I have known Fr Patrick (Pat) O’Shea for a long time and I feel privileged to be asked to write this tribute to him as he celebrates 50 years of Columban missionary priesthood.
Fr Pat hails from a beautiful part of Ireland, the town of Naas in the county of Kildare. He was born in Trim, Co. Meath. The family moved to Naas in 1960. Fr Pat is particularly close to his family and remembers family anniversaries and keeps in touch with them. He went to the Christian Brothers school in Naas.
In 1967 he entered the formation program for Columban missionary priesthood at St Columban’s College, Dalgan, County Meath, Ireland. There were 33 in his class. In 1974 he was among the 12 who were ordained. He was ordained in Naas parish church on October 27, 1974.
Fr Pat was one of six members of his class appointed to the Philippines. He was assigned to Mindanao where he lived and worked from 1975 to 1978.
From 1978 to 1979 he did a course in clinical pastoral education in the United States. A spell in the parish of Chester in England followed. Then he returned to the Philippines. From 1982-86 he worked with the Presentation Sisters in Ireland conducting youth retreats. In 1986 he was assigned to the mission unit of Jamaica.
In 1987 he was on the Faith and Justice team which conducted a multi-faceted program run by the Columban Justice and Peace Office. This program was held at the retreat centre of the Sisters of Sion, Bellinter House, Ireland.
From 1988-89, Fr Pat studied at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, USA. He eventually acquired an MA in mission spirituality.
Fr Pat was next assigned to the staff of the Columban Mission Institute (CMI) at St Columban’s College, North Turramurra, Sydney, Australia, to teach Mission Spirituality. He was there from 1991 to 2000. I joined him on the staff of CMI in 1993.
When CMI underwent significant changes in 1996, Fr Pat took the opportunity to become involved for six years in school chaplaincy work in Sydney. These were among the most enjoyable years in his 50 years of priesthood.
From 1995 to 2000, Fr Pat and I were responsible for the Columban priest formation program. During those years five students took part in this program but only one was ordained.
Fr Pat and I were among the first three to move out of St Columban’s, North Turramurra, when we moved into a house, with a third Columban and a student, in Strathfield. We Columbans would eventually sell St Columban’s Turramurra and all move to Strathfield where, for a time, we occupied three houses. Today we have one house in Strathfield.
I was re-appointed to Fiji in 2004 and Fr Pat moved to New Zealand in 2006 where he became part of the Columban Mission team in Lower Hutt. In 2014 I was also appointed to New Zealand. There Fr Pat and I caught up with each other again and we are both part of an expanded Columban Mission team that is now made up of seven people, with six of us living in Francis Douglas Way, Lower Hutt.
Columbans outside the Columban Mission office, Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Photos: St Columbans Mission Society
Fr Pat O’Shea would easily be one of the most talented gentlemen I have ever come to know. As a teacher, he is wonderfully creative and remarkably courageous.
He would do things, like dressing up as a clown, to impress upon his students an image of Jesus that was so out of the ordinary but memorable. As a preacher, he could weave biblical images and symbols to form patterns of thought that were so clear and, at the same time, so relevant to our present day and age.
As a priest Fr Pat touched the lives of so many people. Often, as I greeted people coming out of one of the local churches after Mass, someone would come up to me and ask to be remembered to “Fr Pat”. Rarely have I known a priest who could make a text and a liturgical ceremony come alive like Fr Pat could.
Conversation during morning tea in the Columban Mission office here is so enjoyable because Fr Pat can deftly pull out of his carefully ordered and well-read mind a story or a lesson that is so apt and thoughtful.
Like many others, I am grateful for Fr Pat’s friendship and support and I wish him many more fruitful years of priestly service.
Please remember Fr Pat O’Shea in your prayers as he celebrates 50 years of priesthood in the Missionary Society of St Columban.
Columban Fr Tom Rouse is the Regional Councillor for New Zealand.
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