Farewell to Father Vincent

Farewell to Fr VincentColumban Fr Vincent (Vinnie) Batchelor died on May 28, 2016, at Box Hill Hospital, Melbourne. He was 95 years of age and in his 72nd year of priesthood.

After living in retirement at St Columban's, Essendon, since 2007, he moved to "Nazareth Care" in Camberwell two years ago. A few days before his death he was admitted to Box Hill Hospital. 

Fr Vincent was the fifth child in his family of five brothers and four sisters who grew up in Cohuna, a town on the Victorian side of the Murray River. After attending primary school at St Mary’s, Cohuna, he received his secondary education at St Patrick’s Christian Brothers College, Ballarat, an experience which he remembers with much pride and gratitude.

Fr Vincent’s brother, John, was a Jesuit priest who died recently, aged 102. Another brother, William, also deceased, was a priest of the Sandhurst Diocese and two of Fr Vincent’s sisters, Jessie and Mary, joined Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH) Sisters and worked as missionaries in the Philippines, Darwin and South Sudan.

In 1941, along with a number of other Columban seminarians, Vincent travelled to Omaha, Nebraska, USA, to study theology and complete his seminary formation. The war in Europe at that time prevented travel to Ireland where Australian Columbans normally studied theology in those times. He was ordained in Omaha on December 21, 1944, and in the following year made the long journey back home by ship across the Pacific.

Back in Australia Fr Vincent began his priestly ministry in various parishes in Australia and New Zealand and became a chaplain to Asian students for a number of years before joining the staff of St Columban’s Seminary. For many of us younger Columbans he was our Spiritual Year director.

In 1967 Fr Vincent was appointed to Fiji where he served for 40 years in many parishes, as a hospital chaplain, as a teacher and chaplain at Xavier Secondary College in Ba and as a chaplain to the De Montfort Brothers. He is fondly remembered in Fiji. He also served for a few years in a parish in Vanuatu.

A Requiem Mass for Fr Vincent was offered on June 2, 2016 at St Columban’s Essendon by his Columban confreres, his two sisters, Margaret and Sr. Mary, other relatives and a number of his friends, former students and parishioners. He was laid to rest at Melbourne General Cemetery, Carlton. May he rest in peace.

Columban Fr Ray Scanlon is the Vice-Director of the Columban Region of Australia & New Zealand.

Read more from The Far East, July 2016