Memories of Fr. Denis Gibson C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription from recording

Fr. Denis Gibson died in Bishop Eton in 1958 was one of two brothers his brother was Edward John.

Denis was a chaplain during World War Two and at the end of the war he was stationed with the army, to the best of my recollection in Vienna. And there the Archbishop of Vienna, whether he was a cardinal then or made one a bit later I am not sure, but he wanted to go to Rome, and it was Denis Gibson who managed to smuggle him, as it were, out of the British Sector where he was with the soldiers, on a train that had to pass through the Russian sector and he refused to let the Russian guards examine the coach. He stood at the door of the coach and claimed that it was a British territory, and he brought the Archbishop in that way through the Russian zone to Rome.

As a result of this and in thanksgiving Denis was made an honorary Canon of the cathedral in Vienna and as such could have worn the full canonical robes.

Memories of Fr. Patrick Fury C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcribed from recording

Fr. Patrick Fury who died in Perth in 1987.

Pat Fury suffered as far as I can make out for most of his life from depression. I think it’s called bi-polar nowadays it used to be called manic, I’ve forgotten the term. Pat Fury was working in several communities, and when he was feeling well in his more manic phase, he would be able to help in different ways in the Parish, saying Mass particularly, hearing Confessions, but when he reached his other stage and he was feeling vaguely depressed, then he more or less kept to his room just reading novels or something like that.

He had a gift for languages, when he was in Wales he met a number of Italian prisoners of war, who had stayed on working on the farms near Machynlleth, where we had our community, and he learnt fluent Italian from them, he also learnt quite fluent Welsh for the few years he was there in Machynlleth. 

When he was in Bishop Eton in the ‘70s, he went through a very good phase and he was helping out a lot in the Parish saying Public Mass every day, but the drawback was he could not cope at all with the post Vatican 2 church. He was entirely committed to the Tridentine Church, and he would take every opportunity when he was saying a public Mass of preaching against the modern church which he used to call communist, and he used to condemn it.

One day he got up and he said, before he began Mass, the Rector has forbidden me to preach at these midday Masses, but he hasn’t forbidden me to give an introduction so if you sit down I will now give you the introduction to today’s Mass.

He spent his last few years in Perth where he very much kept to himself and led a very quiet unnoticed life virtually in his own room, and when he died there he was buried in the Monastery cemetery.

Memories of Fr. Desmond Fitzgerald C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn

Transcribed from recording

Fr. Desmond Fitzgerald who died in Clapham in 1966.

He was a man who was desperate to conceal his age, he knew that he looked younger than his actual years and he would go to great lengths to ensure as far as he could manage that no one discovered his true age. And on one occasion he discovered that an index, a big index had arrived from Rome with the details birth, profession, and ordination of all the members of his congregation. And he looked there was one in Clapham when he was in the community, and he got hold of it and tore the page out that contained his name, so that no one could find out his true age.

Memories of Fr. George Drew C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording

Fr. George Drew died in Bishop Eton in 1972.

During the First World War he was in the army as a young man and he spent the latter part of his military service in Palestine.

Later especially the time he was at Bishop Eton, towards the end of his life, Fr. Keaton, Bernard Keaton would visit from Hawkstone and being professed at the same time, in the same novitiate, they sat next to one another in order of profession in the refectory. And it was always interesting when they did meet, one could hear them talking about the days, reminiscing about time in the army

.

Sometimes to the extent that one confrere remarked it sounds as if while George Drew was winning the war for the British in Palestine, Buster Keaton was winning the same world war for Britain on the Western front in France.

But George Drew joined the congregation after the war, and the major contribution that he made to the Province was in the early 30s when he was appointed director of the juvenate, the name given to our junior or minor seminary, which then and until 1950 was at Bishop Eton Liverpool. He became director there about 1932 and he raised the standard of education by introducing public exams. 

During his three years it became established that juvenates had to pass the junior Oxford and then the senior Oxford, and it was only if they got a pass in the senior Oxford that they were accepted for the novitiate, and this continued through to 1950 when the juvenate was closed in Bishop Eton and in a different way continued in Birmingham when it was reopened there in Birmingham. It wasn’t the Oxford exam that they took but it was the state examinations of O’level and A’level.

But this raising of the standard for the novitiate was due to Fr. George Drew.

Part 2

Transcription of recording

Fr. George Drew – he was also noted for a recreation he had – the Times cryptic crossword. He was certainly good at solving the crossword, but he preferred always to do it with two or three around him making suggestions, because in this way it not only helped with answering or filling in all the answers to the clues, but it sometimes gave rise to a discussion, and in doing it this way during recreation there were very often minor discussions brought as a result of a clue, or an answer or the relation between the two.

Memories of Fr. William Doyle C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording

Fr.William Doyle or Willie Doyle, who died in Bishop Eton in 1977.

As far as I know Willie Doyle was a missioner and retreat giver all his life. I only knew him as an older man and he had a tremendously powerful booming voice, a voice that was lost when I used to hear him in a small church like Bishop Eton, a voice that would fill pretty well every known church at that time.

He was very much a missioner so much so that the night he died which was in what was then called the Lourdes hospital Green Bank Road. He sat up in bed about midnight and preached part of a mission sermon and then he laid down put his head back, and soon after that without another word he died. God rest him.

Memories of Fr. Peter Deary C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of Recording

Fr. Peter Deary died in Bishop Eton in 1965.

He was one of our great missionaries. Preached missions, or was in great demand as a giver of missions.  I think probably his greatest asset was the fact he was never fully satisfied with the sermons he was preaching. He was noted for being on the lookout for items in the daily press or items of news on the radio some things in periodicals, examples, incidents and making notes of them, copying down stories, making notes so that he could use them next time in his sermons.

Many missioners used to talk in terms of I have a sermon on the Mass, I have a sermon on marriage in such a way that they had written a sermon that would do them for the rest of their missionary life. In that sense Fr. Deary never had a definitive sermon. He had sermons that had begun had been improved but that were always open to further improvement. Better examples, more up to date examples, and I think that was part of the reason for his popularity as a missioner. He always seemed to be up so very much up to date in his preaching

Part 2

Transcription of Recording

Another memory I have of Peter Deary in his later years was what a young missioner said about him. The young missioner had given some missions with Fr. Deary as the third man as a group of three, someone who left us later, and he said of Fr. Deary, how helpful he was, not only that could he help but he was anxious to help the young men to preach better, to become better missioners. And he was pretty good himself this young man but he said of Fr. Deary that no matter how much he helped you none of us would ever become as good as he was, and that’s a memory that has stayed with me for many years.

Memories of Brother Anselm Colam C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording

Brother Anselm Colam who died in Erdington in 1965.

Before Br Anselm joined the Redemptorists, he earned his living as a Window Dresser at some of the big firms. He would set up the whole show that they wanted in their main windows facing onto the street, and that was something he brought with him to the Congregation, because, when I knew him he was sacristan and he had been sacristan in a number of our houses. My recollection of him was with just a few roses and a few leaves he seemed to be able to give the impression of having an altar massively decorated with flowers. He just had the touch of how to do it, but that was his early life, his early training in business before he joined us.

I remember once he said to me that he used to find it difficult at times in community, and that he always liked to have a move in Tri-Annum after about three years when the new appointments came out. He always felt he made a good start, but that he was very highly strung and he could find it difficult at times to live with people for any length of time, but moving from one community to another he found it gave him the best way of coping with this tension.

Memories of Fr. Augustine Clarke C.Ss.R   

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording.

Fr. Austin (Augustine) Clarke died in Bishop Eton I think in 1949.

He spent the latter part of his life in a wheelchair, and it was for him that the lift was first installed at Bishop Eton to enable him to get up and down from one storey to another. He was dependent upon a wheelchair.

Memories of Fr. John Charlton C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording.

Fr. John Charlton died in Bishop Stortford in 1963.

John Charlton was Provincial of the English Province as it was then known as, during both world wars. It was an appointment that had some difficulty as there was practically no recourse to Rome at the time, so he was left in the position of being almost the Superior General as far as the Province was concerned in both those difficult times.

After he came off Provincial he was moved to Bishop Stortford and he just lived quietly, helping out a bit there at the parish,but he used to visit Hawkstone occasionally. When he came to Hawkstone he always spent a little time with the students at their recreation. Now I remember one day he was talking to us and he spoke about his early life when he was professed, now that’s going back to 1897 there was no house of studies in the English Province, and he was sent abroad to Austria to a community in a place called Mautern, and he did his studies there, and he was ordained back in England in 1901.

But, and this is the interesting point, he said that while he was in Mautern he met a lady, an old lady, who was sick, who was dying, a very, very old lady and she spoke to him about her time as a girl and how she could just remember the retreat of Napoleon’s  troops from Moscow in 1812. Now John Charlton was telling us this in 1949 or 1950 and he then said which I’ve never forgotten. I wonder whether any of you will be alive in the next century to tell this story, as if you are then it means for nearly two hundred years there will be yourself, then me, then this woman in Mautern which takes you back to Napolean in 1812. It’s now April 2013 so it’s just over the two hundred years spanned by three people.

Memories of Brother Stanislaus Cassidy  C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording.

Brother Stanislaus Cassidy, who died in 1968 at Bishop Eton.

Bishop Eton in those days it was before it became a Parish, a Mission Community, but there were public Masses during the week and at the weekends. Brother Stanislaus was sacristan –seems to be for a long time. He was very good once the altar servers were recruited and they started coming. He was very good at not only teaching the small altar boys how to lay out vestments properly for the Masses next morning but he was also very good at allowing them to help him, even though looking back he must have had a lot of work because they were so small, trying to tidy up the vestments before the priest came the next morning. But he had a good reputation and was very much liked by them.