The President of Ireland, Michael Higgins, 12 bishops, 100 priests and thousands of mourners recently took part in the funeral Mass at Galway Cathedral for the former bishop of Galway, Ireland, 89-year-old Eamon Casey.
However, some cynics could not forget that he had to resign 25 years ago as Bishop of Galway because some journalist discovered he had fathered a son from Annie Murphy.
The night he resigned in May 1992 he celebrated his birthday at The Westin with a group of Maltese friends. He was as ever full of life, serene and full of his typical Irish humour. Next day he was flying from Malta to Rome and, before leaving, he told me he was going to hand in his resignation to the Pope. He did not tell me the reason and, of course, knowing his sense of humour, I hardly believed him. I was so sorry when the news broke.
After he resigned, he disappeared as a missionary in the far off mountains among the poor of the poorest in Ecuador where he remained for six years.
I first met Fr Eamon Casey when he founded the Catholic Housing Aid and was then elected president of the NGO Shelter for the Homeless in the UK.
At this time in the mid-1960s, I was deeply worried about the shortage of housing in Malta. I invited Fr Casey to help the Church and the Cana Movement to organise the Malta Homes Society.
On November 9, 1969, Eamon Casey returned to Ireland and was consecrated by Cardinal John Carmel Heenan, Archbishop of Westminister, as Bishop of Kerry and later as Bishop of Galway. Cardinal Heenan was full of admiration for the new bishop. I remember the great cheer in the Cathedral when he called Casey a “dynamic spiritual boiler”.
Bishop Casey helped many countries through Tròcaire, an Irish charity and the overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland. President Higgins referred to it as “a leading NGO campaigning for justice and responding to human distress and poverty” in many countries where Bishop Casey was in touch.
The President also recalled Bishop Casey’s friendship with Archbishop Óscar Romero, an outspoken critic of El Salvador’s military dictatorship, who was assassinated while celebrating Mass in San Salvador in 1980.
Lately, Bishop Casey, whose memory was failing, was living in a home for elderly priests in Galway. When a journalist showed him a photo of himself with Archbishop Romero, he cried and repeated over and over again: “He is already a saint.”
I pray that Archbishop Romero, who will soon be beatified, will keep Casey under his wing.