Société des Missions Africaines –Province d'Irlande
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né le 16 octobre 1882 à Fenagh dans le diocèse de Ardagh, Irlande membre de la SMA le 14 décembre 1904 prêtre le 15 juillet 1906 évêque le décédé le 28 octobre 1938 |
1906-1911 missionnaire au vicariat de la Côte du Bénin décédé à Lagos, Nigeria, le 28 octobre 1938,
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Monseigneur Francis O'ROURKE (1882 - 1938)
A Lagos (Nigeria), le 28 octobre 1938, retour à Dieu de Son Excellence Monseigneur Francis O'Rourke, cinquième vicaire apostolique de la Côte du Bénin, à l'âge de 56 ans.
Francis O'Rourke naquit à Foxfield, dans le diocèse d'Ardagh, en Irlande, en 1882. Il fait ses études secondaires à Cork et sa théologie à Lyon, où il émet le serment en 1904 et est ordonné prêtre en 1906.
Le père O'Rourke part aussitôt pour le vicariat de la Côte du Bénin, où il doit surtout s'occuper de l'enseignement. Nommé à Cork en 1911, il est bientôt adjoint au père O'Sullivan comme quêteur en Amérique. Connaissant les missions, il pourra ainsi, pendant 13 ans, faire de nombreuses conférences et ramasser beaucoup d'argent à travers l'Angleterre et surtout les Etats-Unis. Elu conseiller provincial en 1926, le père O'Rourke prend en charge la procure de Liverpool.
En mai 1929, le père O'Rourke était nommé préfet apostolique de la Nigeria Orientale. Il a à peine le temps de prendre sa mission en charge, quand le Saint-Siège le nomme vicaire apostolique de la Côte du Bénin. Mgr O'Rourke est sacré à Lagos le 15 juin 1930.
Mgr O'Rourke se présente à nous comme un excellent administrateur et un travailleur ardent et zélé. Homme distingué, au caractère fort, ferme et tenace, Mgr O'Rourke ne fit rien de sensationnel ni de spectaculaire, mais il possédait une énergie qui lui faisait réaliser les plans et les projets qu'il avait longuement mûris en son cœur. Il y avait toujours de la précision dans ses buts et une ténacité remarquable pour les atteindre. Aucun échec immédiat ou apparent ne pouvait le décourager ou l'arrêter dans ce qu'il avait décidé.
Tout le monde espérait qu'un tel homme pourrait rester de longues années à la tête du vicariat. Mais Mgr fut victime de nombreux troubles d'estomac. Il avait dû rentrer, fort fatigué, en 1937. Ayant apparemment retrouvé toutes ses forces, Mgr O'Rourke était revenu à Lagos le 15 septembre 1938 et s'était remis au travail. Les troubles reprirent presque aussitôt et dans les derniers jours qui précédèrent sa mort, une broncho-pneumonie se déclara.
Il n'avait que 56 ans.
Bishop Francis O'ROURKE (1882 - 1938)
Francis O'Rourke was born at Fenagh, Co Leitrim, in the diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, on 16 October 1882. He died in Lagos, Nigeria, on 28 October 1938.
Francis was the fourth son born to Peter and Ann O'Rourke of Fenah. He pursued his secondary education with the Society at St. Joseph's college, Wilton, Cork (1897 1902). These were the years before the erection of an Irish Province (it was established in May 1912), when students went to the Society's seminary at Cours Gambetta, Lyon, France, for their ecclesiastical studies. Francis studied philosophy and theology at Lyon between 1902 1906. He was admitted as a member of the Society on 18 December 1904 and was ordained a priest, in the seminary chapel at Lyon, on 15 July 1906. The ordaining prelate was Bishop Paul Pellet, Vicar General of the Society. Another classmate ordained on that day was Thomas Broderick who was later to become vicar apostolic of Western Nigeria. Francis was to have an equally distinguished career.
After ordination Francis was assigned to the vicariate of the Bight of Benin, a vast jurisdiction in south western Nigeria, which today comprises the archdioceses of Lagos and Ibadan, the dioceses of Oyo, Ondo, Ijebu Ode and Ekiti, and the prefecture of Kontagora. On arrival, Joseph Lang, the vicar apostolic, appointed Francis to Holy Cross cathedral mission at Lagos. This was the first catholic mission in Nigeria, founded in 1868. Francis was given responsibility for the cathedral schools, namely two boys elementary schools with some 450 pupils, and a girls school managed by the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, with 300 pupils. One of these boys schools, St. Gregory's grammar school, was a 'senior elementary college', providing tuition equivalent to intermediate education in Ireland. It also had a teacher training department, which provided elementary school teachers for the vicariate. In 1928 St. Gregory's was to become a fully-fledged secondary college, the first of its kind to be established in Nigeria by the catholic Church.
Francis remained in Africa until 191l. In that year he was recalled to Cork where preparations were in hand for the erection of an Irish Province of the Society. Among these preparations was the establishment of a seminary capable of providing the full range of courses for priesthood, and for this (as for many other tasks) funds were required. Francis and a second confrere (Denis O'Sullivan) went to raise funds in the U.S.A, having spent a brief period collecting in England. Francis remained in America for thirteen years collecting on behalf of the Province, gaining a reputation as an excellent speaker and promoter, and winning a multitude of friends for Africa, including many members of the American hierarchy. In 1925 Francis was selected by his confreres in the U.S.A. - who staffed African-American parishes in Southern Illinois - as their delegate to the Provincial Assembly to be held in Cork. At that meeting Francis was elected councillor to Maurice Slattery who had been chosen Provincial for the second time. Francis was entrusted with charge of the procure at Ullett Road, Sefton Park, Liverpool, which tended to the needs of Society members sailing to, or returning from, West Africa. He also acted as chaplain to the Smithdown Road Poor Law Institution.
In May 1929 Francis was named prefect apostolic of Northern Nigeria. Scarcely had he taken charge of the prefecture when the Holy See appointed him vicar apostolic of the Bight of Benin, to succeed Bishop Ferdinand Terrien who had died in August 1929. It was at this point too that the vicariate was entrusted to the Irish Province of the Society. Francis was consecrated bishop (bishop of Ostracine) by Thomas Broderick, at Lagos, on 15 June 1930. Later that year he visited his family briefly on his way to the Provincial and General Assemblies of the Society which were to be held in 1931. In 1932 the newly consecrated bishop was present at the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin.
Having already a knowledge of the region, Francis returned to Lagos, the headquarters of his vicariate, convinced that the time had arrived for his jurisdiction to become self supporting. He appealed to the people and they responded magnificently. With surplus funds from old established parishes in towns and cities, he continued pioneering work in remote rural areas. Much else was achieved during these years, including the establishment of a religious institute of African Brothers (Brothers of St. Francis Xavier, founded in 1932). It was Francis too who realised that a growing Church needed a larger cathedral. He demolished the old cathedral built in 1878 by Jean Baptiste Chausse (first bishop at Lagos) and on 6 August 1934 laid the foundation stone of the present cathedral. On that great occasion the sermon was preached by Bishop Leo Taylor of the Asaba Benin vicariate who not too long after was to succeed Francis in Lagos.
Everyone hoped that Francis would spend many years at his post. However he suffered from a stomach ailment, and when in 1937 he returned to Ireland for the Provincial Assembly of that year he was compelled by illness to remain on after the meeting. Towards the end of 1937, he was sufficiently recovered to visit Rome where he was privileged to attend an audience of the Holy Father. On the return journey he contracted pneumonia and was confined to a Dublin nursing home for some months. Although still very ill, he returned to his mission in September 1938. It was a great joy to him to see the progress that had been made in the construction of the new cathedral at Lagos. His priests and people turned out in thousands to welcome him back to the country of his adoption. He continued bravely with his work, but it became increasingly obvious that he was very ill. In the days before his death bronchial pneumonia set in. He was only 56 years when he died.
He was buried in the stately new cathedral of Holy Cross, Lagos.
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