OBITUARIES - Page 1

===============================================================================================================

TRAGIC DEATH IN ZIMBABWE OF BR JOSEPH O'TOOLE

The Province was shocked and saddened to receive the news on Monday, 26th October 2009 that Brother Joe O'Toole had been killed that day in a road accident in Zimbabwe. On that day Br Joe had gone to a meeting to the south of Harare. He was driving back into Harare when at a place near Featherstone there is a bridge over the Pimbi river. It was dark and there was a large lorry coming in the other direction with its lights flashing because according to some witnesses it was in the middle of the road. Another wirtness in a car following the lorry said they could see a person in the car coming towards them shielding his eyes with his hand. At the end of the bridge there was a concrete pier into which the railings of the bridge were embedded. Br Joe collided with the pier of the bridge in avoiding the lorry and was killed outright. There were no passengers in the car. Br Joe was only 51 years old. Only a month before he had been visiting the Province and a picture of him visiting the friars in Stratford was published on our website under Stratford Local News (click here)

Joseph O'Toole was born in Airdrie on 5th March 1958. He spent some time at the Scots College in Rome with a view to ordination in a Scottish Diocese before he entered the Franciscan novitiate in 1978, making his first profession a year later and his final Solemn Profession on 5th January 1985. During his years of formation in Canterbury he trained as a general nurse and became an RGN. After his Solemn Profession he worked for six months as a Drug Rehabilitation Counsellor and then trained to become a Registered Mental Nurse. When later in 1987 the Province decided to set up an experimental community among the poor in Gateshead, Joseph was made the friar in charge. In 1991 he became novice master at Chilworth which was the novitiate house for both our Province and the Province of Ireland. In 1999 he volunteered to join the Order's Thailand project where he learnt something of the language in a comparatively short time and worked in the care of AIDS patients. In 2002 he was back in Glasgow until he was asked to go to Zimbabwe, a Custody of the Irish Province, as a temporary novice master. But he stayed on and was elected a Custodial Councillor at the last Chapter. May he rest in peace.

The Funeral

Brother Joe's body was flown back to his native Scotland from Harare, accompanied by Fr Liam McCarthy, and his funeral took place in his home parish of St Margaret, Hallcraig Street, Airdrie, where his body was received on the evening of Wednesday, 4th November 2009, and the funeral Mass took place on the following day, Thursday, 5th November 2009. On both occasions there was a large congregation in the church. Our Minister Provincial with a great number of our friars was joined by the Minister Provincial of Ireland with five other friars from Ireland, and Bishop Joseph Devine of Motherwell led about 20 secular priests, including two parish priests from Airdrie. Joe O'Toole's numerous family members - he was one of seven brothers and one sister - were all present. Fr Liam McCarthy gave the homily and also read out a formal tribute from the Custos and all the friars of the Custody of the Good Shepherd in Zimbabwe addressed particularly to the family.

The whole congregation moved to Dalbeth Cemetery in Glasgow by coach and private vehicles for the burial and then on to St Francis Hall in Glasgow for the reception, attended by over 160 people.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

THE DEATH OF BR JOACHIM TINNENY MEANS THE END OF A MISSION

An Exemplary Franciscan Missionary

: Fr Joachim Tinneny, O.F.M.

Described by his Indian confreres as a committed religious and a dedicated missionary, Fr. Joachim Tinneny, O.F.M., aged 85, a member of our Province, passed away at Bellary, India, at 9 a.m. local time on Sunday, 22 November 2009. His death marks the end of a mission which began on 21st June 1925, when Frs Paul Ryan, Gerald Scarisbrick, and Ernest Reilly arrived in Hyderabad from England. Three years later in 1928 they took over the separate mission of Bellary which today is a diocese with an Indian Bishop. India now also had its own Franciscan Province. For the last twenty-three years Br Joachim has been the lone survivor in India of a missionary band of 32 Franciscan friars which he joined in 1956. He returned to England only twice for a period of leave in the 53 years since then. His death brings the mission to an end.
Fr Joachim was born in England on 22 July 1924. At the age of 18 he joined the RAF in which he served during the Second World War until in 1947 he was demobilised. He went straight to Osterley, the Jesuit late vocations house, and after two years entered the Franciscan novitiate at Chilworth. At the end of his novitiate year he went to the Franciscan House of Studies at East Bergholt which had been opened only three years previously. He was ordained there in September 1955 and left it the following year awaiting a passage to India. He arrived there on 27 December 1956 to begin his mission which has now come to an end 53 years later. In that time he worked in parishes such as Kowtal, Maski, Jawalgera, Raichur in Bellary diocese and in Shahabad in Gulbarga.
Fr. Joachim was ill for the last two weeks. He was admitted to the local St. Mary’s Hospital in Bellary. From there he was taken to NIMHANS Institute in Bangalore for a thorough medical investigation. The Bishop of Bellary, Mgr Henry D’Souza recounts, “Fr. Joachim was brought to Bellary last evening and was re-admitted to St. Mary’s Hospital. I administered the last sacraments to him at about 10 p.m. He was indeed delighted to be back in Bellary and had a peaceful death this morning.”
His mortal remains were kept at the senior priests’ house, BETHANY, for people to pay their last respects. The funeral rites were held at 4.00 p.m. on Monday, 23 November 2009, at St. Anthony’s Cathedral, and the mortal remains were interred thereafter at Cowl Bazaar cemetery.
“Fr. Joachim was a simple and committed religious. He lived totally for the poor”, affirmed one of his colleagues in the senior priests’ house.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

DEATH OF AN EX-PROVINCIAL

Br Noel O'Dwyer Departs this Life

In the early hours of Sunday, 24 January 2010, our Brother Noel O'Dwyer left us to go to his heavenly home. He was 84 years old and had spent his last years in St Francis Nursing Home, Glasgow, where he was cared for by the Franciscan Minoresses and died as a member of the community of Blessed John Duns Scotus in Ballater Street, which he still visited once or twice a week until the last months of his life.

Noel O'Dwyer was born in Newcastle, Co Tipperary, on 23rd May 1925. The youngest of eleven children he was baptised Richard. He entered the novitiate at Chilworth in 1946 and was ordained in 1953. He was a Guardian in Glasgow and Gorton and in 1975 he was elected Minister Provincial and served in this office for nine years. Later he was appointed General Visitator in Malta and South Africa. After a short time as Guardian in Ipswich he returned to Glasgow in 1985.

Read a profile of Noel O'Dwyer in Franciscan News for June 2007: click here and scroll down

The Funeral

Br Noel's body was brought to our friary at Ballater Street, Glasgow, on the morning of Sunday, 31st January 2010, and the coffin was left open in one of the public rooms for private visits and prayers. On Sunday evening the coffin was solemnly conveyed into the church and placed overnight at the side of the altar. Br Michael Copps, Minister Provincial, presided at this ceremony and welcomed the many members of the O'Dwyer family who had come to be present. On the following day the funeral Mass was celebrated at 11.30 a.m. by the Minister Provincial in the presence of the Archbishop who assisted at the faldstool. There were many priests from the archdiocese and from the Franciscan Province who concelebrated the Mass and assisted at the burial which took place immediately after the Mass at Dalbeth cemetery followed by a reception at St Francis church hall.

To read the Provincial's Funeral Homily click here