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Celebration to mark the 130^th anniversary of Colegio San Patricio, Mercedes, Buenos Aires, Sunday 8^th October 2017.

It is a pleasure to greet the Archbishop, Msgr Augustin Radrizzani, the civil authorities present, and you my dear brothers and sisters in faith. We are gathered here today in Christian faith and hope as we give thanks to God for all his graces and gifts in this celebration of the 130 years since the arrival of the Pallottines in Mercedes in 1886 and the beginning of Pallottine education in Colegio San Patricio in the month of February 1887.

On Wednesday last I travelled from the present Provincial House in Dublin to Mercedes, the journey lasted a total of 25 hours between departure from the Provincial House and arrival in Mercedes, and I travelled very comfortably. As I travelled I could not but think of those Pallottine pioneers who left their country for the first time in 1885 and journeyed for six weeks in a boat and then several more days from the port of Buenos Aires before arriving in Mercedes. Men of faith and with a spirit of adventure, Fathers William Whitmee, Joseph Bannin and Bernard Feeney, men who followed the missionary impetus of our Founder St Vincent Pallotti and came here to Mercedes where they met with the Irish Community Chaplain, Msgr Samuel O’Reilly, who encouraged them to accept the offer of a small school which a group of Irish Sisters of Mercy had opened, and then closed after a few years.

Fr Whitmee recommended to the Rector General of that time, Fr Faa di Bruno, that this missionary offer be accepted and a decision was taken without much delay and with trust in Divine Province, and it was thus that the first three Pallottines who formed the original community, Fathers Bernard Feeney and John Petty and Brother John Dolan, settled here in Mercedes in September 1886. The Irish Community of the zone made a collection and contributed to the cost of repairing the buildings; for a number of years the school and house were rented and in 1890, with a bank loan, the Pallottines bought them from the Sisters of Mercy.

The Colegio San Patricio, or, St Patrick’s School, dedicated to the Patron of Ireland, opened its doors once again to students at the end of February 1887. And, with the same spirit of faith and with steadfast hope in the Providence of God, we Pallottines have continued with the mission of education which was entrusted to us 130 years ago. We built this beloved school on the foundations which were laid by successive generations of communities of Pallottines. Communities of Pallottines priests and brothers, and communities of Pallottines both male and female, because the school and the commitment to the mission to education have been a joint undertaking of generations of teachers and auxiliary personnel of both sexes, men and women who made their own the Pallottine charism and gave the very best of themselves in this service to the local community and to the Church.

In a spirit of profound gratitude and appreciation we give thanks today to God for those Pallottine pioneers and for each and every one of the persons who were part of the School from February 1887 up to the present.

It would be impossible for me to list the names of the persons who built this Pallottine spirit in Mercedes from the beginning; I am sure that in the minds and hearts of all of us who are gathered here today there is a procession of faces, images and names of those persons whom we knew and who are part of our own special memories. Let us take a moment to remember them in silence and give thanks for them. Today, in the name of the Irish Province of the Pallottines, I wish to congratulate the present community, Fr Tom O’Donnell, the Rector and Parish Priest, Fr Johnny Sweeney, the assistant, Fr Juan Sebastian Velasco, the Provincial Delegate, the Legal Representatives, Fr Fernando Bello, Ms Nenin Filippi and Mr Julio Campora, Mr Alfredo Abalo, Director of the Secondary School, Mrs Alicia D’Angelo, Director of the Primary School, Ms Alejandra Cancela, Director of the Kindergarten, and each person who is part of this beloved community.

Earlier I mentioned that the Provincial House of the Irish Province is in Dublin, however the seat of the Province was here in Argentina from the foundation of the Province up until 1926 when it was transferred to London; and so I assure you that Argentina and the large Pallottine community in this blessed country, forms a very significant part of our Province.

It is an honour for me to be here with you and to greet you on this historic day and I pray to God that he will continue to accompany and guide the present community which is educating another generation and all the future generations which will become part of the education community of San Patricio.

With St Vincent Pallotti let us pray to the Lord of the harvest that he continue to send labourers into the harvest; and let us pray to Mary Queen of Apostles, our Patroness, and ask that she accompany us with her maternal love.

Fr Derry Murphy, SAC,

Provincial Rector.

Celebración de los 130 años del Colegio San Patricio, Mercedes, Buenos Aires; domingo 8 de Octubre 2017.

Querido Arzobispo Monseñor Agustín, estimadas autoridades, queridos hermanos y hermanas en la fe, estamos reunidos hoy en un clima de fe y de esperanza cristiana, agradeciéndole a Dios por todas sus gracias y dones en esta celebración de los 130 años desde la llegada de los Palotinos a Mercedes en 1886, y el inicio dado a la educación palotina en este querido Colegio San Patricio, en el mes de Febrero 1887.

El miércoles pasado viajé desde la sede provincial actual en Dublín a Mercedes, el tiempo del viaje, desde que dejé la casa provincial hasta llegar a Mercedes era de unos 25 horas y viajé muy cómodamente, y no pude no pensar en los pioneros palotinos que, dejando su tierra, pisaron tierra Argentina por primera vez en 1885 después de unas seis semanas arriba de un barco y no sé cuántos días más para llegar a Mercedes desde el puerto. Hombres de fe, y de un espíritu de aventura, los Padres Guillermo Whitmee, Jose Bannin y Bernardo Feeney, que siguiendo el impulso misionera de nuestro fundador San Vicente Pallotti, llegaron acá a Mercedes; y acá se encontraron con el Capellán Irlandés, Padre Samuel O’Reilly, que les incentivó a tomar posesión de la pequeña escuela que habían empezada unas Hermanas de la Misericordia irlandesas para luego cederla.

El Padre Whitmee recomendó al Rector General del entonces, P. Faa di Bruno, la aceptación de la oferta misionera y la decisión fue tomada con fe en la Divina Providencia, y así los primeros tres palotinos que formaron la comunidad inicial, el P. Bernardo Feeney, P. Juan Petty y el Hermano Juan Dolan, se radicaron acá en Septiembre del 1886 y la comunidad irlandesa de la zona recolectó fondos para reparar los edificios, que fueron alquilados al comienzo para después ser comprada por los Palotinos en 1890 con un préstamo bancario, los edificios eran de la propiedad de las Hermanas de la Misericordia.

El Colegio San Patricio, dedicado al Santo Patrono de Irlanda, abrió sus puertas nuevamente a los alumnos al final del mes de Febrero en 1887. Y con el mismo espíritu de fe y de firme esperanza en la Providencia de Dios, los palotinos hemos continuado con la misión educativa que nos fue confiada 130 años atrás. Construimos el querido colegio sobre las bases que fueron poniendo sucesivos comunidades de Palotinos y Palotinas, porque el colegio y la misión educativa desarrollada en él, fueron llevados adelante por los religiosos de la comunidad y generaciones de docentes y personal auxiliar de ambos sexos que hicieron suyo el carisma palotino y dieron lo mejor de sí en este servicio a la comunidad y a la Iglesia.

Con un espíritu de profundo agradecimiento y reconocimiento demos gracias hoy a Dios, por los pioneros palotinos, y por todas y por cada uno de las personas que integraron el Colegio desde Febrero 1887 hasta el presente.

No podría nombrar a cada una de las personas que construyeron ese espíritu Palotino en Mercedes desde los comienzos; seguramente en las mentes y los corazones de todos los que estamos aquí se están dibujando las imágenes y los nombres de aquellas personas que conocimos y son parte de recuerdos especiales. Hoy en modo particular quiero, en el nombre de la Provincia Irlandesa de los Palotinos, felicitar toda la comunidad actual y en especial al P Tomas O’Donnell, Rector de la Comunidad y Párroco, P. Johnny Sweeney, el asistente, P. Juan Sebastian Velasco, Delegado Provincial, a los Representantes Legales, P. Fernando Bello, la Señorita Nenin Filippi, y el Señor Julio Campora; al Señor Alfredo Abalo, Rector de la Sección Secundaria, la Señora Alicia D’Angelo, directora de la Sección Primaria, y la Señorita Alejandra Cancela, directora de la Sección Inicial, el Jardín de Infantes y cada persona que integra esta querida comunidad.

Les dije al inicio que la sede actual de la Provincia Irlandesa es en Dublín, pero la sede provincial estuvo aquí en Argentina desde la fundación de la Provincia hasta que fue trasladada a Londres en el año  1926; y con esto les digo que Argentina, y la comunidad palotina grande en este bendito país, forma una parte muy significativa de nuestra Provincia.

Es un honor para mí poder saludarlos a ustedes en este día histórico y ruego a Dios para que siga acompañando y guiando la comunidad educativa actual y las futuras generaciones que formarán parte de la comunidad educativa San Patricio.   

Con San Vicente Pallotti roguemos al Señor de la mies para que envíe trabajadores a su mies; y pidámosle a María Reina de los Apóstoles, nuestra patrona, que nos acompañe con su amor maternal.

Asi sea.

1. Derry Murphy, SAC,

Rector Provincial. 

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I’m wearing vestments that were made for my predecessor Fr. Seamus who was a much, much bigger man than me by a long shot, so there’s no way I can fill them as he did. There is no way that I can fill the space occupied by him when he was Parish Priest. But all the same the vestments fit me in a different kind of way. Something of Seamus remains here but things are not the same. His death brought an unexpected change and I have become part of that change. When I was his novice master I never dreamed that he would die before me, never thought that I would succeed him.

On the front and back of my chausible is the Pallottine seal with the motto “Caritas Christi Urget Nos” (The Love of Christ Urges us on). This seal is testament to our communal calling, the mission given to each of us personally and together as community.

The emotion of his passing is still strong! He is very much missed and was greatly loved here in Hastings. He touched people’s lives for the better. People tell me all the time, though I don’t think they expect me to do things as he did and I’m not putting myself under pressure to be like him. At 62 you realize that you can’t be what you’re not. I know my limitations, my unworthiness. I know that at some levels of my life I am not fit for this. But I also know the gifts that God has given me. Shankill has shown them to me, taught me how to use them.

Deacon Duncan knows I don’t care for the glory of the big occasion and in the lead-up to my induction as Parish Priest I was fairly apprehensive. I would have preferred if it could have been done in the privacy of the Bishop’s office. But Bishop Richard likes to do it in public with the parish present and Duncan is delighted because he too knows that it’s needed.

They are right of course. Becoming Parish Priest is not a private matter between the Bishop and myself. I belong to the People; we belong to each other in this ministry.

READ THE FULL REFLECTION HERE

THE APOSTOLATE OF ELIZABETH SANNA

Elizabeth, from a young age, wanted to direct all that she had and all that she would do to the glory of God and to the good of her neighbour.  This attitude of hers deepened further under the spiritual guidance of Saint Vincent Pallotti and her life became a conscious participation in the apostolate of the Church which, according to Pallotti means to do what each person can and has to do for the greater glory of God, and for his/her own eternal salvation and that of the other person.  All the good that was achieved by her: her prayers, her sufferings, her charitable service, the good advice and counsel given to her fellow human beings and other good things, all of these had an apostolic character.  It is worth our while underlining at least some of the activities in a particular way.  The prayers of Elizabeth had an apostolic character.  She prayed for all the necessities of those who were most in need, above all, for the sick and for the dead, having an immense desire in her heart that all would be saved.  And as Fr. Raphael Melia says, “she cried for the unhappy state of sinners, of infidels and of idolaters, that all of them would be finished with sin and that all would return to the bosom of Holy Mother Church”, and so all would be saved.  From 1836 onwards, she took part in the Octave of the Epiphany, organized by Saint Vincent Pallotti, encouraging others to participate also and to pray.

Elizabeth’s sufferings had an apostolic character to them, and her sufferings were many.  Some, no doubt, were attributable to her inability to return to her family.  Other sufferings were on account of her illnesses as well as the oppression of the devil.  She offered up all these together with her prayers and penitential practices as expiation for sins and to implore the salvation of all.  Following the example of Pallotti, she prayed often and also offered her sufferings for the unity of Christians so that the whole world would be one fold and under one Shepherd.

One can say that Pallotti considered Sanna to be a sick person, a poor person, illiterate, and a saint who lived for the apostolate: the apostolate of prayer, of charity, of poverty, of suffering and, above all, of the imitation of Christ and of the Infinite Love of God.

The apostolic message of Blessed Elizabeth can be summed up in her desire, manifested to her spiritual director in the following words: “I want Heaven to be filled, Purgatory to be emptied and Hell to be closed”.

Blessed Elizabeth Sanna, pray for us.

Greetings to you all on this the feast of our Province. May you all be blessed today and celebrate with Mary our Mother. United with you in prayer and in the celebration of Mass today.

Fr. Derry Murphy SAC, Provincial Rector

A Prayer to Mary Mother of Divine Love

O beautiful Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, O Mother of Divine Love, we turn to you in confidence that you will obtain for us the grace we are in need of. We know that you will never turn us away, you who have been worthily greeted by an angel with the words “Hail, full of grace!”

Yes, O Mother, You are truly full grace, for your heavenly spouse, the Holy Spirit, with his Divine Love, has designed to come upon you the moment you took form in your mother’s womb, thus preserving you from the stain of sin and keeping you ever immaculate; again he came down upon you at the time of the annunciation, rendering you the mother of Jesus, at the same time keeping you ever virgin. He came down upon you at Pentecost, filling you with his seven gifts, and making you the fount and dispenser of all heavenly blessings.

Therefore, O gracious Mother of Divine Love, listen to our prayers. THANK YOU DEAR MOTHER!

Grant peace and prosperity to our community, to our country and to the whole world, protect our Holy Father Pope Francis, bring into perfect unity all Christians according to the desire of your divine Son, illumine with the light of the Gospel all who have not yet come to the true faith; convert poor sinners; give us too a sincere contrition for our sins; render us always strong enough to say “no” when temptations assail us; lead us along the path of fraternal love and charity; and, finally, when God would beckon us, open to us the portals of heaven. You who see us mourning and weeping in this world, come to our aid when we are weighed down by the load of our suffering; give us strength to accept the inevitable difficulties and trials of life; grant, O Mother of Grace, health in mind and body to all who turn to you.

Comfort, O Virgin Mary, and bring all souls to your Son Jesus.

Cast your maternal gaze on us and on our Province, keep it ever in your sweet protection; grant that we, your beloved children, will always render you praise with our lives; keep ever burning in us the flame of Divine Love so that we will let ourselves be entirely consumed by it here in this life and for ever in heaven. Amen.

There are several kinds of dialogue, but I will only consider two, which I believe are the basis for the others.

Dialogue: is the most demanding. It is a necessary process for the human being to grow in consistency. It is in this inner dialogue that the world of the conscious and unconscious relationships between the human and the divine manifests itself.

External dialogue: is with all that is added to our existence from outside of ourselves, stirring up desires that are not always necessary for our existence, but both are pertinent to each other; since the interaction between the two favours the solid construction of the identity of the person and the world in which one lives.

For our Pallottine family, such dialogue is, or at least should be, informed by a particular kind of prior experience, because Pallotti’s pedagogy brings us back to the Cenacle where one learns and is enabled for the universal apostolate. The lack of such a profound personal experience of the Cenacle and of its transforming power limits us as persons, with a corresponding limit in our apostolate.

Effective apostolic action requires an understanding and appreciation of oneself and of the world in which our apostolate is carried out, an understanding of the bearer and the receiver of the message, of the person and of the culture.

  “Dialogue, a path that leads us to ourselves, to God and the other.”

In the episode of Pentecost, everyone understood what the apostles were saying (Acts 2: 8), all understood the message of salvation despite being people of different languages and cultures. That dialogue generated the communion between people and their cultures.

Today’s culture continually influences us to increasingly become simply consumers of things and ideas. Even the simple advertisement of a chocolate bar has the power to stir up this question in me: is this necessary for me right now? So it is in relation to many other things, which are unnecessary for our happiness. For many, having is more important than being.

The external dialogue produced by the greed of few has caused the lack, the poverty, the absence of a profound inner sense of the human heart. Therefore, there is more interest in knowing the other, what is different, because the richness of the inner self is not known (you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free, Jn 8:32).

Those who have been given a space for dialogue from an early age, will have no difficulty in experiencing and manifesting to the external world the consistency of their inner world.

“Dialogue, a path that leads us to ourselves, to God and the other.”

In all peoples, the family is central in the formation of the person, with the richness and the imperfections of each member. The dialogue between the members includes that between the older and younger generations, thus enabling the transmission of an enduring identity with the proper characteristics of the particular cultural and social group.

The cultures which were evangelized by Christians soon found in the Christian-apostolic tradition an understanding of the saving event through the words of Christ after his death. Faithful to the command of Jesus, the apostles carried the message of salvation to all peoples, through dialogue, accompanied by signs of the effects of the evangelical proclamation in the hearts of the hearers of the Word.. (Go into the whole world and preach the gospel to all nations; Mt 28:19, Mk 16:15).

Modern life has made it much more difficult for people to truly encounter themselves, the other and God. There are many conversations, much knowledge of the outside world, but there is also so much emptiness inside people. We are almost constrained to be experts in the knowledge of things. As far as human beings themselves are concerned, however, we seem to be increasingly unaware of the power of our nature. Encounters with others often serve to reveal the inconsistency of the human being.

Jesus’ dialogue with the disciples on the road to Emmaus is a wonderful model of encounter in dialogue leading to new life. He began by asking them a simple question regarding what they were speaking about, giving them the space to express all that burdened their hearts so deeply in their current situation. Only after listening deeply to the depths of their pain and anguish did he speak to them a life-giving and life-changing word, a word that had the power to cut through their despair and challenge them to look at their situation and their lives with new eyes open to the hope that the Gospel gives. It was only later, after the Lord had opened their eyes fully to who he was, that they recognised the mysterious power of their dialogue with him on the road and the mysterious effect it had been having within them: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (Lk 24:32). It was by learning to listen again with new ears, by seeing again with new eyes, that their hearts were transformed, that they were confirmed again as disciples of the One who had laid down his life for them, and that they were able to became bearers of the reality of his Risen life and presence to others.

“Dialogue, a path that leads us to ourselves, to God and to the other.”

Dialogue with authorities has often proved fruitless and not conducive to communion, with little compatibility of thought. It seems that we have men and women who are infantile in their relationships. The crisis of the human being came about through the crisis of authority; we have many authoritarians, and few true authorities. Authoritarianism involves an absence of affective presence, because it is through affection that we acquire that adult maturity which is able to welcome the other without losing one´s own identity.

In my opinion, in all our Pallottine apostolate we urgently need to learn to perceive, explain and integrate into our praxis the verbs: to feel, to hear and to see, because these verbs are responsible for authentic and consistent dialogue between people. Awareness of feeling is the basis of inner dialogue. What we hear is the basis of listening, of knowing how to open ourselves to other values. What we see forms the basis of our overall vision about the totality that manifests itself in our existence and in the world in which we live.

Dialogue as an instrument for liberation has a principle that we use in our therapeutic community of Mother of Divine Love, in the recovery of chemically-dependent young men who reside in our house; “The diseases that affect the soul enter by the feelings, by what we hear and by what we see. The disease leaves through the mouth, that is, if you do not say what you feel, there is no recovery”.

The ten years of the existence of this charitable apostolate to people who have chemical and/or emotional dependencies have shown us that the more one speaks of what one feels, the more quickly one gains or regains health of soul. The whole therapeutic process is based on love.

Love Heals: detoxification of the body

Love saves: perseverance, those who persevere will be saved from the trafficker, from death, from judgment, from crime, guilt, rejection, etc.

Love liberates: to know one’s inner world, to realise what has led them to the prison of unhealthy affections and drugs.

Love reconciles: with oneself, with God and with others, that is, makes reparation for what one did in a dishonest way.

Living with these brothers, we identify that there are innumerable causes that led them to such suffering, but the main cause was the lack of that dialogue which makes people feel at one with others. Such lack of communication through affective dialogue particularly with those in authority in their lives, with their primary caregivers, has left them fragile, falling into the trap of chemical and affective dependency.

“Dialogue, a path that leads us to ourselves, to God and to the other.”

Thus, the charism of our Holy founder Saint Vincent Pallotti remains a light for the men and women of today, as it was for the people of his time. This inheritance belongs to all Pallottines (Fathers, Brothers, Sisters and Laity).

In Amoris Laetitia, the Holy Father Pope Francis says: those who love are capable of speaking words of comfort, strength, consolation and encouragement. These were the words that Jesus Christ himself said: “Take heart, my son!” (Mt 9:2). “Go in peace” (Lk 7:50). Do not be afraid! (Mt 14:27). (Amoris Laetitia, N° 100).

All of these words should be shared in our families and communities, where the weak becomes strong, the fearful takes courage, the sinner attains holiness.

In short: Dialogue is a door that brings us to the knowledge of the human and divine mystery.

Questions:

1. What dialogue do we have with our inner world – what do I not want to see and why?
2. Has our apostolate revealed the Pallottine charism to the poor of today?

What kind of dependency do we have that prevents us from being the image and likeness of God’s love to ourselves and to others?

                                                                                Fr. Orlando SAC.

                                                                                Brazil

____________________________________________________

Segretariato Generale, Unione dell’Apostolato Cattolico

Piazza San Vincenzo Pallotti 204, 00187 Roma, Italia uac@uniopal.org

It feels a little strange to be here with you all this morning, as we celebrate the lives and the witness of the five Pallottines who died on this day, forty-one years ago. They were Argentinians, I am Irish; they experienced a violent death at a time when I was in the peaceful safety of my mothers womb. I am sure that many others could speak more eloquently and knowledgeably than I. 

I am continually amazed at how the scriptures speak to us. Throughout the world, this gospel is proclaimed at every mass. St. Paul describes the word of God as “cutting more finely than a double-edged sword”. That means that the word of God reaches out to us and gets to the heart of the matter. For me, today’s Gospel invites us to reflect on our faith in Jesus and our response, and it challenges us to recognize the faith and response of others. 

In the Gospel, Jesus and his closest friends are together in a boat. I’m sure that their journey began in a peaceful manner but then, suddenly, in the middle of a dark night, a violent storm erupts and scares them. They fear for their lives and cry out to Jesus, “Save us Lord, we are going down!”. The story of Alfie Kelly, Alfie Leaden, Pedro, Emilio and Salvador mirrors this story. They had committed their lives to Jesus and suddenly, in the middle of a dark, winters night, violence erupts. I’m sure they must have been scared. They feared for their lives and probably knew that the end of their earthly lives was near. I believe that their last prayer would have been an echo of the prayer of the apostles, “Save us Lord, we are going down!”. 

 In our gospel, Jesus brings peace and calm and the apostles are amazed. It is our hope and desire that Jesus has brought Pedro, Alfie Kelly, Alfie Leaden, Emilio and Salvador to a place of peace and rest, and that these five men are experiencing the awe and amazement of heaven. Jesus saved the apostles, and it is our belief that Jesus saves all those who commit their lives to him and who bear witness to his love and life. 

The apostles called on Jesus in their need because they had faith in him. The five men we remember today shared their lives and offered their lives to God as his servants. They lived a time of great division and pain, and met the challenge of this time with the Gospel of Jesus. We remember them primarily for the witness they gave to Christ in their lives, not for the violent manner of their death. They lived for Christ, this is what is important. The violent manner of their death was and is a disgrace, but we are called to focus on the grace present in their lives. 

I am a foreigner living here in Argentina. I do not pretend to understand the history of this country or of that time, but I do come from a country that has experienced violence and division. In Ireland we experienced a civil war, when Irish men fought Irish men. In the Gaelic language it was known as the “cogadh Na gcarad”, which translates as, the war between friends. This description of that conflict also expresses a desire for unity and healing, to reunite once more as friends. This nation also experienced violent division. I pray today for healing and peace for this nation, for peace in my own land, and for peace in the world. Emilio, Salvador, Pedro, Alfie Dufrau and Alfie Kelly committed themselves to the Gospel of Jesus. This Gospel desires healing and reconciliation, peace and community, forgiveness and love. We pray for the grace today to forgive those responsible for this terrible act of violence, we ask that we would live out the Gospel message in our hearts, our communities and our homes, we ask that we would bring light and love to our world. We ask for the peace which only Jesus can bring. + Amen.

Homily at the concelebrated Requiem Mass for the late Fr. William (Bill) Hanly, SAC.

Pallottine College, Thurles, on Monday 3^rd July 2017 at 12.00.

My dear brothers and sisters, today we are gathered to celebrate Fr. Bill’s life, his 85 years on earth, his 60 years of priesthood and his 65 years of Pallottine consecrated life. We celebrate his person, who and what he was to us, to the People of God and to all those he ministered to over the course of his life.

Today is the feast day of St. Thomas the Apostle, otherwise known as ‘doubting Thomas’, or as the apostle who needed to see Jesus after the Resurrection, to see him, to touch him and to place his fingers in the wounds; the apostle who needed a concrete experience of the risen and living Jesus Christ. Thomas is less well known as a great traveller, he is credited with bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Indian sub-continent in the 1^st century of the life of the Church. According to an ancient Syriac document the apostles gathered after the Ascension of Jesus Christ and they cast lots to determine who would go in each direction. The document attests that Thomas went to India and spent the remainder of his life there.

Fr. Bill’s life as a Pallottine mirrored that of Thomas the Apostle in his faith experience and in that of a great traveller. Fr. Bill’s life took him from his native Askeaton where he was born on 20^th November 1931 and where he received his primary education at Askeaton National School, before going to the Redemptorist College in Limerick for his secondary education.

Bill came to Thurles as a young man; he came to the novitiate in Cabra on 16^th September 1949, before his eighteenth birthday. His travels to further afield started the following year, 1950, when he was sent to study Philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and on completion of the three year study course he remained on for a further three years of Theological studies. While a student in Rome he made life-long friendships with other Pallottines from South America, Germany and Italy. One of his friends from those years was Fr. Joao Battista Quaini, a Brazilian Pallottine who died just six weeks before Fr. Bill. In conversation last night Fr. George Ranahan reminded us of other illustrious priests such as Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor who were also fellow students with Bill at that time.

Fr. Bill had a keen mind and an aptitude for studies and so he was sent to the Catholic University of Washington after ordination to the priesthood on 30^th September 1956, and there he received a Licentiate in Theology in 1958. Once again he travelled, this time further north to the University of Detroit in Michigan for an MA in history and on completion of this degree he was appointed Catholic Chaplain to Texas Tech University in Lubbock and assistant priest at St. Elizabeth’s Parish.

A change of direction took place in 1964 when Fr. Bill was elected Provincial Consultor and secretary to the Provincial and he moved to London. In 1965 he became Rector of the College here in Thurles and it was from here that he was first elected Provincial in 1969, which meant that he moved back to London. Fr. Bill’s life as a priest and in particular as Provincial brought him to many countries around the world and he was an enthusiastic traveller. Wherever he went he brought the Gospel of Jesus Christ to each place; he embodied a strong faith and a very evident joy in living. It is fitting that we are celebrating his funeral Mass today, the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, a man of a similar strong faith.

Now I will turn to the Scripture readings for today’s Mass. The first reading, which was read for us by Fr. Bill’s niece Helen, is from the Book of Job; Job was a man of faith who lived through many difficulties and vicissitudes and yet could affirm his faith and his conviction that “I know that my Redeemer lives”, with a the stress on “I know” that God exists, Fr. Bill also affirmed his conviction and his ‘knowing’ that God lives, he may have had difficulty in articulating it, like we all do, but he had the conviction. Job goes on to state his belief that after death “in my flesh I shall see God, yes, with my eyes I will see him”; this too was the hope and the belief of Bill, to look on God and to see him after death.

The second reading today, read by Adrian, Bill’s nephew, is the reading from the Feast Day Mass of St. Thomas the Apostle and is from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. Here Paul expresses his vision and his understanding of a central truth of the Christian life: “you are not aliens, not alone, you are part of God’s household, part of God’s family”, a lovely vision of where we belong. Paul then writes of building up the People of God, and emphasizes that we are part of the building; each one has a place and a role in being built into a house which is founded on Jesus Christ the foundation, where God lives, in the Spirit. Fr. Bill shared this vision of forming God’s household – family; throughout his life as a priest he gave himself to building the Church, the place where the Spirit lives and where each person can have a place and a role. We have received many messages since Bill died, and some messages and tributes to Bill the priest, pastor and spiritual guide were sent to our Province website or posted on Facebook and they all have in common the affirmation that Bill dedicated his life to building up God’s people on earth. Fr. Bill was a very active priest, he was our Provincial for 15 years, from 1969 to 1975, when he was succeeded by Fr. Pat Dwyer, and then again from 1987 to 1996, when he in turn was succeeded by Fr. John Fitzpatrick; and as Provincial he contributed much to our life. However, as a pastor, a beloved pastor, as retreat director, as spiritual guide, he left a lasting legacy in the lives of those he ministered to, be it in Texas, in Detroit, in Nevada, Clerkenwell, Greenford or Ireland.  

Fr. Bill, the man and the priest, knew pain and suffering, he faced his own limitations and his struggles. In later years his declining health and strength were particularly tough on a man who enjoyed very robust good health all through his life. The Cross, or indeed the double cross, of Parkinson’s disease and dementia were hard and cruel. He became increasingly reduced and it was sad to see that and to fathom the ‘whys’. However, in the midst of it all he was unfailingly polite, gracious, kind and educated, a gentleman in the true sense.

The Gospel reading at today’s Mass, Jesus teaching his disciples to pray with the “Our Father”, is a text I chose for a reason. Fr. Bill was a man of prayer, and we all knew his favourite prayers, Thomas Merton’s “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going….” (which Fr. Gerry Fleming will read after Communion), John Henry Newman’s “May he support us all the day long…” (which Fr. Mike O’Dwyer will read) and St. Francis of Assisi’s “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace …”. My last visit to Fr. Bill took place ten days ago, he had no words that day, no greeting, no conversation, and I sat with him. Finally, I said to him “Bill, I will pray with you’ and blessed myself and started the Our Father, and he joined in and prayed along with me, and when I said ‘Amen’ he continued with ‘For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever, Amen’. The prayer he had learnt as a child, from his parents, or his older siblings maybe, that prayer was there at the end. I was struck by this, that when all his faculties had failed he could still pray. A testament to a life of prayer; a legacy and a message to us too on how central prayer is to the life of the Christian and how this privileged contact with God sustains us to the end.

In summary, Fr. Bill’s life was characterized by three things; by faith, like the faith of Job, of St. Thomas the Apostle; Fr. Bill knew himself to be an apostle and he went wherever life took him with the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and he was a man of prayer, the priest.

Today we celebrate Fr. Bill’s life and we give thanks.

Ar dheis De go raibh a anam uasal.  

Fr. Derry Murphy, SAC.