Mass for the Repose of the Soul of Father Francis Mclaughlin

Celebrated by Archbishop Denis Hart
at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne,
on Tuesday, 20th September, 2005, at 11.00am

Introduction

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In this Cathedral where Father Frank McLaughlin celebrated his first Mass after returning from Ireland in December 1961, we gather to bid farewell to Father Frank, a dedicated teacher and priest, a man who loved people, of indefatigable pastoral energy.

Last Monday in the 92 nd year of his life and the 45 th year of his priesthood he returned to our Father’s house. We thank God for him and his many deeds, as we pray for the repose of his soul.

Homily

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

With esteem and thankfulness to God we are gathered to bid farewell to Father Frank McLaughlin, one of the best known priests of the Archdiocese, surrounded by bishops, priests, family and so many friends.

Each of us will remember him for his qualities as a teacher, his indefatigable industry in undertaking pastoral assignments, his ability as a correspondent and his priestly goodness. His roneoed newsletters for many years have gone far and wide throughout Australia.

Father Frank was the sixth of seven children of Hugh McLaughlin and Brigid Buckley. He was tremendously proud of his family and appreciated deeply that his father, Hugh, and his brother, Bernard, had made the supreme sacrifice in defence of our country. Father Frank was under two years of age when his mother died. His father died in 1918 and his brother, Bernard, during the Second World War in June 1945, while a prisoner of war.

He was very proud of his Irish heritage; his father from Donegal, his mother from Derry, and remained eternally grateful to Archbishop Mannix for accepting him for the Diocese.

Father Frank was one who loved the company of priests and was inexhaustible, both as a teacher and as a priest. In his thirty years as a Marist Brother he taught at various times in Randwick, Bendigo, Norwood, North Sydney, Kogarah, Maitland, Westmead and Campbelltown. In 1956 he went to study for the priesthood at All Hallows College, Dublin, and was ordained there on 18 th June 1961 by Archbishop Thomas Morris of Cashel and Emly, who was a distinguished visitor at the Fortieth International Eucharistic Congress here in Melbourne in 1972.

His work as a priest brought a similar list of parishes; East Melbourne, Dandenong, Heidelberg, Sandringham, Bacchus Marsh, South Caulfield, Balwyn, until he was Parish Priest of Greythorn from 1974 until 1978, Assistant at Camberwell and Murrumbeena, Administrator of Yea and Pastor Emeritus on 24 th January 1984.

He had earlier supplied at Warrigal in the Diocese of Sale (1968) and Leongatha (1962). After his retirement he worked in Maitland, Armidale and Bathurst until he went to Moran House in 1986 and to Justin Villa in 1992.

In subsequent years, he did regular supplies in seven parishes in Melbourne and a number of parishes in Wollongong, Sandhurst, Wagga Wagga, with hospital chaplaincy at St Vincent’s, St Catherine’s and the Little Sisters of the Poor at Northcote.

Truly he was not daunted, his energy was constant, and his enthusiasm for the priesthood and for people was unequalled. He had a great love of the Eucharist and love of Our Lady.

He had a deep sense of purpose in his life, a love of the priesthood and of the places where he served with great generosity. He was a regular traveller to Fatima. Indeed on one occasion in an early morning encounter in October 1992 when I was voiceless, I will never forget him leading the singing at the grotto, surrounded by a small group of English-speaking pilgrims and to a mystified audience from so many other countries.

Frank was the sole remaining member of his family and is surrounded by the love and prayers of his nephews and of so many friends.

He will be remembered as generous, faith-filled, determined and constant. We lay him to rest in peace, especially after the suffering of his more recent years. May his soul rest in peace.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.