Columban Fr Robert O'Rourke RIP

Fr Robert I. O'Rourke

13 June 1932 - 3 October 2018

Fr Robert I. O’Rourke died on 3 October 2018 at St Elizabeth Manor, Bristol, Rhode Island, USA. Born on 13 June 1932 he was the son of the late Eugene Joseph O’Rourke and Mary Bridget (O'Connor) O’Rourke. He was the brother of the late Joseph, Timothy, Richard, Eugene, Br Terrance O’Rourke of Glenmary Home Missions, Margaret Baffoe and Loretta Coogan.  He is survived by many nieces and nephews. 

Chapel of St James

Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, Chicago [Wikipedia]

Young Bob attended St Ailbe's Grade School and Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, Chicago. He later attended St. Mary of the Lake Seminary and after spiritual year at St Columban's,, Silver Creek, New York,  he went to St Columban's Major Seminary in Milton, Massachusetts.  He was ordained on 20 December 20, 1958 in the Seminary Chapel by Bishop Eric MacKenzie, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston.

In the summer of 1959 Father Bob did a course in Social Science in Antigonish, Nova Scotia and in December 1959 he was appointed to Burma (now Myanmar).

St Columban's Cathedral, Myitkyina, Myanmar [Wikipedia]

In November 1962 he arrived in Myitkyina and began language study in Tingsing. The following November Father Bob was assistant in Makawkzup in the Myitkyina diocese and in October 1965 he opened up a new parish in Kamaing about 65 miles west of Myitkyina.  In September 1966 the Burmese government compelled Father Bob to leave Burma before the end of that year due to new visa restrictions.

After returning to the United States he was appointed to do vocation work in Los Angeles in March 1967. He was appointed superior of the Los Angeles house in 1969.

In 1975 Father Bob was assigned to Lima Peru. Starting in May 1977 he began serving in Tahuantinsuyo where there was a charismatic ministry, youth groups and a catechumenate.  In December 1983 he was assigned to Huasahuasi.

Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, Lima, Peru [Wikipedia]

Fr Bob O’Rourke and Fr Michael Donnelly were the first resident priests in the parish for some time. Until leaving there in December1989, they worked a pastoral programme catering to the varied needs of the widespread parish. The majority of the people were potato farmers. During those years Tarma and adjoining areas were the scene of escalating terrorist violence on the part of the Maoist- Leninist group Sendero Luminoso, 'The Shining Path'. Many towns were without police or other civil authority. Fathers Bob and Michael continued to carry out their pastoral work while the terrorists became more audacious and brutal, generating an atmosphere of fear and tension throughout the country, especially in isolated zones such as Huasahuasi. When the priests were told by a reliable person that they were on a death-list and that the terrorists were coming to the town at Christmas, Fathers Bob and Michael prudently decided to go to Lima and left within days for their respective countries where they recuperated from the stress.

In January 1990 Father Bob was assigned to US Region of the Columbans. He became associate editor of Columban Mission magazine and at Easter 1991 he became Editor of the Regional Newsletter.

In August 1992 Father Bob began work with the Spanish Apostolate at Immaculate Conception Church in Grand Prairie, Texas. The people there appreciated his homilies for their stories and brevity. In 1998 he returned to Omaha as house bursar and presided over the 47th and final Annual Columban Festival there.  The Festival was the last of a successful cycle that at its peak, in the early 1970s, drew over 20,000 people to St Columban’s on a summer weekend and raised over $80,000 for the Society.  Father Bob noted that the Festival was less about funding than connecting with the local community. In October 2001 he was elected as Chairman of the Regional Reconciliation Board.

Father Bob retired to St Columban's, Bristol, Rhode Island, in March, 2004 where he resided in retirement, participating actively in community life for the last 14 years.

Fr O'Rourke was buried in St Mary's Cemetery, Bristol, RI, after the funeral Mass in the chapel at St Columban's. May he rest in peace.

St Columban, Bristol, RI, USA

Fr Bob O'Rourke served in Peru from 1975 till 1989.

Columban Fr Roderick Long RIP

Fr John Roderick Long

(13 November 1934 - 14 September 2018)

Fr John Roderick ('Derrick') Long was born in Dublin on 13 November 1934. He was educated at the Convent of Mercy, Loughrea, County Galway, St Brendan’s National School, Loughrea, and St Joseph’s College, Garbally Park, Ballinasloe. He entered St Columban's College, Dalgan Park, Navan, County Meath, in September 1953 and was ordained priest on 21 December 1959.

St Brendan's Cathedral, Loughrea [Wikipedia]

Father Derrick’s first appointment was to Burma (now Myanmar), but while he awaited a visa he served as temporary dean at the Templeogue house of studies in Dublin. When his visa came through, he left for Burma in October 1962. There he worked with Fr Jim Fisher as the latter ran a procure in Rangoon (now Yangon) for various Catholic groups working in Burma. However, Father Derrick was expelled from there in 1966 when the military government put further restrictions on missionaries.

Market in Downtown Yangon [Wikipedia]

His next appoinment was to the Philippines where he served from 1967 to 1995. He was part of the Columban group who served in the Dioceses of Lingayen/Alaminos. So at various times he served in Sual, Labrador and in the sub-parishes of Lingayen. A serious, determined pastor, he is remembered as a frequent visitor to all the families in his various assignments.

San Pedro Martir Parish Church, Sual [Wikipedia]

There followed an appointment to mission promotion in Australia. He served in Perth from 1995 to 1998, and then in Brisbane from 1998 to 2006. Mission promotion work involved visiting more than two hundred parishes to preach at Sunday Masses and visit Columban supporters. After 2006 he spent the next five years in semi-retirement in Brisbane while always willing to help out in neighbouring parishes.

Sandgate Town Hall [Wikipedia]

Sandgate is the suburb of Brisbane where the Columban house is located.

Father Derrick was a shy person but constantly overcame that shyness to fulfil his missionary tasks. As his health began to fail he returned to Ireland in 2011, was confined to the St Columban’s Retirement Home from early January 2015, and he died there on 13th September.

May he rest in peace.

Obituary by Fr Cyril Lovett

Crucifix, Dalgan Park Cemetery

Salve, Regína, mater misericórdiae vita, dulcédo et spes nostra, salve Ad te clamámus, éxules fílii Evae. Ad te suspirámus, geméntes et flentes in hac lacrimárum valle. Eia ergo, advocáta nostra, illos tuos misericórdes óculos ad nos convérte. Et Jesum, benedíctum frucum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsílium osténde O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo María.

A "g'day" in Melbourne

Connex suburban train, Melbourne

"G'day" is a common greeting in Australia. Today I had a very "g'day" here in Melbourne.

Strathmore railway station is just down the road from St Columban's in Essendon, a Melbourne suburb. I went into the city by train this afternoon to meet a new friend from the Philippines, Joy Manalo, who is doing a year's post-graduate studies at Clayton University here and whose mother Angie attends my weekday Masses in Bacolod. We spent about two hours in a Starbucks discussing the situation in the Philippines over a cappuccino, my favourite drink.

My colleagues at St Columban's told me that I could buy a ticket in the newsagents along the way but it was closed. The machine at the station - it's a 'non-person' station - wouldn't accept my $20 dollar bill. It did state very clearly that it didn't give change of more than ten dollars. A man told me to get on the train and explain to an inspector at Flinders Street Station, in the heart of Melbourne, but that he might not be happy.

As it turned out, the inspector whom I approached, a middle-aged man, was very helpful, even though I think his initial reaction was similar to mine when someone approaches me with a hard-luck story. But when I asked him 'What can I do?' he said he would let me out and told me where to buy a ticket.

I had seen myself as, technically, having broken the law but my online research later showed me that I hadn't, as I had made every reasonable effort to get a ticket both before and after my journey.

When I was wondering what platform to go to to catch my train back to Strathmore, I approached another inspector, a woman of a similar age to the first. She too was most helpful, going with me to the big board where they showed the information but which I hadn't been able to decipher.

Then when I was just about to get on the escalator to go down to Platform 4 I heard someone calling "Father Sean" I turned around and saw a smiling Chinese-Filipino, Hector Uy, who with his wife Imee had made a Worldwide Marriage Encounter in Cebu some months ago before emigrating to Australia. I had been the priest on their weekend.

St Fidelis Church, Moreland, Victoria

At each of the three Masses in St Fidelis/Our Lady of Perpetual SuccourParish, where I was doing the mission appeal for the Columbans, I mentioned Father Bernard Way, a Melbourne-born Columban who was among the pioneering group that went to Burma in the mid-1930s. He died in 1993. The reason was that an article her wrote for The Far East, the Irish Columban magazine now known as Far East - our magazine here in Australia and New Zealand retains the original name - captured my teenage imagination when I was seriously thinking of being a missionary priest. It was about his printing press in his parish in the mountains of northern Burma.

I never met Father Barney but wrote him for his Golden Jubilee and mentioned the part his printing press had played in my discovery of my vocation.

Afterthe Saturday evening Mass a couple who had just celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary approached me. The wife told me that Father Barney's sister, Margaret, had made her wedding dress. After the Mass in Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, a chapel in a school in the parish, another couple approached me. The husband told me, if I recollect correctly, that Father Barney or someone in his family had been his godfather. After the Sunday morning Mass in St Fidelis another man told me that his dad had been the Way family's butcher.

And during the week I met a niece of Father Barney, the daughter of his twin brother, who works part-time at the Columban house here.

Father Way teaching young Kachin men in Burma to sing Gregorian chant.

I frequently have this kind of experience wherever I go. We usually call them 'small world' experiences but for me as a missionary they are expressions of the reality that we truly are God the Father's beloved sons and daughters and the beloved brothers and sisters of Jesus and therefore of one another. As a priest I find that I am trusted as a link between so many people, living and dead.

I was especially happy to meet people with links to a Columban priest whom I never met but whose article about his printing press was one of the clearest signposts on the road to discovering my vocation. May Father Barney Way rest in peace.