Fr Cyril Hally's missionary journey

19.05.2010

A priest with vision who read the ‘signs of the times’.

Fr Cyril Hally was born on 9th February 1920 at Temuka,  South island, New Zealand.  He did his primary and secondary schooling at Oamaru. In 1939 he left New Zealand to go to  St Columban Missionary Society seminary in Essendon Melbourne. At an early age he decided he wanted to be a missionary in China and followed his dream. After his seminary studies he was ordained in St Patrick’s Cathedral by Archbishop Daniel Mannix on July 2nd, 1945.

His life revolved around centres of higher learning. He was chaplain to Asian students in Lower Hutt, New Zealand while he studied for an arts degree but was sent to Rome in 1948 to study Canon Law before he finished his course. After gaining a licentiate in Canon Law, Cyril was appointed to Japan in 1951. But he was only there for just over a year before he was recalled to the staff of the Columban seminary at Wahroonga, New South Wales.  He became a part time chaplain to Asian students in Sydney.

In 1961 he was appointed to Lower Hutt again and resumed his BA studies at Victoria University but in 1963 left New Zealand to study linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington DC.  His superiors had a change of mind and sent him to Ireland to be a member of staff at St Columban’s seminary at Dalgan Park, Co Meath.  Here he started to lecture  students during Gregorian Chant class on the social context of mission and the rapidly changing world they were heading out to challenge or be challenged by. Some priests recall these lectures as  most stimulating and exciting but Gregorian Chant was not forgotten though not given pride of place.

In 1966 Cyril was appointed to a church ‘think tank’ in Brussels, ‘Pro Mundi Vitae’ which specialised in in- depth studies on topics and issues  of the Church that needed researching. In 1971 he was appointed to the Australian/New Zealand Region and in 1972 was made First Secretary to the National Catholic Missionary Council, Sydney set up by the Australian bishops.

In 1979 he moved to St Columban’s seminary at North Turramurra and became a member of the seminary staff. He was  Director of the Pacific Mission Institute for many years and  lectured hundreds of participants who were heading for cross-cultural mission in Australia or other parts of the world.  Fr Cyril had lectured in missiology, missionary anthropology, mission history and later peace and ecology.

He was awarded the inaugural Philia Prize for vision and initiative in religious work in Australia.

He was indefatigable in attending meetings concerned with justice and peace issues. Over the years he built an extraordinary network of people in many areas of life. He touched the lives of hundreds if not thousands of people with his vision and understanding of what was happening to the Church and the world. He kept an interest in the China desk of the Columban Mission Institute.

In 2006 he transferred from Sydney to St Columban’s Mission in Essendon where he had come as a young man to become a missionary so that he could receive better care. The last months of his life were spent in Mercy Place, Parkville where he continued to read and talk and be visited by Columbans, friends and admirers. He died suddenly but peacefully on Tuesday morning, May 18th2010. Though he never became a missionary in China, he helped prepare missionaries who now work in many parts of the world to read what Pope John XXIII called ‘the signs of the times’.

Read Catholic Mission: A Mentor to Australian Missionaries - A Tribute to Fr Cyril Hally SSC

or

Read Sunday Examiner Hong Kong - Where contributions to the mission of God are lived