Page 1832 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 4 May 2005
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With time on his hands when he first went to Curtin, Fr Lynch had an important role in planning extensions to the school at St Peter Chanel’s, the building of which he, in fact, supervised during the absence of the PP on a visit to Ireland.
At about this time, Government assistance for the construction of independent scools in Canberra was introduced and Fr Lynch was quick to take advantage of it - probably the first to do so. Someone has said “Plan big, small plans generate no enthusiasm”. Fr Lynch did plan big and his plans did generate enthusiasm. Holy Trinity school was commenced in 1966. On completion of the school, the celebration of Mass and the sacraments was transferred to the school hall. But the PP was not content to continue without a Church. In 1971, with a mixture of support and opposition from the Parishioners, the decision was taken to build a church. How that decision was taken has never been clear to me. Kevin Curtin and Associates of Sydney were commissioned to produce the original designs with Ernst Munns as their man on the spot. As one would expect, they received careful and precise instructions from their client. The result is that Curtin has one of the most beautiful churches in Canberra - the building with all its furnishings and art work - its sanctuary, its stations, statues and stained glass make a well integrated whole. Its accompanying presbytery provides a comfortable and functional home for the parish clergy. I believe that the church and school complex in Curtin were very nearly paid for by the time Fr Lynch left Curtin in 1987. Some of the means used to raise the funds were innovative - and included re-cycling paper collection and the car raffle. All this, of course, required enthusiastic support from lots of people. And that has been one of Fr Lynch’s great qualities - he has always been able to recruit people to assist generously and enthusiastically in the execution of his plans.
If one looks at all the other enterprises in which Fr Lynch was actively engaged during his years in Curtin, one might be excused for thinking that the building and fund raising projects must have been managed by someone else. Fr Lynch with Pat Pentony and one or two others laid the foundations for Catholic Marriage Guidance and Social Welfare. He looked after the local Conference of the St Vincent de Paul society. And he carried out his priestly and ministerial functions with both enthusiasm and reverence. Many here will know that the Mass on Sundays took an hour - it didn’t matter how short the readings happened to be or if the Eucharistic Prayer was the shortest available - short readings demanded a long homily.
Left to himself, I suspect that Fr Lynch would have been happy to remain PP at Curtin for the rest of his days.
In 1987, however, the Archbishop asked if he would relinquish Curtin and accept appointment as the first priest for priests in the archdiocese. Not without misgivings, he accepted that appointment. His official title was, I think, the Director of the Ministry to Priests. He moved to one of the houses in Yarralumla - 55 Hopetoun Circuit - that he had acquired on behalf of the Archdiocese in the mid 1950’s. For the next two years, he laid solid foundations for this new Ministry which I think continues to this day.
In 1989, Fr Lynch was appointed Parish Priest of Cobargo with the much larger seaside town of Bermagui as part of the parish. He was now 68 and it might have been thought that his enthusiasm for new developments would have waned. But not so! First, he looked to the church at Bermagui. I suspect that his full vision for that church has not been realised. But much has been done there. A new entrance, designed to serve as an extension to the church accommodation and a meeting room with kitchen facilities has been built. When that was done, he turned his attention to
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