Chapter 5

GOING AWAY

In September, 1890 the people in St. Malachy’s parish were saddened to learn that their pastor, Father Patrick Doyle, was being transferred. They reflected about the strong, emotional ties they had formed with him, and about the many contributions he made to their communities. In a farewell address to him, reprinted in part below, they ex— press these sentiments.

Dear Rev. Father, Your parishioners in the mission of Kinkora and Seven Mile Bay have learned with deep regret that you have decided to relinquish the spiritual charge you have exercised for the last five-and-twen ty years with an acceptableness unequalled, we hesitate not to say, by any other priest in the diocese That this announcement should weigh down our hearts with sorrow could only be expected, especially when we had come to regard you, by reason of your long residence among us, and the oft-expressed preference of place and people, as well as by reason of all your works, as ours; and in the evening of life would have deemed it a happy privilege to have watched over and solaced your declining years

You came to this struggling flock at a time when we required the services of a true missionary, a man of zeal, piety, courage and business administration, and Your pastorate has disclosed all these qualities in an extra-ordinary degree. Not only have you been at all times ready to bring to your people the consolations

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of religion, but by your great exertion, in season and out of season, to make known and repected the teachings of that Church to which we have the signal happiness to belong, by your fervent, learned, eloquent and persistent exhortation to the practice of virtue, by your zeal and charity in correcting and reproving “in all patience and doctrine” whenever correction or reproof were necessary, by the care you have always bestowed upon the instruction of the little ones, whom you regarded as the hope of the future, by your tender solicitude for the unfortunate of society, and, above all, by the aptitude you bought to the discharge of your duty in the public services of the Church, you have transformed these parishes in to one of the most regular and practical bodies of Catholics in the diocese Finding us dependent upon the poorest of church accommodation, and altogether unprovided with the simple essentials for the proper observance of the ceremonies of the ritual, you even, in a comparatively short time, enabled us to make an extensive addition to the church building, to erect a suitable tower, Chanel and vestry, to finish, decorate, and furnish theinterior and to supply every requisite for the convenience and comfort of priest and people. The erection of a beautiful presbytery and a system of commodious and well arranged outbuildings, the planting and beauti— fying of the church grounds and cemetery and the general improvement of the parish lands are standing monuments to your industry and business capacity. You have been prominent too, in every movement undertaken in the public welfare. To your enterprise and foresight are due many, if not all, our great public conveniences and to your counsel, example and en- couragement may be atributed, in large measure, the general progress and prosperity that has blessed this