Fr Pat Baker SSC. Photo: Missionary Society of St Columban
Fr Pat Baker ended a long battle with cancer in the early hours of October 12, 2019 at the Palliative Care Unit of St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne.
Born Patrick John Baker in the Victorian country town of Cobden, he was the youngest of eight children of John and Mary Denise Baker.
He is survived by his brother, Des, and two sisters, Denise and Nell, as well as the now only remaining Columban, Fr Chris, who along with their late brother Fr Leo, was one of three Baker boys to join the Society.
Pat suffered from ill health during his seminary days, which saw his first appointment to Korea changed to promotion work in Australia, leading to years in which he travelled wide and far in this vast land in his trusty old Volkswagen.
It was a formative time for Pat and he regaled and entertained with wondrous tales of escape from broken down cars in isolated places, encounters with characters of bush life and the state of play in a nation of another era in recreation rooms throughout the Philippines and Australia.
Although ordained in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne, on July 21, 1962, it was to be ten years before he would set foot on what was referred to at the time as mission soil when he arrived in Manila in 1972. A long missionary career in parishes, formation, priest associate programme and lay mission promotion followed, with his final commitment in the Philippine regional archival office a salute to his refined ability to classify and document information.
He was buried from the chapel at the Columban house in Melbourne in the Society plot at Carlton Cemetery on October 22, 2019. Seventy people attended the Requiem Mass, with members of his large extended family travelling from Queensland, New South Wales and across Victoria for the occasion. Former Columbans and Lay Missionaries, along with friends and associates completed the congregation.
The Mass was celebrated by Columban Frs Ray Scanlon and Trevor Trotter who gave the homily. Columban Fr Peter O’Neill conducted the final commendation at the cemetery. A nephew, Justin Leeds, spoke on behalf of the family and Fr Chris meticulously detailed some less known high and low lights from his younger brother’s 81 years on this earth. In what is believed to be a one and only in the Society, Chris was the rector of the seminary in North Turramurra when Pat was a student and approved him for ordination to the priesthood.
The sun shone on Melbourne on the day of the funeral, as it has shone on the lives of the many people to whom Pat has ministered over the years. He is especially remembered for his courage and commitment in all that he undertook. His presence will be missed in the Society halls of wisdom and fellowship.
May he rest in peace.
Columban Fr Jim Mulroney is the former Editor of the ‘Sunday Examiner’ in Hong Kong and now resides at the Columban house in Essendon.
Listen to "Vale Fr Pat Baker"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East, January/February 2020
