When I received the November/December issue of The Far East in the mail, I was delighted to see the photos of the priests, who had been Regional Directors of the Columban Fathers in Australia since their establishment in this country in 1920.
My twin sister and I grew up in the parish of St Vincent de Paul in North Essendon, Victoria, where the Columbans headquarters had been set up in 1920. I had had the good fortune to be in personal contact with the Director, Fr Luke Mullany, and many other Columbans who lived across the road from St Vincent de Paul. They all had an inspiriting impact on my priestly vocation.
Fr James McGlynn
Providentially our Archbishop of the time was the famous Dr Mannix and he had asked the members of the Society of St Columban to provide us with a parish priest. Fr James McGlynn chose to carry out those responsibilities in addition to his formation role with their seminarians. During his time in the parish virtually every home was visited and blessed and consecrated to the Sacred Heart.
Without question, as I look back, I would say Fr McGlynn embodied for me the life of Jesus Himself. If the church’s original criteria of designating “Saints” on the example of their ministry, he would have been accorded that title following his death. That is no wild claim of mine, and I’m sure that the contemporary parishioners would happily endorse it.
Had Fr McGlynn not exercised the pastoral role in my formative years that he did, I might never be looking back so happily today on my 60 years as a priest. Let me recall for you his fatherly involvement in the crucial decisions that decided the course of my life. As things developed under the Irish Sisters of Charity, who taught in our parish school I was granted a scholarship to be trained in elocution. And pursuing that opportunity required me to journey into the city for lessons each Saturday morning. Unfortunately that precluded me from the classes that Fr McGlynn conducted for those wishing to become altar servers.
Once he became aware of my difficulty he offered to tutor me personally on the Saturday afternoons, much to my delight because I so much wanted to serve Mass and Benediction. As you can imagine that really made me feel special.
As my final years at St Bernard’s College was coming to a close, I shared with Fr McGlynn my desire to go off to the Columban seminary and train to be a missionary priest.
He listened to me in a truly fatherly fashion and suggested that I might study for my matriculation at St Patrick’s College in Ballarat. Fortunately my parents were in agreement, and I spent two years at St Pat’s where many aspiring Columban Seminarians had preceded me.
God really had things in good hands, because of the counselling I received from the resident chaplain at St Patrick’s. He discerned that I was better suited to live as a diocesan priest in Melbourne so I enrolled in Corpus Christi College.
Fr McGlynn was perfectly happy with that decision and his reassurance was a gesture from which I am benefitting to this very day.
Fr Gerard Dowling
Supposedly retired, Fr Dowling is the host of ‘The Family Counsellor’, heard every Sunday evening from 10 o’clock on Melbourne’s RSN Radio Sport National. The show has been running for almost 45 years.
Related links
- Read more from the current Columban eBulletin