Silver for marathon man

Fr Dan O'Connor won a couple of marathons on the West Coast, South Island of New Zealand not long before he was ordained. (His sister Mary O'Connor was a member of the New Zealand Olympic, Commonwealth Games and Cross Country teams).

In Pakistan he became the centre of attention when he stripped down to running gear to run a marathon in Lahore. In the Gospel phrase "the people were amazed at this man” who was no Pakistani; even more so when he showed them he was no slouch at running.

In the Pakistan 'Olympic Games' marathon of 1984 after gaining second position behind the winner from Nepal, he was disqualified from obtaining points for the Punjab team whose singlet he wore as he was declared to be not a true Punjabi.  

However the years catch up with all marathon men and Fr Dan recalls a man in the crowd shouting out encouragement to him in words that meant, ''Well done old man, keep going.”

Dan O'Connor was born in Hokitika on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand on February 17, 1951. His parents Timothy and Tarcille had seven children, four boys and three girls, Dan being the fifth in the family.

He attended the local State school from 1956 to 1963 and completed his secondary schooling at St Mary's High School run by the Sisters of Mercy in Hokitika in 1967.

He comes from a dairy farm background. At his ordination in Hokitika at St Mary's parish church he presented a pair of gumboots as an integral offering of his life to God.

After he left school Dan worked for four years at the Seaview Psychiatric Hospital, followed by five years as a dairy farmer in Kokatahi on the family farm. However he decided to follow the missionary call and in 1978 travelled to St Columban's seminary in Sydney to begin studies for the missionary priesthood.

After completing nearly six years of study he was sent to Pakistan as part of the overseas training program in which students had the chance to experience real missionary life. He studied the Urdu language and gained valuable pastoral experience in both the Punjab and Sindh provinces.

Dan was ordained in Hokitika by Bishop Denis Hanrahan on 13th December 1986 and appointed to Pakistan. He renewed his study of Urdu and lived with a family in the old city of Lahore who spoke Urdu.

For three years he worked in the parish of Sheikhupura about 50kms from Lahore and with homeless people in Kut Lutti where he and other Columbans were successful in having people who had been evicted from their lands being reinstated by the Supreme Court.  

However Dan became ill with hepatitis A and spent 18 months recovering in New Zealand. He had been Co-coordinator of the Lay Missionary Program in Pakistan and on his return was involved in parish work once again in Sheikhupura.

Fr Dan spent seven years in New Zealand on mission appeals and supply work in various parishes in the South Island thus allowing diocesan priests to have a break and himself to be near his ailing parents. He returned to Pakistan in 2006 and was appointed to Badin Parish in Hyderabad diocese in the southern province of Sindh.  

The Parkari Kholi people there have their own language so Mass is celebrated in this language. Many Hindu people as well as Christians and Muslims live within the bounds of Badin. The farthest village takes two hours travel by jeep, much over bumpy roads and dusty tracks in the semi-desert area. The Parkari Kholi people work the lands of wealthy landlords; they are a poor and oppressed people who suffer the consequences of injustice.

Fr Dan is presently on sabbatical leave at St Columban’s, Dalgan Park, the headquarters of the Columban Fathers in Ireland and will celebrate his 25 years of missionary priestly service with other members of the Columban Society there. He plans to run the Dublin Marathon in late October to raise funds for the mission in Badin.

"‘A'salaam va laikum’ Fr Dan, God's peace be unto you and for many years to come."

Fr Daniel O’Connor first went to Pakistan in 1983.


Read more from The Far East, November/December 2011