Homily of Bishop Leo O’Reilly
at the Funeral Mass of Fr Charles McPadden
Church of the Immaculate Conception, Doobally, Co. Leitrim, 2 February 2012
We celebrate the funeral Mass of Fr Charlie McPadden on the feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the temple. The parents of Jesus observed the law of Israel that the first-born son, the eldest, was presented to the Lord. Jesus was brought into the temple and solemnly dedicated to the Lord’s service through the offering made by Mary and Joseph. This theme of offering to the service of God is why this day is also the World Day for Religious Life. It’s a very special day for the members of Religious Orders, a day to reflect on their mission and renew their dedication to their religious vows and to the service of God and his people.
Now Fr Charlie was a member of the great American Missionary Congregation, the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. Today we give Fr Charlie back to God. We thank God for his life and work. We celebrate his life as a priest and a missionary, his dedication to God and to the service of God’s people, his generous offering of himself totally to the service of God and others throughout his life. The feast of the Presentation a very appropriate day to pay our respects to a great missionary, to take our leave of him and present him to God.
Fr Charlie was born 75 years ago in Tullaghans, Newbridge, the youngest of a family of seven. His mother died when he was only seven months old and Charlie was looked after by his grandmother and his older sister Kathleen here in Doobally. When his grandmother died he went back to live with his father in Newbridge. He would suffer another great loss, the death of his father, a short time before being ordained a priest.
When he finished school he had to go out to earn a living so he went to serve his time in a shop in Limerick. After that he went to America where he joined the army. It was while he was in the army in Germany that he began to think about the priesthood. When he left the army in 1959 he went to a college for late vocations in Boston and a year later, at the age of 24, he entered the Maryknoll Seminary and was ordained in 1969 by Cardinal Cooke in New York.
In 1970 Fr Charlie went on Mission to Chile. He spent 16 years there and of course became totally fluent in Spanish. He was there during a very turbulent time in Chile’s history. He was there for the coup by Pinochet in 1973 and the dictatorship that followed. It was a dangerous time for missionaries – especially for missionaries like the Maryknollers who were in the vanguard of promoting liberation theology and basic Christian communities. Many of Fr Charlie’s Maryknoll colleagues were murdered in South American and I’m sure Fr Charlie had many a sleepless night as he tried to preach the Gospel and stand up for the rights of the poor and the oppressed.
Fr Charlie was recalled to the U.S. in 1986 and held several appointments in Maryknoll houses and parishes across the U.S. He ministered especially to Hispanic communities in New York, Los Angeles, South Carolina and Denver, Colorado. He retired to Ireland in 2005 but became assistant priest in Glangevlin where he served for the next six years until he got ill last year. He made a great contribution not only to the parish and its people in Glangevlin, but to the priests of the diocese as well. He was blessed with great intelligence and a very active mind. He was an avid reader and he had a passion for talking about what he read and sharing it with others. He loved nothing better than a discussion on some aspect of theology or Church life.
I recall a Confirmation dinner with a number of priests where Fr Charlie was present. We got as far as the soup but couldn’t get any further. Charlie was holding forth on his five point plan for the renewal of the Church and everyone was too polite to interrupt. Eventually hunger overcame the politeness and someone suggested to Charlie that his soup was getting cold. He stopped for a minute, saw the soup as if for the first time, and said apologetically: I guess I’m more interested in theology than soup!
The last chapter of his life, his final illness, brought his offering of himself to God to completion. He knew from the outset that his illness was terminal, but he bore his sickness with great dignity and hope, patience and cheerfulness. He approached death as he lived his life, gracefully, full of the grace of God. He bore his sickness in the spirit of the old man Simeon in the Gospel today, the spirit of letting go and letting God take care of him.
At last, all powerful Master, you can let your servant go in peace, just as you promised. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all the peoples, the light to enlighten the gentiles…
Charlie brought the light of God’s grace and God’s presence into many lives. He ministered God’s healing and forgiveness wherever he was. His warm, generous, and cheerful disposition made him a natural missionary and a wonderful witness to the Good News of Christ. What is before him now as he ascends the mountain of God, is the great heavenly banquet where every tear will be wiped away, where every theological mystery will be illuminated and where he will be united with his parents and other family members in contemplating the face of God for eternity.
I offer my deepest sympathy to his sister Kathleen, to his sisters-in-law, his nephews and nieces, his brother priests in the Maryknoll Congregation, to his parishioners, and all his many friends.
May he rest in peace.
