Fifty years celebrated in good company

A packed house at St Joseph's Church in Kaitaia on Sunday ensured that Father Sean O'Connor celebrated his 50th jubilee as a priest in good company.

Now 74, Father Sean presided over the service, where prayers and hymns were spoken and sung in English, Spanish and Maori, supported by three of his Columban confreres, Fr Don Hornsey, also celebrating his golden jubilee, and fathers Tom Rouse and George Hogarty, who both travelled from Peru for the occasion.

The congregation then adjourned to the Dalmatian Hall for a sumptuous luncheon served by the parishioners.

Father Sean was ordained as a member of the Missionary Society of St Columban at St Mary's Basilica (now Sacred Heart Cathedral) in Wellington on July 2, 1964. He was immediately appointed to South America, travelling first to Peru, to undergo a Spanish language course, before going on to spend the majority of the past five decades of service to the church in Chile, along with two stints, each of three to four years' duration, in Australia and New Zealand.

Fluent in Spanish, he has been the parish priest at St Joseph's for the past six months.

"I'm surprised at God's goodness in letting me keep breathing during these years of priesthood," he said, going on to recall some of the highs and lows throughout his years in Chile, which included a lengthy spell in the notoriously barren Atacama Desert, which reportedly hadn't seen rain for three centuries.

"The killings, the civil war under Pinochet. That was a particularly rough time. But you always feel proud of being a New Zealander," he said, adding that he felt blessed to be back home and able to continue his vocation in the Far North.

"How enjoyable it is to be here in Kaitaia up to the Cape at this time. It's beautiful," he said.

It certainly hadn't taken him long to fit in and partake of the Far North's celebrated hospitality. He had particularly enjoyed taking part in the Pompallier Catholic School's annual midwinter fishing and hunting tournament last month.

"What a thrill in preparing for the hangi and enjoying the celebrations of hunting and fishing, with all the spiders and possums and anything else that was caught or shot or got away," he added.