Father Denis A. Power retired Parish Priest of St. Catherine's, Harthill, died in St. Joseph's Centre, Shankill, Dublin, on 28th April, 1999, in the 73rd year of his age and the 48th of his priesthood. His Funeral Mass was celebrated in the Holy Rosary Church, Murroe, Co. Limerick, prior to interment in the family plot in Abbington Co. Limerick. At a Requiem Mass in St. Teresa's, Newarthill, on, 5th May following, the Right Reverend Joseph Devine, Bishop of Motherwell, delivered the following homily.
After many months of being close to death, it was with sadness but no surprise that we learned of the death of Fr. Denis Power last Wednesday evening, 28th April. The surprise was that he managed to fight on for so long against seemingly impossible odds. Yet that was a very real part of his nature, to do his best to combat frailty, even death itself. In the light of' our faith, death was not the victor here. Life was the victor, that eternal life to which Denis was called from the day of his baptism.
Denis Power was born on 17th April, 1926, in Abbington, County Limerick, some 9 years after his brother Father Joseph Power, who died in Glasgow in April, 1965. Like Joseph before him, Denis received his secondary education with the Christian Brothers in Limerick, before entering St Patrick's College, Thurles, in 1945, from which he was ordained for the Diocese of Motherwell on 10th June, 1951.
His initial pastoral appointment was to St. Augustine's, Coatbridge, from 1951-54, before moving to the Cathedral for the next five years. In these early years, two of his exceptional talents began to blossom. The first was a musical talent, being able to play all manner of musical instruments, especially the piano and the violin. The second was a considerable manual dexterity in handicraft work. I never knew any priest who had such an extensive collection of tools.
In 1959 he moved to St. Cadoc's, Halfway for a couple of years, before going to St. Cuthbert's, Burnbank, from 1961-64. However it was on moving to St Monica's in Coatbridge in early 1965 the tragedy struck, with the quite unexpected death of his brother, Fr. Joseph Power, on 13th April of that year. A bit of the light went out for Denis, a light that would never burn in him so strongly thereafter.
In 1968 he was appointed assistant priest of St. Serf's, Airdrie, and in 1972 he became parish priest of St. Serf's, a role that he was to fulfil for the next 11 years, easily his longest pastoral appointment. He much enjoyed that role. The parish had only been founded some 7 years earlier and the church opened the year prior to his arrival. That parish serves a large urban community and he had the task of building up its identity as well as removing its substantial debt to the Diocese. In both of these tasks he enjoyed considerable success.
In fact, it was there that I met him for the first time, in 1981, when deputising for Bishop Thomson, at a Confirmation Mass, I can recall him then being animated in conversation, but of frail appearance. Especially, I remember that his colour did not look healthy.
Two years later, within a couple of months of my arrival in Motherwell, Fr. Power collapsed. A complete rest and rehabilitation was needed. He was anaemic and had suffered damage to his general health to such a degree that it was uncertain that he would be able to continue in the pastoral ministry. However, he took charge of the situation with great courage and worked unremittingly at bringing about a complete recovery.
He spent the autumn, winter and spring of 1983-84 in Dublin in a strict health rehabilitation programme largely conducted under his own direction with a bit of medical support. So successful was that programme, he returned in the summer of 1984 and I was delighted to offer him the parish of St Teresa's, Newarthill.
Over the next 6 years or so, he continued to give good service to that parish and the Diocese. I saw him many times in those years. His major difficulty was a growing loss of hearing, combined with the fact he was embarrassed about wearing a hearing aid. With the coming of the 1990s, he saw that he was beginning to withdraw into himself and was finding it ever harder to cope with pastoral demands.
In 1992, I raised with him the thought that perhaps he should give some thought to retiring, as he was then over 65 and his general health was declining. Ever a man to resist things getting the better of him, he responded with the suggestion that perhaps a small parish would suit him best at that point, as it was at that point that I had begun to alert the clergy that the Diocese would find it increasingly difficult to staff its parishes. Conscious of that situation, Denis did his best to help, even for a little time and I continue to be grateful to him for that generosity of spirit.
In October, 1992 he went to St. Catherine's, Harthill. However that winter of 1992 was one of the worst in living memory. It further depleted his reserves of energy. As a result, his final full year in the active ministry was an ever uphill battle against the inevitable. To his own regret, but to no one's surprise, he retired in 1994, going to Dublin and residential care, in the light of his overall condition.
The past 5 years were hard years for him, years of pain and increasing ill-health. If not in a position for much of that time to appreciate the splendid care which he was receiving, the Diocese is deeply in the debt of all those who cared for him during a long human purgatory of illness. Well, he is beyond all pain now, all the burdens of life and suffering.
How will we best remember him? Perhaps the readings for this Mass give us some pointers. Denis Power knew a great deal of tragedy, pain and suffering in his life, the counter to which the Lord provides for all his faithful people on the mountain, his holy mountain, where he has provided a rich banquet and a veil to screen all who are there against future pain and suffering, a place where mourning and death shall be no more. Fr. Denis Power surely qualifies for such a destiny. That vision from the book of Revelation is a great promise to all of those who have endured much hardship, but who die in the Lord, the Lord who will give them rest after their work, as their good deeds will go with them.
But it is the Gospel that gives us the surest direction of all, the final moments of the life of the Lord, his death on the cross and his burial. But death was not the victor here, or if it was, it was only for three days. Death is our common lot. There is no escaping it. But we are a people made for life, not death, that eternal life for which death is but a stepping stone.
Although not the mildest or meekest of personalities, Denis Power had little or no interest in wealth or power. He had a clear sense of justice and was opposed to all who would victimise the oppressed. He greatly prized being a priest and knew that he had a vocation to that way of life. Any other form of living would have been quite unimaginable for him. He was also courageous about admitting to his own shortcomings and would have wished to have made more of his life than he did. All of us can say the same.
Finally, I commend his soul to the Lord whom he sought to serve, even as I give my condolences on his loss to his relatives and friends in those parishes where he served in days gone by. With confidence we pray:
"Eternal rest grant unto him, 0 Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace" Amen. |
