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Fr John – a wonderful priest
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| By Sharyn McCowen
27 January, 2013 |
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| ‘DEEPLY SPIRITUAL’: Fr John distributes communion with Bishop David Cremin at the annual St Patrick’s Day Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral. |
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Bishops and priests from across Sydney have paid tribute to beloved Irish priest Fr John McSweeney, who died last week, aged 93.
“He was an absolutely wonderful priest who reached out to everybody,” said Bishop David Cremin.
“Even in his old age, people everywhere, especially all the priests, sick priests, retired priests who were lonely, he would be forever on their doorstep.
“At his age he was just extraordinary, he was just full of life. He kept going to the beach, winter and summer.
“He was one of my very best friends.
“He was an extraordinary man, he will deeply missed.
Fr John arrived in Australia in 1945 as a young priest after training as a seminarian at All Hallows College, Dublin.
He was “a very proud Irishman”, said Fr Micheál O’Sullivan, a retired Sydney priest who also attended All Hallows.
“He was also very proud about the part of Ireland that he came from. He came from West Cork and it’s always been a very Irish part of the country.”
Fr John worked as a chaplain in postwar Japan for 12 years, then served as a priest in various parishes before being appointed to Our Lady of Fatima, Kingsgrove.
He remained there for 37 years, as parish priest and, after retirement, as pastor emeritus.
Fr John was formally farewelled from the parish in June 2012, after moving into an aged care facility.
He was “very fond of Kingsgrove and Kingsgrove people”, he told The Catholic Weekly last year.
Bishop Terry Brady, auxiliary bishop of Sydney and former parish priest of Kingsgrove, said Fr John was a “deeply, deeply spiritual man”.
He paid tribute to the priest’s commitment to Kingsgrove and his determination to take on any problems in the parish.
“He’s a good example of someone who has been able to jump those hurdles.”
Bishop Brady said Fr John had been a gifted academic, a keen swimmer and a priest deeply
devoted to prayer.
He said Fr John’s years of
retirement were “some of the most productive of his life”.
In his retirement, Fr John wrote four books – A Meddling Priest: John Joseph Terry; Call Me David; A Welcome on the Mat: Fr Dunlea – a Memoir; and the autobiographical Light of Other Days, which reveals how he kept up with the spirit of the changing Church after Vatican II.
“I’d like to say that so often he pulled the Church along after him, kicking and struggling,” Bishop Cremin said at the launch of Light of Other Days.
Fr Remy Lam Son Bui, parish priest of Liverpool and former Kingsgrove priest, first met Fr John in 1984.
“As a seminarian I was sent to his parish, at Kingsgrove,” he said.
“He was very well-loved there, and he has shown a very exemplary
commitment to the faith.
“He made the faith inspiring to the people.
“He was constantly out and about to see the people at their homes. That was something I very much admired in him.
“He was always making time to walk around and knock on doors.”
Bishop Julian Porteous, auxiliary bishop of Sydney, said he “learnt so much from this wise and apostolic priest”.
The pair met when the bishop was just a young priest appointed to
Kingsgrove.
“Fr John was first and foremost a pastor.
“He came to Kingsgrove with a desire to advance the faith of the people and build a strong Christian
community in the parish.
“He was a pastor who loved and cared for his people. He would do door-to-door visitation in the early evenings and kept this up as a regular habit.
“He was hospitable and open to parishioners and priests alike.
Presbytery life was open and friendly.”
Bishop Porteous said Fr John served the archdiocese “with generosity and dedication”.
“The people of Kingsgrove, in
particular, will mourn his passing.”
Funeral arrangements were still being planned when the CW went to press.
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