foundingfathers

Fr. Garry McCarthy, CSSp

Being brought up in a very large family, I had plenty of brothers to play football with and plenty of sisters for company. So I was delighted when my first appointment after being ordained was to the staff of St. Mary's College in Dublin, a boys' school not far from my home.

The five years I spent there were among the happiest in my life. I became totally involved in the life of the school; academic, athletic, cultural, social and religious. I was most involved as a classroom teacher, as rugby and cricket coach , as moderator of the Boy Scouts and as a director of the Legion of Mary. So I was not overly enthusiastic when I heard I had been appointed to a team of pioneers given the mandate to establish the Spiritans in English Canada. I was leaving behind in Dublin my family and a community I loved so much; the staff and students of St. Mary's. Today, fifty years later, I'm sure I still bore people with stories of "the Giller" and how my Under Twelve's lost in the final to our great rival Belvedere.

On arrival in Canada, in 1954, I found life tough. I was appointed to parish work, a new experience for me, under a very demanding pastor Nick McCormack who did not suffer fools gladly. I hope I was not a fool. But I was naive.

But then my fondest dreams came true. The Spiritans were asked to open a new high school for boys in the East End of Toronto. In September 1957 I joined the staff of the legendary St. Michael's College in Toronto operated by the Basilian Fathers. I was accepted into their community, included in all school activities and learned the skills I needed to be an educator in Canada.

In September 1958, Neil McNeil High School took its first students into Grades 9 and 10. Fr. Michael Troy was Principal, I was Vice-Principal and treasurer and year by year Spiritans from Ireland were added to the team until our number reached fourteen.

I still look back on those years when Neil McNeil grew in size, stature and reputation as among the best in my life. I was young, energetic, and creative. Since money was so tight and we did not have a residence, we Spiritans slept in empty classrooms and ploughed every dollar we earned back into the school. The spirit among the staff and the students was unbelievable in those early years. Everyone showed up to see the hockey, football and basketball teams play. I will never forget the evening we first beat St. Michael's in ice-hockey. The celebrations at the school went on long into the night.

But all good things must come to an end. In 1963 I was appointed District Superior to replace Leo Brolly who had led the Spiritan group for nine years. I did not want the post of Superior, I felt I did not have the particular talents which that position of leadership required. I had no inclination for administration. The nine darkest years of my life had begun. I missed the Spiritan Community at McNeil. I missed the boys and young men who attended the school, I missed the parents' group, my junior hockey team. I missed everything. But thanks to the moral and spiritual support of my confreres and my many friends, I survived this difficult period. For me it was a "dark night of the soul" experience. But there is a light at the end of every tunnel and in 1972 my term of office was finally over. Then I was appointed co-coordinator of our vocation team in a period which saw vocations to the priesthood reappearing after the tumult of the sixties. I enjoyed visiting schools, keeping in touch with young men who appeared attracted to the priestly vocation. But how could I, who had never worked in a mission territory, speak of the missionary vocation which every Spiritan has received?

So in 1976 I joined our French Canadian confreres in the missions in Central Nigeria. At 55 I found the climate, the language, the food and the scope of work very challenging and after two years my health broke down and I was home in Canada for recovery, with a heightened admiration for missionaries in foreign places.

For the next fifteen years, I was director of our pre-novitiate house, novice-master in the international Spiritan novitiate for North America, and vocation director for Ontario at different times. I also have served in two of our parishes, St. Rita's Woodstock where it all started, and Holy Rosary in Guelph.

In 1997 at the age of 76, I retired to Shanahan House, our Spiritan residence in West Hill. I am happy in my retirement and keeping busy with all the chores that ordinary house - maintenance demands. The bird-feeders, the lawn, the flower-beds, the library, the chapel, the garbage, the shopping, all demand my attention.

And as for my memories of fifty years in Canada, I can truly say that God sent me to a wonderful country where I made wonderful friends and had wonderful experiences. For these gifts I am truly grateful.

Fr. Bob Hudson, CSSp

After ordination in 1946, I was given a position on the Spiritan team whose purpose was to recruit vocations for the priesthood in Ireland. We did this by visiting boys Secondary Schools to talk about our missions overseas and to invite young men to consider the missionary vocation. We kept in touch with everyone who expressed interest, gathering them together for retreats, bringing them to Spiritan communities to meet retired missionaries. I loved this work very much and many of the Spiritans I now live with were recruited by me in the classrooms I visited. When I heard that a team was being put together to establish the Spiritans in English Canada, I was very interested. The first function of this group would be to spread awareness of the Spiritans across the country and to foster missionary vocations. When I was selected to be a member of this founding group, I was delighted.

We arrived in Canada in 1954 and set up our base camp in Woodstock, Ontario. In my first twenty years, I travelled Canada from East to West. I discovered how glorious was the country which had become my new home. I gave talks, retreats and workshops in High Schools, Colleges and Universities, in monasteries and convents and parishes. I never turned down an opportunity to spread awareness of the Spiritans in this new found land.

In the early years I felt very fulfilled. The Spiritan group was growing as more priests were sent from Ireland. The civil war in Nigeria brought an influx of displaced missionaries. Vocations were coming in numbers from the graduates of Neil McNeil High School. A seminary was set up. My work appeared very necessary and successful.

Then the great sea-change took place. The new philosophy and life-style of the sixties was embraced by the young. And the turmoil caused by the Second Vatican Council affected the laity and the clergy in the Catholic Church. As I saw the stream of vocations dry up and as I saw our seminary closed, I began to question the purpose of my work. This was the beginning of ten most difficult years for me.

During these years I was based in the Mount Cenacle Retreat Centre in Hamilton. My retreats were given mostly to older Catholics as the younger Church members seemed to turn away from mission, retreats, communion breakfasts, sodalities etc. which were the bread and butter of my ministry. The support of the Sisters in Mount Cenacle and of the pious, if aging, people who continued to do an annual retreat, sustained me through this era of my life.
In 1978 I accepted the post as pastor of St. Joseph's in Port Elgin, Ontario. I knew that in the post - Vatican II era it would be futile to operate a parish in the way it was done formerly. I realised that if we lost the young, we lost the future. But I also recognised how committed Canadian parents were to their children and how they were present at every function in which the children were involved. The plan I would operate on would be to have the young participate in all aspects of the parish and the adults would follow along.

All the roles that adults normally play in parish life except that of Eucharistic minister, I gave to the young. I set up a total of seven ministries, each ascribed to a certain age group. Each ministry had a uniform and the ministers were highly trained. From the "Alms Angels", aged 2½ to 4, who brought up baskets containing the contents of the Poor Box and the flowers to decorate the altar and the shrines in the Church, to the school seniors (16 to 19 years old) who ushered, virtually every young Catholic in St. Joseph's was involved in the Sunday ministry. The readings were done by young people, the choirs were composed of young people, the elderly were in the care of young people, the Mass servers were young people, the collections were taken and counted by young people. And the parents were always there while their sons and daughters "performed". The words of Isaiah were coming true, "And a little child will lead them."

This model of parish ministry attracted quite a bit of attention and St. Joseph's received visitors from many parish groups, some as far away as Florida, who wished to examine the model. Articles about the parish appeared in quite a few religious newspaper and magazines.

Needless to say it was with great regret that health and age factors caused me to retire at the age of 82. I now live in Laval House with many other retirees. I am happy and fulfilled and see my ministry now as looking after my Spiritan brothers who are dependent because of age and infirmity. I am particularly close to Garry McCarthy, the other surviving member of the Founding Fathers and John Sheehy, who worked with me in Port Elgin and who is in Providence Centre, a nursing home close to where I live.

And I thank God for all the gifts and graces he has given to me, for my fellow Spiritans, for my friends and for giving me fifty years in a wonderful country, Canada.

From Spiritan Missionary News
Vol. 28, No. 2
May 2004