Fr Tommy Murphy - Former Columban Superior General - RIP

Fr Tommy Murphy

Source: Missionary Society of Saint Columban

Tommy Murphy was born in Castlebar, Co Mayo (Ireland) on 3rd of August 1949. He was educated at St Patrick's Primary School and St Gerard's Secondary School in Castlebar. Tommy joined the Columbans in September 1967 and did his Philosophy and Theology studies at St Columban's Dalgan Park, where he was ordained on Easter Sunday, April 14, 1974.

Tommy's first assignment was to Korea. Arriving there in August 1974, he did a year of language study and then served in the parish of Huk San Do. After a further year of language study he served in Yonsandong, Pusan.

Following a vacation in Ireland in 1978, Tommy was assigned to the Taiwan Mission Unit (TMU). He was a member of the first group that arrived there in 1979. He served in a number of parishes including Ta Nan and St. Michael's Taoyuan. He set up a day care centre for Special Needs Children. He was very much committed to the development of the laity in Church activities and mission and was involved in giving courses to lay people in many places. He served as the Executive Secretary of the Asian Bishops Conference (FABC) office for the laity for several years. He also held a number of Columban administrative roles including as Overseas Training Program Director (for seminarians) and Vice Coordinator of the TMU.

In 1993 Tommy was appointed to the Region of Ireland and took on the role of Coordinator of the Vocations team. In the Ireland of that time, this was a demanding and often unrewarding ministry, but Tommy brought his usual enthusiasm and energy to it. During this time, he revived his fluency in the Irish language and in later years was active in his support of the China Formation Committee.

In 1998 he took a sabbatical and completed an MA in Celtic Spirituality at the University of Lampeter, Wales, graduating in 2000. Tommy's interest in Celtic Spirituality led him to deepen his interest in Taoist spirituality. He was always an avid reader, wanting to gain a deeper understanding of our encounter and relationship with God. He loved walking and hiking, and going on pilgrimages came naturally to him. He helped initiate a Columban pilgrim walk from Knock Shrine to Croagh Patrick in Ireland each year so as to arrive for the last Sunday in July to climb the reek (mountain) and say Mass in Irish at its summit. He also enthusiastically supported the development of another Pilgrim Walk, the Columban Way, which is now well established.

Tommy was a delegate from the Irish Region to the General Assembly 2000 and in March 2001 he was appointed as Regional Director of the Irish Region, and initiated the use of the Columban House in Maynooth as a residence for Chinese Catholic students studying there.

He was elected Superior General of our Society in September 2006, and during his term the Society's Generalate was moved from Ireland to Hong Kong, which was seen as more central in the changing context of the Society's mission.

In 2010 he organised a pilgrimage in the steps of St. Columban from Dalgan Park, Ireland, to Bobbio, Italy, and then culminating in Rome, for young Columban priests, many of whom had come through the new Columban formation programs in Asia, South America and Oceania. This was a very significant time for those involved, giving them a new awareness of our patron and the beginnings of the Society while enabling them to bond together precisely as Columbans. His continued support and encouragement of the emerging Society involvement in Myanmar was crucial at this time as was the decision of the Society to seek Columban vocations in China.

As time and circumstances allowed, Tommy engaged in pastoral ministry in Hong Kong, much of it with the Filipino community.

When his term as Superior General ended in 2012, Tommy did a one-year sabbatical at All Hallows College in Dublin, and was then appointed to the China Mission Unit (CMU) in August 2013, living in Beijing. While refreshing his fluency in Mandarin, he gradually made connections with people in the Church in China, some of whom were graduates of Columban scholarships and had studied abroad. He became involved in giving spiritual direction at the National Seminary in Beijing and travelled widely, giving retreats and days of recollection to priests, sisters and lay people. He again assumed an administrative role as the CMU Coordinator from 2019 to 2021, moving to Hong Kong in June 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. From June to December 2022 he was assistant parish priest at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, caring for the English-speaking community.

He died at the CMU residence in Hong Kong early on January 6th, 2023 with Columbans at his side.

Tommy was an affable, gregarious, kind and energetic person with a great sense of humour. His dry wit could at times be quite mischievous but never wounding. He was a committed Columban missionary and had a great interest in everybody, fully engaging with whoever he was with. He also had a deep compassion for the most vulnerable and a deep sense of respect for those to whom he ministered. He was soft-hearted but not gullible, able to be firm and decisive when this was demanded but never in an unkindly way. He was a deeply spiritual and prayerful person which was the foundation of all else and expressed itself, often imperceptibly, in his interaction with others as he encouraged them to find their strength in the hope and joy of the Gospel message and in the Risen Lord.

A post by a Filipina worker in Hong Kong on hearing of his death expresses it well: "Fr Tommy, you are such a kind, wonderful, accommodating and loveable servant and shepherd of our Lord Jesus Christ" - may you rest in the peace and the joy of the Lord you served so faithfully."

"Ar dheist Dé go raibh a anam dílis" - May his faithful soul be at the right hand of God.