Société des Missions Africaines –Province d'Irlande
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né le 15 août 1907 à Belfast dans le diocèse de Down & Connor, Irlande membre de la SMA le 2 juillet 1931 prêtre le 21 septembre 1934 décédé le 11 septembre 1980 |
1935-1948 missionnaire au Nigeria décédé à Glasgow, Grande-Bretagne, le 11 septembre 1980, |
Father Gerard Gabriel PHILLIPS (1907 - 1980)
Gerard Phillips was born in Belfast (his home address was 7, College Place North, Belfast), in the parish of St. Mary's, in the diocese of Down and Connor, on 15 August 1907. He died, unexpectedly, at St. Vincent de Paul's presbytery, Thornliebank, Glasgow, on 11 September 1980.
Gerry grew up in Belfast in a family which had grim experience of the sectarian pogroms and attacks on Catholics of that era. He saw his own home burned and relatives and neighbours killed. Twenty years later, while he ministered in Africa, his family was again to suffer bereavement and the destruction of property, during the German bombings of Belfast. Gerry studied with the Christian Brothers in Belfast (1916 1921), at the Sacred Heart college, Ballinafad, Co Mayo (1925 26), and St. Joseph's college, Wilton, Cork (1926 1929), before coming to the Society's novitiate and house of philosophy, at Kilcolgan, Co Galway. Gerry was received as a member of the Society on 2 July 1931. He studied theology in the major seminary at Dromantine, Co Down, between September 1931 June 1935, and was ordained a priest by Bishop Edward Mulhern of Dromore diocese, at St. Colman's cathedral, Newry, on 21 September 1934. He was one of a group of twelve ordained on that day.
After ordination Gerry was appointed to the vicariate of the Bight of Benin, a jurisdiction which when it was first established in 1870 extended over all of south western Nigeria and part of Dahomey (Republic of Benin). Gerry spent eight years in the vicariate. On his arrival he was posted to Ado Ekiti district, where he studied Yoruba, learned about local culture and undertook supervised pastoral work. After three months he passed his language examination and received faculties to hear confessions. He was then posted to Topo island, near Badagry, where, in addition to a mission, convent and boarding school, the vicariate had a large coconut plantation (the dried fruit of the coconut copra useful for making soap and cosmetics was sold as a cash crop). After nine months Gerry was transferred to Oshogbo. During the remaining years of his first tour of duty Gerry was also to spend brief periods in Ibonwon, Ibadan and Effon. In September 1938 Gerry came to Ireland in shattered health and was hospitalised in Dublin for two months.
Gerry returned to Nigeria in August 1939, taking up a new assignment as superior of Yaba mission. Yaba was the 'fourth principal station' of Lagos district, founded in 1936 under the patronage of St. Patrick. Attached to Yaba were two secondary stations, Agbado and Ifo, as well as the government leper settlement. Gerry spent over three years in Yaba before being re assigned to Ibadan. At the outbreak of the second world war Gerry's brother joined the R.A.F. and was killed in action in May 1942. Gerry was invalided home in November 1943, shortly after having had an operation for appendicitis. He made a good recovery and was able to visit the remaining members of his family (his parents were no longer living). He returned to Nigeria in May 1945. Two years earlier, in January 1943, the Ondo Ilorin district was detached from the vicariate and erected as a separate jurisdiction, under the leadership of Thomas P. Hughes. Incorporated into the new vicariate, Gerry was appointed to Ondo, the largest station in the vicariate, which had a catholic community of over 4,000 members and 1,000 catechumens. In January 1948 Gerry's health gave cause for concern and he returned to Ireland. After a period of convalescence he took up a temporary appointment in Castlewellan and then, in March 1949, he was posted to the Sacred Heart college, Ballinafad, as director of students. He joined staff led by Dick Tobin and which included Jim Byrne, Patrick Glynn and Patrick Killeen. There were eighty six pupils in the school which provided training up to intermediate certificate level. Further ill health kept him invalided for the year 1953 1954 although he again made a good recovery and was able to return to Ballinafad for a further two years as a member of the teaching staff.
In February 1955 Gerry requested to be released from teaching and asked for a pastoral appointment. Unable to return to Africa because of ill health, Gerry's superiors, suggested he seek pastoral work in England. In July 1955 Gerry became a curate in the parish of the Sacred Heart, Bridgeton, Old Dalmarnock Road, Glasgow. Gerry relished this work and the archbishop of Glasgow, (Dr. D. A. Campbell) found him an excellent pastor. Later Gerry was transferred to St. Vincent de Paul's parish, Thornliebank. He was to minister there until his death in 1980. Gerry is remembered as a serious minded missionary, who was nonetheless a very sociable colleague with a gift for story telling. Africa took a heavy toll on Gerry's health and this was evident during his first tour of duty, when his health broke down badly. Later he developed cardiac problems and this was compounded by diabetes. His parish priest in Thornliebank, Thomas Cahill, wrote a poignant note to the Irish Provincial in April 1977 describing Gerry's life and ministry: 'Fr. Phillips is not able to write very well. He is able to say daily Mass, hear confessions, preach, and say his prayers. He does not go out very much: he walks very slowly, but he usually gets to wherever he is going. He has developed diabetes in recent years. Father Gerry seems to be perfectly content and happy, and as far as I am concerned he can stay here for another fifty years. Any man who says the fifteen decades of the Rosary each day is welcome in this house.'
He is buried in Thornliebank, Glasgow, Scotland.
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