December 2008 Issue

Fr. John Flynn, SMA celebrates Golden Jubilee By Thelma C. Sayson

Good Shepherd Parish paid tribute to Fr. John Flynn, SMA who reached the fulfillment of his missionary work as he celebrated his 50th ordination to the priesthood in Ireland last June 18, 2008.

The Parish also celebrated this event with a big bang last Aug. 9, 2008, a day before his 78th birthday.

The high point of the celebration was the mass at 7:00 p.m. It was a concelebrated mass by all the SMA priests. Present were Fr. Roy Maraña, SMA, Superior, Fr. Gus O’ Driscoll, SMA, Good Shepherd Parish Priest, Fr. John Denvir, SMA, Superior, International Center, Silang, Fr. German Patiga, SMA, Vocation’s Director and Priest in-charge of BEC, Fr. Bembolio De Los Reyes, SMA and the main celebrant Fr. John Flynn, SMA, Parochial Vicar.

Fr. Gus highlighted Fr. John’s ministry as a missionary priest during his homily. 15 years in Nigeria, 13 years in Ghana and 17 years as parochial vicar in Good Shepherd Parish. Fr. Gus further stressed that as missionary priests they moved from one assignment to another; thus, he used a symbol of a boat to which it signified their movements from one country to another.

Fr. John at the end of the mass, thanked the SMA’s for their support, the Parish Pastoral Council and all the parishioners. Moreover, Fr. John expound his missionary work in Nigeria , then in Ghana, where Fr. Gus had the opportunity to work with him, then to Rome where he had worked with then Superior General Fr. Patrick Harrington. Upon the completion of his assignment in Rome, he came to the Philippines. He spent some time at the House of Studies, New Manila, and then came to Good Shepherd Parish.

He also said that it was a normal feeling to be immersed and to be inculcurated and to be at home in a country where one is assigned.

He then said that in the parish in Ireland where he was baptized, where he was confirmed, where he attended his childhood masses, it seemed that he had lost two generations except with the link to their parents and grandparents. He ended by saying that in this parish he knows practically all parishioners and because of the inculcuration, one becomes at home in a strange land, and becomes a stranger in his own land.

Indeed, you are a highly esteemed priest, well loved by your parishioners, a brother to everyone, a peacemaker, counselor and most of all your charisma in visiting the sick people in our parish.