Nuncio celebrates legacy of Cavan priest

As the immensely affable Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo regaled a gathering at the homeplace of the late Fr Gregory McGovern, a spreading rainbow shattered the greyness of the West Cavan sky.

It caused the Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland to pause a moment. Taking stock, he mused just how much Fr Greg as he was best known had “sacrificed” by leaving his home behind to become a missionary priest to Nigeria.

“He worked in the desert. When the sun hurricane begins to blow, you just have to run away, and hide. There’s no lake there, not even one,” he said, explaining the contrast between the Prefecture of Kaduna to Tonlagee, the latter ironically translating as ‘bottom of the hill facing the wind’.

“But [Fr Greg] just adapted as if nothing was happening,” continued Archbishop Okolo. “We didn’t even know what he was going through, the nostalgia, if he was homesick? He remained normal, and natural.”

The visit by Pope Francis’ emissary to Ireland offered a unique opportunity for him to personally acknowledge the profound positive impact the Cavan priest had on a young Archbishop Okolo.

As chief celebrant, the Nuncio said Mass at St Patrick’s Church in Corlough on Sunday last, October 31, the same church Fr Greg celebrated Mass following his ordination from St Catherine’s in Newry in June 1951. Last Sunday would also have been Fr Greg’s 100th birthday were he still alive.

The eldest child of Andrew and Margaret, and a former pupil at St Patrick’s College, Fr Greg worked with Smith Monumental’s before following a late vocation, age 30, and joining the Society of African Missions (SMA).

It was while serving the Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Kano that Fr Greg baptised and gave First Communion to the child that would go on to become the Papal Nuncio to Ireland.

The Nuncio’s affection for Fr Greg as his inspiration to devote his own life to God was clear in his reminiscences, flicking through McGovern family photos as the fire of freshly collected sticks roared its welcome from the open hearth.

“KAD 2864...,” Archbishop Okolo rhymed off from the recesses of his mind - the number plate of Fr Greg’s Honda 90 motorcycle, which the priest would ride across the dusty tundra seeing to the pastoral needs of those he served.

Beaming a wide smile, he shared “this is the Fr Greg I know!” holding up a wilted black and white photo of a strapping young man filled with a sense of adventure and purpose. “We saw that motorcycle everyday. Not many people had them. I was carried on it so many times,” recalled the Archbishop.

But within 10 years of arriving in Nigeria, Fr Greg would be struck down by polio. Even still, he continued his pastoral work with as much gusto as his weakened body would allow, spending 47 years in total working in Sub-Saharan Africa before ill health finally forced his return to Ireland in 1998.

Fr Greg passed away on December 27, 2010, with both he and his brother Paddy, also an SMA, laid to rest in Cork. Archbishop Okolo visited the graveside in June 2019, and committed to completing this “personal pilgrimage” when attending the appointment of Martin Hayes as new Bishop of Kilmore.

From the pulpit, the Nuncio credited the legacy of Missionary priests and nuns from Ireland. He reflected how, on the eve of Fr Greg’s birth 100 years before, Bishop Joseph Shanahan set in motion a train that would eventually see the establishment of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary in Killeshandra in 1924.

He remembered too the Sisters of St Louis who also taught in his locality growing up, and how his own vocation began when serving the Masses celebrated by Fr Greg at his school.

“My father was the headmaster of the school, but on Sundays he was one of those who would translate the ceremonies in our local language,” recalled the Nuncio. “There was a particular day he spotted me not paying attention to him and after he said ‘Jude, you were not paying attention’. I said ‘I was’. I told him I was paying attention to the priest. He asked me did I know what he was saying. ‘No’, I said, because I didn’t, that was the truth. But thinking of it today, I think I got something from it. I was mesmerised by Fr McGovern. I was always impressed by him.”

The Nuncio referred to Fr Greg as a “pathfinder, a trailblazer” and that he and other SMAs like him were and still are people of “faith, hope and charity”.

Archbishop Okolo was hosted at St Patrick’s Church by local Parish Priest Fr Sean Maguire, and was joined in concelebrating the Mass by Bishop of Kilmore, Martin Hayes, and Vicar General of Kilmore, Monsignor Liam Kelly.

Also in attendance were Fr Malachy Flanagan, Provincial Leader of Irish Province SMA, and local priests from the Diocese. The Mass was attended by Fr Greg’s nieces and nephews living in Ireland, and viewed online by his sister, Rita McCabe from Philidephia, and his brother Barney McGovern in New Jersey.

Before proceedings ended, Emer Devine, chair of the Corlough-Templeport Parish Pastoral Council, thanked everyone who contributed to proceedings, and addressing Archbishop Okolo, said the ceremony felt like the journey both he and Fr Greg followed had “come full circle”.

Presentations, of Holy Water drawn from St Mogue’s Well and soil from the island, were made to both the Nuncio and Bishop Hayes, by Brian Baxter and Donal McTaggert respectively.

The Nuncio also received a project compiled by local school children on the life of Fr Greg, the work of the SMAs, and on Nigeria and its culture from Oisin McGovern; while Archbishop Okolo in turn presented Fr Maguire with a Papal Medal.

After, Fr Maguire told the Celt that it had been a “historic day” for the parish and for Corlough in particular, commenting that the Nuncio was “literally walking in the footsteps” of his great role model Fr Greg.