence of our SMA African missionaries to other Africans is the fruit of that fateful journey undertaken by our Founder when he set out from Europe in March 1859.) It is a journey that continues and is truly fulfilling the “purpose of Yahweh”.

To you, our friends gathered here today, I thank you for your faithful participation in our Missionary task over these years. The generosity and support of the Irish people has been, and continues to be, extraordinary. Without your support it is not possible, not only for the Irish Province, but also the entire Society of African Missions to carry out the task it has in spreading the Good News of Salvation.

It is a day of thanksgiving for all but also a special day of rededication to the future and participating in what the Book of Proverbs calls, the “Purpose of Yahweh”, we – missionaries, family, friends and supporters of the Society are humbled that we have been called to participate in this “purpose”.

Mission continues, for our Society we remain committed to acting in Solidarity with Africa.

I commend to you today our missionaries working in sixteen countries in Africa and in different places on the other continents.

Remembering the words of St. John’s Gospel, as Jesus prayed for his disciples, so at this Eucharist we pray for them:

“Consecrate them in the truth;
Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world,
And for their sake I consecrate myself,
So that they too may be consecrated in truth” – John 17:17-19

Kieran O’Reilly SMA
SMA, Rome

Remembrance of Deceased SMA Missionaries

Another phase in the 150th Jubilee Celebration of SMA was a day of prayer for deceased SMA missionaries. All deceased members of the Society were honoured and remembered.

Mass was concelebrated at St Joseph’s SMA Parish Church, Wilton, Cork on Saturday, 10 June 2006 and was followed by a special commemorative ceremony in the adjoining SMA Community Cemetery.

More than 600 relatives and friends of deceased SMA missionaries from all over Ireland attended.

Bishop Patrick Harrington SMA, Bishop of Lodwar (Kenya) and former Superior General of the Society was the main celebrant and he was assisted in the sanctuary by Bishop Noel O’Regan SMA of Ndola Diocese(Zambia), Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior, and former Provincial Superiors, Fathers Con Murphy SMA and John Quinlan SMA. Numerous SMA priests joined in the concelebration as did Fr McGuinness OFMCap who was home from Papua New Guinea.

Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll preached the homily. The text of the homily can be seen here…

In a preliminary to the Mass representative objects were presented – African cloth by Fr Andy O’Sullivan SMA, African carved crucifix by Fr Fionnbarra O Cuilleanain SMA, picture of the SMA Founder by Fr Joe Maguire SMA and mission box by Fr Tomas Walsh SMA.

Readings at the Mass were read by Sexton Cahill and Breda Keyes. The Prayers of the Faithful were recited by Sr Deanna Donohoe OLA and Sr Mairead Hickey OLA.
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Jubilee Celebrations | Helping SMA

Remembrance of Deceased SMA Missionaries

Another phase in the 150th Jubilee Celebration of SMA was a day of prayer for deceased SMA missionaries. All deceased members of the Society were honoured and remembered. Mass was concelebrated at St Joseph’s SMA Parish Church, Wilton, Cork on Saturday, 10 June 2006 and was followed by a special commemorative ceremony in the adjoining SMA Community Cemetery.

More than 600 relatives and friends of deceased SMA missionaries from all over Ireland attended.

Bishop Patrick Harrington SMA, Bishop of Lodwar (Kenya) and former Superior General of the Society was the main celebrant and he was assisted in the sanctuary by Bishop Noel O’Regan SMA of Ndola Diocese(Zambia), Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior, and former Provincial Superiors, Fathers Con Murphy SMA and John Quinlan SMA. Numerous SMA priests joined in the concelebration as did Fr McGuinness OFMCap who was home from Papua New Guinea.

Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll preached the homily. The text of the homily can be seen here…

In a preliminary to the Mass representative objects were presented – African cloth by Fr Andy O’Sullivan SMA, African carved crucifix by Fr Fionnbarra O Cuilleanain SMA, picture of the SMA Founder by Fr Joe Maguire SMA and mission box by Fr Tomas Walsh SMA.

Readings at the Mass were read by Sexton Cahill and Breda Keyes. The Prayers of the Faithful were recited by Sr Deanna Donohoe OLA and Sr Mairead Hickey OLA.

150th JUBILEE CELEBRATION OF THE SMA
at WILTON, CORK CITY

ADDRESS GIVEN BY ARCHBISHOP SEAN BRADY
SUNDAY 19 MARCH 2006

I feel very honoured to have been invited by Father Fachtna O’Driscoll and the SMA Irish Provincial Team to come to Cork today to be Principal Celebrant at the special con-celebrated Mass today. I thank you for that honour. Today’s Mass marked the formal launch of your Jubilee celebrations, a jubilee to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Society at Lyon in France. I congratulate you on reaching this historic milestone. It is a milestone that provides an excellent opportunity to pause and reflect and give thanks –

• To give thanks to God for what has been achieved over the last 150 years.
• To recognise and applaud and salute the noble generosity and heroic enthusiasm of generations of SMA missionaries, who left all not for profit or for gain but to tell people in Africa that God is love.
• To acknowledge the outstanding loyalty of very dedicated cohorts of lay co-workers.

The Jubilee also provides an occasion to assess the prospects for the future, and to see the potential for consolidation, giving careful attention to the signs of the times and the inspirations of the Holy Spirit.

I also congratulate you on the really impressive Programme of Events which you have planned for the year. I wish it great success. I know it will bring many blessings as you study and pray and go on pilgrimage to the various shrines and sanctuaries that are precious to SMA history. I am quite sure that the year will bring many fruits and graces.

Personally I have nothing but the very best of memories of my associations with the SMA. Your Vocations Promotions people came to St. Patrick’s College, Cavan during my time there in the fifties. In very spirited and enthusiastic presentations, they put before us a clear and attractive picture of the missionary, reminding us of how Patrick himself had come as a missionary to Ireland. Later, as a young priest, I had the good fortune to go to Dromantine on various short courses e.g, Parish Renewal; Marriage Encounter type weekends; and also, of course, courses for young priests. I remember being there in the midst of a mighty frost and snow with temperatures way below zero but the warm welcome which the SMA gave made up for it all. Another thing that has always struck me is the very strong desire, on the part of the SMA, to help the local church in any way they could here in Ireland.

Later on, during my time on the staff of the Irish College in Rome I had occasion to renew once again my acquaintances with many SMA people and it was always very pleasant and happy. Father Pat Harrington was your Superior General then and Father Kieran, the present Superior General, was immersed in his post-graduate studies then. I then came to know Father Michael McCabe from my own native county of Cavan.

Since coming to Armagh eleven years ago, I have come to know Dromantine and appreciate the treasure that it is. I call it the ante camera of paradise. I thank you for the decision taken some years ago to invest substantial resources in Dromantine and I salute how well that has been achieved. I salute also the efforts of Father Eamonn Finnegan in that matter and all those who helped him.

I heard recently a proposal that the Catholic Church in Ireland should designate the next decade as the decade dedicated to the new evangelisation of adult formation and were that to happen, I am sure Dromantine would have an invaluable role to play. In agriculture, farmers often talk of re-seeding fields that have become tired and yield less than their true potential. The Church in Ireland is in need of a certain amount of re-seeding at the moment and we need all the help we can to achieve that.

Last Friday we welcomed to Armagh a group of pilgrims from a town in northern Italy called San Colombano al Lambro. The town is named after St Columbanus of course who stopped there on his way to Bobbio. Isn’t it marvellous to think that, 1,500 years later, there are people willing and able to make a pilgrimage of gratitude to Ireland for the gift that the great Irish missionary brought to them so long ago.

I am delighted to learn that the small seeds sown by Bishop Marion de Brésillac 150 years ago have grown into a huge tree with so many branches with roots in Africa and America, Asia and Europe. Today we thank God for the 944 members working mainly in Africa of course, but also in the Americas, Asia and Oceania. We salute the courageous decision taken some years ago to accept members from Africa and Asia and we rejoice in the people who have joined the Society from the eleven African countries as well as from India and the Philippines.

I am delighted to know that there are currently 236 members of the Irish Province. We are proud that the Province has given four (4) Superior Generals to the Society and that twenty-one (21) have been called to serve the Church in Africa as successors to the apostles. We all take pride in this contribution to the marvellous story of the SMA.

“Sons of Mgr Bresillac go forward – Africa has great need of you“. Those stirring words of the late Pope John Paul II to you in 1983 are still relevant and inspiring today.

Prospere Procedite indeed. May the SMA celebrations here in Ireland this year remind all of us of Ireland’s proud missionary record. May the glorious example of countless SMA missionaries, the real heroes, dedicating their lives to the glory of God, inspire Irish people to appreciate the faith that motivated such self-sacrifice and may we all live that faith to the full.

Thank you.

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

IN THE PRESENT ECCLESIASTICAL PROVINCE OF BENIN CITY

l. LOKOJA (1884-1893)

It was in 1882 that Monsignor Jean-Baptiste Chausse SMA, the Prefect-Apostolic of the Catholic Church in Lagos, and Father Theodore Holley SMA, of Abeokuta fame, sailed up the River Niger to assess the possibility of bringing knowledge of Christ to the people who lived east and north of Yoruba land. The report they sent to their Superior General, Fr Augustin Planque SMA, in Lyon, must have impressed him because just two years later Rome setup the Prefecture of the Upper Niger, covering all that territory in modern Nigeria, north of Lokoja, an important trading centre at the confluence of the two biggest rivers in West Africa, the Niger and the Benue. The Evangelisation of that vast territory was assigned to the Society of African Missions (SMA).

In November 1884 SMA Fathers Jules Poirier, Filippo Fiorentini and Pierre Piolat arrived by boat in Lokoja, where they set up their temporary headquarters from which they hoped to evangelise the towns and villages north of the two rivers. Father Poirier was the first Prefect-Apostolic. He had some missionary experience in Topo in the Lagos area and he had hoped to develop Lokoja in the same way as he had done in Topo by establishing a Christian community and then establishing a farm to solve the food problems, before spreading out to the neighbouring villages.

But things did not work out that way. In Lokoja the people were mainly Moslems and in no way disposed to the Christian faith. Besides, their resources were very limited both in money and personnel. The missionaries were few and the few that did come were struck down by ill-health and even death. Fathers Fiorentini and Piolat died in 1885 and 1886, respectively. Three others were assigned to the prefecture in 1885 – Carlo Zappa, Johann Baptist Voit and Andrew Dornan. Fr Dornan died in less than a year at the tender age of twenty-eight. By the end of 1886 only three of the first six of the missionaries survived. Fr Poirier had succeeded in getting four OLA (Our Lady of Apostles) Sisters to come to Lokoja but two of these also became victims of the fevers that swept West Africa at that time. So in 1891, just seven years after the SMA arrived there, two Rev Fathers, two Rev Sisters and twelve redeemed slaves left Lokoja for Asaba, where Carlo Zappa had established St Joseph’s Catholic Mission in 1888.

II. ASABA (1888-1938)

It was largely in response to the insistent entreaties of one Sir James Marshall, an official of the Royal Niger Company with its Headquarters at Asaba, that Fr Poirier decided to send Fr Zappa to Asaba in 1888. On Pentecost Sunday James Marshall and his equally devout assistant, Judge O’Kane, returned from Mass at Onitsha on the eastern bank of the Niger. They were pleasantly surprised to meet Fr. Zappa waiting for them. Sir James immediately led Father to the site which he had purchased for them – the site which has remained the Head-quarters of the Catholic Church in Asaba to this present day.

Even in Asaba the early missionaries did not find it easy. The response was slow. Because of the high-handed activities of the Royal Niger Company, white men were unpopular and in many minds the missionaries were associated with them. However, the Fathers and the OLA Sisters impressed the barriers. The care for the sick shown by the teaching of catechism, were established but were not well attended. Then there was the physical factor. Sickness among the missionaries was widespread. Mosquitoes were everywhere. At that time there was no quinine or medicine to treat malaria. By 1898, just 10 years after their arrival in Asaba, of the 21 SMAs who arrived there, 7 had died, 7 had to return home and only 7 survived. Despite the problems, Fr Zappa was determined to press on and young priests and sisters continued to come from Europe. By 1900 there were fifteen priests in the Prefecture and Fr Zappa made maximum use of them. Since the departure of Fr Poirier for Europe in 1893 he was now in charge of the Prefecture. He set off, on foot, to the nearby towns, west and north of Asaba, and soon he had mission stations in Issele-Uku, Ibusa, Illah, Ogwuashi-Uku, Okpanam and Onicha-Olona. By 1896 he had established a mission in Agenebode, in the Afenmai District. And in 1897 there were three OLA Sisters in that same Agenebode. This town, on the banks of the Niger, was to become the centre from which the faith would spread throughout Afenmai. In 1904 Fr Eugene Strub, of Asaba fame, wrote home stating that “little by little, obstacles that were thought to be insurmountable were overcome. Progress once started never halted. “

In 1906 Msgr Zappa re-opened Lokoja and from there many outstations were established – Okene, Kabba, Oka and even Zaria. Zappa had his sights set on Ishan country for some time and Fr Clement Bannwarth opened a residential station in Ubiaja in 1908 while Fr Joseph Corbeau of immortal Ishan fame opened Okoni, close to Uromi, in l912.

It was later that he turned his attention to the southern banks of the Niger – this time on the creeks of the Niger Delta. Forcados was opened as a centre by Fr Georges Oilier in 1913 and Fr Luigi Cavagnera established the mission in Warri in 1917. Msgr Zappa died in Asaba in 1917. By his extraordinary zeal and tireless energy, by his diplomacy in dealing with the Royal Niger Company, the local chiefs and the people he loved so well, he was able to leave behind him a well-established, vibrant Church in at least three-quarters of the vast area entrusted to him.

Bishop Thomas Roderick, SMA. (1918-1933)

Bishop Thomas Broderick, SMA continued the policies of his predecessor. He ordained the first Nigerian priest in the person of Fr Paul Emechete in Asaba on 6th January, 1920. Later in 1926 he transferred the Seminary, established by Msgr Zappa in Ivianokpodi in the Agenebode area in 1907, to Asaba. Among the young seminarians were Pedro Martins, Anselm Ojefua, Stephen Umurie, Anthony Sanusi and Joseph Erameh. Bishop Broderick established a Training Centre for catechists in Ibusa in 1927 and in the adjoining compound

he established St Thomas’ Teacher’s Training College in 1928. This was a very significant move because it meant the Catholic Church was fully committed to education and the establishment of schools throughout Mid-West Nigeria, as it was then known. It was the first Secondary school throughout the Region and the rapid but solid expansion of the Catholic Faith was due in no small measure to the products of St Thomas’ that were soon to be found in schools in every town and village. So, when Bishop Broderick died in 1933, the Church had a well established form of evangelisation in the training of catechists and teachers.

Bishop Leo H. Taylor, SMA. (1934-1939)

In comparison with his predecessors (Msgr Zappa and Bishop Broderick) and his successor (Bishop P J Kelly), the Episcopacy of Bishop Taylor in the Vicariate of Western Nigeria, as it was officially called since 1911, was comparatively short. He returned to Lagos in 1939 as he had been appointed Archbishop of the Lagos jurisdiction. During his tenure of office in Asaba Bishop Taylor continued with the proven policies of his predecessors. However, greater emphasis was now being laid on the schools as tools of evangelisation. During his Episcopacy the numbers attending the Catholic primary schools increased from 6,300 in 1932 to 12,375 in 1939. The increase in the number of primary schools necessitated an increase in the number of trained teachers. So the enrolment in St Thomas’s, Ibusa increased from 16 in 1928 to 60 in 1939.

However, the increased attention given to education did not diminish the attention to normal pastoral care and the Bishop could be seen going along on his bicycle, travelling from station to station to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation. The most significant feature of his Episcopacy was the transfer of the Head-quarters of the Vicariate from Asaba to Benin City in 1938. Bishop Taylor did this because he felt that it was more appropriate and more convenient for administrative purposes to have the headquarters of the Vicariate close to the civil headquarters which was Benin City at that time.

III. BENIN CITY (1940-1973)

The first resident priest in Benin was Fr. William Lumley, SMA, later Msgr Lumley of Jos fame. He took up residence in 1928, Previous to that Benin was an outstation of Sapele. Bishop Patrick Joseph Kelly SMA was appointed Bishop as the successor to Bishop Taylor in 1940. His Episcopacy was a long one of thirty-three years, and a very fruitful one. There was progress on all fronts. Catechists were his top priority. He trained the catechists personally in his own compound. During the Confirmation visits he insisted on examining the candidates – hundreds of them – himself. He built up the indigenous Church. In 1940 there were three indigenous priests; in 1973 there were 50 and hundreds of seminarians and Sisters. Likewise the number of Catholic Schools continued to multiply throughout the Diocese. (The Vicariate of Asaba-Benin became the Diocese of Benin City in 1950). He established the first Secondary School, Immaculate Conception College, Benin and St Patrick’s, Asaba in the mid-Forties and he was the Proprietor of up to 40 secondary schools in 1972. But Bishop Kelly was above all a man of prayer. He was an SMA to the core and it was fitting that he should spend the later years of his long life at our Provincial Mother House in Cork City, Ireland. He died there on 18th August, 1991, at the age of 97.

MODERN TIMES

When Bishop Kelly retired in 1973 the Vicariate of Asaba-Benin which he inherited in 1940 had become the Diocese of Benin City (1950). Subsequently, Lokoja (1955), Warri (1964), Issele-Uku (1973), the Prefecture of Bomadi (1973), Auchi (2002) and Uromi (2006) were created. In 1994 the Ecclesiastical Province of Benin City was created with Archbishop Patrick E Ekpu as its Metropolitan. On the installation of His Grace, Bishop Anthony Gbuji preached the homily. Among other things he said: “We owe immense gratitude to the missionaries of the Society of African Missions and to the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles. They planted and watered with untold sacrifices and courage the seed abundantly blessed by God which we now reap with great joy. To those of them now in our midst we express deep gratitude and may God grant eternal rest to those who have slept in the Lord.”

Today the SMA presence in the Province is confined to the SMA parish, Cable Point, Asaba and SMA House, Uromi, the former Tyrocinium, opened in 1957, with Fr. Matthew Walsh as Regional Superior.

Fr James Higgins SMA
St Patrick’s Parish
Cable Point, Asaba.
15th August, 2006

General Assembly 2007

A Wet Day for Papal Audience in Rome

A wet St Peter’s Square	Conventional sheltering
Fr Thaddeus Ogato improvising	More improvisation
I wonder if its still raining?	Frs J MGuillaume and C Cuenin keep dry
The Pope takes shelter too	Papal blessing in the rain

Re-election of Fr Kieran O’Reilly SMA
as Superior General of SMA on 28 April 2007

Delegates meet in chapel for period of discernment prior to the election of Superior General	Delegates meet in chapel for period of discernment prior to the election of Superior General
	Votes are cast during the election of Superior General
	White Smoke rises – the election has been successful
Mass in thanksgiving for the election – the Superior General is main concelebrant	Time for sharing a celebratory meal and for speeches

General Assembly 2007… More Pictures

	A working group in session during the General Assembly
	Time to pray is essential during the General Assembly
	Time for much needed recreation brings some delegates to the tennis court
	Reporting and writing and computers are elements of the General Assembly as Fr François is discovering
	Fathers Francis Patrikson, John Dunne and Mike Adrie exchange ideas during the tea-break

19th SMA General Assembly
in Pictures

16 April – 12 May 2007

Frs Jean-Pierre Frey (Strasbourg) and Damian Bresnahan (Ireland) at GA07

Delegates Frs CJ Antony (India), Daniel Cardot (France) & Michael Adrie (Ghana)

Fr Tom Higgins SMA

Funeral Homily – 3 February 2005

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior)

Readings:
Wisdom 3: 1-9
Romans 12: 3-13
John 12: 23-28

1st February ushers in the Season of Spring. We notice a lengthening of the light at both ends of the day. That theme of light is carried on into the second day of the month, when we celebrate a mini-festival with lighted candles as we contemplate the Presentation of the child Jesus in the temple. 1st February is also the Feastday of St Brigid, secondary patron of Ireland. Tom Higgins’ theology and spirituality would have little truck with modern day, feminist inspired connections being made between a pagan goddess and a Christian saint, but that he should die on this particular day is not without some significance. Brigid consecrated her whole life to God, as a virgin; so did Tom. Brigid is renowned for her hospitality, almsgiving and care of the sick. These are themes running through the life of Fr Tom; at one point, as giver; at another, as receiver. He died peacefully early on Tuesday morning, in Blackrock Road, after a protracted illness.

Our first reading this afternoon is that reading from the Book of Wisdom that is regularly chosen for funeral liturgies. The souls of the virtuous are in the hands of God. It is appropriate for Tom’s funeral liturgy. In the reading, the afflictions of this life are seen as slight in contrast to the blessings that will surely follow in the life to come. God has put the virtuous to the test, like gold in the furnace, and they have not been found wanting. They who trust in him will understand the truth, those who are faithful will live with him in love; for grace and mercy await those he has chosen. Tom lived his life with great fidelity to the Lord; our faith convinces us that he has moved into new life and there has met mercy itself.

In the gospel, we are reminded that the grain of wheat must die if it is to lead to a rich harvest. New life is possible only when the old has died. Nature itself is a brilliant teacher in this regard. For the Christian, of course, we are not talking of just any kind of new life. We are talking about nothing less than new life in God’s very being. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the guarantee of the hope we claim as Christians that one day we too will rise with him into everlasting life. This was the faith that inspired Tom Higgins to dedicate his life for over 60 years in missionary priesthood with the SMA. How lovely it was that we were able to celebrate with him the Diamond Jubilee of his ordination to priesthood, just six weeks ago. Tom’s was a life rich in blessing, but not without its pain also.

A native of Sligo town, Tom was born on July 8th, 1918 into a family of three boys and three girls. He completed his Primary education with the Marist Brothers in Sligo before going on to secondary school in Ballinafad and Wilton. From here he moved on to Cloughballymore, where he cherished the spiritual atmosphere and the great family spirit existing between the Staff and the students. He graduated from University College, Galway in 1941. His first mission appointment after ordination in 1944 was to Monrovia, Liberia. It is fitting that the present Archbishop of Monrovia, Michael Francis, who would have been ten years of age when Tom first reached those shores, had just arrived in our house for convalescence just a matter of days before Tom died.

Tom had a very significant missionary career in Liberia. He began as a teacher, was later a pastor, and later still an administrator. Tom seemed to possess many of the gifts outlined by St Paul in his letter to Romans in that passage we read here this afternoon – teacher, preacher, administrator. In each ministry he gave of his gifts freely; and he was never less than a thorough gentleman. He was very highly regarded by all his colleagues as he served as Regional Superior from 1953-64. In this particular ministry he became noted for the quality of his hospitality, something which St Paul reminds us we need to make our special care. He also had huge compassion for his confreres. During these years in Liberia, finances were never too plentiful and the church was finding it extremely difficult to make ends meet from the ordinary resources of the mission. Tom worked with the creative spirit of another confrere to establish a rubber plantation at Kakata to raise funds for the mission. The pioneering work in this regard was to survive up to the recent tragic war.

Unfortunately, ill-health, in the form of a very debilitating disease of both his eyes, was to force him to leave his beloved Liberia in 1970. There is no doubt that this experience was a defining one in Tom’s life. I am reminded of the comment of Thoreau – “as a young person we dream of building a bridge to the moon and sometime in mid-life we pick up the materials we’ve gathered and build a woodshed.”

Tom was to work for another nineteen years in pastoral ministry in the diocese of Hexham and Newcastle in Northern England. Poor eye-sight was to continue to plague him, and he was to develop other health complications including cancer. So he returned to work in this parish of Wilton for five years, before moving into full retirement in the Wilton community in 1994, where he lived contentedly until requiring a higher level of nursing care at the Blackrock Road community since 2002.

At the beginning of this homily reflection I focussed on the image of light. Light and sight are inextricably linked. Tom’s seeing of the physical world changed around 1970. I think it would be true to say that the way he viewed faith and the Church also changed around that time. Tom would say, of course, that it was the church that had changed; his view had remained constant throughout. However one judges that debate it is very true that Tom found it painfully difficult to come to terms with many of the changes, liturgical and otherwise, brought about by the Vatican Council and subsequently. He was never afraid to argue his point with great conviction. He did more than argue; he aligned himself with some of the traditional movements within the church, such as the movement for the restoration of the Latin Mass, and was a devoted supporter and participant until increasing frailty made it simply impossible for him to continue.

Throughout this period Tom always maintained his dignity. He did not cede his point easily but he always tried to dialogue with courtesy and respect. He remained, as always, a real gentleman. That’s why the second reading this afternoon, taken from the Mass for the feastday of St Brigid, rings true. St Paul tells us, “Do not let your love be a pretence, but sincerely prefer good to evil. Love each other as much as brothers should, and have a profound respect for each other.” Tom showed his love for his brothers by trying to get us to move back from what he regarded as the wrong way, and he did so with profound respect. He certainly worked for the Lord with untiring effort and great earnestness of spirit. And he certainly did not give up when trials came.

In the same reading each of us is urged not to exaggerate our real importance and to judge ourselves soberly by the standard of faith that has been given to us. Tom had no doubt that his cause was an important one: but he never exaggerated his personal importance and had a sober judgement of himself.

Our faith asserts that Tom is now participating in the heavenly liturgy, where arguments of style and language are no longer relevant. He is at peace in body, mind and spirit. Our prayer is that he will enjoy the fullness of God’s eternal peace.

Ar dheis lamh De go raibh a anam dilis.

Fr Tom Egan SMA

Funeral Homily – 5 May 2006

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior at SMA Parish Church, Wilton, Cork)

Readings: Macc 12: 43-45
2 Peter 3: 8-14
Mt 11: 25-30

In his heyday, Fr Tom Egan was renowned for the eloquence of his after-dinner speeches or his words of gratitude at an SMA Promoters’ meeting. It was a pleasure to be treated to Tom’s choice of complimentary and affirmative phrases that were rarely understated. However, in his latter years, particularly since he joined the community at Blackrock Road, his was a quiet but contented presence. It is perhaps fitting then that he died on the Feast of two of Jesus’ less prominent apostles, Saints Philip and James. Tom died on Wednesday morning last at the South Infirmary Hospital after a relatively short illness. We gather here this afternoon to celebrate this funeral liturgy and pray for the repose of his soul.

This is the fifth occasion already this year that the Irish Province of the SMA is celebrating a funeral liturgy for one of our colleagues. Each funeral has its own individual stamp but all are reminders to us that life is not of our choosing and is outside our control. Our task is to accept the life that is given to us and at the end surrender it back to the God from where it all began. For Tom that life breath was first breathed over 80 years ago. We are truly thankful to God today for the richness of his 80 years. Our sadness at parting is no less real for the fact that Tom enjoyed a long life. His sisters and brother, nieces and nephews and extended family will miss his presence as will the members of the SMA. It was touching, over these last weeks particularly, to see the affection in which he was held by his extended family. But we are blessed that our Christian faith allows us to place his passing in a context that looks beyond this life. Jesus’ promise that we will enjoy life in God into eternity enables us to acknowledge the human loss but to recognise that our brother has now simply moved into a new phase of existence.

In our first reading this afternoon we read about the Maccabbeen clan. If there was one characteristic above all others that marked them out it was their total dedication to Yahweh, total dedication to Yahweh’s people and unswerving perseverance right to the end, in spite of suffering or danger. In the Book of Maccabees we find the first thought-through Old Testament theology of resurrection. Judas Maccabeus, by his collection for the sacrificial sin offering, attested to his belief in the resurrection. This was some years before Jesus came to confirm that those who die in the Lord are indeed raised to life with him. As the reading puts it, “for if he had not expected the fallen to rise again it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead”. Our faith guarantees that it is far from superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. We do so in the sure faith knowledge that as Tom died with Christ in baptism, he will also imitate him in his resurrection.

It seems to me, from knowing a little of the life and character of Tom Egan, that our 2nd reading today, taken from the second letter of St Peter summarises the spirituality on which Tom based his whole life. In the Lord’s time-scale one day is equal to a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. In terms of Tom’s life, one day is equal to 80 years and 80 years is just like one day. Operating out of that perspective, then, it becomes incumbent on us to “live holy and saintly lives while we await the Day of God to come”. As St Peter puts it, “do your best to live lives without spot or stain so that he will find you at peace”. There is no doubt that Tom tried to do exactly this throughout his life, sometimes, perhaps, to a fault.

Our gospel passage reminds us that we have no claim on divine revelation. Whatever is revealed of the mystery of God is pure gift. “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children”. Human intelligence – intellectual knowledge – is no gateway to understanding the mystery of the divine. Only the stance of solid faith opens us to the possibility of receiving whatever is gifted to us of the mystery of God. And this mystery reveals the extraordinary promise that when we come to the Lord with our burdens he will give us rest. How often must Tom have come with his worldly burdens before the gentle and humble heart of the Lord and found there that the burden shared had then become light.

Tom Egan was born in 1925 in Cloonacool, Tubbercurry, Co Sligo, under the shadow of the Ox mountains. He was the eldest in a family of two boys and three girls. He did his early secondary school studies at the diocesan minor seminary of St Nathy’s, Ballaghdereen. He completed these studies here in St Joseph’s, Wilton. From 1944 –’47 he completed a Bachelor’s Degree in philosophy and education between the universities of Cork and Galway. After four years of theology studies in Dromantine he was ordained priest in June 1951 at the Dominican church in Newry and then assigned to the missionary posting of Monrovia Vicariate, Liberia where he was to spend the next 13 years.

Tom did not always enjoy robust health so he must have found the harsh tropical climate of West Africa severe on his constitution. Nevertheless he persevered at the task and became a well established member of the team. The greater part of the thirteen years was spent as a teacher in St Patrick’s High School in the city of Monrovia. His good organisational and secretarial skills were also put to good use. Bishop Collins was glad to avail of these skills and he also recognised Tom’s gift for diplomacy. He sent him for some basic training to sharpen his diplomatic skills and Tom was to put such skills to excellent use not only in Liberia but very much so later in the promotion of SMA mission among our supporters here in Ireland.

It is this aspect of his career as a missionary that is best known. From 1964 to 1998, apart from a short stint at the Spiritual Year programme at Kilcolgan in Galway, Tom dedicated his life totally to the promotion of the Society among our benefactors. He spent three years of this programme attached to the house in Blackrock Road, where among his duties was preaching in churches throughout the West, a precursor to the Mission Awareness ministry of today. But it was his attachment and relationship to the SMA house in Wellington Road, Dublin that was to leave the major mark on his life. Here he gave almost thirty years establishing and cementing the Family Vocations Movement in the Leinster region. In fact, he became so identified with this house that one can scarcely think of the building without connecting it to Tom’s presence therein. It is a mark of how he was regarded in Dublin that a special memorial Mass will be celebrated in Rathmines church next week to enable his many friends to gather to pray for the repose of his soul. No doubt there will be great stories told and memories shared after that Mass.

The address ‘Wellington Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin’ conjures up images of opulence. But Tom’s living quarters in the SMA house were spartan in the extreme. Certainly no one could lay a charge against him of ostentatious living and expect that it would stick. His bedroom could barely fit a bed and table and from here Tom carried out much of his secretarial work. A colleague from those years recalled for me yesterday how even in times of sickness Tom would lie on the bed with his portable typewriter on his chest and type letters of esteem, condolence or comfort to whomsoever had a need at that time.

The key to his ability to generate so much support for SMA and esteem for its work includes the following salad of ingredients: sheer repetitive hard work; meticulous attention to detail; regular and sustained contact with benefactors; unashamed use of his wonderful innate gift of charm; interest shown in all happenings within the wider family, especially around exam times; attendance at hospitals and funerals; judicious and lengthy use of the technology invented by Mr Alexander Graham Bell. Holding all these ingredients together was an unfailing courtesy and respect shown at all times. We often speak of our benefactors being part of the extended family of SMA. There is no doubt that the members of the Family Vocations Movement in Leinster became a real extended family to Tom. Alexander Graham Bell is quoted as saying “the most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion”. Fr Tom Egan was certainly a living proof of the truth of that statement.

For many years Tom was the dean of the promotion team within the Province. He was respected and admired by his colleagues. This is where his eloquence and diplomacy were shown to good effect also. He had a quaint mannerism of beginning every statement with the preface ‘the point about it is’. Nothing seemed to give him more pleasure than to construct an ode of praise to a colleague or benefactor. A small word would never be employed where a big one could supply. They say that good ideas need landing gear as well as wings. It is probably true to say that Tom’s ‘landing gear’ was not quite as highly developed as his ‘wings’.

Tom has now landed very firmly in closer union with the Father. Many of those to whom he ministered here on earth will surely have been there to welcome him. Our prayer is that whatever purification may still be necessary will be quickly attended to. His life’s work has been accomplished and he can now rest in peace.

Ar dheis De go raibh a anam.

Fr Thomas Lindon SMA

Funeral Homily 28/12/2004

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior)

Readings:
Isaiah 52: 7-10
1 John 1: 1-4
Matt 11: 25-30

There is something very poignant and sad about dying on Christmas Day. And, yet, there is something very uplifting in it also. To die in the hope of eternal life on the very day when we celebrate the coming down to earth as man of the very Son of God, the one in whom all our hopes of eternal life rest, the one who himself incarnated hope, is somehow a beautiful rounding off to a life lived in this unquenchable hope, and dedicated to spreading this same message of hope to the very ends of the earth. Fr Tommy Lindon passed away very peacefully at about 7pm on Christmas Day. His death concludes one stage of his existence. His death also brings to a closure a time of suffering and unease when the quality of his life was far from what one would wish. For a man of brilliant intellect these last few years must have been shockingly disfigured. And, yet, not least because of the loving care he received in St Theresa’s, he was gently released to meet his God when the time was right.

At death our Christian faith is a great solace. For Tommy’s family, his confreres in the SMA, and his many friends there is the assurance of faith that his life is changed, not ended. We have the assurance in our Gospel passage today, that Jesus provides rest, a rest that is eternal, for those who labour and are overburdened. There is no doubt that Tommy’s life has been laboured and overburdened these last few years. We give God thanks today that his labour is finally ended and he rests in peace. I particularly chose this gospel passage for Tommy’s funeral for that reason but for another reason too. We are told, “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children”. Tommy was a very clever man, a man of vast learning; but I do not disparage his learning in any way when I suggest that it was not his learning that revealed to him this message of hope. In fact, it was because he refused to allow his learning to present a barrier to accepting this simple message of faith and hope that allowed him to live this reality in his own life and dedicate his life to communicating it to others. This gospel passage affirms that salvation is never earned, it is pure gift. The donor, not the recipient, is the focus here. A child can accept the message more readily than an adult because there are fewer walls of incredulity and scepticism to penetrate.

Tommy Lindon was born on 22^{nd June 1933 and from an early age discerned a call to missionary priesthood. Our second reading today, from the Prophet Isaiah, tells us “how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of one who brings good news, who heralds peace, brings happiness, proclaims salvation…….. for the Lord is consoling his people”. Tommy must have been impressed with such a vision because he chose to study for missionary priesthood in the SMA schools of Ballinafad and Wilton. Marked out as a bright student from the beginning it was no surprise that he was chosen to pursue further studies in Rome, after ordination in 1957. Because of young age he and some colleagues had their ordination to priesthood postponed for some months, which meant that unfortunately they were not ordained with their classmates to celebrate the centenary of the SMA in 1956.}

^{Even a quick glance at his CV in the booklet lets us see that he had an enormous variety of ministries throughout his life. Tommy spent eight very enjoyable years in pastoral ministry in the diocese of Ibadan, Nigeria from 1980-’88, but much of his life was given over to teaching and academic pursuits. It would, however, be a mistake to think that Tommy’s knowledge of the Lord remained on the intellectual level. He proclaimed a God who had intimately touched his own life. As that beautiful passage from St John that we read here puts it, something which has existed since the beginning, that we have heard, and we have seen with our own eyes; that we have watched and touched with our hands; the Word, who is life – this is our subject. That life was made visible; we saw it and we are giving testimony, telling you of the eternal life which was with the Father and has been made visible to us”. Tommy strove throughout his life to convey something of the experience of meeting that God, not just an intellectual knowledge of a God out there.}

^{Tommy had a very unique and individual sense of humour, a sharp wit that saw fun in events where others might be slower to see it quite in the same way. [I think Billy was very accurate last night when he described his sense of humour as whimsical. In fact, just this morning in my office I was led to make an interesting connection. I have on my desk one of these diaries that you tear away a page for each day with a little gem of wisdom printed for each day. For today, the gem of wisdom says: The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes. Somehow or other I think Tommy learned that lesson very early in life and never took anything or anybody for granted.]}

^{And humour is one of the three H’s that links Holiness to Humility. This humour manifested itself in that crackling smile when his face opened in glee and his body shook with a sustained chuckle. Whether he was in Rome, in Ibadan, in Dromantine, in Cambridge, on the Provincial Council, in London, in Liberia, in Sierra Leone, in Zambia or back here in St Theresa’s that same humour shone forth, bringing life and mirth to others. Tommy enjoyed a sing-song and a party get-together, and could always be relied on for a humorous party piece. In fact, it is nice to remember that his wit was one of the last faculties to leave him. Sr Rosalie recounts how some years ago when she was accompanying Tommy to hospital, being driven by Fr Paddy Barry, Tommy’s wit expressed itself out of the blue. Passing along the opposite quay to the Opera House Sr Rosalie wondered aloud what might be on at the theatre at that particular time; quick as a flash a hitherto silent Tommy replied from the back-seat, “the roof”. Tommy also enjoyed a game of tennis and during his years in Ibadan he was a very faithful participant in the weekly tennis game at the Regional house.}

^{Tommy’s career was both various and interesting. He had the opportunity to watch the scene at the very heart of the church when he was a priest student in Paris, and gained a Doctorate in Theology in Rome; as a teacher of theology during the changes brought about by the Vatican Council he witnessed and participated in many of these changes; he served in Nigeria at a time when that country was establishing itself as an independent country just emerging from decades of colonial control; he served in Liberia during its darkest days of civil war, and was forced to move with the seminary students and staff into the neighbouring country of Sierra Leone in order to continue the programme of training; he served on the Provincial Council of this Province during a period when the beginnings of the decline of vocations to the priesthood was becoming perceptible, and I think he was the initiator of the programmes of on-going formation by organising the early summer-schools at our Maynooth house for those on holiday from Africa. He followed up his stint on the Provincial Council by taking a Masters Degree in African studies. This, allied to his Doctorate, prepared him well to focus his future teaching career on Mission Studies. So, a wide and rich experience was his and he gave of his best in the different ministries.}

^{In these latter years when ill-health decreed that he could no longer serve on mission he returned to Ireland, first to care for his own sick sister, and then to be cared for himself at Blackrock Road. Here, while it is true that he received much, he never ceased being a giver either. Tommy was always a gentleman right to the end. He was easy to care about and to care for. He gifted others by allowing them to care for him without demur.}

^{They say the mind grows rich from what it receives, the heart from what it gives. Tommy’s mind undoubtedly received a vast amount in all those years of reading and study. But his heart also grew significantly because he was a generous giver.}

^{So now it is time to pray him home to the God who is the ultimate giver. We can be assured that God will not be found wanting to provide a place at the heavenly banquet for this gentle missionary priest, confrere, brother, uncle, relative and friend.}

^{Ar dheis lamh De go raibh a anam dilis.}

Fr Seán Kelly SMA

Funeral Homily – 28 April 2005

(Preached by Fr John Horgan SMA, Vice-Provincial Superior)

The unexpected death of Fr Seán last Sunday evening at his house in Lecarrow, Co Roscommon was a shock to his family, especially to his sister Theresa who was visiting with him for the weekend. It was a shock to his SMA family; to his parish family; to his large circle friends and acquaintances. It left us stunned, in complete darkness with all the lights gone out. We depended on our faith and God’s word to help us in our struggle with the trauma.

In today’s gospel Jesus asks to remain in his love; he assures us we will remain in his love by keeping his commandments. The love of Jesus for us is so great that he was willing to die for us. A missionary vocation is a life long commitment to helping others to be aware of that love; bringing to them the God News that God loves them.

As a young man Fr Seán committed himself to witness to that love of God for us by joining the African Missions the SMA. After completing his secular education to third level, his theological and spiritual formation he was ordained a priest of the Society of African Missions on the 21st December 1960 to go and preach the good news in Africa. When he died last Sunday he was in the 45th year of his priesthood.

Most of the first third of Fr Seán’s life as a missionary priest was spent in the archdiocese of Jos in Nigeria in education and pastoral work first as a teacher and later as a secondary school principal. He was immersed in the many and varied activities of a young vibrant, expanding church. The situation was very similar to the early Church of the first reading. Growth and expansion bring their own problems; problems demand meetings to find solutions.

So in the first reading we find the Church leaders at such a meeting, the Council of Jerusalem. They listen to Barnabas and Paul describing all the signs and wonders God had worked through them among the pagans as the young church expanded to embrace new converts not only from among the Jews but from among pagans as well.

On holidays many were enthralled as Fr Seán told of the wonders of life on the missions because he witnessed in his mission work the blessings and marvels of God.

Because Fr Seán’s health was a not robust he was given an appointment in Ireland in 1976. Indeed the next section of his life totalling 11 years was devoted to different assignments in the Promotion of the SMA in Ireland. Here again he used his talent for story telling as he recruited young men to be future SMAs, as he promoted the SMA magazine, the African Missionary or as he collected mission boxes, preaching in parishes, giving people an awareness of mission.

In 1987 he was assigned to the SMA Community here at Wilton to be the bursar and a member of the formation team. Our SMA students spent their first year in Wilton in those days. During this period he also assisted in the parish here in Wilton. I have been told that the Cork comedian, Billa Connell never missed the 6pm Saturday evening Mass when Fr Seán was the celebrant.

In 2000 after 13 years of work in Wilton, Fr Seán undertook ministry in his native diocese of Elphin. There, in the parish of Knockcroghery, he ministered happily for the past five years.

This brief summary of his life does not do justice to the colour and quality of the man. He related naturally to people and made lasting friendships easily. He always made a point of knowing the personal names of people; he never forgot them. He was loyal to his family, to the SMA and to his friends. He loved company, had a good sense of humour; was a great entertainer; he could tell stories with the best and his tales were tall but never tedious.

These social gifts helped him in the different appointments he held during his life. They helped him in his dealings with young people whether in the classroom, in vocations groups or parish groups; they helped him in promoting the SMA mission; they help him in parish work. He had qualities, which endeared him to people.

Fr Seán was a man of faith, a prayerful person, and a priest committed to his vocation. He was a man of courage and integrity in everything he did and said. He made no show of his holiness or closeness to God. But he was holy and close to God.

For me closeness to God is often visible in the way people accept the sufferings and crosses of life. Fr Seán had his share of these crosses. He had to forego his preference for a life of mission in Africa and accept a life of mission in Ireland because of his health.

In the last months of 2003 two of his sisters and a brother-in-law died within a period of six weeks. This was an emotionally tough time for Fr Seán as he coped with such family losses. Last year 2004 was a year of physical suffering and loss for Fr Seán. He spent three periods in Galway University Hospital. In February 2004 he had treatment for gallstones. In May 2004 he had treatment for stones in the kidney and in October he had prostate surgery. He bore all of this suffering without a murmur of complaint. And after a very short period of recuperation at our SMA house in Claregalway he resumed work in his parish.

In the second reading St Paul says his life is being poured out as a libation or offering. And as that life nears its end Paul feels gratitude and joy that he has run the good race; that he has kept the faith and that a great award awaits him. During the last two years as Fr Seán coped with his own health problems and the deaths of his sisters and brother-in-law he must have felt like St Paul that his own life was being poured out as a libation. God was asking him to sacrifice more and more.

Fr Seán has run the good race; he has kept the faith.
We pray Lord, that Fr Seán will meet with his deceased parents, brothers, sisters and all he ministered to in the kingdom where your missionaries receive the hundred-fold you promised to those who would leave everything even their very selves so that they might be your witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and even to the farthest bounds of the earth

Ar dheis Dé go raibh do anim dílis, a Sheáin.

Fr Robert Molloy SMA

Funeral Homily – 11 April 2005

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior)

Readings:
Wisdom 7: 7-11
2 Peter 3: 8-14
John 6: 35-40

The beautifully solemn and dignified funeral ceremony of the late Pope John Paul II on Friday last was a reminder to all of us of the dignity of life, the dignity of death and the hope that Christians carry that death is not the end of dignity but the beginning of a new stage of greater dignity where life is lived in the greater fullness of God’s presence. Bob Molloy lived 92 years of life with great dignity. He died, as he lived, peacefully and quietly on the very morning that the leader of his church was buried, a church he served faithfully, diligently and with an admirable dignity all his life.

Mircea Eliade, the anthropologist, once said: “No community should botch its deaths!” What he means is that those who die should not be left go from our midst without us recognising what they have done for us. If so, the loss is ours. In the SMA we try to take care not to botch our deaths. Our elders carry the story of the community. Few have carried the story of the Irish Province of the Society of African Missions as well as Fr Bob Molloy. In a letter of congratulations for his Golden Jubilee in 1986, the then Superior General, Patrick Harrington, described Bob as “probably the best known, most respected and loved SMA among the Irish confreres”. Few would argue with that assessment. Tom Humphries wrote an article some time ago on the great Dublin player and manager, Kevin Heffernan, where he said: character is fate: all the rest is scenery. I believe that would apply equally well to Bob Molloy. He was a character, almost an institution, who impacted and influenced the lives of hundreds of SMAs in his almost 70 years of priesthood.

Our opening reading this afternoon esteems the value of Wisdom. Few in our Society had that gift of wisdom to the level of Bob Molloy. He was bright, intelligent, well read. But he was more than knowledgeable, he was wise. He carried his knowledge with a deep humility and modesty, almost to the point of self-abnegation. He never tried to impress his vast learning on others. One is reminded of the old Eskimo woman who when asked why the songs of her tribe were so short responded, “because we know so much”. Bob’s knowledge was not any ordinary knowledge. It was knowledge about God and the things of God. It was, ultimately, knowledge of God which cannot be learned in any book but only on one’s knees. Bob was a theologian: Faith seeking understanding. He sought first for his own sake. And then he sought to impart it to others. He did so in a very gentle manner.

In our second reading St Peter reminds us that God’s time is chronicled according to a different standard to ours. All we know is that he is patient with us. The Lord’s call may come suddenly, something like a thief in the night. Bob’s call was sudden but hardly like a thief because this day has been awaited now for some time. What is required of us is to live holy and saintly lives until the Lord does come. “Do your best to live lives without spot or stain so that he will find you at peace”. I think most people would characterise Bob’s life as holy and saintly. But we need to remind ourselves again that a holy and saintly life does not earn salvation. Salvation is never earned; it is God’s free gift. Bob too will receive it as free gift.

This is borne out again in our gospel today from John’s famous teaching on the Eucharist. “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I shall not turn him away.” This text would have been very familiar to Bob. He would most likely have taught it in scripture class and dogma class. But he learned it also through his own prayer and life experience. “It is my Father’s will that whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and that I shall raise him up on the last day”. That was Bob’s personal belief and as an African missionary priest he must have longed to carry this belief to the peoples of Africa. Perhaps he did an even greater thing by dedicating his life to teaching those who would bring this message to Africa.

Born in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo in 1913, Bob was the last born of six boys and three girls. He schooled first at the local Christian Brothers. Witnessing a horrific accident to a young man impressed on Bob the uncertainty of life and so he decided to dedicate his life to priesthood. A happy congruence of economic hardship and positive impressions of a local SMA missionary, George McCormack, launched him in the direction of SMA. He began his studies in Wilton, which he found difficult as the staff was not always very congenial and his own shy manner made it difficult for him to mix easily with the many city students present there. He moved on to Clough and Dromantine, where he integrated more easily. His own reflections on these times, indeed on his entire career with the SMA, make for fascinating reading. They are candid and, as one might expect, extremely insightful. One interesting point he made was that he considered the formation was too focussed on formal prayer and routine to the detriment of enabling student priests to form an intimate, affective relationship with Christ that might sustain them through life. “Too little pondering of Christ in the heart” was his assessment of that formation culture.

After ordination in 1937 he was assigned to take further studies in Canon Law in Rome. This surprised him as he did not consider himself to be an exceptional student in Dromantine days. Cardinal Ratzinger spoke eloquently on Friday last of John Paul’s self-sacrifice in accepting the post of auxiliary bishop of Krakow at a time when he was most happy in the academic environment of the university. Bob’s self-sacrifice was in the other direction. He had been looking forward in 1937 to an appointment on mission to West Africa. He had even purchased a trunk for the travel. But when the appointment to Rome came he accepted it with immediate obedience. As he said, “nothing left now but to drink deep the canonical spring”. His ready acceptance of this appointment was to mean that he never did experience a missionary appointment to Africa. This must have been a huge disappointment but he accepted it with commendable resignation. Two short trips to Africa in the 1960s, where he was hugely impressed by the welcome he received from all the men, compensated somewhat for this loss.

His time in Rome was not an easy period. Studies were demanding and then the onset of war meant food etc became scarce. The entry of Mussolini into the war further compounded problems. Though gaining a Doctorate in Canon Law in 1940 he was asked, because of the restrictions on movement during the war, to remain on in Rome where he gained a second Doctorate, this time in Divinity, in 1942. The account of his train trip through war torn Europe up into Lisbon from where he subsequently took a seaplane to Ireland is another fascinating episode in his life. He arrived home in 1942, in poor health and generally strained. He was next appointed to the teaching staff in Dromantine.

Bob was to spend the next 27 years as a professor of various subjects in Dromantine. His health never recovered sufficiently to recommend a career in the tropics. But he was to impact the lives of more than 300 SMA priests plus countless others who left the seminary through his ever nimble and alert mind, infectious laughter and gentle humour. A piece to mark his Silver Jubilee of Ordination has this to say of his teaching style: “Though learned, he is not pedantic; and he enlivens the weightiest material by his powers of apt illustration, explosive wit and humour, and rare felicity of expression”. During this period, also, Bob was to make a huge contribution to the local church in Northern Ireland, as he acted as consultant to local bishops on theological and especially canonical matters.

In 1969, with the gradual closure of Dromantine as the seminary and the movement of the students to Maynooth, Bob was appointment to Blackrock Road as part of the secretariat in the Provincial’s department, with special responsibility to edit the Bulletin. This was the brainchild of the 1968 Assembly, which saw the need for renewal and updating of missionaries who had little chance to read the literature on the new theological currents consequent on the renewal of the 2^{nd Vatican Council. Over 13 years Bob was to produce 36 volumes of this Bulletin. He was unambiguous in his commitment to God’s Word and Mission, with a passion for truth and integrity. It was hugely appreciated by the men on the field – and by the students of the time too, I can assure you! Bob was a true wordsmith, producing up-to-date, relevant material in the most readable and easily digestible manner.}

^{In 1983 he began his retirement. He was to enjoy another 20 years of contented living among his confreres until increasing fragility necessitated his move to St Teresa’s for more regular nursing care. His presence here too was appreciated and he was held in great affection.}

^{Bob was humble, modest and self-effacing, at a great cost to himself. He was never overly self-assertive and his sensitive nature could be pained by domineering personalities with strong opinions who had little patience with those of a more tender temperament. But he will long live in the memory of all those who learned from his lectures and his writings. He was something special.}

^{Ni bheidh a leithead aris ann.}

^{Ar dheis lamh De go raibh a anam dilis.}

Fr Richard [Rickie] Devine SMA

Funeral Homily – Keash – 14/6/2005

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior)

Readings:
Wisdom 11:22 – 12:1
Titus 3:4-7
John 11: 19-27

Dietrich Bonhoeffer has been quoted as saying “we must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.” Fr Rickie Devine’s life was blessed with many deeds. We will reflect on some of them in the course of this homily. But we remember also that the final years of his life were marked with the sign of suffering. He bore his suffering nobly and well. For a big powerful man the gradual weakening of his body and mind cannot have been easy to accept. His suffering is now finally over. He died peacefully, surrounded by the loving care of his own family and his family in the SMA, on Saturday afternoon last, at Blackrock Road, Cork.

So, we gather here this morning to celebrate a life well lived. Our opening reading from the Book of Wisdom sets the proper tone for our celebration. “For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made. For you would not have made anything if you had hated it”. Rickie Devine, like all of us, was loved into existence by God. Whatever his achievements may have been they would not have endured had God not willed it. So, our first task is to give thanks to God for Rickie’s faith and fidelity to priesthood. And we now pray him home into the God he tried to serve faithfully all his life. And we do so with great confidence. Because our Christian faith assures us that at death life is changed, not ended. We will reaffirm this faith in the Preface for this Mass that we will pray in a short while. Our confidence is based not on an idle hope but on the very word of Jesus himself as we hear it this morning from his own lips.

Our gospel passage today gives us that wonderful encounter between Jesus and Martha. On the human level, I believe, each of us can identify with Martha’s disappointment. She had put her hope in Jesus but his late arrival had now meant that her brother, Lazarus, was already dead. But Jesus says to her in his gentle but reassuring way “it is not too late. In Christ it is never too late because I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die”. He then goes on to ask a very simple but very crucial question “Do you believe this?” That same question is being asked of each one of us present in this church this morning. Do you believe this?

Rickie Devine gave his own very clear and unambiguous answer to that question. His answer was, yes, I do believe. And not only did he believe that himself but he devoted his entire life to sharing that belief with others in his almost fifty years of priesthood with the SMA, thirty-seven of those years spent in Nigeria, West Africa.

Rickie Devine was born on August 14th, 1931, the eldest of a family of seven children, here in this parish of Keash, which he always spoke of with such great affection. He did his secondary school studies in Summerhill College, Sligo before beginning his journey to priesthood in the SMA by attending St Joseph’s SMA College, Wilton, Cork. He then went on to Kilcolgan in Galway before finally completing his studies at Dromantine College, Newry, Co Down from where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1957. The guts of the next thirty-seven years were spent in various dioceses in Nigeria before ill-health necessitated his return to Ireland where he was to serve in the diocese of Elphin for two years before coming to reside at the SMA houses of Claregalway and Blackrock Road, Cork.

But before I begin to discuss his priestly service in the SMA I think it is very important that I set it in its proper context. There is a danger in any funeral homily, and, perhaps, especially at the homily for a priest when one records their contribution to furthering God’s kingdom, that one might give the impression that it was this work, on behalf of God if you like, that earned them salvation. Nothing could be further from the truth. This needs to be stated forcefully.

That’s why I chose today for our second reading that beautiful passage from St Paul’s letter to Titus. Paul states it very boldly, “it was not because of any good deeds that we ourselves had done, but because of his own mercy that he saved us… and he goes on to say “God poured out the Holy Spirit abundantly on us through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that by his grace we might be put right with God and come into possession of the eternal life we hope for.” In other words, salvation cannot be bought, it cannot be earned. It is an entirely free gift, given out of God’s infinite mercy. Rickie was not saved through anything he did, no matter how many Masses he celebrated throughout his life. He, like every woman and man on the face of the globe, is saved only through the gift of God brought about in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

So, given that understanding as background, it is now appropriate to reflect a little on Rickie’s life. The first thing to be said is that he had a great affection for his home parish of Keash. Many is the time I heard him myself in Nigeria telling with pride the various doings of the characters around this place. I suppose, then, it is appropriate that he be buried here among his own people. I understand that the Devine name goes back here for a number of centuries, and that there is quite a collection of priests and religious coming from this place. Rickie developed his love of sports here. As a student in the SMA he was a noted athlete and footballer. Tom told me the other day that he would often cycle with Rickie perhaps thirty miles to a Connaught sports meeting where Rickie would promptly win all the four sprint races of the day, 110yds, 220, 440 and 880. Rickie developed his love of boxing here, a love he was to transfer to his time in Nigeria. He was a good servant too of the local football club. I gather that even as a priest, while home at one time on a short stint on promotion work down in Tipperary, he would regularly return here to Keash to play for the footballers. Tom also shared with me a story of a memorable occasion during those days when in a rather heated match against the neighbours of Gurteen when some of the Gurteen players were the worst for wear Rickie consoled their mentors by assuring them that he would anoint all the injured players immediately after the match.

That incident reveals a man of great wit. His wit and quick repartee came through on so many occasions. For such a big man he always had a warm handshake and a rather impish smile as if to suggest that there was always some fun lurking in the background. When I myself was first assigned to the diocese of Ekiti in Nigeria in 1979 Rickie Devine was already an established institution in that place. He was a powerfully big man, with a big physique, big heart and big character. He was renowned as a builder. He built churches, schools, at least four hospitals, clinics etc. And he always built big. One of his proudest achievements was a church he built in a parish outstation that was two foot longer than the cathedral church of the neighbouring diocese. He developed a very effective rapport with the African people who loved him dearly. Some times he might raise his voice but at the end of the day they always knew that he was totally on their side. His ready wit came to the fore there too. I remember one memorable occasion we were gathered with Bishop Fagun as the Senate of priests of Ekiti diocese. At the time the bishop was attempting to establish some guidelines for the priests as regards our lifestyle, how much food and drink we should take and so on. Rickie was known for the fact that he had a certain capacity to drink beer. When the discussion turned to this issue one of the local priests said “I think two beers a day is sufficient for a priest, my Lord” and Rickie retorted immediately, “he means before breakfast, my Lord”. You can imagine that not much more work was achieved at that particular meeting.

Rickie’s service to the people was much appreciated. He was honoured in two towns with chieftancy titles. He founded football teams and boxing clubs in many of his parishes. He contributed to a multi-cultural Ireland long before the advent of the Celtic Tiger or such topics were being discussed when he brought over a Nigerian player by name of Ojo to play for Sligo Rovers. After twenty-five years service in Ekiti he transferred up to the new capital at Abuja. Here he was to work in close cooperation with Cardinal Ekandem in supervising the construction of a Pastoral Centre and a whole new missionary seminary for the Society of St Paul, an indigenous Nigerian missionary congregation. All in all, his contribution to the growth of the church in Nigeria was truly immense.

Rickie has now gone from us, gone to that home constructed not with cement or mud block but with love. We will certainly miss him: his wit, his humour, his favourite phrases such as “that terrible fellow” or “that super jack” or “to speak the fact”, his characteristic sitting style from where he would pontificate on many topics. He has gone home to the Lord he tried to serve through the gifts given him. Our prayer is that we too will join him one day in the full fellowship of God’s kingdom.

Ar dheis lamh De go raibh a anam dilis.

Fr Peter Devine SMA
Funeral Homily – March 26th 2007 at Tullyallen Parish Church
(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior)

Readings: Macc 12: 43-45
Hebrews 4: 12-16
Matt 25: 31-46

When the renowned scripture scholar, the late Raymond Brown, was once asked if he intended following the writing of The Death of the Messiah by a similar work on the Resurrection he replied, ‘I would prefer to research that topic face to face’. Fr Peter ‘Doc’ Devine SMA is now face to face with the topic of resurrection and it is the belief of the Christian community gathered here this afternoon that the Lord has invited him home to begin the process of full sharing in the very being of God.

One could say that Peter’s health has been in decline since the early 80s when developing cancer necessitated the loss of one kidney. But he battled bravely, honestly and fearlessly for many years to enjoy a very fine quality of life. If it is true that success is measured by how high you rise again after reaching rock bottom, then Peter was very successful indeed. Never was that battle more bravely fought that in the last four to five years when the renewed onset of cancer demanded radical steps to keep it at bay, from the best of alternative medicine to dialysis to whatever would give a glimpse or a window of opportunity. Peter treasured life and he was not going to let go easily. Even the last month was marked by enormous courage until eventually his tired and frail body could fight no more. Then on Friday night last he surrendered gracefully and very gently and calmly passed over from this life to the next.

It is at a time such as this that the quality of our faith is tested. For Peter’s family, confreres in the SMA, parishioners and very special and dear friends it is a time of great loss. ‘Doc’ was a genuine character, in ways a larger than life figure. He will be missed and it is important that his passing is mourned and grieved. He had a good life but was not an old man by present day reckoning. However, we do have the consolation that our grieving and mourning is done in the context of a religious faith that solidly holds that Peter’s life has only changed, not ended. We are people of the resurrection.

Our opening reading from the Old Testament takes the example of Judas Maccabeus taking full account of the resurrection. As the text puts it: “for if he had not expected the fallen to rise again it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead”. We know that it is far from foolish to pray for the dead. And that is why we gather here this afternoon – just as Peter himself gathered and celebrated so many funeral liturgies in his 46 plus years of priesthood – to pray Peter home into the God he tried to serve faithfully and well.

Peter was born here in Molleek, Tullyallen in September 1933. He attended the local primary school, a short period in the CBS Drogheda and then the SMA secondary school at Ballinfad, Co Mayo. It was here he earned the nickname ‘Doc’, a name that was to stick to him through his missionary career in Africa and subsequent years in Cork and Dromantine. I’m told it may have originated in the fact that he was the first in the class to wear glasses and so was referred to as ‘doctor’. In any case, whatever the genesis of the name it stuck like glue so much so that all SMAs knew ‘Doc’ Devine but I bet many would not have known that his Christian name was Peter. After Ballinafad Peter moved into the full SMA formation system through Clough Ballymore, Wilton – where he took an Arts degree in University College Cork – and Dromantine, from where he was ordained in the largest class ever ordained in the Irish Province on 21^st December 1960. During his student days ‘Doc’ was a character. A keen interest in motor mechanics, carpentry etc set him apart as a man of action. He was never too academically inclined yet achieved the required standard to serve much of his missionary career in the teaching profession. During his student days he was also known as a keen sportsman, being a particularly tigerish opponent on the football field.

His family circumstances were not easy during his student days. His dad died rather prematurely from some type of blood poisoning and then his senior brother was tragically electrocuted. Enormous credit is due to his mother for the way she reared the family in such circumstances. Undoubtedly her faith strengthened her and Peter as the second in the family was as supportive as he could possibly be.

Peter was assigned after ordination to the diocese of Kaduna in Northern Nigeria. He was to commit the next 23 years of his life to the teaching profession. He served many years as principal. He worked in such schools as St Mary’s Secondary School, Fadan Kaje and Father in charge of Kankada – the first station opened in southern Zaria in 1937 by Fr Malachy Gately; St Patrick’s Secondary School, Zaria; Government Secondary School, Birnin Gwari; Government Secondary School, Kachia and finally in administration at the Zonal Office, Zaria.

I think it would be true to say that while ‘Doc’ left an imprint in the field of education he left an even broader imprint through his extracurricular activities. His interest in cars was legendary, whether as to the mechanics of the engine or pursuing the hobby of rally driving. Many indeed associated the name ‘Doc’ with doctor of mechanics. He used to tell wonderful stories of his different exploits in the rallying world. They were always colourful and one suspected that a little licence with the truth was employed towards embellishment.

Peter began to be troubled by various health issues from 1974 onwards but he bravely staved off the need to return to Ireland until it was absolutely necessary. He had to have an operation to repair damage to his vocal cords – an operation that was undoubtedly successful – but kidney failure forced the issue beyond discussion. When he returned to Ireland he was to spend some short time as a chaplain to the Vincent de Paul summer hostel at Mornington where he earned the respect and huge gratitude of the participants.

He was then to spend three years as Bursar of the SMA community house in Wilton, Cork. He continued to enjoy his interest in mechanics and flowers and plants etc but it was here that he especially developed and matured his interest and love affair with dogs, especially greyhounds. He became known far and wide the whole country, from coursing meetings at Clounnanna or Clonmel or track meetings at any corner of the country. His dog Tomahawk was his pride and joy for so many years. But this interest in dogs also had a pastoral dimension to it. He was a boisterous, flamboyant, transparent character who was easily liked and for many was non-threatening. He did much good in a very unpretentious and certainly not in any pious way.

And he exercised a similar type of ministry here in his home parish of Tullyallen. He was always a man of the soil and nothing gave him greater pride than his neighbours in the wee county. He would visit the sick in their homes or in hospital, bring communion to the house bound and generally be available wherever the need was greatest. Our gospel reading this afternoon would certainly have been an inspiration for Peter. ‘Doc’ was not into using words if they could not be backed up by action. “I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome; naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me”. These were not mere words for Peter; they were commands that had to be concretely fulfilled. For this reason it is fitting that he be buried here in his home church yard graveyard, alongside the other priests who have served this people well.

Peter was to spend the last 20 years of his life in this part of the country, attached to the community of Dromantine. Here he continued his interest in dogs, developed also an interest in Shetland Ponies and was general groundsman and maintenance coordinator for the plant at Dromantine. He became a much loved figure in the locality and continued to cement his relationship to his people at home.

Having said all of the above about Peter it would be a most incomplete picture not to acknowledge that Peter, just like the rest of humanity, had a shadow side as well. And because of his flamboyant and transparent personality his shadow too left its imprint. Peter was known to be quick tempered and impetuous. He was not a man for dialogue or for accessing the grey areas of argument or issue. As the saying goes he tended to shoot first and ask questions afterwards. This naturally got him into some spots of bother from time to time and required of his superiors some deft negotiating to get things back on track. He would not always have enjoyed a smooth and harmonious relationship with superiors. Confrontations were not infrequent and a prolonged period of stony silence could often ensue. However, thank God he was willing to accept the hand held out in reconciliation. Peter’s life was a good example of how the Christian life is a journey to godliness, not godliness attained.

And whatever can be said about the shadow side, undoubtedly it was well outshone by the side that drew forth from others love, esteem and affection. He wore his heart on his sleeve and indeed it was a heart of gold. He formed deep and abiding friendships, none more so than with his loving, caring and devoted friend, Kathleen Byrne. Kathleen took wonderful care of Peter especially as his health deteriorated. She attended to his every need and made what could have been a most painful journey over these past months a journey into peace and tranquillity.

As Peter passes on we pray that he enjoys the fullness of peace.

Ar dheis lámh Dé go raibh a anam dilis.

Fr Owen Maginn SMA

Funeral Homily – 05 December 2006

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior at SMA Parish Church, Wilton, Cork)

Readings: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8,11
Romans 14:7-12
John 17:24-26

“When the Father laughs at the Son and the Son laughs back at the Father, that laughter gives pleasure, that pleasure gives joy, that joy gives love, and that love is the Holy Spirit”. When Meister Eckhart spoke those words back in the 14th century he may well have been motivated by having encountered someone like Fr Owen Maginn. I think for most of us the abiding memory we will carry of Owen is his laughter. Even when he was being most serious, or trying to be most serious, even in the latter days of his sickness when describing a condition that was obviously painful and critical, he could hardly conclude his remarks without breaking into his trademark giggle. That mischievous sparkle in the eye [as someone noted in our website guestbook], that giggle and laughter, were manifestations of something very wholesome inside the spirit and body of this extraordinary missionary.

Born into farming stock in Co Down in 1920, Owen was to spend just a few weeks short of 63 years as an SMA missionary priest. Never one of Nature’s athletes, always frail, he looked often a little the worse for wear. Yet he was to survive into his 87th year and hung on tenaciously to life, never more so than in these final eleven days when it seemed utterly futile to do so. His heart was obviously very strong, a heart that beat with love and compassion for all those he encountered in those 86 years. In the light of these long days of holding on his dying on Sunday morning was in a strange way almost sudden. In the space of about three minutes the still strong breath grew more and more shallow until eventually he was breathing no more. It was a beautiful, peaceful death, the mirror image of a life well lived. His going is well captured by our first reading this afternoon. “For everything there is a season,…. A time to be born, and a time to die”. Owen died not when any of us thought he was ready but when God was ready. As the reading puts is: “God has made everything suitable for its time; but although he has given us an awareness of the passage of time, we can grasp neither the beginning nor the end of what God does”.

All of us here present will have many memories of Owen. What is beautiful about our Catholic faith is that we exercise these memories now in this funeral liturgy in the context of a much bigger remembering. As Christians we believe that it is precisely in our remembering that we come to wisdom and new life. At Mass we gather around the table of the Lord to remember the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. And we believe that this action is not simply the mental recollection of a past event. We come hoping to be forgiven, to be nourished, to be challenged and sent forth; and we believe that our act of remembering is a means through which God enters into and transfigures our lives.

Our offering of Mass today is a prayer for the repose of the soul of Fr Owen. And we believe that just as the Father raised Jesus from death so too at the last day he will raise Owen. Owen himself held such faith with a passion. He dedicated his life to sharing this faith with others. How often he must have reflected on the prayer of Jesus in today’s Gospel: “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may always see the glory you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world”. And the final verse of this Jesus prayer could indeed be a prayer that Owen himself would make: “I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known so that the love with which you loved me may be in them”.

Perhaps a little known fact about Owen’s early life was that he spent from about the age of three to eight in the city of Detroit in the State of Michigan, USA. At that stage his only brother Tom had been born and the family was to move back to Drumaroad. Owen took his secondary education at St Patrick’s De La Salle, Downpatrick from 1934 to ’38. Along with other SMAs, then and later, he seems to have benefited greatly from the fine education received from the Brothers. His decision to join the SMA in 1938 was influenced by Fr Sexton Cahill SMA, a native of Crossgar, Co Down, whose brother, Fr Denis, was the P.P. in Drumaroad and whose nephew, Fr Sexton Doran still works in Zambia.

After ordination in December 1943 he was assigned, along with his class-mate Fr Jim McCarthy, to further studies in Cambridge. He secured a Masters Degree in History but his time there was bedevilled by ill-health. His humour was evident in an early letter back to the Provincial where he wrote: “we feel a lot more confident of a 1st in heaven than we do in Cambridge”. He did not find the environment in Cambridge conducive to faith growth but one must keep in mind that the time was not particularly marked by a strong ecumenical spirit. He was troubled by bronchial difficulties and eventually pulmonary tuberculosis was diagnosed. This necessitated the collapse of his left lung and its subsequent re-expansion.

Believing that his health might not be able to withstand a severe tropical climate, his superiors appointed him to Egypt in 1951. He was appointed to St Georges College, Heliopolis. He once described this college as an effort to be a second Eton. He had to return to Dublin in 1953 where he was operated on for duodenal ulcer and the removal of a significant portion of his stomach. A lesser man, in the context of such a medical history, might have decided enough of travelling. But not Owen. He returned to Egypt for another three years during a very turbulent if exciting period in Egypt’s history.

In 1957 he was called back to the seminary staff of Dromantine. Many SMAs, including many present here this afternoon, have very warm memories of his time in both Dromantine and Cloughballymore. He moved to Clough as Superior for a number of months in 1963 due to the illness of the late Fr James Byrne SMA. He was professor of ecclesiastical history in Dromantine as well as being Dean and subsequently Spiritual Director. It is some testimony that I can say for sure that I never heard a single negative comment about his time as a student formator. Having spent altogether seven years at this task it is no mean feat to come away with one’s reputation unscarred. He had a strong positive influence on many future missionaries.

In 1964 his request to return to Africa was granted and he returned for the next ten years to St Georges in Heliopolis. One could spend many a pleasant hour with Owen being regaled with stories of that period of his life. During his recent illness he was telling me, with many interjections of laughter, of events in Cairo during the six day war with Israel. His later years in Cairo were marked by some dissatisfaction with what the college was achieving and his own desire to work as a missionary in a more pastoral setting. This wish was fulfilled when he was assigned to the Diocese of Ndola, Zambia in 1974.

What was characteristic of Owen’s life was his tremendous ability to form friendships. This gift he maximised to the full. It stood to him all his life. When people moved away he maintained friendships through a phenomenal regularity of correspondence. The friendships were as likely if not more likely to be with young people, often female, as with older folk. It is probably true to say that this gift and indeed his whole life truly blossomed during the last 30 plus years lived in Ndola.

“The life and death of each of us has its influence on others; if we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord, so that alive or dead we belong to the Lord”. Thus we heard in our second reading this afternoon. How appropriate to mark Owen’s life and death. His influence was first of all manifested through his family. Being the elder of a two sibling family unit his attachment to the family of his brother Tom was perhaps even stronger than the norm. He had a huge interest in all that went on for his brother Tom, Sadie and the children. And he was intensely proud of them. Even to the point of insisting that the children sing or perform for all SMA visitors to the house, something not always appreciated by the performers themselves. But his love and care for them was very much reciprocated. Throughout his life he was held in great devotion. This has been witnessed to telling effect these last days of waiting on Owen’s return to the Lord. This has been a difficult time for all you his family but I know that you also regard it as a time of rich blessing. Your witness of love and care has been inspiring and I know it will bear fruit in your own lives.

During Owen’s year or so sojourn in Blackrock Road we often teased him that nobody had more girl-friends visiting than he. His was an easy and comforting presence and it was no surprise that he could draw into that presence people young and old, male and female. His ministry in Zambia had a profound effect. Damian reminded us the other day of the outpouring of support from parishioners on his journey home last winter. He had a lovely ministry to those living with HIV/Aids – Sr Dr Eileen Keane, the pioneer of so much of the response to the Aids crisis in Zambia, has a fund of humorous stories from that field that would be too much to relay here; he acted as Spiritual Director and Chaplain to many Sisters communities; and he looked after his little parish each weekend with great consistency. His presence in Bishop’s house as companion and confidential secretary was much appreciated. He was a wise counsellor to young and old. The members of the Friends of Africa found in him a father who was non-threatening and non-judgmental but someone who could put before them a challenge to become the life-giving and wholesome human beings God was calling them to be.

Owen’s ability to befriend was aided in no small way be a voracious desire for news. He never tired of hearing the latest from any direction and he was not beyond engaging in the occasional bit of gossip. His curiosity revealed a genuine sincerity. He was at his best when debating or arguing a point in theology or the SMA or the Diocese. He was extremely well read and while never becoming offensive, he held his views with a real tenacity, though his views could change in a short space of time and they certainly changed significantly over the years. He developed over time into quite a progressive thinker and had little patience with the minutiae of church discipline if it did not seem to serve the broader gospel imperative. He was genuinely interested in people and nothing gave him greater pleasure than sharing good news.

Fr Owen Maginn will be hugely missed by those to whom he ministered and by those who ministered to him. Many fond stories have been shared during these days of mourning. His family and community of origin, the wider SMA family, the Church in different parts of Africa are all parting with a unique and gracious character. If one were to write a one line epitaph it might go something like this: he was one nice, decent, wholesome human being.

Ar dheis lámh Dé go raibh a anam dí­lis.

Fr Oliver Smith SMA

Funeral Homily – April 9th, 2005

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior)

Readings:
Ezekiel 37: 12-14
Romans 8: 8-11
Luke 12: 35-40

I imagine, if we were given a choice about when to die, many of us would choose to die during the season of Easter. This is the season of alleluia and new life. The season when we are reminded again and again that death is truly swallowed up in victory. For Oliver Smith it was a lovely blessing to die during this season. And to have died in the very week that the Pope himself died, a man who seniored Oliver by only 20 days, must be regarded as a special privilege indeed.

Oliver had the blessing recently of celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of ordination to Priesthood, 60 years of service in the Lord’s vineyard. We had that quiet but dignified celebration here in this very oratory less than four months ago. Indeed, it is sobering for all of us to realise that both of the men we celebrated that day, Tom Higgins and Oliver, are now celebrating life in greater fullness.

So, Oliver has much to be grateful for, especially in these latter months. And we can be grateful too that the Lord spared him a long period of suffering. Who would have expected that Oliver would have that fall last Monday afternoon, necessitating his removal to hospital and the onset of death. But given that his injuries suggested that his recovery was going to be partial it was indeed a blessing that his death came quickly.

Our gospel reading today is that familiar passage where the Lord reminds his disciples that they must be dressed and ready for action. This referred most probably to the necessity to be always ready to advance the kingdom; but it can equally be interpreted, as the church has done so down the ages, as a reminder that we are not in control of life. It is in God’s hands to give and to receive. And, so, it is necessary to be prepared when the Lord sends that invitation. My sense is that Oliver was ready for that call. Not in any morbid or compulsive sense but rather as something that would happen without fanfare in the Lord’s good time. In fact, he lived life to his fullest capacity right to the end, in spite of severe restrictions to mobility. In fact, he did so to a degree that many of us would have wished he did not. He reminded me sometimes of the old grandmother in her late 80s who said, “I don’t suppose I shall live for ever, but while I do live I don’t see why I shouldn’t live as if I expected to”.

Our first reading this morning from the prophet Ezekiel is the great promise spoken to the people of Israel to give them hope of rescue from bondage, slavery and captivity in Babylon. It comes after that famous passage of the vision of the dry bones. The bones, being representative of the people of Israel, were dry because the people had no spirit in them. They had reneged on the promises through their sinfulness. But God never reneges on a promise. And so the bones will once again come to life and they will be resettled in their own soil. This will happen when God’s spirit dwells among his faithful people. The promise of this reading can also be interpreted on an individual level. God’s promise to us, in Jesus Christ, is that he will dwell eternally in spirit among his faithful people. This is a tremendous reassurance at the time of any funeral.

That reassurance is strengthened in the passage from Paul to the Romans. Once we have moved our interest over from the unspiritual [that is a life of selfishness and tendency to sin – or living in the flesh, as Paul so graphically puts it] to the spiritual we are assured that God’s own spirit has made his home in us. When we step back and reflect on that statement we recognise what an awesome statement it is to make – God’s own spirit has made his home in us. And then Paul goes on to say “and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you” Again, this passage refers primarily to living a spirit-filled life while on this earth. It means the Spirit of God permeates Christians and prompts them to live for God. But it also signifies a continuing life in the Spirit beyond the grave; a life that is possible when this earthly life has been lived in this spiritual way.

It was this same spirit that prompted Oliver Smith to offer himself for missionary priesthood in the SMA way back before the beginning of the 2nd World War in 1939. Mobility, and in the end lack of mobility, became a feature of Oliver’s life. He had been born in Tralee, Co Kerry in 1920. He had two sisters Marie and Rose with whom he shared a deep bond of affection right to their deaths. Some members of his extended family had entered religious life before him. In his early years he moved to Carlow and was entered as a student in the diocesan seminary, Knockbeg College. I believe I am right in saying that he was a contemporary of Fr Tom Gorman there. He was also a contemporary of the late bishop Patrick Lennon, brother of Fr Tommy Lennon SMA. These must have been good years for Oliver as he often spoke with some affection of those years. It was at Knockbeg that he first had any encounter with SMA. A photograph in the 1939 SMA calendar of a darkhaired priest wearing a white soutane and a sun helmet attracted his attention. The priest was Fr Michael Carolan SMA [Offaly] who later became Oliver’s first PP in Shendam, Nigeria. Oliver was ordained to the priesthood in December 1944; said his first Mass in the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin and received his first missionary appointment to the prefecture of Jos in Nigeria.

His missionary career was dominated by ministry in the fields of education and administration. He was both supervisor of schools and Education Secretary for Jos at different occasions. Later he was assigned as Staff Inspector for Christian Education in the Ministry of Education in Kaduna State. He served as bishop’s Secretary in both Jos and Kaduna dioceses. Archbishop Jatau of Kaduna, who was once his houseboy, later became his bishop. In fact, at the jubilee celebration here four months ago I made a smiling reference to his bravery in moving from one territory to another within the Region of Northern Nigeria. This was not something done very frequently.

In all, Oliver was to give 42 years of active service to mission in Nigeria. This was a remarkable achievement given that he did not always enjoy robust health. Perhaps more than most, he enjoyed the colonial era in Nigeria. He had good memories of that time too, memories that he later committed to paper when, in his retirement years, he began writing short stories. Thankfully, he was to have these published some years ago so they now stand as a tribute to his writing ability but more importantly as an important memoir of a particular era of missionary endeavour.

In 1989 Oliver returned to Ireland and retired to Kells, Co Meath where he lived in retirement with his sister Marie for the next eleven years. In 2001 he came down here to Blackrock Road and has been a member of this community ever since. Many people here will have memories of Oliver, some from his early years in seminary and mission, others from later years. He was certainly his own man, a true “fearr ann fein” He had an independent mind and would not be easily swayed from a path of action once his mind was made up. One would have to say he had a steak of stubbornness and could be somewhat awkward at times. His was a quiet presence, but a presence not easy to ignore even if that was not always reciprocal. His choice of funeral arrangements reflects a facet of his character that was intensely private. A spirit of generosity and kindness was also present: this was evident in his desire to leave his bodily organs after his death to anyone to whom the medical profession would deem them to be of benefit. His age counselled against actually using these organs. He is also known to have formed bonds of warm attachment and affection with staff members in this house. And he always marked his gratitude when a good deed was done to him or for him.

Our faith assures us that all the bonds of friendship and affection that knit us together in this life do not unravel with death. So, it is with this assurance that we now say our final farewell to our colleague.

Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis.

Michael McGlinchey SMA

Funeral Homily – 14/12/2004

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior)

Readings:
Eccles: 3: 1-8, 11
Titus 3: 4-7
John 11: 19-27

John Ayscough is quoted as saying, “Death is but a sharp corner near the beginning of life’s procession down eternity”.

These words seem appropriate in attempting to preach the word at the funeral of Fr Michael McGlinchey. In the last few years Mick’s walking style was considerably slower making sharp corners difficult to negotiate. As was observed of a famous man in his declining years, frail step following frail step – going nowhere with elegance.

Death is always sobering. But there is something very appropriate about dying just at the time when the year itself is dying. For the Christian, of course, death is not the end but the beginning of a new stage of life. And, so, it is equally appropriate that Mick should die during the season of Advent. Advent is the great season of expectation and hope. Hope for the Christian is a special concept. People speak of hoping that they will win the lottery. They know that their chances of doing so are statistically remote. This kind of hope is as far removed from Christian hope as it is possible to be. Christian hope is a confident hope; it is the hope of the little child on Christmas morning, that Santa will surely come. The child has not yet seen Santa but the possibility of Santa not coming is beyond the child’s capacity to imagine. As Christians we carry this quality of hope of resurrection and new life in our hearts throughout our lives.

When we interpret a life’s journey in the light of the resurrection it means that all of life’s events are not just significant in themselves but are significant in terms of the whole. That is brought out very clearly today in our first reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes. There is a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born, a time to die. Ultimately, then, our time is only a particular participation in God’s time. Mick’s passing came very quickly last Saturday evening. In a sense he died as he had lived, smoothly, calmly, without fuss or fanfare. As the reading puts it: God has made everything suitable for its time  and we can grasp neither the beginning nor the end of what God does.

Mick McGlinchey was born here at Doorat, Donemana on 20 November 1929. He did his schooling at the CBS in Derry, to which he cycled each day. Mick often spoke with pride about these cycling journeys to school. He then followed the SMA programme of studies through Ballinafad, Wilton, Kilcolgan and Dromantine. He was ordained a missionary priest on 13 June 1956 and was to spend the next 30 years as a dedicated missionary in the diocese of Benin City, Nigeria. He was to serve here with great distinction and great compassion.

I will return to that topic in a little while but I want first of all to set it all in its proper context. I think there is a danger in any funeral homily, and, perhaps, especially at the homily of a priest when one records their contribution to furthering God’s kingdom, that one might give the impression that it was this work, on behalf of God if you like, that earned them salvation. Nothing could be further from the truth. This needs to be stated forcefully.

That’s why I chose today for our second reading that beautiful passage from St Paul’s letter to Titus. Paul states it very boldly, “it was not because of any good deeds that we ourselves had done, but because of his own mercy that he saved us and he goes on to say “God poured out the Holy Spirit abundantly on us through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that by his grace we might be put right with God and come into possession of the eternal life we hope for.” In other words, salvation cannot be bought, it cannot be earned. It is an entirely free gift, given out of God’s infinite mercy. Mick was not saved through anything he did, no matter how many Masses he celebrated throughout his life. He, like every woman and man on the face of the globe, is saved only through the gift of God brought about in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Mick’s story, like all our stories, is only a partial story. The real, complete story is that of Jesus. Because, through Jesus we know that we are people of the resurrection. As we see in our Gospel passage today that powerful response of Jesus to the grieving Martha on the death of her brother, I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Resurrection means that death is not the end anymore. It means that our destiny is life. So when we die we do not pass from life to death but from life to life. Death is that extraordinary moment when the Christ who is life can finally take me to himself for ever, when God and I can never, ever, be separated from one another. That is what it means for a Christian to die. That’s what it meant for Mick.

Mick not only lived that faith but he shared that faith for almost 50 years as an SMA missionary. He had a great loyalty to his call as priest, missionary and SMA. The first 30 years of his missionary life was spent, as I said, in the diocese of Benin City, Nigeria. He became renowned for his prowess as a builder. It was once said that common sense is genius dressed up in working clothes. Mick’s genius was revealed in the practical and the concrete. He built many fine structures of concrete and iron. But, perhaps more importantly, he built up also peoples self-esteem, and he built community. He built up peoples’ spiritual lives through celebrating the sacraments for them and offering solid catechetical programmes; he catered to their health needs by establishing health clinics; he catered to their educational needs by providing them with both school fees and, where necessary, school buildings. He was, then, far from being a one-dimensional missionary.

He was noted particularly for his kindness and compassion towards the people. The beautiful, warm smile that radiated from his open face right to the time of his death was evident from the very beginning. He loved and cared for his people, they knew it, and they reciprocated. He became director of the lay apostolate of the diocese, a job that meant he had to accompany the late, Bishop P.J. Kelly on his marathon C onfirmation tours. His placid, good humoured temperament made such tours tolerable.

In 1986 he was asked to take up a home appointment as Bursar of the SMA formation house at Maynooth. He very much enjoyed the cycles around the plains of County Kildare but his heart was still in Africa. On a personal note, there is one thing I am grateful for from that period. I succeeded Mick as bursar of SMA house. Not being blessed with manual skills such as Mick himself had I was anxious as to how I would attempt the various bits and pieces of ongoing maintenance. Mick gave me the soundest advice I have ever received – call an expert ! That simple but wise advice was to get me out of many a tight corner. The two years in Maynooth were followed by a year or so in the SMA parish of Wilton, Cork. But Mick was not really at peace until he returned to his beloved Nigeria. He was to spend another eight years there, this time in the diocese of Warri and a short time in the Ibadan Regional house.

Ill health forced Michael’s return to Ireland and he has been living in contented retirement in Dromantine since. Mick simply radiated contentment. The question “how are you Mick?” always elicited the response “never better”.. sure how could you not be good in a beautiful place like Dromantine”. As in his working life he had built up peoples’ self-esteem so now in his retirement through his God given gift of placid temperament and infectious optimism he built up peoples’ hearts.

Michael will shortly be laid in his final resting place among his closest family kith and kin. He will be missed by his family and friends, his confreres within the SMA and the people he served so loyally in Africa. A memory of him will long remain in their psyche as they contemplate the various concrete buildings that will continue to stand to his credit.

Michael McGlinchey has lived and died well. Ar dheis lamh De go raibh a h-anam dilis.

Fr Mícheál Kennedy SMA
Funeral Homily – March 28th 2007 at SMA Parish Church, Wilton Cork
(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior)

Readings: Isaiah 52: 7-10
Romans 6: 3-9
John 14: 1-6

“There is a destiny that makes us brothers None of us goes our way alone
All that we put into the lives of others Comes back into our own”.
I do not know the exact origin of these words but they impacted Halai Kennedy to the extent that he used them in a speech prepared for the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of ordination to priesthood in Blackrock Road in June, 2001. I think they express eloquently sentiments he lived his life by. He knew he was not alone. For the past number of years debilitating sickness necessitated his being aided in most things. Perhaps it was merely payback time for the goodness he brought to others’ lives during 55 plus years of missionary priesthood.

The most significant announcement made in the history of the universe was that made by the angel Gabriel to Mary that she was chosen to be the mother of God. This year the Church transferred the celebration of the Feast to Monday last. It was a nice privilege for Halai to finally surrender his body and spirit home to the Lord, surrounded by his beloved sister, Sr Brenda and Lee Cahill, on such a special day. We gather here this afternoon as family, confreres or friends to pay our final respects and pray for the repose of his soul. Halai has now begun the process of sharing in the fullness of life in God.

Our opening reading this afternoon is a splendid reflection of a people who are so convinced of God’s abiding love that their joy at this good news cannot be contained. One can almost picture a people dancing for joy as they proclaim that God is king. The Lord is consoling his people, redeeming the city. And we as Christians are the inheritors of this vision. We too can dance in our heart today that God is consoling his people. This is not in any way to deny the reality of loss. We must grieve and mourn the loss. For Halai’s family especially it is a poignant moment. He was the eldest of eleven children and my sense is that he became, especially in latter years, very much the focal point around which much of the family life revolved. So his loss has a special impact.

But our grieving is done as a faith-filled people. A people who proclaim with conviction that at death life is changed, not ended. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me” our Gospel assures us this afternoon. We reflect along with St Paul that we have been baptised into Christ’s death “so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life”. We believe that Halai having died with Christ will return to life with him. This is our own conviction but it was also the conviction that inspired Halai to dedicate his life as a missionary priest.

“How beautiful on the mountain are the feet of him who brings good news”. Halai carried the good news to the people of Nigeria and to the people of Ireland. He did that effectively and efficiently when his health was robust. But perhaps he did it in a more authentic way when he was most vulnerable. Perhaps we minister to others best when we allow them to minister to us. In such a vulnerable space our ego loses the ability to obstruct the workings of God’s Spirit. How beautiful too are the feet of the one who welcomes and receives good news.

Halai celebrated his 80th birthday last August. He was always proud of his Kerry roots and the town of Tralee always held a special place in his heart. He did his initial studies in CBS Tralee and was part of a group of four lads from the same class – including his own brother, Tom, to join and go on to ordination with the SMA. Halai was ordained at St Catherine’s Dominican Church, Newry in 1951. Being academically bright and a systematic student it was no surprise that he was immediately assigned to study science at U.C.C. He took an honours primary degree and followed this up with a Masters Degree in Chemistry. Such a course of studies would of course mark him out as a man who would give his life to the education profession and this is what he did.

In 1955 he was appointed to the Prefecture [later diocese] of Ibadan and was to serve all his African missionary career attached to the college of Loyola in Ibadan. Twenty one years were spent as Principal of this highly respected school. He was competent, efficient, a good teacher and a good organiser and administrator. He was a man of prudence and many relied on his sound judgement, a man of drive and determination tempered by moderation and self-restraint. He believed that education was a better safeguard of liberty than any police force or army. And he believed in a well-rounded and balanced education rather than a simple attention to academic subjects. Theodore Roosevelt has said, “to educate a man in mind, and not in morals, is to educate a menace to society”. Certainly Halai’s philosophy of education was not geared to adding to the menace in society. He was acknowledged as a man of rare stature. He was loyal to his colleagues on staff. This was much appreciated by younger members who may not have received the same respect from other older confreres. “He was the one man you could call on whenever there was a problem” was how one sister described him to me last night. And his organising abilities were legendary: he had constructed a comprehensive evacuation plan for the missionaries in Ibadan during the Nigerian civil war – based on a plan worked out by the British embassy; thank God it did not need to be put into use.

But life was not all work and no play because he enjoyed a healthy social life. He had a particular fondness for the card game of Bridge and he became a very accomplished player. In fact this interest deepened when he returned to Ireland and he is the author of some books on the game. Apart from being recognised as a competent teacher and administrator he was also highly regarded by his confreres in the SMA. He was elected as a delegate to a number of Assemblies, attending both the Provincial and General Assemblies of 1973. He was a member of the Preparatory Commission for Provincial Assembly 1973 and was also on the short-list panel for election as Provincial Superior that year.

From the mid to late 70s ill-health became his almost constant companion. Cardiac problems of various kinds were to shadow his days from then on. Visits to hospital are too many to enumerate here but a heart pace-maker installed in 1978 and renewed a number of times afterwards was to allow him a decent quality of life for a number of years. It would appear that the later degeneration of his mental capacity was also connected to his cardiac condition. This whole ill-health saga required his dying to much of what had gone before. But here too for the Christian there is solace, for the law of Christian spirituality in the scriptures tells us that nothing that we have not died to in this life can ever be resurrected in the life to come.

Having been forced to retire from Africa due to this health condition he was assigned to Wilton as a tutor and confessor in the Preparatory year programme and helped out also in this public church. He was much admired and respected both by his colleagues on staff and the students. He prepared excellent notes on the bible and these were appreciated by the students when they went on to study theology in Maynooth. He also shared his love of the scriptures with the prayer group in Wilton parish and many attribute their love of scripture to his promptings. He enjoyed ten good years in the college ministry and then after a short period of service in the parish as assistant priest he eventually retired from active ministry in 1993. The unexpected death of his brother, Fr Tom Kennedy SMA, that same year, took a serious toll on his overall health condition. In 1995 he came to live in the Blackrock Road community where he has been lovingly cared for ever since by the staff of the house and by his attentive family, none more so than Sr Brenda Mary who has surrounded him with love and meticulous attention all these years.

The above listing of the various places to which Halai has been assigned reminds us again of our gospel text this afternoon. “I am going now to prepare a place for you”. In a sense the Lord has been preparing a place for Halai all his life. But now the promise is more compelling: “I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am you may be too”. The next lines of the gospel evoke for me memories of Halai in his most vulnerable state. The dialogue between Jesus and Thomas as to where he is going and how the road there is to be discerned is most apt. Halai struggled with the insecurity of not being sure how he might get back into his bedroom to rest. Repeated verbal assurances that this would be taken care of seemed to offer little respite. But now at his death he has the assurance from the Son of God himself that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through him”. Halai no longer has to struggle with insecurities about the way forward. Jesus has assured him that he is the way to the Father and he has come to claim Halai as a companion on the journey. His troubled heart and spirit can finally rest in peace.

Ar dheis lámh Dé go raibh a anam dilis.

Fr Larry Skelly SMA

Funeral Homily – 22 January 2005

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior)

Readings:
Macc 12: 43-45
Heb 7:25-8:6
Matt 11: 25-30

The Tsunami tragedy in S.E. Asia over the holiday period has given rise to lively debate as to where was God during this tragedy. How could a good God allow such a tragedy to happen, many asked. This is not a new question. The problem of suffering has been debated since the beginning of time, since humanity has become aware that suffering is part of the human condition. Some valiant attempts at explanation have been offered, running something like the following: God’s is a creation in freedom where the marvellous processes of nature have the capacity to produce wonderful development and growth but can also bring utter destruction and devastation. For God to intervene to stop disasters occurring would necessarily involve the cessation of freedom. In such a state we would all be responding in a programmed fashion like robots. God’s gift was to create the world with its own laws, and human beings with freedom and the ability to make choices.

However, no rational attempt to explain God’s mode of acting is sufficient. All fall short because the miracle of nature is greater than the human mind can grasp. But that does not mean that we flounder in a sea of meaninglessness and despair. Far from it, in fact. Because Christian faith asserts that God did make a decisive intervention in human history by coming among us as a man, a full and complete human person, and took on himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, the suffering of all humanity. For those of us who claim Jesus Christ as Lord, we do not recognise a God who stands aloof and witnesses disinterestedly a human tragedy but rather we recognise a God who suffers along with us in our suffering. But not only is he a God who co-suffers with us: he is also the God who, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his victory over suffering and death, holds out to us the promise and hope that in him we too pass through death into new and everlasting life. This is the hope of the Christian, this gives a meaning and fuller context to human death. At death life is changed, not ended.

Even in the centuries before the birth of Jesus, as is testified for us today in our opening reading from the Book of Maccabees, it was recognised that it was a sensible thing to pray for the dead. It says, “For if he had not expected the fallen to rise again it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead.”

That introductory reflection on the Tsunami disaster is prompted by another reflection. Why are some people taken suddenly in the full blossom of youth, however the circumstances of their death, while others, like Larry, seem to linger on and cling to life when human wisdom would seem to dictate that life has no more to offer them? This too is mystery. Mystery that is intolerant of rational explanation. But mystery that opens us to wonder and praise when better regarded through the prism of Christian revelation. This point is brought out very cogently in our Gospel passage. Jesus says, “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children.”

Larry Skelly died last Thursday morning, just eight days short of his 79^{th birthday, in the loving care of the nursing staff of St Theresa’s and his confreres in the SMA. His last days were, thank God, devoid of pain due to the care and affection in which he was held.}

^{Larry had a rich and varied career in the SMA. He was a true Dub, doing his early schooling in the O’Connell School of the Christian Brothers, where he had a brilliant academic record. In fact, I was told some years ago by the late Fr Gerry Crowe SMA, a classmate of Larry’s both in secondary school and the SMA, that Larry gained first place in Ireland in the Leaving Cert examination in the subject of history. [Although I have not been able to have this independently verified. Gerry remembered this because he himself got third place!] Larry continued all his life to read widely in history. His library is a veritable treasure-throve of history books of the highest quality.}

^{It seemed fitting, then, that Larry was assigned to take history for his degree subject at Cambridge University, after ordination in 1950. Larry was to give the next 54 years of his life sharing in the priesthood of Jesus Christ through the Society of African Missions. It is fitting that our second reading today, taken from the Mass of the morning on which Larry died, from the letter to the Hebrews, presents a fine theological reflection on the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ priesthood is contrasted with that of the cultic priesthood, which needed to present a new sacrifice day after day. Christ’s sacrifice of himself was made only once, is redemptive for all time and is not a new sacrifice presented afresh day after day. However, it is renewed every time we celebrate Mass. It is the privilege of the priest to stand in persona christi and day after day offer again to the Father this one saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It was Larry’s privilege to do this thousands of times in the course of his 54+ years of priesthood.}

^{Larry’s first African appointment was to Cape Coast in Ghana where he was to spend the next eleven years as a teacher in St Augustine’s College. From there, in 1965, he transferred to Nigeria, where he spent the following eight years teaching in St Gregory’s College, Lagos. His African career, then, was given over entirely to the educational apostolate. As well as basic teaching, he was a Housemaster, and produced some plays such as Oscar Wilde’s, The Importance of being Earnest. Ill health took its toll in the early 70s, particularly a liver problem, that necessitated his staying out of the tropics for the remainder of his career. This ill health was to remain with him until the end but it did not prevent him from a productive career outside of Africa. He spent one year in Rome as anglophone secretary to SEDOS. A combination of factors intervened to cut his stay there rather short. He was then to spend twelve years in parochial ministry in the Archdiocese of Dublin, in the parish of Rathmines. This was followed up by a year’s sabbatical in our Maynooth house and another year as assistant in this very parish of St Joseph’s here in Wilton, from 1991-’92. In these years of ministry he is particularly remembered for the high quality of his preaching. I can testify to that myself because I was a colleague of his during his year in Maynooth. His sermons were short, sharp and always to the point. Even the students rated his homilies very highly! During this period he had to undergo very major surgery. But, thank God, he recovered well and went on to enjoy a further fourteen fulfilling years of life.}

^{His interest in reading was to stand him in good stead in his next appointment as editor of the SMA Bulletin, a task he performed efficiently and effectively. But, once again, progressive ill health forced him to move into retirement here in Wilton in 1998, until finally moving over to Blackrock Road in the middle of 2003.}

^{That outline of his career presents a man who was obviously gifted with a very keen intellect. As with every gift, it did have its shadow side. He was a keen debater and he liked being correct. At times he presented as irascible and, indeed, grumpy. No doubt ill health contributed significantly to this aspect of his character. And it was redeemed by a beautiful smile that was generally ready to surface behind the sometimes rather forbidding exterior countenance. Larry was a man who maintained long and faithful friendships through his life. Many of his friendships were formed in his early school years and survived right to the end. I suspect that he did not have a plethora of friends; he was careful in his choice, but those who befriended him were loyal and true.}

^{Larry has now gone home to the God he tried to serve faithfully and well throughout life. He had, and we have, much to be grateful for.}

^{Ar dheis lamh De go raibh a anam dilis.}

Fr John McCreanor SMA

Funeral Homily – 01 March 2007

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior at the Parish Church, Ballinahinch, Co Dwon)

Readings:
Isaiah 25:6-9
1 Cor 15:51-57
Luke 23:44-46,50,52-53; 24:1-6

Dietrich Bonhoeffer has been quoted as saying “we must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.” The last decade or so of Fr John McCreanor’s 87 years of life was lived with the sign of suffering. Now his suffering is finally over. In the early hours of last Tuesday morning John yielded up his spirit and breathed his last.

We gather to give thanks; to celebrate a life lived well, even in the latter years of infirmity and dementia, and to renew our faith and our hope. John has been released from the prison of body infirmity and will reclaim that body, then a glorious resurrected body, on the last day. John’s death, no more than any death, is not the conclusion of a life well lived. Rather it is the beginning of a new state of life. In the gospel passage this afternoon the terrified women are told “why look among the dead for someone who is alive? He is not here, he has risen”. We believe that through the resurrection of Jesus John continues to be alive in the presence of God.

We Christians have been graced with a priceless knowledge, the knowledge of faith. We believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus passed from death to new life. The resurrection of Jesus means the death of death. We heard how St Paul put it when writing to the Corinthians, “death is swallowed up in victory” He challenges death “where is your victory? where is your sting?”. Resurrection means that death is not the end any more. It means that our destiny is life. So when we die we do not pass from life to death. Rather we pass from life to life. Death is that extraordinary moment when the Christ who is life can finally take me to himself for ever, when God and I can never, ever, be separated from one another. That is what it means for a Christian to die. That is what it meant for John.

The fact that John reached the good age of 87 years does not mean that there is any less mourning for his death. Sure it is not the tragedy of a young person dying. And there is a real sense that he has completed his earthly journey. But to his friends in family, in the SMA and in a wider circle his passing is tinged with tears. It was very touching how the care staff of our house in Blackrock in Cork reacted when they got word that John had died. The young carers particularly wept copiously. It was remarkable how deep an impact John had made in their lives over the course of the last 30 months or so. Though to all external measurements his powers of communication seemed limited in the extreme they had known in him a warmth of character and a genuineness of spirit that was hugely attractive.

His nieces and nephews too will feel this acute loss. That is why our opening reading this afternoon is pertinent. “The Lord will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples; he will wipe away the tears from every cheek; for the Lord has said so; this is our God, this is the one in whom we hoped for salvation” It is important at this time to rely on this faith. John himself believed this with utter conviction and he dedicated his life to sharing this belief with others.

John was born here in this parish at Magheratimpany, Ballynahinch on 13 February 1920. He was the eighth of nine children and was the last survivor of his immediate family. John received his primary education at Drumaness, Ballyhinch and his secondary schooling at the local Commercial Technical School. He was what was termed a ‘late vocation’ and at the age of 23 he attended SMA College, Ballinafad, Co Mayo. He was much influenced by his sister, Kathleen, who entered religious life and served as a missionary in South Africa all of her life. As a young boy John got his first copy of the African Missionary magazine from his local curate Fr Brannigan and was much impressed by the life story of Fr Eamonn Murphy within. Fr Bill Fegan SMA was a friend of the family and used to visit them when he was on holidays from Africa. After Ballinfad he continued in the SMA Colleges of Cloughballymore, Co Galway and Dromantine College, Newry. From there he was ordained to the priesthood in June 1950.

John’s first missionary assignment was to Lagos, Nigeria in December 1950. He learned the Yoruba language of the local people of that area while understudying in the parish of Lafiagi. The first Mass he celebrated in Lagos was served by a young boy called Anthony Okogie. One day in 1998 at the SMA house in Crosby, Liverpool, John had the privilege of serving the Mass of the same Anthony Okogie who by then had already served for over twenty-five years as Archbishop of Lagos. He has since been made a Cardinal of the Church.

In 1951 he was posted up to the city of Ibadan where he was to minister in the parishes of Ogumpa, Oke-Offa and Oke Ado. Here he was also involved in a school building programme and wrote a type of Newsletter for the diocese under the instruction of the Bishop. His time in Ibadan was interrupted by a short spell in Ghana on a Community Development Course sponsored by UNESCO.

Bishop Finn sent him home for a rest in 1959 and it was while he was at home that he received an assignment to help the new British arm of the SMA by joining the staff of the newly opened seminary at Dutton Manor. Initially this appointment was to be for a two year period with the possibility of more permanence should it meet his own and others expectations. The fact that over forty years later John was still working conscientiously and with extraordinary dedication in support of the British unit is testimony that it was indeed a win-win situation for all.

Indeed, for a huge number of supporters of the SMA in Britain John became for many years the ‘face’ of the SMA. Not just through a promotion of the missions but through a pastoral outreach to literally thousands of supporters through the length and breath of the Province. He knew them personally and his little valise was better than any computer. We spend hours these days discussing and constructing databases. John had a database in that little valise and, indeed, much of it was contained in his very brain. He was meticulous in attention to detail, contacting promoters, all of whom in a sense had become friends, at the most acute and sensitive moments of their lives. Such pastoral attention and devotion was hugely appreciated. And the mission of SMA was more than repaid through the generosity of these supporters who responded in kind.

John spent little of the resources he gathered for SMA on himself. He lived a frugal lifestyle, very abstemious himself but yet a great host. He combined a natural aptitude for horticulture and husbandry with a desire to be as self-sufficient as he could be. He was a man truly in touch and in tune with nature. His training in horticulture before joining SMA was to serve him in good stead when he lived at Moor Lane, Liverpool where his garden became a wonderful source of fresh vegetables nurtured by his very own ‘green fingers’.

If he was frugal in life-style he was certainly not frugal in laughter or interests. He enjoyed a good joke, had a kind of dry wit and had a ‘drop dead’ gorgeous smile. He must have been quite a hit with the ladies in his younger days. The smile remained to the end. Even as increasing dementia dulled the reflexes of body and mind he continued to show on occasion a glimpse of that wonderful smile, a true expression of the John that was. John was also something of a wordsmith. This is what enabled him to publish a regular newsletter for his supporters but it also manifested itself in a keen interest in crossword puzzles. He enjoyed nothing better than the challenge of the most difficult crossword puzzle.

When one rehearses these different qualities of John McCreanor and the generous response to the call of the Lord to ministerial priesthood, there is a danger that one could fall into the trap of believing it was such a response that earned him salvation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Salvation is never earned; it can only be received. John’s generosity was a response to God’s fidelity. But just like you and me and the whole of humanity he too is saved only through the free gift of God in the passion, death and resurrection of his son, Jesus Christ. John’s response should serve as an inspiration to us to try to respond with the same level of generosity as we grow deeper and deeper in our appreciation of God’s incredible fidelity to us.

So, we bid farewell to an uncle, a confrere, a neighbour, a friend. He has done well; he has fought the good fight and run the race.

Ar dheis lámh Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

Fr John Burke SMA

Funeral Homily – 21 November 2006

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior at SMA Parish Church, Wilton, Cork)

Readings: Isaiah 25:6-9
2 Thessalonians 3:7-12
John 6:35-40

One sometimes has to wonder at the planning of God! To take a man at a relatively young age, a man who is seemingly at the height of his powers and energy, a man who is devoting enormous amounts of time to good works, to the advancement of God’s reign on earth though pastoral action and writing, to take such a man appears to our way of planning as strange. Yet, this is all part of the mystery that is God and the mystery that is life. We do not know the mind of God. All we can do is live with the mystery and surrender ourselves to its unfolding meaning.

John Burke died in the early hours of last Sunday morning at St James Hospital, Dublin. It is important to record here our appreciation of the extraordinary care given by the staff of St James’ throughout John’s illness. Everything possible was tried to effect a healing. The care extended beyond attention to John’s physical condition to an all embracing attention to his person and to his family members and other friends who visited. At a time when it is commonplace to criticise the Health Service it is imperative that we state that in this case for sure the quality of care extended to John was second to none.

John died just a few months short of his 65^th birthday. By today’s standards he was still a young man. But he was a man who had packed into this space of time a truly magnificent output. Maybe his early death makes sense when measured against the volume of that output. Our task today is to pray him home into the arms of the God he loved and tried to serve faithfully all his life.

We can make such a prayer in confidence and hope because our faith assures us that it will indeed be so. John believed this himself and dedicated himself to spreading this message through forty years of missionary priesthood in the Society of African Missions. Our gospel today tells us “he who comes to me will never be hungry: he who believes in me will never thirst”. It goes on to assure us that the one who comes to God shall not be turned away. And the final stanza says “Yes, it is my Father’s will that whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and that I shall raise him up on the last day”. These are words of enormous comfort to those who mourn for John. We have God’s own assurance that he will raise him up on the last day. This means that John lives on in a new way; that at his death life has changed, not ended. And it means that we too will one day die and hopefully share with John the beatific vision.

John was born in the parish of Donoghmore in Limerick in 1942. He schooled locally, taking his secondary school studies at Sexton Street CBS. This school was renowed at that time as a hurling nursery but John was never very keen on sport. He preferred to study and read, behaviour that characterised his whole life. After ordination from Dromantine in 1966, John was assigned to the Diocese of Ibadan in Nigeria. Due to the Nigerian Civil War raging at the time his departure was delayed. This period was spent at short courses in UCC and at the Catholic Communications Centre in Dublin. His first posting in Ibadan was to Oke Ado in the city and this was followed by a posting to Ikire, a more rural setting though still a substantial town. In 1978 he was granted sabbatical leave and took a Masters Degree in Theology in Rome. His return to Nigeria saw a new assignment to the Archdiocese of Lagos. This posting seemed to give John greater scope to exercise his considerable skills. He served in such places as Festac, a developing town in Lagos suburbs dedicated to arts and culture, Surulere, Agege-Ipaja, Apapa.

John Burke was a missionary deeply appreciated by his people. I understand there is to be a vigil at the parish in Apapa next Friday night. John would not be described as a one dimensional or two dimensional pastor. His range of interest was vast and varied. However, two dimensions do stand out: as a builder and as a writer and practitioner of Canon Law. As a builder, John was at his best in finding sites in developing suburbs to establish churches and schools. He could indeed be described as an expansionist. He opened up new parishes and extended the boundaries of the church into areas previously untouched. And he used an innate cunning to draw down the best from his people. His policy was never to produce a finished product at first but rather to allow for some improvements so that the people themselves would gradually come round to demanding and providing for such improvements. And he was noted for the quality of his work. His attention to detail and the quality of the finished product was legendary. Nowhere was this more effectively seen than in the recently constructed SMA house at Obanikoro, Lagos.

This attention to detail of course simply reflected a quality in the man himself. He was always tidy and neat in personal deportment and his dwelling place was always marked by tidiness. In fact, it was the cause of some merriment to his confreres to be asked to take off ones shoes on entering his sitting room in order to preserve the pristine quality of the flooring. However, such apparent obsession with tidiness should not mask the fact that he was also a tremendous host. He always had an excellent table and he could regale a group for hours on end with his company.

His interest in Canon Law developed through frustration at the slow pace at which marriage issues were being dealt with at the Tribunal. He applied for study leave to attend a university in Ottawa, Canada where in the course of two years he attained first a Baccalaureate and then a Licentiate or Masters in Canon Law. He returned to Lagos and was appointed Judicial Vicar of the marriage tribunal of the archdiocese. For the rest of his life he was to devote much time to issues of marriage and Canon Law in general. He has written several books and pamphlets on the topic, and his Dictionary of Canon Law, first produced in 1994 and recently updated, is well respected in the field.

John seemed to have boundless energy. I often wondered how he got time to deal with all that he seemed to manage. The number of books, pamphlets, articles on diverse topics of theology and sociology, and letters written would fill a fair sized bookcase. Perhaps he found the time to do so because he refused to fritter away his time on frivolous pursuits. There could hardly be a more apt reading for his character than the one chosen today for our second reading. “we were not idle when we were with you…..we worked night and day slaving and straining…. now we hear that there are some of you who are living in idleness, doing no work themselves but interfering with everyone else’s”. Something that could never be said of John Burke was that he was an idle man.

During his time in Lagos John was responsible for introducing the Redemptorist Congregation to Nigeria. Appreciation for his support in this venture was expressed when he was made a Redemptorist Oblate, a type of honorary membership, in 1997.

His way of working, though often effective, also had its shadow side. His zeal was perhaps akin to the zeal of the convert. And just like many a convert this zeal was sometimes attended by an intolerance for what went before. In his younger mission days John enjoyed a smoke and a drink. Latterly he frowned on such things. John was a man of action. His style was to look at an issue or a problem, evaluate how it might be improved, plan the improvement and execute it. This style resulted in the type of output I spoke of earlier. He did not like to waste time on too much discussion. Patience would not have been his strongest or most conspicuous virtue; nor would he have always been the greatest admirer of another person’s efforts or output. He was never a great man for meetings. He found the process of consensus decision making for too slow for his liking. He held his own very strong convictions and opinions and could be somewhat dictatorial at times. He held strong views on interfaith issues and inter-religious dialogue was not a theological position he espoused.

As with the SMA so he was with his own family. As a driving instructor, I gather that he could be a bit demanding. But he was a brother held in deep affection. Indeed, I found it inspiring over these last weeks of his illness to see John’s family’s devotion to his care. Tales were told of fun and laughter, disputes and reconciliations, the nuts and bolts of ordinary but treasured family friendship. Hours were spent at his bedside by all family members but I know nobody will be offended when I pay particular attention to Mary’s extraordinary devotion. Having spent countless hours at his bedside in recent months, weeks and most especially days it was fitting that you were by his side when he breathed his last. You will miss him more than anyone. But you will receive comfort and consolation and, in time, come to appreciate that you have been the recipient of a very special gift. I hope our opening reading this afternoon will bring you words of comfort. “.. [the Lord] will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples, …. he will destroy death for ever …. he will wipe away the tears from every cheek”. In time, Mary, your tears, too, will be wiped away.

John has fought the good fight, he has run the race. He accepted his recent illness with commendable serenity. He battled for life, indeed battled long after a less tenacious person might have thrown in the towel. When at last his tortured body could fight no longer he surrendered with great dignity.

Ar dheis lámh Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

Fr John Breheny SMA

Funeral Homily – 25 April 2006

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior at St Kevin’s Church, Keash, Co Sligo)

Readings: Isaiah 25: 6-9
1 John 4: 7-11
John 6: 35-40

If there is any such thing as a good time to die, then to die within the octave of Easter is not such a bad deal. These weeks the liturgy bombards us with resurrection imagery: the appearances of the post-resurrection Jesus the Christ testify that when he said while on earth “destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again” he was not joking. The confidence with which Peter and companions go about healing in the name of Jesus and accounting for their actions with boldness before the Sanhedrin proves the truth of that extraordinary and eternal paradox of Christianity, namely, that new life can only come through death. During this Eastertide the Paschal or Easter candle is lit throughout, as it is lit at all funeral Masses. It is intended to be a symbol of the risen Lord among his people. His presence is light, shedding this light on the meaning of life. The candle is an invitation to those who seek this light in their lives to search the Scriptures if they wish to embrace the teaching of Jesus found there.

John Breheny has now embraced death, after a debilitating sickness that just sapped away at his powerful physique in a slow and relentless march towards decay. Our faith assures us that beyond this death he has begun a new life. John spent a great deal of his life searching the Scriptures; from there he embraced the teaching of Jesus. The teaching on the resurrection was one of the most profound truths that John embraced. With this faith he consoled the bereaved throughout forty-five years of missionary priesthood. It is with this faith too that we console the bereaved today as with confidence we pray John home into the God he tried to serve faithfully and well all his life.

Our opening reading this afternoon reminds us that in God’s plan the mourning vale would only be a temporary thing. Our Christian faith assures us that at death life is changed, not ended. We will reaffirm this faith in our Preface prayer of this Mass shortly. But even long before the coming of Jesus, God was assuring his people through the Prophet Isaiah that he was preparing for all peoples a banquet of rich food, that he was going to remove the mourning veil and the shroud of death enwrapping all nations because he would destroy death for ever. We know that he did this completely in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. We know that God never reneges on his promises so we can be assured that our present mourning will pass into celebration and rejoicing.

Our gospel reading today contains a powerful reflection on eucharist and resurrection. “I am the bread of life”, Jesus tells us, “whoever comes to me will never be hungry”, and “the will of the one who sent me is that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me, and that I should raise it up on the last day”.

John Breheny was born into a family of two boys and two girls in the townland of Knockoconnor in this parish of Keash over seventy-four years ago. He did his primary studies locally and some years then passed before the vocation to missionary priesthood took hold. Faith and religion were obviously revered in the Breheny household. Three of the four children joined religious life: Sr Assumpta joined the Mercy Sisters and Kevin was ordained with St Patrick’s Missionaries, Kiltegan, and gave many years as a missionary in Kenya.

At the age of seventeen John began secondary school studies at the SMA college, Ballinafad. This must have taken great courage, particularly for a man who was basically shy, to join a group of boys four and five years his junior. But he persevered with quiet resilience and this quality of perseverance in difficulty was to characterise his life right up to his death. Even in his sickest days John still refused to give up the fight.

There is a saying that goes“He does not believe who does not live according to his belief”. I said earlier that John searched the Scriptures and embraced the teaching he learned there. Another of these teachings is that we should “love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God”, as we read this afternoon in the second reading from the first letter of St John. John Breheny had a great love for people. For such a big, strong, physically powerful man he had an equally big heart. He had enormous kindness. In his quiet, gentle, self-effacing and at times even self-deprecating way he witnessed to the love of Jesus as he went about his pastoral duties. And nowhere was this love more evident that with the members of his own family. He had the facility to be equally at home with young or old. I’ve learned that during his holidays he would frequently go off for the day with his nieces and nephew either to the beach or some other place where they could enjoy a day of fun together.

After ordination in 1960, John was assigned to the diocese of Monrovia in Liberia. He was to spend the next fifteen years in various parishes in this diocese. He is still held in fond memory by the old folk in such parishes as Kakata, Sanniquelle, Gbarnga and Yekepa. On Saturday last, I talked to Fr Chris Bennan SMA as he was driving along the road from Monrovia to Yekepa. He told me he would relay to his people the news that John had died and was sure that the news would be greeted with sadness and mourning. But it would also be greeted, he was sure, by recounting stories of the missionary who with his own hands had physically established the infrastructure of churches, clinics, hospitals and schools. There must be something about this parish of Keash that produces missionary builders. Just last year at the funeral Mass here for Fr Rickie Devine SMA I spoke about Rickie prowess as a builder. John too was gifted with these skills. John was very gifted with his hands and so not only did he organise building teams to construct church plants but he frequently used his own strong hands to construct the buildings.

In 1975 ill-health was to force John to return from the tropics. The esteem in which he was held by all is well attested by the correspondence between the various superiors in organising his coming home. In fact, John’s file is one of the smallest in the Provincial’s office; a sign of a quiet presence, a ‘no palaver’ man. He was seen as a solid missionary who simply needed time to rest and recuperate. So, after a short time at home and a very short stint on mite-box collection here in the West of Ireland, in 1976 John was assigned to the parish of the Sacred Heart in Stopsley, Luton, England. That he was well loved by the people there is surely evident from the large numbers who have come from Luton for this funeral liturgy.
John was to spend the next thirty years in Luton. He enjoyed the place and the people; he was content and fulfilled in his priesthood; but the desire to return to Africa never left him. He made a number of requests to the Provincial to return. Apart from a short visit in 1986 his wish was never to be granted. John accepted the reasons given without protest, in his customary disposition of recognising that in life things don’t always go your way and at such times the proper response is acceptance because there may be very good reasons why one’s plans did not work out.

John had a huge knowledge of the parish and people of Sacred Heart. He spent the vast bulk of his time there as the co-worker of Fr Eugene Connolly. They made a good team; hard to replicate, and their service to the people was unstinting. One sensed that they had a rapport and a bond that was unarticulated and I’m pretty sure never discussed. It was not always rosy in the garden but there was a huge trust one of the other. In fact, one might even speak of a type of telepathic connection as when in the early hours of Saturday morning last Fr Damian was called for the second time to attend at John’s bedside he met on the corridor at 3.00am Fr Eugene making his way to John room. No one had called Eugene. It was as if he knew in some pre-conscious way that John was about to die.

When Fr John Brown took over from Fr Connolly as parish priest in July 2000, he found John Breheny to be an invaluable assistant. His knowledge of the parish and all things connected to the parish was remarkable. His meticulous attention to detail was legendary, whether it be filling financial returns for diocese or taxman or attending to the Board of Governors of the school. He devoted enormous attention to the schools. He was loved by both staff and pupils. It was very heart-warming to see the volume of hand-made get-well cards he received from the pupils of Sacred Heart schools in the last few weeks. Every pupil must have sent their own personal card. John’s interests ranged widely from affairs of church to the Vauxhall motor plant to Luton Town soccer club. I’m sure the people of the parish could talk for days of the different contributions John made to their parish. My memories are happy ones of visiting the parish to see how the deacons of the day were doing or later checking how the parish was fulfilling the criteria of an SMA parish. At every visit John was the essence of courtesy and hospitality. One could sit for hours in the kitchen just listening to his fond stories or opinions on this, that or the other.

In a real sense there is something profoundly timely in the fact that in June of this year SMA will hand back to the diocese of Northampton responsibility for the parish of Sacred Heart. John greeted this decision, as did we all, with sadness but resignation. What SMA has done in that parish will live long in the memory of its people. John Breheny’s contribution to that story was immense. The Father will not be short changed in gratitude.

John’s earthly journey has now reached its end; so, after his faithful and eventful life we are now ready to speed him home to God.

Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis.

Fr Joe Brennan SMA

Funeral Homily – 3 March 2006

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior)

Readings: Ezekiel 37: 12-14
1 Peter 1: 3-9
Luke 12: 35-40

“Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you will return”.

These words of the Ash Wednesday liturgy were prayed in St Teresa’s Oratory just two hours before Joe Brennan died, peacefully in his bed just two doors down the corridor from the Oratory. The words are a stark reminder of the inevitability of death. Ash Wednesday, perhaps more than any other day with the possible exception of Good Friday, is a reality-check day. On that day one cannot avoid the reality of one’s own mortality. We will all eventually decay as our bodies return to the state of dust. Joe Brennan had the fortune to die on Ash Wednesday. Even though in the end his passing was sudden, he had really been preparing to die for quite some time now. Given his general state of health when he came over to Blackrock Road from Wilton some four years ago, one could say that these years have been a real bonus. It is also, of course, testimony to the wonderful care provided by our staff in Blackrock Road, lay and cleric. Joe appreciated this care very much. It is only right today to acknowledge it.

A funeral ceremony would be a very morose affair if our focus remained on dust. A key ingredient that our Christian faith provides takes our mood from one of being morose to one of thanksgiving and celebration. Because our Christian faith asserts that for God’s faithful people life is simply changed, not ended. The state of dust to which our body returns is itself but a temporary state. We believe in the resurrection of the Body and Life Everlasting.

Even in the time of the Hebrew Scriptures the Prophet Ezekiel, some six hundred years before the coming of Jesus, was forceful in his declaration that God’s plan for his people was one of restoration. As our first reading this afternoon puts it, “you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves…and I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live”. The focus here is primarily on the in-spiriting of the people and the restoration of the nation after the time of exile but it also evokes belief in a personal afterlife. This passage comes after that famous passage of the vision of the dry bones. The bones, being representative of the people of Israel, were dry because the people had no spirit in them. They had reneged on the promises through their sinfulness. But God never reneges on a promise. And so the bones will once again come to life and they will be resettled in their own soil. This will happen when God’s spirit dwells among his faithful people. The promise of this reading can also be interpreted on an individual level. God’s promise to us, in Jesus Christ, is that he will dwell eternally in spirit among his faithful people. This is a tremendous reassurance at the time of any funeral.

Our second reading from the First Letter of St Peter focuses on this theme in a much more direct way. St Peter tells us that “God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has, in his great mercy, given us new birth as his children, by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, so that we have a sure hope and the promise of an inheritance that can never be spoilt or soiled and never fade away”. St Peter is in no way tentative about the proclamation of this faith position. We have a sure hope and the promise of an inheritance that will never fade away. This is a powerful expression of the Christian position. At death, then, we are not faced with doubt as to the future but rather with a conviction that through the resurrection of Jesus Christ we too will rise from the dead. That is the faith we profess. That was the faith that Joe Brennan lived and taught all his priestly life. We take comfort in that faith today as we come to bury his mortal remains.

Joe Brennan was born over eighty years ago in Newcastle-on-Tyne in England. His early years were difficult. His father died three months before Joe was born. Some nine years later his mother died and Joe was then brought back to Co Kilkenny to be reared as a member of one of his cousin’s families. Ever since, he has been, as it were, adopted as a true member of that family. That there was a close bond among the members of the family is obvious from the fact that he spent long periods of time with different cousins throughout his life and from the frequent visits by various cousins during his years of illness. Attested to also by the fact that members of his family have come from very long distances and at very short notice to attend his funeral.

Economic hardship necessitated his going out to work at a young age. At fourteen years of age he was apprenticed to the coalmines near Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny. This was difficult work and it undoubtedly took a toll on his health for the rest of his life. He suffered from respiratory ailments for much of his life, probably caused by exposure to so much coal dust from an early age. After his time in the mines he worked for three years in the Irish Army, two years spent as a clerk in the Army Depot of Engineers and one in the Ordnance Survey unit. This was followed by some time working as a Postman and even a short period spent as a Bus Conductor with C.I.E.

Joe was accepted as a student for the SMA in 1951. Because he did not have a formal Secondary School education he came first for some months to the College here in Wilton. From there he went on to Clough-Ballymore and Dromantine. Throughout his student days he was regarded as a steady, generous, obliging, reliable and responsible student. The fact that he was eight to ten years older than his classmates did not deter him from participating fully in student life. He was a keen sportsman, being especially noted for his soccer prowess but had also through his Kilkenny rearing developed a keen interest in hurling, an interest he enjoyed right up to the time of his death.

After ordination in 1958, Joe was assigned to the Diocese of Jos in Nigeria. Here he worked in a variety of missions such as Akwanga, Pankshin, St Theresa’s in Jos city and Shendam. The tropical climate did not always agree with him but he soldiered on bravely until 1977 when he transferred out of Nigeria and eventually worked in pastoral assignments in the Diocese of Leeds in England. These next fifteen years or so allowed him to re-connect with family, whether back home in Castlecomer or in Leeds or Newcastle. In 1992, ill-health forced him into retirement to our community at Dromantine. He was to enjoy reasonable good health over the next six years, despite undergoing heart by-pass surgery in 1993. In 1998 it was thought best that he come South and so he moved to the Community here in Wilton. Further ill-health was to plague him with the development of the disease of Leukaemia. This necessitated frequent visits to hospital for blood transfusions. Initially such transfusions gave him remarkably renewed energy. Over time, however, they were to become less and less effective.

Throughout his sickness Joe continued to enjoy and exude a very placid and serene character. The question “how are you, Joe” often elicited the answer “terrible, Thank God”. He never lost his sense of fun or the ability to tell a good story [he shared his life story more than once with those who cared for him in St Teresa’s] and he could enjoy a good joke right up to the end. Perhaps more than most he was conscious of mortality but this did not deter him from living life to the fullest as long as it was physically possible. I don’t believe he had any great fear of death. This was because in the words of today’s gospel “he was dressed for action and had his lamp lit”. He may not have anticipated death to call quite so suddenly on Wednesday morning but my impression is that the master would have found him awake when he called.

Our gospel reading today is that familiar passage where the Lord reminds his disciples that they must be dressed and ready for action. This referred most probably to the necessity to be always ready to advance the kingdom; but it can equally be interpreted, as the Church has done so down the ages, as a reminder that we are not in control of life. It is in God’s hands to give and to receive. And, so, it is necessary to be prepared when the Lord sends that invitation. My sense is that Joe was ready for that call. Not in any morbid or compulsive sense but rather as something that would happen without fanfare in the Lord’s good time.

So, Joe will be missed. From listening to his family these days it is clear that you will miss his vibrancy and sense of fun. In the SMA we will miss his happy demeanour and his powerful voice as he attempted to state his viewpoint with some force at the Sunday Gaudeamus. And we will miss his refrain, yea yea yea. He will be greatly missed too by the staff of St Teresa’s who cared for him well and loved him dearly.

May his gentle soul now rest in Peace.

Fr James Gerard Lee SMA
Funeral Homily – February 22nd 2006
(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior)

Readings: Isaiah 61: 1-3.6.8-9
James 3: 13-18
John 6: 35-40

When Archbishop Michael Francis of Monrovia returned to Liberia on Tuesday of last week, after more than a year of medical care in the Blackrock Road community, and word came through that he had travelled comfortably and well and was now positively blooming and blossoming back in his native environment, it was almost as if Jim Lee gave himself permission to die. Though Jim would shy away from any comparison to the holy man Simeon in the temple there was a Simeon like quality to his passing, as if he were saying ‘now your servant is ready to go in peace’. It was as if the knowledge that the bishop whom he had faithfully companioned for the guts of thirty years, sometimes in days of extraordinary danger, was safely home was all that he needed to let go that fragile grasp of life.

Jim’s impending death had been signalled since last October. When word came through from Monrovia that Jim needed to be accompanied home for some intensive medical treatment we knew things did not look good. However, thank God, he was to enjoy a few months of relative good health which allowed him to make re-connections with his blood family and spend some quality time among his confreres in the SMA. Since the middle of last week the deterioration in his health condition dramatically accelerated until he finally answered the call home to the Lord some few minutes after 9am on Monday morning last. Jim had lived a good and full life for almost 82 years, 53 of these spent as an SMA missionary priest.

So, we gather this morning as a hoped-filled Christian community. Our natural human sadness at departure is real and must be honoured, but it is a sadness expressed in the context of belief that, after a long life here on earth, Jim now continues to live in the resurrected life promised by Jesus and guaranteed by him through his own victory over death. For Jim life has changed, not ended. When the body of our earthly dwelling lies in death we gain an everlasting dwelling place in heaven. This is our belief. This too was Jim’s belief. A belief he lived and preached as a missionary for 53 years. Our task this afternoon is to pray for Jim that whatever in his character remains to be purified in order to be ready for the full embrace of the Father’s presence might quickly take place. And we support his sisters, Lucy and Margaret, in their time of grief.

The Letter of St James selected this afternoon was the reading at Monday morning’s Mass. There is a certain appropriateness about the fact or coincidence that these words of his patron saint should be proclaimed on the morning of Jim’s death. St James instructs his community that they should express their intelligence through humility and wisdom. Their hearts should carry no bitterness, jealousy or self-seeking ambition. They should be people of honesty and integrity. They should be peacemakers, being kindly and considerate to others. They should be full of compassion and express their goodness through a lack of partiality or hypocrisy in all that they do. C ertainly a tough ideal. None of us ever reaches that ideal. From my knowledge of Jim Lee I think he made a better than average stab at it.

In our first reading the prophet Isaiah foretells the mission that Jesus would later claim as his very own mission. To receive the anointing of God’s Spirit in order to “bring good news to the poor, to bind up hearts that are broken; to proclaim liberty to captives; to comfort those who mourn”. This became Jim’s mission too as he sought to fulfil that mandate throughout his life, never more so than in the last fifteen years of dreadful civil war in his beloved Liberia. I know that much of Jim’s personal money was given to the poorest of the poor and he has even mandated this beyond his death. And surely his recent ministry has been nothing else than binding up hearts that were broken by war; nothing else than continuing to proclaim liberty to a truly captive people, a liberty that they might not enjoy in this life but a true liberty promised by Jesus Christ. And how often must he have comforted those who mourned, not just those who mourned in the normal process of life and death but particularly those who mourned through the senseless death of a savage war. Yes, his people would certainly have recognised in Jim a ‘priest of the Lord and minister of God’, as Isaiah puts it.

Our gospel reading today contains a powerful theme of eucharist and resurrection. “I am the bread of life”, Jesus tells us, “whoever comes to me will never be hungry”, and “the will of the one who sent me is that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me, and that I should raise it up on the last day”. St Irenaeus puts it very beautifully: “When the mixed chalice and the baked loaf receive the word of God, and when the eucharistic elements become the body and blood of Christ, which bring growth and sustenance to our bodily frame, how can it be maintained that our flesh is incapable of receiving God’s gift of eternal life?”.

James Gerard Lee was born on 29 May 1924 at Drumaroad, Castlewellan, Co Down, the eldest in a family of two boys and three girls. Though the vocation to priesthood was there from an early age, he delayed somewhat his pursuit of it. He matriculated from Garvey College, Belfast in 1946 and proceeded to Cloughballymore and Dromantine. His first posting after ordination in 1952 was to Lagos archdiocese, in the parish of Lafiagi. At the end of this tour he was called home to take up an appointment as Provincial Secretary and Archivist. Jim was none too pleased to be offered this appointment. He had major misgivings about it and found it not to his liking. On a yearly basis he asked the Provincial to review the situation and allow him return to Africa. His persistence eventually paid off and he was allowed to pursue a course in catechetics in Brussels. At this time the discipline of catechetics was taking a more prominent role in missionary practice.

His next missionary stint was lived at St Leo’s College, Abeokuta. He was to spend ten years at this post where he put his catechetical training to good use. The end of this period saw a stage of personal unsettlement which he was to eventually work through with great faith and perseverance. To aid his working through these issues he was assigned to the diocese of Northampton in England, first working in the parish of Kettering and, later, becoming part of the first team in the newly opened SMA parish in Luton. He was to give two years here before again accepting an African assignment. His next African venture was to Liberia, beginning in 1976 to head up the diocesan catechetical programme for the archdiocese of Monrovia. There is little doubt that the next 30 years were momentous, for the country of Liberia and for Jim personally, but they were also perhaps the happiest and most fulfilling years of his priesthood. During this thirty-year period he was to have a sabbatical break in Maryknoll, New York where he was to gain a Master of Arts in theology and also to give helpful assistance to the American Province’s formation programme.

Jim was not the only missionary to give sterling service during the war in Liberia. There are many other heroes in both the local church and among the missionaries. But Jim’s contribution was a telling one. His courageous gesture to stay on in the war zone so as to help in the evacuation of other expatriate civilians did not go unnoticed by the press in Northern Ireland. He was given banner front-page headlines in the Irish News and, perhaps more surprisingly in the Belfast Telegraph. It was nice too that his services to humanity were recognised by the Liberian government when, in 2004, they admitted him to the Human Order of African Redemption with the grade of Knight Great Band.

My memories of Jim only span the years of the war. His enthusiasm was infectious, his work ethic inspirational. To see him rushing about in the autumn of his life, rolling up the sleeves of the white cassock in his characteristic and individual manner, was something to behold and admire. Last summer, at the tender age of 81 years, he sat in my office. We were discussing the financial affairs of the archdiocese and looking at possible systems that could be put in place to guard against a recurrence of the chaos that had inflicted them. The system he described to me was a complex one, one that would tax the mind and energy levels of a much younger man, but Jim was taking it in his stride. He left the room with a bounce to his step and a level of excitement that one might expect more from a missionary about to set out on his first tour than one who had already celebrated his golden jubilee. I thought to myself, ‘there is Mission Alive personified’. Oh that one could harness such enthusiasm.

This hectic life has now ceased. But Jim’s legacy lives on. Especially in the hearts of his nephews and nieces who held him in deep affection. And in the hearts of all those, especially the poor, to whom he dedicated his heart and his life.

Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis.

Fr Frank McCabe SMA
Funeral Homily – September 6th 2007 at SMA Parish Church, Wilton Cork
(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior)

Readings: Isaiah 55: 1-11
               1 Thess 5:1-6.9-11
               John 6: 35-4

“But it is not as if you live in the dark, my brothers, for that Day to overtake you like a thief”. These words from St Paul’s first letter to the disciples at Thessalonica were heard in today’s second reading.  This in fact was the first reading at Mass on the morning that Frank died. Few people were as well prepared to meet the Lord as Fr Frank McCabe. His whole life was dedicated to the Lord: the greater part in active ministry; the latter years in full-scale prayer and adoration. It is a consolation to his family and friends that he went to meet the Lord not in the dark but very much in the light.

Frank was blessed to live a long and fruitful life to 89 years of age. As Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying “… in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years”. Certainly Frank packed a huge amount of experience into those 89 years. I will speak of some of this experience shortly but I first want to set his passing in its proper context. We gather not just as any happenchance grouping of people. We gather as a Christian community praying our brother disciple home into the arms of the God he tried to serve all his life. And we pray with firm conviction that the promise made by the Lord will be fulfilled.

That promise is beautifully outlined for us in our Gospel passage this afternoon. Jesus says “Now the will of him who sent me is that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me, and that I should raise it up on the last day. Yes, it is my Father’s will that whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and that I shall raise him up on the last day”. Those who knew Frank well know of his tremendous dedication to the Holy Eucharist. I know that at different periods of his life he would spend many hours in private adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. “He who comes to me will never be thirsty: he who believes in me will never thirst”. Such words ring through for Frank.

As, indeed, do the words of our opening reading from the Prophet Isaiah. These words come from a time well before the coming of Jesus but the message is similar to that of the gospel text. We are told that the ways of the Lord are very different to our ways. “my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways not your ways”. God’s ways are so totally above our ways that we cannot really ever grasp the awesome generosity of God. He provides all the things we need without our having to make any payment. This is so alien to our human way of thinking that we find it difficult to grasp. I believe that Frank McCabe did grasp it. He did not, as the reading puts it “spend his wages on what fails to satisfy” , and he continued throughout his life to “seek the Lord while he is still to be found, and called to him while he was still near”.

And these words provide us with a very good reflection for a funeral Mass, particularly, I believe at the funeral of a priest. When one recounts the good deeds done by a priest – as I will shortly do for Frank – there is the temptation to think that it was somehow these good deeds that earned him salvation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Because the simple but very profound truth is that salvation cannot be earned. It is a freely given gift of God. To our way of thinking of course that is preposterous. But God’s ways are not our ways; God’s thoughts are not our thoughts.  It is important to understand, then, that Frank, like every other human on the face of the planet, will be saved not through anything he did in this life but simply through the free gift of God. Frank’s task, like our task on the last day, will be simply to accept that gift. But accepting such a gift is not quite as simple as it seems. It can take a lifetime to really prepare oneself to accept such an awesome gift.

Frank spent 89 years preparing. Born into a family of seven children at Derrinasoo in the parish of Ardcarne on the Leitrim/Roscommon border [I understand that Frank was given to altering county affiliation depending on the fortunes of the county football team!], he spent his opening years in the local primary school. It was here that he first learned of the SMA and applied for admission to Ballinafad secondary school. He moved from there to the school here at Wilton to complete his secondary education and then went on to Clough and Dromantine. He completed his BA degree in philosophy and education between UCC and UCG and completed his H.Dip in Education post ordination, in 1948.
During his student days he was a keen footballer. One of his more pleasant memories was the day he played for the Fenagh club in the Leitrim county final on the year of his ordination.

After ordination Frank was appointed to the diocese of Lagos, Nigeria which at that time included Ibadan. In all he spent the next 42 years in ministry in the Ibadan area.  He spent the first 20 years in the education apostolate, founding many schools and being principal of many others. He served in Oke-are Minor Seminary where he taught many of the present day priests and bishops of Nigeria; he taught in Teacher Training Colleges and secondary schools in such places as Ile-Ife, Ikire, Maryhill etc.

After twenty years of school apostolate he was delighted to get the opportunity for pastoral experience. First assigned to Eleta and later to Moor Plantation, he is perhaps best known from his assignment to the parish of Igbo-ora. Along with the usual catechetical and sacramental ministry he became renowned here for his Family Unit Farming Project. This was a project to enable local farmers to learn new skills and provide mechanised machinery such as tractors which he was able to provide through funding from different international agencies. Frank was in his element in this environment, exercising all his farming knowledge and empowering the locals to cultivate to levels hitherto unknown. In a truly literal sense Frank was maintaining his hand on the plough. Every spare bit of land in the area was taken up with a vegetable garden of one kind or another. At this time he had yet to develop an interest in growing flowers, perhaps feeling they were an unwarranted luxury. Later he was to develop a wonderful taste for flower growing.

In all these years a number of characteristics were readily observable. He lived an austere and frugal lifestyle. Any donation to the mission was certainly not spent frivolously on himself. He had a great devotion to the Eucharist and Our Blessed Lady. He promoted devotion to the Family Rosary and supported the establishment of the Legion of Mary. But it was not a case of “all work and no play”.  Frank was a very keen tennis player and I had the privilege of playing against him more than once. Though thirty-five years my senior he was still a formidable opponent and gave away no easy points! In fact, one of the few lighter moments in an otherwise questionable sojourn in Australia some years later was the morning he told me over the phone that at 81 years of age he had begun taking up tennis again!

In 1989, the pressure and stress of work on the African continent forced him to reluctantly agree to return to Ireland. But he was in no mood for retiring so he spent the next six years in the diocese of Clonfert, staying at the parochial house in Attymon in the parish of Kiltulla in the famed hurling territory of Killimordaly. Here he continued to promote adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, devotion to our Lady and the Family Rosary. Pilgrimages to Knock were also a regular feature during these years. He retired officially in 1995 and was to spend the next three years between Claregalway and here in Wilton.

But even in retirement he was indefatigable in his evangelising outreach. Devotion to Mary became ever more central to his spirituality and it was this that led him to join the Magnificat Meal Movement in Toowomba, Queensland, Australia. His going, however unwise, was undoubtedly motivated by a faith perspective. He was to spend the next six years or so here in what can best be described as quasi seclusion. Repeated requests from superiors and family to return to Ireland were refused. Then one fine day in 2004 he mysteriously appeared in Galway. His health condition did not allow for a rigorous investigation of what had transpired over the previous years or how he had suddenly appeared back among us. But perhaps that was not really important as the greatest feeling shared was one of relief that he was home.

He has been a valued and much loved member of the Blackrock Road community ever since where he has received top class care and affection from all members of staff. It was a great blessing that on June 18th last, though frail of mind and body, he was able to join his classmate Joe Maguire to celebrate 60 years of priestly ministry. All that remains for us now is to surrender him into the arms of Jesus.

Ar dheis lámh Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

Fr Fergus Conlan SMA

Funeral Homily – Janurary 23rd, 2006

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior)

Readings: Isaiah 25: 6-9
1 John 4: 7-11
John 11: 19-27

First of all, I want to extend to you from Ireland profound condolence on the very unexpected death of Fr Fergus Conlan SMA. On behalf of the entire membership of the Irish Province of the SMA I extend to Fr Fergus’ family, the church here in Ndola our sincerest sympathy. To Bishop Noel O’Regan SMA, to the priests, sisters, catechists, laity leaders, youth leaders, and the full membership of the church I give an assurance of prayerful remembrance at this sad time. It is always sad to lose a colleague; it is even tougher to lose a leader; to lose both a colleague and leader in such unexpected circumstances is a significant trauma. To those of you who were present last Tuesday morning at Kuomboka to realise that Fergus was no longer with us I offer a special word of comfort and sympathy. When I heard the news in Ireland it was with profound shock. How much more shocking must it have been for you to realise that the one you greeted ‘good night’ to in seeming good health only a few hours before was now dead. My prayer is that this celebration of Fergus’ life and entry into new life will be for you a moment of great consolation and serenity. May you find in this celebration the strength to continue your ministry of service to the church in Zambia and find in the memory of Fergus empowerment for yourself and your people in the days and years ahead.

It is at moments such as this that we value our faith. If it were not for our faith in Jesus’ promise of new life events such as that which took place last Tuesday morning would leave us full of despair. Because of our faith despair is replaced by hope. We believe with sure conviction that the God who called Fergus into earthy life sixty-six years ago in Ireland has now called him home to his own side to enjoy the fullness of life in his very presence.

What is important to realise is that our belief that Fergus has entered new life is not due to the fact that he was a priest. Being a priest does not entitle him to any favours in the sight of God. He has been a servant, and a good servant, but in the words of scripture he has merely done his duty. There is a danger that we may think that a priest, because he deals each day in the things of God, because through a regular prayer life he ought to have a deep relationship with God, he somehow has a shortcut to new life. But this is not the case. The priest, just like any Christian, just like any human on the face of the planet, is redeemed and saved only by Jesus Christ. New life, fullness of life, resurrected life is not something we can earn by dent of hard work. Rather it is a free gift that God bestows on those he loves. Our job in life is to somehow put ourselves in the right frame to receive that new life when it is offered. Whether you are a catechumen setting out on the road to Christian living or the Pope in Rome you will have to receive from our loving Father in heaven this gift of new life. It is not a prize for anything we have done on this earth. Our task today then is to pray for Fergus. To pay him our final respects. To give gratitude to God for the life he gave him and the way he used him to better the lives of countless thousands, both in Africa, Europe and America. And to pray him home into the arms of the God he tried to love and serve all his days.

Fergus has been tremendously influential in the lives of so many people in this church today. The outpouring of grief and the sense of solidarity over these last days is fitting testament to that. He has been influential in the lives of many people thousands of miles from here. It is only natural then that we should over these last days be full of sadness and grief. This is a normal, solid human response. But while we acknowledge our grief and give it sufficient time to be articulated in word and deed, we cannot stay in our grief. Fergus himself would have little patience with us if we were to wallow in grief to such an extent that we were unable to function effectively. Fergus did not live in the past; his focus was always on present and future. So now we must continue the struggle to advance God’s reign in our daily lives.

Our opening reading this morning reminds us that in God’s plan the mourning vale would only be a temporary thing. Our Christian faith assures us that at death life is changed, not ended. We will reaffirm this faith in our Preface prayer of this Mass shortly. But even long before the coming of Jesus, God was assuring his people through the Prophet Isaiah that he was preparing for all peoples a banquet of rich food, that he was going to remove the mourning veil and the shroud of death enwrapping all nations because he would destroy death for ever. We know that he did this completely in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. We know that God never reneges on his promises so we can be assured that our present mourning will pass into celebration and rejoicing. I already detect that the church here in Ndola has moved into that stage of celebration. Your faith is your assurance. Long may it live and be strengthened.

Our gospel passage today gives us that wonderful encounter between Jesus and Martha. On the human level, I believe, each of us can identify with Martha’s disappointment. She had put her hope in Jesus but his late arrival had now meant that her brother, Lazarus, was already dead. I’m sure any one of us would have been annoyed at Jesus for his delay in answering their summons. Jesus does not take offence at Martha’s reprimand but he says to her in his gentle but reassuring way “it is not too late. In Christ it is never too late because I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die”. He then goes on to ask a very simple but very crucial question “Do you believe this?” That same question is being asked of each one of us present in this church this morning. Do you believe this? If Fr Fergus’ death does nothing else than force us to address that question, it will have achieved much.

Fr Fergus gave a very clear and unambiguous answer to that question. Yes, he said, I do believe. He proclaimed this faith every time he entered the church to pray. Every time he vested for the celebration of Mass. He proclaimed it in every act of kindness and love he did for his family. Every act of kindness and care for the people of his parish was a statement of belief. He proclaimed it in every selfless deed he did to make this community a living and caring community. He had no doubt that with Jesus he too would rise again. And with Jesus he believed that his spirit would never die. That too is our faith today. Fergus’ spirit lives on through his extended family, his colleagues in the SMA, through the communities he has served, and through all those he blessed in this life through his natural goodness.

Fergus lived as a man who at a very deep level knew he was loved by God. He did not always have to articulate this in flowery language. He simply lived it. In his uncomplicated way he grasped the essence of today’s second reading. Here we are admonished to love one another “since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love. This is the love I mean: not our love for God but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away”. Fergus had a very positive attitude towards people. He believed they could achieve the best if they were given the freedom to exercise their own natural gifts. He did not like to impose but rather sought to draw out from people the goodness that was within them. Sometimes his style was laid back. At other times he could be enormously challenging. But whatever style he adopted at any particular moment his entire attitude was formed by this conviction that we are deeply loved by God. As St John puts it, our concern is God’s love for us, not our love for God. Why does St John focus so much on this? Simply because he knew that to focus on our love for God would eventually leave us profoundly shamed. As the song puts it, “my love for you my Lord is only a shadow of your love for me”. Our love is limited and conditional. God’s love is enduring, it is lavish, it is eternal, it is not even dependant on our response. God is not going to love me less because my response is inadequate. Sure, my inadequate response may mean that I am not in a good space to receive God’s love but that never stops God seeking me out to be the recipient of his love. This is beautifully put by the prophet Isaiah when he says “God is waiting to be gracious to you”. This is a beautiful image: one can picture God waiting with a broad smile for our return to him.

Fergus Conlan was born in Newry, Co Down, Northern Ireland in 1939. He had three brothers and one sister. His brother, Finbarr, has predeceased him. He did his primary studies in his local school and then graduated to the Christian Brothers school in Newry. He joined the Society of African Missions and during the course of his studies took a degree in zoology and bio-chemistry. During his student days he was a noted athlete. He was particularly adept at the game of Gaelic Football and achieved the highest honours with his native county when Co Down won the All-Ireland championship in 1961. After ordination to the priesthood in 1964 he was first appointed to the Diocese of Ondo in Nigeria. After four years he was called home to serve as dean in the SMA juniorate College of Ballinafad. He found the atmosphere in the school too restricting so he sought and was given permission to take further studies in youth guidance. This course was to have a profound influence on his subsequent career. He returned to Nigeria for another ten years. For the rest of his life he was to become the champion of youth everywhere he went. He even earned the title ‘Professor’ in this ‘University for Youth’ here in Francisdale. He had little sympathy with those who found young people indisciplined and untrustworthy. He believed that youth should be challenged but they should also be allowed to take risks because to risk is to jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down. I know that there are many youths in this church this morning who owe a great deal to Fergus’ insistence on youth being given their rightful place in society. He put many a student through school be seeing to their school fees and sponsored others for different arts and crafts. In fact, something remarkable about Fergus was his ability to relate across the generations. In order to relate to youth he had to consciously get younger each year. When many others who were chronologically younger than Fergus began to tire of the patience youth work required he never lost his passion for this ministry.

Because of his interest in youth it was only natural that the SMA would ask him to take up the ministry of vocations recruitment. This he did for three years in Northern Ireland. He followed this up with two years of a Masters in Psychology programme in Boston, USA. The skills he was to pick up here were to stand to him in his next assignment which was here in Zambia. He came to Zambia in 1986 and for the last twenty years he has been a stalwart champion of the church of the laity. He was obviously impressed by the church he found here and did all he could to continue in that tradition. At every international meeting he would talk with pride of the laity-led church of Zambia. He never espoused the clerical model of church. I read recently of the rather humorous happening at the time of his Silver Jubilee of priesthood. If there was to be a celebration, Fergus insisted that the laity should also be celebrated. Organising the jubilee of wedding ceremonies turned out to be a bit more complicated than was first envisaged. Fergus served in Cimwemwe, Francisdale and in Kuomboka. All of you here will knows these towns and parishes far better than I do so I will not attempt to describe the quality of his ministry there. However, I do know that it was mainly characterised by his love and care for those on the margins of society; the poor, women, widows, youth. He lived in a very practical way the vision of the founder of the SMA, Bishop Melchior deBresillac, who dedicated himself and called on all his followers to serve the most abandoned. I am told that Cimwemwe means ‘joy’. Very fitting because I know Fergus brought much joy to many during his earthly ministry.

Fergus was a very gifted singer and guitar player. Yet, he was rarely the life of the party in that he was a shy man in many ways. Quietly spoken, sometimes almost taciturn, and yet a good mixer. A good listener, he always gave space to people to find their own strength and if they faced problems he did not simply solve them but rather empowered people to be the agents of their own problem solving. He was generous, innovative and creative and always keen to push the boat out beyond the safe harbours of the status-quo. He was his own man and never gave in to playing the party line just for his own comfort. The German poet and philosopher, Goethe, once said, The dangers of life are many, and safety is one of them. Fergus never allowed himself to fall into that danger.
He was passionate and forceful, and had a huge hunger for justice. Nowhere was this more obvious than in church issues. This sometimes made him a difficult interlocutor. Those in authority positions could always be assured of a vigorous challenge if Fergus perceived them being too afraid to move in the direction that he felt the Spirit was moving the church. He could even sometimes be sharp but one always knew that his purpose was not to offend or to cause personal hurt but rather to shift the model to a more innovative and liberating style of leadership.

Because of his competence it was only natural that he was frequently voted by his confreres in the SMA to positions of leadership. He did not seek such positions but when they were thrust upon him he did not shirk for the task. At the last General Assembly of the Society in 2001 he constantly challenged the leadership and the other delegates to move beyond the zones of comfort, to seek to move the global church to recognise new forms of ministry and priesthood. Not everyone agreed with him and not all his ideas carried the day, but his enthusiasm was enough to effect change that has continued to challenge in the intervening years.

Obviously Fergus’ health was not as strong as it appeared. In fact, going back many years he has had a catalogue of surgical procedures on his body. Almost twelve years ago he underwent by-pass surgery of the heart. Two years ago in Ireland he took a turn and was actually clinically dead for a few moments. Thank God he then recovered and was able to continue his ministry here. But all together must undoubtedly have taken their toll on his physical wellbeing.

Fergus’ death creates a huge loss for his family and for the church here in Zambia. For the Diocese of Ndola, and particularly for the SMA here in Zambia. As Superior of this Region he was responsible for the continuation of our mission here and the growth of the Society. He carried these responsibilities lightly but he will be difficult to replace. Our prayers must now be with Fr Anthony Kelly and the team as they take over the mantle of leadership. I have no doubt that they will do so with great effectiveness, but I do ask all of you here to support them through your prayers and every kind of assistance.

Fergus has now begun the procession down the road to eternity. He will be hugely missed: his strength, his handshake, his smile, his devilment, his music, his determination, his tenacity, his honesty, his courage, his conviction, his faith, his charity, his companionship.

Ar dheis lamh De go raibh a anam dilis.

Fr David Hughes SMA

Funeral Homily – 15 January 2007

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior at SMA Parish Church, Wilton, Cork)

Readings: Ecclesiasticus 2:7-13
Hebrews 4:12-16
John 14:1-6

The coming of the hour of dawn seems to be a significant time when people accept the invitation to journey from this life to the next. Our last two confreres buried from this church died at almost the exact same time of morning, soon after 8am. That final turn in the bed after a somewhat protracted illness seemed to allow them move gently into God. These two men’s lives warrant comparison: both lived to a ripe old age; both were ordained during the course of the 2nd World War; both served their early missionary career in Egypt, a mission to which not a large number were ever assigned; and both enjoyed healthy mental functioning until shortly before they died. David Hughes can now connect again with Owen Maginn and rehearse stories of Choubra and St George’s, Heliopolis. One thing we can be sure of: there will be much laughter.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled”, Jesus assures us in our gospel passage today. There is no indication that Davie was ever troubled by the prospect of death. Since his heart attack in 1988 he had been almost twenty years preparing for this eventuality. “Trust in God still, and trust in me…. for there are many rooms in my Father’s house… and I am going to prepare a place for you…. and I shall return to take you with me, so that where I am you may be too”. David had a firm conviction in the resurrection on the last day. He believed it himself and he devoted his life to sharing this belief with others. These words of the gospel are consoling words for David’s family of birth and his SMA family with whom he lived for the guts of seventy years. Today we pray for the repose of his gentle soul, that his time of purification before enjoying the fullness of the beatific vision will be short.

David Hughes was born in Cabinteely, Co Dublin on 7th April 1917. Less than three months would have seen him enjoying his 90th birthday. He came from a family of three girls [one of whom was a Presentation Sister serving in Manchester, England] and two boys. After his early Primary schooling with the Irish Sisters of Charity in Milltown he moved on to the famous Christian Brothers in Synge Street. Having read about missionary life in a CTS pamphlet he almost stumbled upon the SMA and pursued his studies in Clough and Dromantine. Ordained in 1940 [by virtue of dispensation for not having yet attained the canonical age] in a class of twenty, he was first assigned to Egypt. Due to the 2nd World War his passage there was delayed some months. When he did eventually travel by sea it was quite an eventful journey, one that Davie used to tell with some relish. Suffice it to say there was more than good fortune in their reaching the shores of Africa at all.

But the sentiments of our opening reading this afternoon would surely have been nourishing his heart, even if it is highly unlikely that the words of Ecclesiasticus were on his lips. “You who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy: do not turn aside in case you fall. You who fear the Lord, trust him, and you will not be baulked of your reward”. Fear of the Lord in the best sense of respect and awe before God’s presence was ingrained in Davie’s psyche. He would have relied on “the Lord who is compassionate and merciful” to bring him through the acutest danger.

His early period in Egypt was spent in Choubra in Cairo. Here he taught in two different schools and in fact he was to devote the first twenty-five years of his priesthood to the teaching profession. These first years were difficult as provisions were in short supply. For a man who became renowned for hospitality and the quality of his table it must have been difficult to accept such poor fare; oftentimes the only meat available was camel meat, and the house had no fridge to preserve food or cool the water. The last twelve of the seventeen years he was to spend in Egypt were spent in St George’s College, Heliopolis. Many of these years were spent as Superior and it was through his efforts that the school attained the very high renown that it achieved. Davie was very precise and supremely efficient. Indeed, even in retirement, he could wither you with a damning look if you were to be any bit off the mark in the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours.

Davie enjoyed good relations with the majority Moslem population in Egypt but it was his relations with the Oriental Coptic Christians that he specially treasured. He greatly admired the quality of their liturgies, the diversity of their rites, and the precision of their icons. He visited Coptic monasteries in the desert and was a frequent visitor to St Catherine’s at the foot of Mt Sinai.

Notwithstanding his enjoyment of life in Egypt, Davie’s soul stirred with thoughts of a different experience of Africa. “The word of God is something alive and active: it cuts more finely than any doubled-edged sword: it can slip through the place where the soul is divided from the spirit; and it can judge the secret emotions and thoughts”. This we are told in our second reading today from Hebrews, the actual reading of the Mass on Saturday morning when Davie died. The word of God was alive and active in Davie and he responded to its promptings. On request, he was assigned to the mission in Northern Nigeria to the Diocese of Kaduna. For the next twenty years or so he laboured in this vineyard. He taught at St John’s College, Kaduna; at the Minor Seminary in Zaria and the Teacher Training College. Eventually he left the teaching ministry and joined in parish ministry in such places as Our Lady of Fatima, Kano, Mabushi, Kaduna town itself and perhaps other places. He felt most at home in the ‘bush’ ministry to remote villages.

Davie’s efficiency, his decency, his ability was well respected by his colleagues in the SMA as by the people among whom he lived and served. This was testified to by the fact that he was on three separate occasions elected by his colleagues to be their representative to the Provincial Assembly, once by the men in Egypt in 1952 and twice by the men in Kaduna in 1968 and ’73. He was generally easy to get on with, was kind and always hospitable. These qualities remained with him as he moved into a different location of ministry after thirty six years in Africa.

In 1977 Davie took a sabbatical in Scotland doing parish ministry in the Diocese of Aberdeen. He was assigned to the Highland district around the town of Inverness. He especially enjoyed serving these isolated communities. When his sabbatical year came to a close he was asked by the bishop and agreed to continue on in this ministry. He was to do so for another ten years and who knows how much longer it would have continued had a heart attack in 1988 not intervened. This forced him to abandon his isolated communities and seek a job that would be less taxing. He was much appreciated by the bishop, clergy and people of Aberdeen as is noted in these words I quote from a letter written to him by Bishop Conti: “you were a tremendous help, a marvelous colleague, and an exemplary pastor”.

From the Highlands of Scotland he moved to the lowlands of Nottingham where he spent five happy years as chaplain to a group of elderly nuns in a convent in Cleethorps. An amusing angle to this apostolate was that the Sisters resided in St Hugh’s convent.

Ill health gradually became more pronounced so in 1993 he moved into retirement. First of all he spent four happy years in Dromantine and this was followed by almost a decade in Wilton and finally joining the community at Blackrock Road just about three months ago.

Recounting his life in this manner should not be interpreted to mean that Davie had no weaknesses. He did, just like every single one of the rest of us. But he did, as we can, take comfort in the second half of that beautiful passage from Hebrews. “For it is not as if we had a high priest who was incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us”. Yes, Jesus too experienced weakness; he was tempted in every way that we are, though without sin. With such a one as this on our side, what do we really have to fear? Davie has now conquered fear; we pray that we too will one day join him in that victory.

Ar dheis lámh Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

Fr DANIEL J DALY SMA

Funeral Homily – 14 July 2005

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior)

Readings: Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8,11
Hebrews 12:18-19.21-24
Matthew 11: 25-30

The date 12th of July is associated by one community in Ireland with joy, by the other community with sadness: by one community with victory, by the other with loss. For Fr Dan Daly SMA this was the day he finally heard the invitation to accept victory over death and cross over into new life. For some time now he had enjoyed the status of being the oldest member of our Province. For someone who lived 95 and a half years – and indeed would sometimes claim that his recorded date of birth denied him another year – it was perhaps fitting that he should die on such an historic date. He was born at the very tail-end of the first decade of the last century and last millennium at Caherhayes, Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick. And he was to spend almost an entire century devoting his life to the promotion of God’s reign. Almost seventy years of this life was lived as an SMA missionary priest. So, we gather in thanksgiving this afternoon to pray that like Jesus Dan too will be resurrected into new life.

Many of you will recognise that this afternoon’s Gospel passage was the passage read at yesterday’s Mass, the Wednesday of the 15th week of the year. This passage speaks directly to Dan Daly’s lived faith experience. I would describe his faith as simple but solid. It was built on the twin towers of devotion to the Eucharist and devotion to Mary. This Gospel passage reminds us that we have no claim on divine revelation. Whatever is revealed of the mystery of God is pure gift. “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children”. Human intelligence – intellectual knowledge – is no gateway to understanding the mystery of the divine. Only the stance of solid faith opens us to the possibility of receiving whatever is gifted to us of the mystery of God.

Our opening reading from Ecclesiastes shows us that there is a time proper to everything. “A time to be born, and a time to die; …. God has made everything suitable for its time; but although he has given us an awareness of the passage of time, we can grasp neither the beginning nor the end of what God does”. Over the course of a century Dan must have had a keen awareness of the passage of time. Just imagine the enormous changes that he witnessed throughout his 95 years, changes becoming ever more accelerated in latter years. But he was even more keenly aware that we can truly grasp neither the beginning or the end of this incredible process. And he devoted his life helping people come to an awareness of this mystery, both in Africa and in Ireland, as missionary priest.

Our Hebrews reading speaks of fear before the mystery of God. A scene so terrible that even Moses himself was struck with trembling and fright. But what else would one expect to be struck by when introduced into the very presence of God himself. Our belief is that today Dan is experiencing God’s presence in greater fullness than heretofore. And before that mystery the only right response and attitude is one of wonder, of not knowing, of serenity before the mystery. The fear we speak of here is no ordinary fear. This is biblical fear. A fear not sourced in threat to one’s very being but rather sourced in awe before the presence of God, fear sourced in wonder, in amazement, in acceptance of not knowing and yet believing. Dan Daly knew this kind of fear. And he learned over the course of a long and sometimes difficult life to accept it with serenity.

For Dan Daly, vocation to priesthood was not the first call. His first desire was to work as an agricultural instructor. And so he spent some years at agricultural school with the Salesian Order. But a vocation to missionary priesthood was being discerned and so he gradually made his way to secondary school in Wilton. He was to spend three difficult years here but such difficulties might be understandable given that this period coincided with the great Depression of the late 1920s and early 30s. He moved on through Kilcolgan and Dromantine before ordination on 19th December, 1937. As a priest, his first assignment was to Lagos, Nigeria. In fact, he arrived in Lagos on 28th October, 1938 on the very day that the Bishop of the Vicariate, Bishop O’Rourke, died.

Lagos at that time was still a Vicariate, and it was huge, stretching from Lagos to Ilorin. Dan’s first appointment was to Ado-Ekiti where he was to spend 18 months in pastoral work. In fact, a run through his early appointments is to receive a geography lesson on Western Nigeria. From Ado he moved to Oke Padi in Ibadan, from there to Ile-Ife, from there to Iperu in Ijebu Province where he was to teach and be principal of a Teacher’s Training College, from there to Suru-Lere in Lagos itself and other appointments besides. It was a time of physical hardship – compounded for a period by the 2nd World War when resources were as scarce in Nigeria as they probably were here in Ireland – but a time also of contentment and spiritual fulfilment. In all, Dan was to spend the guts of thirty years on mission in Nigeria.

The severe climate, causing regular bouts of dysentery and malaria, was to wreak a severe price on his health. His latter years in Nigeria were plagued by illness and this illness was to dog his life for most of the remainder. He once thought a transfer to the American Province might be the solution to his problems but this process was never completed. A desire to work in pastoral ministry in America also had to be shelved. His struggle with illness meant that any significant pastoral appointment anywhere was afterwards precluded. Yet he was to give valuable service to the Society through office duty and valuable service in the wider pastoral scene here in the city of Cork through his promotion of devotion to Our Blessed Lady. He became somewhat of a leader to the Marian Priests Movement here in Cork and various lay Marian Prayer Groups which resulted in a profound devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus.

Unfortunately, the illness meant that for many years relationships with his family, his confreres in the SMA, especially with Superiors of Diocese and Society, became strained. Thankfully, however, his latter years, through the blessing of very good and kind medical care, were lived out in great serenity. He became a much loved member of the community at Blackrock Road, to those he lived among and to those blessed to care for him. Throughout all his illness – his hearing too becoming more progressively impaired – he remained faithful to prayer. One would almost never see him without the Rosary beads entwined in his hands. This was always his first request of the caring staff. He spent many hours too in quiet contemplation of the Blessed Sacrament.

But his interests were not so heavenly minded that he lost all interest in the world here below. He remained lucid to the very end. His hearing may have almost completely gone but his interests and mind were razor sharp. I was often amazed in recent times by the questions he asked about subjects that I would have assumed had completely passed him by. He was always keen to know how his beloved Limerick had done in hurling or football. And he took great delight in simple things such as the success he recently enjoyed in the house lottery on the Grand National. He also had a great appreciation for flowers: he insisted that every week fresh flowers would be placed at Our Lady’s altar. He paid for such flowers but also insisted on getting value for money! In fact, his use of money in latter years reflected his faith. Much of it was given away to the Vincent de Paul or the Samaritans or to one or other of the Marian movements.

Dan was to make a few attempts at dying. I well remember that about six or seven years ago we remained at his bedside through several nights believing that the end was surely near. And his recoveries were always dramatic; not a slow recovery but a dramatic one as if to suggest the previous days were but an aberration to the norm. In some ways such recoveries reflected his strong and forceful personality style.

Two days ago his timing and the Lord’s timing finally coincided. We can indeed be grateful for his long life, a life of struggle and yet a life that, in the end particularly, became an inspiration that illness can also, given the right care, lead to serenity. As the elder statesman, he will be missed by us all.

Ar dheis lamh De go raibh a anam dilis.

Fr Con O’Driscoll SMA

Funeral Homily – November 23rd, 2005

(Preached by Fr Fachtna O’Driscoll SMA, Provincial Superior)

Readings: Wisdom 6: 12-16
1 Cor 15: 20-28
John 14: 1-6

Con O’Driscoll was vested in alb and stole ready to celebrate Mass with his beloved Knights of St Columbanus when he was taken suddenly ill and died just after 3pm on Sunday last, the Feast of Christ the King. For all of fifty-six years Con had lived his missionary priesthood with a passion that was both exemplary and inspiring. I have no doubt were one to ask Con for his choice of dress at death he would have chosen none other than what he was wearing. He may not have dared to hope for this. But it looks awfully like God’s way of saying “well done my good and faithful servant”. This is surely but a part of that hundredfold that the Lord promises in this life to those who serve faithfully and well. And few could have been as prepared as Con to enter effortlessly into the Father’s embrace when the final call came so suddenly. Sunday was also the eve of the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lady. For a man who had such a strong devotion to Our Lady there was surely a symbolism in this timing also.

Con’s passing came so suddenly and unexpectedly that even four days later we still find it hard to take in. Only on Sunday morning he seemed just as keen as ever to enter into a hectic day of pastoral and evangelical outreach, just as he had done on countless Sundays before. But he has gone from our sight, to accompany us no more on this earthly plane. He will be sorely missed by his wide extended family, spanning four generations. He will be sorely missed by his friends and colleagues in so many kingdom-building endeavours in this city and well beyond. And he is and will continue to be a huge loss to us his brothers in the SMA.

While Con would recognise and affirm the natural human sense of grief and loss that accompanies his death, he would want us quickly to move beyond the tears to a consideration of the deeper questions. Con’s was a life absorbed by these deeper questions. And he was vehement in his response to such questions. For him there were no doubts, buts or maybes. It was all a seamless Yes. Not for Con the questioning of Thomas, “how can we know the way?”. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus is Lord and in him we find the fullness of life. Death on the earthly plane is but a stage, a transition point, on the greater journey back to God. At death life is changed, not ended.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house”. How often Con must have repeated those words of Jesus to console grieving relatives of the dead. One can almost hear him speaking them right now. He had no doubt that Jesus had gone and prepared a place for him and that he would return to take him with him. Jesus has now returned and our faith assures us that he has brought Con with him into one of those rooms in the Father’s house.

Many of you will recognise our second reading this afternoon as being the second reading of last Sunday’s Mass. St Paul theologises for the people of Corinth on the significance of Christ’s death on the cross. “Just as death came through one man in the same way the resurrection of the dead has come through one man. Just as all people die in Adam, so all will be brought to life in Christ”. We see here that death and life are at the heart of God’s plan for the world, with life always winning out. While death is part and parcel of the life of each human person, so too is life beyond death. But these are mysteries not so easy to grapple with. In an age when our various cultural expressions seem to be moving us towards the denial of death it is imperative that we do not concede ground to such illusions. Con O’Driscoll had no truck with such illusions. During the last fifteen years, when such illusions were gaining greater popularity, Con devoted his life to countering them. Whether in the parish of West Green in London, or through Legion of Mary, Knights of St Columbanus, Simon community, various Marian prayer groups or other outreaches Con never failed to preach in season and out of season the eternal values and creeds of the Christian gospel.

Con was a genuine seeker after Wisdom. For this reason I think the opening reading today is quite appropriate. It is true that he did seek news, sometimes even gossip. And his range of interest was wide. But the search went much deeper; not for things at the superficial level only but for the wisdom of God. In fact, you could say that wisdom befriended him. As the reading puts it, “wisdom is found by those who look for her”. One of Con’s innocent quirks was to begin a conversation with a query about some person or something. One quickly learned that this was Con’s none too subtle way of telling you that he was privy to information that you did not have yourself. This was an innocent enough trait that hid no malice but it could be a little irritating at times, especially if it carried the further tone that somehow you were failing in your duty by not knowing what he knew. Sometimes, just for a tease, it was interesting to bat back with a point that was slightly revolutionary and vaguely heretical. Con would chase such a point to the end like a greyhound after a hare.

Con was born in the parish of Aughadown in the heart of West Cork – a great SMA stronghold – almost 83 years ago. He did his secondary schooling in St Fachtna’s, Skibbereen and always spoke warmly of his years there. As a young man he had a keen interest in sports, especially athletics. He was once presented with a pocket-watch for being the best all-round athlete in the school. He also played Gaelic Football with some distinction at the local level. Towards the end of his life I would not have considered him to be sports minded but perhaps it was these early endeavours that sparked the enduring interest in how his grand and great-grandnephews and nieces were performing in their chosen sports. And I understand that he was not slow either to deliver some tactical advice and propose physical exercise programs.

Con never lost his love for his native place. He went back frequently to West Cork, in more recent times probably mostly for the funerals of his contemporaries. Regularly during these trips he would wander back to the place of his birth and gaze out to sea. He must have derived great spiritual sustenance from the contemplation of his roots. He had a tremendous sense of pride in his native place and in the O’Drisceoil clan.

After ordination in 1949 Con was appointed to the Mid-West of Nigeria and served in Asaba-Benin Vicariate, Benin City Diocese and Warri Diocese. He was known to have a facility as a builder; one of his proudest feats was to have the old marble altar from Drimoleague church transported to Nigeria and set in the new church he had built in Ashaka, and it is still in use to this day. But Con will perhaps be best remembered as an administrator. He served as Vicar-General of the diocese of Warri during a turbulent time in the State of Nigeria and the Church in Warri. [Fr Dan Cashman gave a very moving testimony to that period of Con’s life last night] He coped admirably during the Civil War years that affected the missionaries in Warri closely. The absence of the Bishop during much of this time meant that the weight of responsibility fell on Con’s shoulders. This took a severe toll on his psyche and physique. Simultaneously with the Civil War a climate of mistrust was also to develop in the Church at Warri. This was to add to the burden of office resulting in Con’s needing to return to Europe for some needed recuperation. He spent two years in Ballinafad and over four years in the Diocese of Clifton. This was followed by twenty wonderful years in secondment to the British Province working in their parish of West Green, North London. Con really flourished in this environment; the spirit that seemed to have been sapped and sucked out of him through the difficulties in Nigeria returned with gusto and he was to enjoy a very rewarding pastoral experience in West Green parish. Many parishioners there hold him in very fond memory and it is good to see some of them with us today.

When Con retired from West Green in 2001 we all assumed he came home to rest. It is dangerous to assume anything. Con’s talent and skill to befriend people meant that it was all but impossible for him to sit and rest. He needed to be active. In the last two days I have found the following little gems of wisdom in my daily calendar, almost as if written with Con in mind. The first says, As you grow older, you’ll find the only things you regret are the things you didn’t do. It seems to me Con was intent on proving there would be few things he would regret. The second says, When one has a great deal to put into it, a day has a hundred pockets. On that calculation Con must have had about a thousand pockets.

An impairment to his sight meant that he had to forego driving a car. But this he could see as gift as it meant that others now were drawn into his missionary endeavours. And I don’t think any of his numerous chauffeurs really objected to being co-opted in this way. He had extraordinary energy for a man of his years. And, of course, he proved the rule that the only one to ask to do a task was a busy person. Con was never to be found wanting when some chore was required by the community. He loved working in the garden; this, I understand, was a relatively late interest for him, an interest deepened by his relatives’ regular gifts of books on gardening matters. His apostolate to the Legion of Mary – whether to Praesidium, Curia, Comitium, Concilium – was persevering. Within the last month he hosted a group of young people on Legion of Mary outreach to the natives of Cork. He was especially proud of the part in played in the work of the Knights of St Columbanus, and the wonderful new structure of Bru Columbanus just here beside us was a genuine source of pride to him. He led several pilgrimages to Knock or Medugorge, and he was already planning to return there this coming June; he took part in numerous prayer groups, especially those with a Marian flavour; he promoted devotion to Divine Mercy and was a devoted rosary man. Each evening he prayed the rosary with the men in St Theresa’s before his own silent Holy Hour for the missions.

Con’s missionary career has now closed. But his spirit will remain with his family, Society and colleagues as we work to bring about God’s reign in our world. His inspiration is a fond legacy.

Ar dheis lamh De go raibh a anam dilis.

Fr Connie Griffin SMA
Funeral Homily – November 26th 2007 at St Peter’s Church, Sabon Tasha, Kaduna, Nigeria
(Preached by Fr John Haverty SMA)

Your Grace, Archbishop Jatau, My Lord Bishops, Fellow Priests, Rev Sisters, Brothers & Sisters in Christ:

On behalf of Fr Connie Griffin lying here, l wish to express our sincere gratitude to all of you gathered here this morning to pay our final respect to the Late Fr Griffin SMA.  He has indeed touched the lives of many people: he has  touched my life to the very depth of its core: not only because we have been close friends and near neighbours and because we have spent many hours sitting in the moonlight at Kurmin Sara, sharing experiences and expectations, but mainly because he was a deeply spiritual priest.

On Monday last, November 19th on my way from Abuja, where I had witnessed the last days of Fr Griffin on earth, I called in to Kurmin Sara, his parish, to tell them the shocking news that ‘Griffin, Your Parish Priest, is dead’ one of his faithful friends shouted  BA GRIFFIN YA MUTU BA, MU NE MUN MUTU : MU DUKAN MUTANEN K / SARA MUN MUTU. SHI YANA A NAN DA RAI AMA MU MATTATU NE.  As he uttered these words I had a vision of Griffin being escorted by the Angels to his seat of glory in heaven and “l John heard a voice from Heaven say to me ‘Happy are those who die in the Lord. Now they can rest for ever, after their work, since their good deeds go with them. Then the One sitting on the Throne spoke: I will give them water from the well of life, free for anybody who is thirsty. It is the rightful inheritance of the one who proves victorious… he will never hunger or thirst again: neither the sun nor the scorching wind will ever plague him for the Lamb on His throne will be his Shepherd.”  I was happy for Griffin but sorry for ourselves.  MU NE MATTATU.

That Griffin of that vision was a different Griffin to the one of the past 4 days. On Tuesday I had called to him to pick up some letters for Abuja: he said he had ‘a bit of a fever’ but it was not serious. I tried to persuade him to come with me to Hospital in Abuja but he refused saying he was busy and he’d be OK. The following evening on my return I noticed that he had deteriorated but still insisted he’d be fine.  I told him that in the morning he must come to hospital: next morning I came at 9.45 and he had to be carried unconscious from his room and when we reached the Hospital in Abuja he was almost gone. The Staff at the National Hospital all tried their best for the next four days but all in vain.

There is no inherent dignity in death except what the person brings to it by his patience and endurance.  He never complained.  While conscious he signed himself with the cross regularly. On the last morning he said to Sam “Zan mutu”. This suffering Griffin was a different Griffin to the victorious later Griffin of the Apocalyptic vision.

Fr Griffin was born on September 1st 1947 in the beautiful seaside resort of Schull in Cork, Ireland, the youngest of four, two boys and two girls. In due time he attended the Minor Seminary but to fulfil his Missionary ambition he later joined the SMA .  After ordination to the priesthood in 1974 he came to Nigeria.  At the initial stages one might have doubted ‘if he were built for the Nigerian roads’ as the ad says. He had a rather frail appearance and a sensitive and timid personality. He had his first few short appointments in urban areas of Zaria and Kano and then launched out into the rural areas where he would spend the remaining 28 years of his pastoral life.

He endeared himself to the people of Ikululand during his appointment there 1980 to 1984.  The following 4 years were spent at Sabon Sarki and then to the vast parish of Dan Ladi (1989 – 96 where the familiar sight of Griffin shrouded like a Sheik on the back of a motor bike was certainly rather amusing.  Back in Kagoro 1996 – 2004 he made a lasting impression: his buildings and decoration are adequate testimony.  Kurmin Sara welcomed him with open arms in 2005: he was the answer to their prayers.

Fr Griffin was a man of many talents: the builder and decorator, the well digger, a social developer, etc. I will not dwell on any of these, worthy as they are: rather I will try to find the secret that gave him that charism to touch the lives of so many people. Many heartfelt tears have been shed by adult men and w omen on hearing of his death. He sure touched many hearts.                                      

The key to his energy and inner strength was his personal relationship with God. I say that because I’ve had the privilege of sharing many relaxed hours of mutual visits and conversations and sometimes arguments.  He was a man of God and his love for humanity sprang from his strong personal love of God.  God was always p resent to him.  God was in him and he was in God. He reminds me of Anthony de Mello’s story.  He always had one of De Mello’s books at his bedside.  He has one story about the Grandfather Fish who was swimming around very relaxed in the sea. A young fish swam up to him in a great hurry, so impatient: I am looking for the Sea: where is it?  Relax, my boy, said Grandfather: you are right in it, swimming in it.  But this is water, said the young fish impatiently, and swam away annoyed. Griffin knew God is here, all around him, always. Many of us are too busy like the young fish. De Mello said read a passage of Scripture, carry it around in your heart and let it light up your experiences of the day. The Hub of your life will be God.

During our sitting down together conversing he will sometimes break off and make the sign of the cross; equally when travelling there must be the occasional sign of the cross. I was expecting him to visit one evening at Kachia: I saw the headlights of his car turning in off the main road: I recognised his pick up: I waited, waited. No sign. I took a short stroll to see what was wrong: I was astonished: there I saw him kneeling by his car on the road….l retreated.

Most of us don’t even know where to look for God.  Another little favourite story of Griffin from Tony de Mello: Nasruddin was on his hands and knees on the street busy looking for something. “What are you looking for asked his neighbour?  My key, I lost it yesterday. They both searched for a while but in vain. Where do you think you lost it. I lost it in the forest. Then why are you looking for it here? Because it is easier to search here. Like Nasruddin we are looking for God sometimes in the wrong place and that’s why we don’t find him. Whether in Kurmin Sara or Danladi, Kagoro, Gidan Bako or Sabon Sarki or wherever Griffin knew God was there.

De Mello tells us to look into the eyes of the sick and the suffering and the needy and there we will see and meet God, the God of compassion. It was touching t a mass in K/Sara during the week to hear a poor disabled person giving testimony weeping and recounting all that Griffin had done for her. Another parishioner there confided in me that Griffin had told him that wherever he died(and whenever) he wouldn’t wish for an expensive coffin and an elaborate funeral: he thought such expenses should better be spent to assist the needy. When he realized that he was in that wonderful but rather expensive National Hospital he was quite concerned about such matters. And later on sorting through his personal items in his inner room at Kurmin Sara was a lesson on the right use of Mission money.

His little sense of humour and fun was well known to all.  At any sitting with Griffin you must expect something funny from him.  And so to end up on a lighter note I just recall a recent local party which we both attended.  When it was time for “Riddles and Jokes” he was first to raise his hand and go to the centre: ‘The teacher in the classroom said: Who can make a sentence with the word ” INCOME “? One bright boy raised his hand: Yes, what is it?  Sir, I opened the door and INCOME THE CAT.
AT 3.15 P.M. ON NOV 19TH 2OO7 ST PETER OPENED THE DOOR OF HEAVEN AND “INCOME GRIFFIN”. MAY HE REST IN PERFECT PEACE. AMEN.

Ar dheis lámh Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

Funeral Homilies – SMA Irish Province

2009

Fr James Harrold SMA – Funeral Homily – 1st September 2009 at St Joseph’s SMA Parish Church, Wilton

Jesus wanted to be remembered by us. On that night before he died at the last supper, with his Apostles around him, he set aside his cloak, filled a basin with water, grabbed a towel, got down on his knees and washed their feet. This was the same Jesus who on another occasion at another meal changed water into wine. This was the same Jesus who had raised people from the dead, gave sight to the blind cured the lepers healed the sick. This was the Son of God and yet it was in the context of this simple gesture and what would immediately follow it, that he specifically wished to be remembered… Homily here

Fr Jimmy O’Connell SMA – Funeral Homily – August 6th 2009 at St Joseph’s SMA Parish Church, Wilton
As we gather to mourn at the death Fr James O’Connell, together with his family and friends, we come also to celebrate the life of our brother and fellow missionary. His life can be viewed as having two major chapters: the active missionary and the retired man who suffered from Parkinson’s disease for many years. While it is easier to focus on the active part of his life we acknowledge that the latter years are an integral part of the story of this good man. Our life is like a weaving or tapestry woven through the relationships we form and events that overtake us in the life time given to us by the God who created us. Death offers a time to remember and retell our stories. We turn to the wisdom and insights of Sacred Scripture to help us relate to the mystery of Jimmy’s life and death… Homily here

Fr Harry Casey SMA – Funeral Homily – February 9th 2009 at St Nicholas’ Parish Church, Ardglas, Co Down
Our readings from scripture are important today as they provide us with windows of hope and so they become avenues through which we grapple with death and gradually come to terms with the loss of Fr Harry Casey, our brother priest. These readings also invite us to be more conscious of our own life as it unfolds each day and our future death which will come eventually in God’s time… Homily here

Fr Paddy Carroll SMA – Funeral Homily – January 31st 2009 at St Joseph’s SMA Parish Church Wilton
A monk asks: ‘Is there anything more miraculous than the wonders of nature?’ The Master answers: ‘Yes, your awareness of the wonders of nature.’ Over the last several months Paddy Carroll had turned his always enquiring mind to the issue of Creation. Some would say, perhaps, that his wonder was primed by the many happy hours he spent on the green sod in different continents. But his wonder was a deeply spiritual quest. He sought out again the spiritual poems of George Herbert to cast light on the magnificence of creation. This was a spiritual quest… Homily here

2008

Fr John A Creaven SMA – Funeral Homily – December 5th 2008 at St Joseph’s SMA Parish Church, Blackrcok Road, Cork
“As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind”. I believe those who knew John A. Creaven will agree that this short quotation from Cicero captures the essence of this extraordinary missionary priest.  Homily here…

Fr John O’Mahony SMA – Funeral Homily – November 14th 2008 at St Joseph’s SMA Parish Church, Blackrock Road, Cork
I had to send a text message on Wednesday evening last to Bishop John Moore SMA in Bauchi, Nigeria. I took the opportunity to also tell him of John O’Mahony’s death, in case he had not heard it. His reply text offered sympathy to all and then said “John was a giant in every way”. John’s physical frame had increased somewhat over the last months especially; but it is not his physical stature that merits him the title of giant but rather his pioneering and unique contribution to the spread of the gospel through the use of modern means of communication. His establishment and management of the Catholic media centre in the archdiocese of Kaduna, Nigeria will stand the test of time. Here he trained more than 2000 Nigerians in the craft of radio and TV production and made more than 200 religious radio programmes and 30 TV programmes per year. Of John it can be truly said: “he was a legend in his own life time”.  Homily here…

Fr James McCarthy SMA – Funeral Homily – October 15th 2008 at St Joseph’s SMA Parish Church, Blackrock Road, Cork
Many of you will recognise that two of the readings chosen for this Mass were the assigned readings for last Sunday’s liturgy. Jim died within a few hours of those readings being proclaimed in Catholic churches throughout the world, just a few minutes into the first hour of Monday morning. He was a few months shy of attaining 88 years of life; two months shy of celebrating 65 years as an SMA priest. Today we gather as a Christian community to celebrate his life and to pray him home to the God he strove to serve faithfully all his life. Homily here...

Fr Jeremiah Dwyer SMA – Funeral Homily – August 7th 2008 at St Joseph’s SMA Parish Church, Blackrock Road, Cork
Tuesday 5th August was a difficult day for Fr Jerry Dwyer’s family. It was a difficult day but also a very special day because Fr Jerry’s sister Ann and her son Denis and brother Dan and his wife Brenda knew that when they were called by Fr O’Shea before breakfast that it was to come and say goodbye to their older brother who was such a part of their life. The family sat with Jerry from breakfast until supper when he took his last breath just before 6.00pm. Homily here…

Fr Dominic Kearns SMA – Funeral Homily – April 9th 2008 at St Joseph’s SMA Parish Church, Blackrock Road, Cork
For the last few weeks of this Easter Season we have been celebrating the life and death and New Life of Jesus Christ.  As we continue that celebration we gather here today to celebrate also the life and death of Fr. Dominic Kearns SMA and to pray with great trust and hope that our friend and missionary is sharing also the New Life of Easter Resurrection with his God. Homily here…

2007

Fr Connie Griffin SMA – Funeral Homily – November 26th 2007 at St Peter’s Church, Sabon Tasha, Kaduna, Nigeria
Your Grace, Archbishop Jatau, My Lord Bishops, Fellow Priests, Rev Sisters, Brothers & Sisters in Christ: On behalf of Fr Connie Griffin lying here, l wish to express our sincere gratitude to all of you gathered here this morning to pay our final respect to the Late Fr Griffin SMA.  He has indeed touched the lives of many people: he has  touched my life to the very depth of its core: not only because we have been close friends and near neighbours and because we have spent many hours sitting in the moonlight at Kurmin Sara, sharing experiences and expectations, but mainly because he was a deeply spiritual priest. Full text here…

Fr Frank McCabe SMA – Funeral Homily – September 6th 2007 at SMA Parish Church, Wilton
“But it is not as if you live in the dark, my brothers, for that Day to overtake you like a thief”. These words from St Paul’s first letter to the disciples at Thessalonica were heard in today’s second reading.  This in fact was the first reading at Mass on the morning that Frank died. Few people were as well prepared to meet the Lord as Fr Frank McCabe. His whole life was dedicated to the Lord: the greater part in active ministry; the latter years in full-scale prayer and adoration. It is a consolation to his family and friends that he went to meet the Lord not in the dark but very much in the light. Full text here…

Fr Brian Horan SMA – Funeral Homily – April 16th 2007 at SMA Parish Church, Wilton
There is a piece of wisdom that goes something like this:
Those who go looking for happiness for itself rarely find it.
But if you pursue being a good person; be motivated to be dedicated in ones calling
and conscientious in ones work – then happiness will find you.
These are the words that come to my mind as I try to sum up the life of Fr Brian. Happiness found Brian. The transition to the fullness of that happiness found him most unexpectedly when he died in his sleep some time on Wednesday night or early Thursday morning last. Unexpected for sure; unprepared I don’t think so. Full text here…

Fr Micheál Kennedy SMA – Funeral Homily – March 28th 2007 at SMA Parish Church, Wilton
“There is a destiny that makes us brothers None of us goes our way alone
All that we put into the lives of others Comes back into our own”.
I do not know the exact origin of these words but they impacted Halai Kennedy to the extent that he used them in a speech prepared for the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of ordination to priesthood in Blackrock Road in June, 2001. I think they express eloquently sentiments he lived his life by. He knew he was not alone. For the past number of years debilitating sickness necessitated his being aided in most things. Perhaps it was merely payback time for the goodness he brought to others’ lives during 55 plus years of missionary priesthood. Full text here…

Fr Peter Devine SMA – Funeral Homily – March 26th 2007 at Tullyallen Parish Church
When the renowned scripture scholar, the late Raymond Brown, was once asked if he intended following the writing of The Death of the Messiah by a similar work on the Resurrection he replied, ‘I would prefer to research that topic face to face’. Fr Peter ‘Doc’ Devine SMA is now face to face with the topic of resurrection and it is the belief of the Christian community gathered here this afternoon that the Lord has invited him home to begin the process of full sharing in the very being of God. Full text here…

Fr John McCreanor SMA – Funeral Homily – 01 March 2007 at The Parish Church, Ballinahinch, Co Down
Dietrich Bonhoeffer has been quoted as saying “we must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.” The last decade or so of Fr John McCreanor’s 87 years of life was lived with the sign of suffering. Now his suffering is finally over. In the early hours of last Tuesday morning John yielded up his spirit and breathed his last. Full text here…

Fr Christopher Murphy SMA – Funeral Homily – 02 February 2007 at SMA Parish Church, Wilton, Cork
All things are born and die in time, but only in the case of human beings is an awareness of temporality constitutive of their identity. Without remembrance, we know not who we are, can make no plans and have no hope. We learn, or fail to learn, to live and speak the truth – and truthfulness takes time. This quotation from the theologian, Nicholas Lash, reminds us of the importance of remembering. It is through remembering we know who we are. In the life of Chris Murphy there is much to remember. In fact, eighty-eight full years of remembering. Sixty-two years of that as a missionary priest in the Society of African Missions. Full text here …

Fr David Hughes SMA – Funeral Homily – 15 January 2007 at SMA Parish Church, Wilton, Cork
The coming of the hour of dawn seems to be a significant time when people accept the invitation to journey from this life to the next. Our last two confreres buried from this church died at almost the exact same time of morning, soon after 8am. That final turn in the bed after a somewhat protracted illness seemed to allow them move gently into God. These two men’s lives warrant comparison: both lived to a ripe old age; both were ordained during the course of the 2nd World War; both served their early missionary career in Egypt, a mission to which not a large number were ever assigned; and both enjoyed healthy mental functioning until shortly before they died. David Hughes can now connect again with Owen Maginn and rehearse stories of Choubra and St George’s, Heliopolis. One thing we can be sure of: there will be much laughter. Full text here …

2006

Fr Owen Maginn SMA – Funeral Homily – 05 December 2006 at SMA Parish Church, Wilton, Cork
“When the Father laughs at the Son and the Son laughs back at the Father, that laughter gives pleasure, that pleasure gives joy, that joy gives love, and that love is the Holy Spirit”. When Meister Eckhart spoke those words back in the 14th century he may well have been motivated by having encountered someone like Fr Owen Maginn. I think for most of us the abiding memory we will carry of Owen is his laughter. Even when he was being most serious, or trying to be most serious, even in the latter days of his sickness when describing a condition that was obviously painful and critical, he could hardly conclude his remarks without breaking into his trademark giggle. That mischievous sparkle in the eye [as someone noted in our website guestbook], that giggle and laughter, were manifestations of something very wholesome inside the spirit and body of this extraordinary missionary. Full text here …

Fr John Burke SMA – Funeral Homily – 21 November 2006 at SMA Parish Church, Wilton, Cork
One sometimes has to wonder at the planning of God! To take a man at a relatively young age, a man who is seemingly at the height of his powers and energy, a man who is devoting enormous amounts of time to good works, to the advancement of God’s reign on earth though pastoral action and writing, to take such a man appears to our way of planning as strange. Yet, this is all part of the mystery that is God and the mystery that is life. We do not know the mind of God. All we can do is live with the mystery and surrender ourselves to its unfolding meaning. Full text here…

Fr Tom Egan SMA – Funeral Homily – 5 May 2006 at SMA Parish Church, Wilton, Cork
In his heyday, Fr Tom Egan was renowned for the eloquence of his after-dinner speeches or his words of gratitude at an SMA Promoters’ meeting. It was a pleasure to be treated to Tom’s choice of complimentary and affirmative phrases that were rarely understated. However, in his latter years, particularly since he joined the community at Blackrock Road, his was a quiet but contented presence. It is perhaps fitting then that he died on the Feast of two of Jesus’ less prominent apostles, Saints Philip and James. Tom died on Wednesday morning last at the South Infirmary Hospital after a relatively short illness. We gather here this afternoon to celebrate this funeral liturgy and pray for the repose of his soul… Full text here…

Fr John Breheny SMA – Funeral Homily – 25 April 2006 at St Kevin’s Church, Keash, Co Sligo
If there is any such thing as a good time to die, then to die within the octave of Easter is not such a bad deal. These weeks the liturgy bombards us with resurrection imagery: the appearances of the post-resurrection Jesus the Christ testify that when he said while on earth “destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again” he was not joking. The confidence with which Peter and companions go about healing in the name of Jesus and accounting for their actions with boldness before the Sanhedrin proves the truth of that extraordinary and eternal paradox of Christianity, namely, that new life can only come through death. During this Eastertide the Paschal or Easter candle is lit throughout, as it is lit at all funeral Masses. It is intended to be a symbol of the risen Lord among his people. His presence is light, shedding this light on the meaning of life. The candle is an invitation to those who seek this light in their lives to search the Scriptures if they wish to embrace the teaching of Jesus found there…. Full text here…

Fr Joseph Brennan SMA – Funeral Homily – 3 March 2006
“Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you will return”.

These words of the Ash Wednesday liturgy were prayed in St Teresa’s Oratory just two hours before Joe Brennan died, peacefully in his bed just two doors down the corridor from the Oratory. The words are a stark reminder of the inevitability of death. Ash Wednesday, perhaps more than any other day with the possible exception of Good Friday, is a reality-check day. On that day one cannot avoid the reality of one’s own mortality. We will all eventually decay as our bodies return to the state of dust. Joe Brennan had the fortune to die on Ash Wednesday. Even though in the end his passing was sudden, he had really been preparing to die for quite some time now. Given his general state of health when he came over to Blackrock Road from Wilton some four years ago, one could say that these years have been a real bonus. It is also, of course, testimony to the wonderful care provided by our staff in Blackrock Road, lay and cleric. Joe appreciated this care very much. It is only right today to acknowledge it. … full text here

Fr James Gerard Lee SMA – Funeral Homily – 22 February 2006
When Archbishop Michael Francis of Monrovia returned to Liberia on Tuesday of last week, after more than a year of medical care in the Blackrock Road community, and word came through that he had travelled comfortably and well and was now positively blooming and blossoming back in his native environment, it was almost as if Jim Lee gave himself permission to die. Though Jim would shy away from any comparison to the holy man Simeon in the temple there was a Simeon like quality to his passing, as if he were saying ‘now your servant is ready to go in peace’. It was as if the knowledge that the bishop whom he had faithfully companioned for the guts of thirty years, sometimes in days of extraordinary danger, was safely home was all that he needed to let go that fragile grasp of life … full text here

Fr Fergus Conlan SMA – Funeral Homily – 23 January 2006 (in Zambia)
First of all, I want to extend to you from Ireland profound condolence on the very unexpected death of Fr Fergus Conlan SMA. On behalf of the entire membership of the Irish Province of the SMA I extend to Fr Fergus’ family, the church here in Ndola our sincerest sympathy. To Bishop Noel O’Regan SMA, to the priests, sisters, catechists, laity leaders, youth leaders, and the full membership of the church I give an assurance of prayerful remembrance at this sad time. It is always sad to lose a colleague; it is even tougher to lose a leader; to lose both a colleague and leader in such unexpected circumstances is a significant trauma. To those of you who were present last Tuesday morning at Kuomboka to realise that Fergus was no longer with us I offer a special word of comfort and sympathy. When I heard the news in Ireland it was with profound shock. How much more shocking must it have been for you to realise that the one you greeted ‘good night’ to in seeming good health only a few hours before was now dead. My prayer is that this celebration of Fergus’ life and entry into new life will be for you a moment of great consolation and serenity. May you find in this celebration the strength to continue your ministry of service to the church in Zambia and find in the memory of Fergus empowerment for yourself and your people in the days and years ahead. Full text here…

2005

Fr Con O’Driscoll SMA – Funeral Homily – 23 November 2005
Con O’Driscoll was vested in alb and stole ready to celebrate Mass with his beloved Knights of St Columbanus when he was taken suddenly ill and died just after 3pm on Sunday last, the Feast of Christ the King. For all of fifty-six years Con had lived his missionary priesthood with a passion that was both exemplary and inspiring. I have no doubt were one to ask Con for his choice of dress at death he would have chosen none other than what he was wearing. He may not have dared to hope for this. But it looks awfully like God’s way of saying “well done my good and faithful servant”. This is surely but a part of that hundredfold that the Lord promises in this life to those who serve faithfully and well. And few could have been as prepared as Con to enter effortlessly into the Father’s embrace when the final call came so suddenly. Sunday was also the eve of the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lady. For a man who had such a strong devotion to Our Lady there was surely a symbolism in this timing also. … full text here

Fr Daniel (Dan) Daly SMA – Funeral Homily – 14 July 2005
The date 12th of July is associated by one community in Ireland with joy, by the other community with sadness: by one community with victory, by the other with loss. For Fr Dan Daly SMA this was the day he finally heard the invitation to accept victory over death and cross over into new life. For some time now he had enjoyed the status of being the oldest member of our Province. For someone who lived 95 and a half years – and indeed would sometimes claim that his recorded date of birth denied him another year – it was perhaps fitting that he should die on such an historic date. He was born at the very tail-end of the first decade of the last century and last millennium at Caherhayes, Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick. And he was to spend almost an entire century devoting his life to the promotion of God’s reign. Almost seventy years of this life was lived as an SMA missionary priest. So, we gather in thanksgiving this afternoon to pray that like Jesus Dan too will be resurrected into new life. … full text here

Fr Richard (Rickie) Devine SMA – Funeral Homily – 14 June 2005
Dietrich Bonhoeffer has been quoted as saying “we must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.” Fr Rickie Devine’s life was blessed with many deeds. We will reflect on some of them in the course of this homily. But we remember also that the final years of his life were marked with the sign of suffering. He bore his suffering nobly and well. For a big powerful man the gradual weakening of his body and mind cannot have been easy to accept. His suffering is now finally over. He died peacefully, surrounded by the loving care of his own family and his family in the SMA, on Saturday afternoon last, at Blackrock Road, Cork. … full text here.

Fr John J (Seán) Kelly SMA – Funeral Homily – 28 April 2005
The unexpected death of Fr Seán last Sunday evening at his house in Lecarrow, Co Roscommon was a shock to his family, especially to his sister Theresa who was visiting with him for the weekend. It was a shock to his SMA family; to his parish family; to his large circle friends and acquaintances. It left us stunned, in complete darkness with all the lights gone out. We depended on our faith and God’s word to help us in our struggle with the trauma. … full text here

Fr Robert Molloy SMA – Funeral Homily – 11 April 2005
The beautifully solemn and dignified funeral ceremony of the late Pope John Paul II on Friday last was a reminder to all of us of the dignity of life, the dignity of death and the hope that Christians carry that death is not the end of dignity but the beginning of a new stage of greater dignity where life is lived in the greater fullness of God’s presence. Bob Molloy lived 92 years of life with great dignity. He died, as he lived, peacefully and quietly on the very morning that the leader of his church was buried, a church he served faithfully, diligently and with an admirable dignity all his life. … full text here

Fr Oliver Smith SMA 9 April 2005
I imagine, if we were given a choice about when to die, many of us would choose to die during the season of Easter. This is the season of alleluia and new life. The season when we are reminded again and again that death is truly swallowed up in victory. For Oliver Smith it was a lovely blessing to die during this season. And to have died in the very week that the Pope himself died, a man who seniored Oliver by only 20 days, must be regarded as a special privilege indeed. … full text here.

Fr Thomas Higgins SMA – Funeral Homily – … February 2005
1st February ushers in the Season of Spring. We notice a lengthening of the light at both ends of the day. That theme of light is carried on into the second day of the month, when we celebrate a mini-festival with lighted candles as we contemplate the Presentation of the child Jesus in the temple. 1st February is also the Feastday of St Brigid, secondary patron of Ireland. Tom Higgins’ theology and spirituality would have little truck with modern day, feminist inspired connections being made between a pagan goddess and a Christian saint, but that he should die on this particular day is not without some significance. Brigid consecrated her whole life to God, as a virgin; so did Tom. Brigid is renowned for her hospitality, almsgiving and care of the sick. These are themes running through the life of Fr Tom; at one point, as giver; at another, as receiver. He died peacefully early on Tuesday morning, in Blackrock Road, after a protracted illness. … full text here.

Fr Laurence Skelly SMA – Funeral Homily – … January 2005
The Tsunami tragedy in S.E. Asia over the holiday period has given rise to lively debate as to where was God during this tragedy. How could a good God allow such a tragedy to happen, many asked. This is not a new question. The problem of suffering has been debated since the beginning of time, since humanity has become aware that suffering is part of the human condition. Some valiant attempts at explanation have been offered, running something like the following: God’s is a creation in freedom where the marvellous processes of nature have the capacity to produce wonderful development and growth but can also bring utter destruction and devastation. For God to intervene to stop disasters occurring would necessarily involve the cessation of freedom. In such a state we would all be responding in a programmed fashion like robots. God’s gift was to create the world with its own laws, and human beings with freedom and the ability to make choices. … full text here.

2004

Fr Thomas (Tommy) Lindon SMA – Funeral Homily – 28 December 2004
There is something very poignant and sad about dying on Christmas Day. And, yet, there is something very uplifting in it also. To die in the hope of eternal life on the very day when we celebrate the coming down to earth as man of the very Son of God, the one in whom all our hopes of eternal life rest, the one who himself incarnated hope, is somehow a beautiful rounding off to a life lived in this unquenchable hope, and dedicated to spreading this same message of hope to the very ends of the earth. Fr Tommy Lindon passed away very peacefully at about 7pm on Christmas Day. His death concludes one stage of his existence. His death also brings to a closure a time of suffering and unease when the quality of his life was far from what one would wish. For a man of brilliant intellect these last few years must have been shockingly disfigured. And, yet, not least because of the loving care he received in St Theresa’s, he was gently released to meet his God when the time was right. … full text here.

Fr Michael (Mick) McGlinchey SMA – Funeral Homily – 14 December 2004
John Ayscough is quoted as saying, “Death is but a sharp corner near the beginning of life’s procession down eternity”.
These words seem appropriate in attempting to preach the word at the funeral of Fr Michael McGlinchey. In the last few years Mick’s walking style was considerably slower making sharp corners difficult to negotiate. As was observed of a famous man in his declining years, frail step following frail step – going nowhere with elegance. … full text here.

Maurice Slattery

Born: 22 September l874 at Laccamore, Abbeydorney, Co Kerry, in the diocese of Kerry
Died: 11 May l957, of heart failure, while holidaying in Tralee, Co Kerry

In his family there were eight boys and two girls.

l893-l896: secondary studies at St. Joseph’s College, Wilton, Cork
l896: joined the Society’s seminary at Lyon, France and the Society’s seminary at Choubra, Egypt
21 December l897: admitted to membership of the Society .
Ordained: 9 June l900 in the seminary chapel at Choubra along with James O’Rafferty and Thomas Gibbons by Bishop Roveggio.
1900 Teacher in the seminary at Choubra, director in the SMAs school at Zeitoun and then teacher in St. Louis college, Tantah. l904-l905: Director of students at Mahalla, Egypt
l905-l9l2: Professor at Tantah The qualities displayed during these years were such as to make him a likely choice for an important role in the launching of an Irish Province of the Society.
1912: appointed vice-Provincial of the new Province
10 September 1913: succeeded Stephen Kyne as Provincial Superior.

Maurice took charge at a time when the Province was facing a crisis of confidence. The ground work for creating the Province had been laid by Joseph Zimmermann who had been resident in Ireland since 1883. The erection of the Province coincided with a decision by Society superiors in Lyon to withdraw Fr Zimmermann from Ireland because of long standing differences. The membership of the new Province (scarcely 20 priests and brothers) was divided on the question of Fr Zimmermann’s removal, while many of the bishops, clergy and laity who had supported him over the years, now withdrew their support from the new Province. This was the situation which Maurice faced when he assumed office in 1913. By the time his term came to an end, in July 1918, he had succeeded in restoring the confidence of the members, regaining much of the lost support and placing the Province on a sound financial footing. His sure touch reflected itself in the growing confidence of the Province’s increasing number of missionaries in Liberia, Nigeria and Egypt, and in its flourishing training institutions in Ireland.

On 15 October 1913 Maurice had the joy of sending off to Liberia the first contingent of young priests ordained for the Province. They were John M Collins (later bishop of Liberia), Peter Harrington (later American Provincial), Eugene O’Hea and William Shine (who was to die a year later). Each subsequent year he presided over a new ‘departure ceremony’, held in St. Joseph’s Church, Blackrock Road, on the feast of St. Therese, patroness of the missions. One far-seeing decision which he took early in his term was the foundation of the African Missionary, the Province’s magazine which brought the missionary message into Irish homes. He himself was to contribute regularly to this journal throughout his long life. It’s first edition appeared in January 1914. Scarcely less important was the establishment of the ‘Missionary Shilling’ promotion scheme, which brought large numbers of people into contact with the Society and raised badly needed revenue. The most obvious acknowledgement of his work between 1913-1918, was the decision by Propaganda Fide to confide the vicariate of Western Nigeria to the Province in 1918, two months after Maurice’s Provincialship ended.

1918-1925: maurice was vice-Provincial and also superior of the new novitiate and house of philosophy at Kilcolgan, Co Galway. During these years he made important additions to the house to cater for the growing number of students, acting often as his own architect and clerk of works. His approach to the training of students was liberal and open minded.
1925: Maurice was once again elected Provincial by the Provincial Assembly. One of the pressing needs for the Province at this time was the provision of a suitable theological seminary, since the existing seminary at Blackrock Road was too small. Maurice acquired and adapted for this purpose a fine house and estate at Dromantine, Co Down. He remained Provincial until the Assembly of
l931: Stephen Harrington succeeded him as Provincial Superior and appointed Maurice as Provincial procurator, entrusting to him the day to day financial management of the Province.

1937: The 8th General Assembly of the Society held at Lyon elected Maurice as Superior General. It was under his supervision that the Assembly’s decision to move the Generalate from Lyon to Rome was successfully implemented. Maurice found a suitable house within a short distance of the Vatican – at 324 via dei Gracchi. The outbreak of war in 1939 made it difficult for him to administer the Society as he would have wished, but he did manage to keep in contact with the members through circular letters. The war also interfered with his plans for an international house of studies that would group around the Superior General a chosen body of students from all the Provinces. His ten-year term as Superior General (prolonged because of the war) came to an end in 1947, leaving him still in good health in spite of the privations and anxieties which he had endured and in spite of his 73 well filled years.
1947-1953: After the General Assembly of that year (he was again succeeded by Stephen Harrington), Maurice returned to Cork where he was appointed first superior of a university hostel for African students attending U.C.C. (St. Francis Xavier’s) founded at Doughcloyne outside the city limits.
1953 (October): at seventy nine years of age he retired from active duty. He spent his last years living at Doughcloyne.

Maurice’s life spanned almost three generations. Born in the relative peace of the Victorian era, he lived to see the turbulent birth of the atomic age. A fine figure of a man, well over six feet, he made an impression wherever he went not only by his appearance but also through the force of his strong personality. Highly regarded on all levels within the Irish Church and in Vatican circles, he won for the Province respect and esteem, so necessary for the accomplishment of its work in Ireland and in Africa. Maurice’s strong features belied a sensitive and creative nature, which expressed itself in a number of small volumes of poetry and prose works. Maurice took a keen interest in social, economic and political questions and frequently wrote in newspapers and journals on the great issues of the day. Two of Maurice’s brothers became priests: William and Tom, both who served in New South Wales, Australia and died in the 1930’s.

He is buried in Wilton cemetery.

Jubilee celebrations in St. Patrick’s parish, Cable Point, Asaba

Fr Jim at 85
There was a great spirit of celebration around St. Patrick’s SMA Parish, Cable Point, Asaba on Sunday, 15th March, 2009 when a huge crowd joined Fr. James Higgins SMA to celebrate his 85th birthday and the Diamond Jubilee of his ordination to the priesthood. Presiding at the Mass was Most Rev Emmanuel Otteh, the Bishop Emeritus of Issele-Uku diocese.

Fr Tim Cullinane, Bishop Otteh and Fr Jim

The chief celebrant was Fr Higgins and the concelebrants were Fr Tim Cullinane, SMA (Regional Superior, Nigeria South), Fr Basil Soyoye, SMA (Superior of the Bight of Benin District-in-Formation), Fr Joseph Chege, SMA, Parish Priest, St. Patrick’s), Fr Noel Musa, SMA, (Assistant priest, St Patrick’s), Fr Mattie O’Connell (St Thérèse parish, Akure), Fr James Owosu-Yeboah, SMA (St Joseph’s, Gowon Estate), Fr. Richard Wall (SMA House, Uromi), Fr Colum Nilan, SMA (SMA House of Formation, Ibadan), Fr Bernard (Holy Cross Cistercian Monastery, Illah), Fr Eric Yapi Yapi, SMA (Assistant priest, St Patrick’s) and Fr Peter McCawille, SMA (St Andrew’s, Benin City). Sunday obligations prevented Bishop Michael Elue (Issele-Uku) and many local priests from attending the Mass but they all came later to pay their respects to Fr Higgins. The sermon was preached by Fr Timothy Cullinane.

Tributes to Missionaries: Holy Ghost Fathers and SMA
At the end of the Mass Bishop Otteh paid glowing tributes to both the SMA and the Holy Ghost Fathers for the great sacrifices they made in bringing the faith to that part of Nigeria and he prayed that successive generations of priests would endeavour to emulate their example in the years ahead.

Fr Jim Gives Thanks
In his valedictory address at the end of Mass Fr Higgins asserted that all the thanks for his having reached this milestone in his life were due primarily to almighty God who blessed him with good health throughout every day of his nearly 60 years in Nigeria. So good was his health that he had never once spent a day in hospital. He continued to acknowledge his gratitude for the many people who had helped him along the way: his SMA family, Archbishop Patrick Ekpu, Bishops P J Kelly, Anthony O Gbuji, Emmanuel N Otteh and Michael O Elue who all inspired him to greater heights, a whole host of local priests who had been such a source of encouragement to him, teachers and pupils in the various schools in which he worked; the different congregations that he had served in parishes even when he was teaching. He made special mention of the wonderful work done by the various catechists in the parishes throughout the country, calling them the unsung heroes of evangelization.

Reception
After the Mass a grand open air reception was laid on with a great display of cultural dancing and other events all designed to mark this special day. Special mention should be made of the little children, popularly referred to as the de Brésillac Babes, who moved delightfully throughout the Mass and gave a special dancing display during the reception.

Bishop Elue, Fr Jim and Parish Priest, Fr Joseph Chege SMA

Blessing of Rain
The day was brought to a premature end by a huge shower of rain which sent everybody scurrying in all directions and which was interpreted as a clear sign of further divine intervention in the life of Fr. Higgins, leaving the people convinced that this unexpected downpour was in itself a promise that continued blessings would be showered not only on Fr. Higgins in the years ahead but on all those with whom he had come in contact throughout the length and breadth of the mid-west over the past 60 years and hopefully for many years to come.

Fr Jim and Bishop with Sisters present

Peter McCawille, SMA.
St. Andrew’s Church,
Benin City.

The French Invasion

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FOUNDER’S DAY AT SMA HOUSE BLACKROCK ROAD

SMA celebrated Founder’s Day on 25 June 2005. On this day in 1859 the Founder of SMA died in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The occasion was marked at SMA House, Blackrock Road, Cork with a special Mass concelebrated by the community. Two of the concelebrants of the Mass were Archbishop Michael Francis, Archbishop of Monrovia and Bishop Boniface Dalieh of Cape Palmas, both from Liberia which in 1859 was part of the Apostolic Vicariate of Sierra Leone, territory entrusted to the SMA and Bishop de Marion Bresillac.

The principal celebrant was Fr Tom Curran SMA, the Communications Director of the Irish Province. The following is the text of the homily he preached at the Mass.

FOUNDER’S DAY HOMILY: 25/06/05

This day, June 25 2005, marks the 146th anniversary of the death of the Founder of SMA. We have come together for this Eucharistic celebration to commemorate the death of the Bishop, Melchior Marie-Joseph de Marion Bresillac. His death coming just 2½ years after he founded the Society was an event of immense significance.

This day is a challenge to us:
– It raises the question about who we are as members of the SMA
– it challenges us to examine the significance of Freetown and its impact on SMA.

December 8 1856, as Brésillac and his companions came together at the shrine of Our Lady at Fourvieres in Lyon, was a profound moment for the history of the missionary movement in modern times. What was inaugurated there was to make an immense contribution to the development “spiritual and material” of Africa and her peoples. This is because, and we should have no doubt about it, the SMA has had a deep impact on Africa and has and is continuing to set its mark on the continent to which Bresillac and his followers were to dedicate their lives, their energies and their service.

Just two years after the Society was launched the first SMA missionaries arrived in Africa, at Freetown, Sierra Leone, at the heart of the Apostolic Vicariate entrusted to Bishop de Marion Bresillac. These two years had been spent publicising the new Society, setting up the seminary, fund-raising and making preparations for taking on the missionary work in Africa. Within two months of the arrival of Frs Louis Reymond and Jean-Baptiste Bresson and Brother Eugene, Bresillac himself set off to join them on mission in the company of Fr Louis Riocreux and Br Gratien Monnoyeur. On 14 May they reached Freetown. It was the fulfilment of his deep felt longing to continue the missionary apostolate he had had to abandon in India.

The town of Freetown was engulfed by an epidemic of yellow-fever. Despite the urging of the ship’s captain not to, Bresillac went ashore to meet his confreres.
Why wasn’t he more sensible?
Why did he have to go ashore into the disease-ridden land?
Why did he take what, in hindsight, many would see as the foolish option?

To attempt to answer these questions might prove futile. But he must have been motivated by his missionary commitment and his desire to go amongst his abandoned people in their hour of need. He most certainly may have been motivated by the pledges he himself had made on retreat earlier. These would be the guiding principles of his missionary life.

• “To be a missionary from the depths of my heart”.
• “To neglect nothing that might advance the work of God”.
• “To seize every opportunity to preach the Gospel”.
• “Finally, and it is for this that I especially implore Your blessing, O my God, to use all my strength, all my study and make every possible effort to contribute to the formation of an indigenous clergy”.

His earlier experience in India would have enriched the Founder in the missionary apostolate but would also have sharpened his own ideas about what the missionary ought to be engaged in. Of particular significance is his own reflection on the method of Jesus in coming first to the locals, the children of Israel. So Brésillac became deeply committed to the establishment of the indigenous clergy, first of all in India and then, later, this was to become a major part of his vision for the new society he founded.

If the formation of the indigenous clergy was to be a fundamental aspect of mission policy, the second aspect was his own commitment to reach out to the most abandoned giving rise to the SMA prioritising Primary Evangelisation as one of its principal targets.

These two aspects of the missionary apostolate were what shaped his attitude and determined his vision. They also were to determine the vision of SMA up to this very day.

• The commitment to be involved in the local church ensuring it would be developed and managed by its own people
• And the commitment to the most abandoned peoples of Africa

were to be enshrined in our policy-making and to be the basis for our SMA mission location and apostolate.

Today’s Gospel account describes Jesus commissioning his disciples – “Go out to the whole world, proclaim the Good News to all creation”

Melchior de Marion Bresillac’s love for the continent to which he was to dedicate the work of the Society was to inspire and compel him to go ashore to be with the people he had come to serve” even if around him the advice he was given would have suggested staying safely on board ship.