Reverberations of an untimely death

SADLY MISSED Fr Patrick Burke, with Inishturk in the background. Pic: ACP

ALL this wonderful summer sunshine has been tainted by sadness and grief for the parishioners of Westport and its environs over the last week. As the sudden death of Father Patrick Burke (38) filtered out through the community late last Monday night and as people awoke on Tuesday morning, it is not surprising that there was a sense of utter disbelief and shock.
The communities of Clare Island and Inishturk, where his personable pastoralism had struck a deep chord, were reeling. Over his two-year tenure in the parish of Westport he had become an adopted islander; a vibrant new addition to these small, tightly-knit communities; a shepherd in the most radical sense.
Patrick Burke was a contemporary cleric whose embracing of the positive aspects of social media brought him close to a younger generation whose relationship with the church is different to that of their parents and grandparents.
Indeed, while he was on the cusp of moving to the Gaeltacht parish of An Ceathrú Rua in south Connemara, he told Clare islanders after he celebrated Mass on Saturday, June 23 that he would be back staying in the parochial house out there for his summer holidays.
The late Patrick Burke will not be making that voyage now but his warmth, easy engagement, sincere interaction and friendship with these offshore communities has already become part of the rich narrative on both Clare Island and Inishturk.
Indeed, there was irony in the fact that on Sunday, June 24, he was among over 40 priests in attendance at the ordination of local man, John Regan, which was con-celebrated in St Mary’s Church, in Westport. As the Pallotine Order gained a new member, the Diocese of Tuam lost one of its young, promising priests who had already infused the aging demographic with a new, hopeful energy.

The Minister and Mass
MEANWHILE, on the same day (June 24) a media storm erupted over the fact that Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan, who has strong Westport family connections, helped to conduct a church service in her south Dublin parish of Mount Merrion after the priest failed to turn up.
Rebuked by the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, for commenting afterwards that the Catholic Church should allow women to say Mass and priests to marry, the spirited TD said that a failure to adapt to change would inevitably lead to a ‘severe decline’ in church participation. However, Archbishop Martin responded by saying that she had provoked ‘considerable distress’ among churchgoers and was, in fact, ‘pushing an agenda’.
Undeterred, Ms Madigan said the only agenda she was pushing was one of equality, and that she intended to raise her concerns with Pope Francis during his visit to Ireland next month.      
She argued: “Although women play a role in the operations of the church, including my own parish, I believe the church has to change to reflect society as it is today.”
Addressing churchgoers in the Church of St Therese in Mount Merrion on Sunday, Archbishop Martin spoke in a more conciliatory fashion explaining that he ‘never said it was inappropriate in such a situation [when a priest fails to turn up] for the community to gather in prayer’. He also said he never expressed issues about a woman leading prayers.
The archbishop’s comments were welcome and necessary, not only because there is a collapse in clerical vocations but because of the vital and essential roles the laity – both men and women – play in the daily workings of every parish.
Archbishop Martin said: “We have to find ways in which divisions can be addressed within the Christian community in ways that are typical of the Christian community, through dialogue, through mutual respect and where Christian charity always prevails.”
Furthermore, he added: “Divisions must be addressed and the message of Jesus demands a radical leap out of conformity.”
As the people of Westport parish and beyond come to terms with the untimely death of a gifted young man who stood out because of his relative youth in an aging demography of priests, we all must espouse and encourage that ‘radical leap out of conformity’.