Columban Fr Paul F. O'Malley RIP

Fr Paul F. O'Malley

11 April 1927 - 7 July 2018

Paul O'Malley was born in the Germantown neighborhood of Clinton, Massachusetts, the second son of Walter and Lillian (Kappel) O’Malley. His mother was a member of the German Congregationalist Church while his father’s background was that of Irish Catholicism. Paul’s home parish was St John the Evangelist, though he attended local public schools and graduated from Clinton High School in 1944. 

Central Park Foster Fountain, Clinton [Wikipedia]

Paul then completed two semesters at Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachusetts, before being drafted into the US Navy during World War II. During the following two years he served in the South Pacific - Okinawa, Guam and Pearl Harbor – until he was honorably discharged in 1946.

Paul returned to Holy Cross College and graduated in 1949 with a Bachelor of Science degree in History. He then entered State Teachers College in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, where he graduated in June of 1950 with a Master of Education degree. From 1950 – ’52 he taught in the Boston Public Schools. During his college years and later when teaching, Paul served as a counsellor at Camp Cedar Crest in Green Harbor, Massachusetts. It was there that he first encountered Columban seminarians, whose pleasant personalities and sense of humour made a deep impression on him. These encounters awakened his interest in studying for the priesthood.

St Joseph Memorial Chapel, Holy Cross College [Wikipedia]

As a first step, he attended the School of St Philip Neri, which provided a one year program in Latin and other courses to prepare late vocations for entering seminaries. Then, in September 1953, he entered the Columban Spiritual Year program at Bristol, Rhode Island. Having already studied philosophy at Holy Cross College, the following year he began his studies in theology in Milton, Massachusetts. Father Paul was ordained on 21 December 1957 at St Columban Major Seminary by Bishop Jeremiah Minihan.

In the autumn of 1958 he was assigned to the Philippines, where he spent the next thirteen years in the Prelature of Iba, Zambales. His first assignment was to St James Parish, Subic (1958 – 1961). He then moved to Olongapo City where he was the first Pastor of St. Columban Parish as well as the Assistant Director of Columban College (1962 - 1964).

Following that, he was an associate to Fr Kieran Heneghan at St Michael the Archangel Parish, Santa Cruz (1965 - 1967). During the next two years he was pastor at Holy Infant Parish, San Antonio. Father Paul’s last assignment in Zambales was as pastor of St James Parish, Subic (1970 - 1971).

Santa Cruz, Zambales [Wikipedia]

A stint in vocation ministry in the US Region (1969 – 1970) led Father Paul to be assigned back home a short time later (1971). From 1972 – 1974 he was engaged in mission education and promotion work at St. Columban’s Retreat House, Derby, New York.

From 1974, Father Paul began a series of renewal programs, starting with Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at Boston City Hospital, and continuing with studies at St John Seminary, Brighton, Massachusetts and later at Weston School of Theology in Cambridge Massachusetts. He then returned to the Philippines where he was engaged – alongside his classmate, Fr Vic Gaboury – in pastoral education at Makati Medical Center in Makati City.

Makati Medical Center [Wikipedia]

In 1977 Father Paul returned to the United States, where he joined Columbans, Fr Bob Conley and Fr Jim O’Brien, in team ministry at Sts Peter and Paul Parish in Norwich, Connecticut. There, he relished the opportunity to minister to parishioners from a wide variety of ethnic, religious and socio- economic backgrounds. He also put his CPE training to use in the development of a parish programme for the sick and elderly, as well as in his regular ministry at nearby hospitals, including Uncas-on-Thames Hospital for the terminally ill.  Upon leaving that parish in 1983, Father Paul became pastor to the Filipino community at St Columban Church in Los Angeles, where he remained until March 1987.

St Columban Church, LA [Parish website]

Participation in a three month Columban renewal course in Baguio City, Philippines, led Paul to express an interest in going to the new Columban mission in Jamaica, West Indies. In April 1987 he took up an appointment in the Diocese of Montego Bay, ministering for the first five years in Holy Name Parish in Bamboo, St Ann, and the following two years at Sts Philip and James Parish, Lucea, Hanover. 

Montego Bay [Wikipedia]

Rheumatoid arthritis led Father Paul to receive treatment in Los Angeles in 1992, and to his re-assignment back to the US Region in 1994, where he assisted Columban Fr Bob Conley, at St Columban Church in Los Angeles for a year. From there he moved to senior housing in his hometown of Clinton, Massachusetts, where he was close to his brother, Walter, as well as relatives and friends. During the years that followed, he assisted with parish ministry, did Columban mission appeals, and engaged in outreach to benefactors, including the LAOH. He was also a frequent visitor to the Columban Retirement Home in Bristol, Rhode Island.

Statue of St Columban

St Columban's, Bristol, Rhode Island

Then, around his eightieth birthday, Father Paul moved into the Columban Retirement Home, though he continued to maintain close contact with the people of Clinton. Indeed, throughout his life, he nurtured and sustained friendships with many people in all the places he lived. His warm and caring nature as well as his sense of humour endeared him to all who crossed his path, and he found great joy in facilitating others in putting their gifts at the service of God and their community.

Father Paul is mourned by his brother and sister-in-law, Walter ‘Miz' O’Malley and Teresa, his niece Maureen Banks, nephew, Kevin O’Malley, the Columban community, as well as a large circle of long-time and newly-made friends.

Columban Fr Mark Mengel was the homilist at the funeral Mass on Thursday, 12 July in St John the Evangelist Church, Clinton. Burial followed in the family plot at St John Cemetery, Lancaster, Massachusetts.

May Father Paul rest now in the peace of Christ to whom he devoted his life.

The hymn Eternal Father, Strong to Save is traditionally associated with seafarers, both civilian and in armed services, in a number of countries. In the USA it is usually referred to as The Navy Hymn.

Columban Fr Fintan Murtagh RIP

Fr Fintan Murtagh

(12 February 1940 - 23 December 2016)

Fr Fintan J. Murtagh was born at Moyvore, County Westmeath, Ireland, on 12 February 1940.  He was educated at Moyvore National School and at St Finian’s College, Mullingar, County Westmeath. 

Entrance to St Finian's College, Mullingar [Wikipedia]

Father Fintan was one of many Columbans who had their secondary education in this school, which is owned by the Diocese of Meath.

He came to St Columban’s, Dalgan Park, Navan, County Meath, in September 1957 and was ordained priest there, on 22 December 1963 and died on 23 December 2016.

St Columban's, Dalgan Park

Appointed to the Philippines, and to the Diocese of Iba, which covers the province of Zambales, he served initially in San Marcelino, and Botolan. He spent longer periods in San Antonio, before returning again to Botolan and later to Candelaria and to Olongapo City.

San Antonio Town Plaza [Wikipedia]

In 1972 Father Fintan became aware that he was suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. With his sunny temperament, he did not allow his condition to determine what he could or could not do, and he actually continued to play golf long after others would have given up. From 1985, he began to develop a systematic approach to parishioners of Candelaria with disabilities.

Father Fintan with friend

The result was Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) for People with Disabilities and Families. By 2010 this organization was serving in thirteen parishes of the Diocese of Iba. In all, it was serving 1,037 members in a broad variety of programmes for persons with disabilities. It is serving those with cerebral palsy, stroke victims, those with Parkinson’s Disease, spinal cord injuries, and epilepsy.

With friends in Zambales

It also helps persons with learning disabilities such as those with Down Syndrome. There are programmes too for the profoundly deaf, the blind and the partially blind, and a variety of other disabling conditions.

Friends of Father Fintan

You can read articles by Father Fintan about his his work here, here and here.

As he coped with his own disability, Father Fintan gave courage and hope to so many other families in the Philippines and elsewhere. When he could no longer cope he came home to Ireland, but a mechanized wheelchair, and a special vehicle enabled him to be part of everything that was going on until he suffered a major stroke earlier this year.

Father Fintan will be remembered as a man of humour, hope and indomitable courage, a witness to all of us on how to cope  with life’s difficulties.

He was buried in St Columban’s Cemetery on 27 December.

Solas na bhFlaitheas air! The light of Heaven upon him!

St Columban's Cemetery, Dalgan Park

The students in Dalgan Park produced My Fair Lady for St Columban's Day, 23 November 1962. If my memory serves me right, Father Fintan was one of 'Eliza Doolittle's' Cockney companions in this number.

Columban Fr Michael Duffy RIP

Fr Michael Augustine Duffy

(1931 - 2016)

St Mary's Church, Navan [Wikipedia]

Father Michael died peacefully in Our Lady's Hospital, Navan, on 21 November 2016. Born on 28 November 1931 in Johnstown, County Meath, Ireland, he was educated at Loreto School, Abbey School, St Patrick’s Classical School, all in Navan, and at St Mary’s College, Rathmines, Dublin. He came to St Columban's, Dalgan Park, in September 1950 and was ordained priest there on 21 December 1956. During his student days he was outstanding at sports and regularly played for the Dalgan team against visiting teams in Gaelic Football, Hurling, Soccer and Rugby. Dalgan Park is very near Johnstown, where he grew up. He was a younger brother of Columban Fr Fergus Duffy who died in 1983.

St Francis Xavier University, Antigonish [Wikipedia]

Father Michael was appointed to post-graduate studies  at St Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada, where he obtained an MA in Social Studies; this was followed by studies in Journalism at Denver in 1959 while awaiting a visa to Burma. In May 1960, when his request for a visa had been refused, he was assigned to promotion work in the US from Westminster and San Francisco houses. In 1962, he was appointed to the college staff at Milton, MA and in 1963 to Silver Creek.

Zambales Mountains, San Narciso [Wikipedia]

In 1966 he was appointed to the Philippines. He spent 18 years in Zambales in the parishes of San Narciso, San Antonio, San Felipe, Castillejos, Poonbato, and Botolan. In 1984 he was appointed the College Formation Program in Cebu City and in 1988 was sent to Manila where for three years he worked on Justice and Peace issues from a base in Tondo.

In 1989 he was appointed to the Region of Britain where he served until 2003. During those years he worked on Mission Promotion and served several terms as  Vice-Director of the Region from 1995 to 2003.

River Boyne, Brú na Bóinne, County Meath [Wikipedia]

The Boyne flows by St Columban's, Dalgan Park, by Johnstown and through Navan.

Appointed to Ireland in 2003, he served as editor of the Regional Newsletter until deteriorating health confined him to the Dalgan Nursing Home. Father Michael was a gentle, quiet man with a self-deprecating sense of humour. He deeply appreciated the care that he received during his years in the Dalgan Nursing Home. 

May he rest in peace. 

Blessing of St Columban's Formation House, Cebu City by Archbishop (later Cardinal) Ricardo J. Vidal of Cebu, 23 November 1984, St Columban's Day.

L: Fr Seán Coyle, R: Fr Michael Duffy

A Philippine Folk Dance in San Narciso, Zambales

Thanks to Fr Patrick Raleigh, Regional Director, Ireland.