Willie did it his way

BISHOP Willie Walsh may not be a Frank Sinatra fan but he is quick to borrow a line from one of his more famous songs – My Way.

Like the song, Bishop Walsh insists he has no regrets save perhaps one. With the increasing demands of administering the Diocese of Killaloe, he says he would like to have given more time to individual priests by initiating contact for a chat instead of responding to requests for assistance.
“I always felt my first duty of care should be to the priests of the diocese. As life got busier and busier every year, I didn’t give as much time as I would have liked individually to priests.
I hope that any priest in the diocese felt they could pick up the phone at any time and telephone for an appointment. I would have liked to have had more time to be able to pick up the phone and have a chat with them.”
One of his first tasks as bishop was to chose a motto for his episcopate; he chose Cineáltas Chríost, which emphasises the gentleness of Christ.
He says he did his best during his stewardship to emulate the caring, kindness and considerate nature shown by Jesus Christ in his life and teaching.
“Obviously, no one succeeds in living up to this motto completely. I have tried to follow this motto as bishop over the years.”
The 75-year-old senior cleric, however, is happy with most of his major decisions, despite his repeated calls for an open discussion on celibacy and women priests.
Asked if he envied someone like local Church of Ireland Canon Bob Hanna, a church leader married with a family, Bishop Walsh says he has never envied married people.
“I would have seen some people in a very happy marriage and said it must be lovely to be in that situation. I have to recognise I would be a disastrous partner for someone.
“Over the last few years, I look at grandparents at my age getting a new life and joy from their grandchildren. I have thought it would be lovely to be in that situation.
“However, I made a decision in life that involved certain sacrifices and I am satisfied that I stayed true to that commitment. We can all look back and say if this had happened and if that had happened, things may be different.
“I think it is wise to accept what you have done and the commitments you made and live by them. I have no regrets. I am satisfied; life has been very good to me and I thank God every day for that.
“There have been difficult times, sad times, times when I was down, worried and hurt but overall looking back, life has been very kind to me.”
On the thorny issue of celibacy, Bishop Walsh notes that while he would welcome an open debate, there is a difficulty with the fact that some subjects in the church are not open for discussion.
For those who could manage celibacy, Dr Walsh describes the commitment as a “gift from God” but warned it also carries risks for some who are not able to live with it. He adds that it can be a source of isolation and loneliness.
“I have always argued that to be fully human, I must be able to love and know that I am loved,” he explains.
Family

Growing up on the family farm in Glenbaha, just outside Roscrea, County Tipperary, his father, William Senior and his uncle ran a business supplying milk to Roscrea. Young Willie often helped out delivering milk in a pony and cart and later in a van. Although acutely aware of the marginalised in Irish society, Bishop Walsh says he never experienced deprivation first hand. The youngest of six, circumstances were regarded as relatively comfortable.
Although William Senior believed in hands-on discipline, young Willie always had the height of respect for him. “He had a great regard for the truth and integrity and he was a very hard worker and very forward looking.
“My mother was a very soft sort of person and although they were very happy together, in some ways, I think she was sad in life. For some reason, she always seemed to identify with people in trouble and I think some of that’s been passed on to me in the honesty of my father and the softness and sadness of my mother,” he says.
Young Willie dug spuds, thinned turnips and trammed hay and welcomed the Inter and Leaving Certificate as a means to escape the grind of farm work.
At the age of four, he attended Corville National School, which he loved. Eight years later, he arrived at St Flannan’s College, Ennis with his brother John, who had lost two years in primary school through illness. Both left the same day five years later.
St Flannan’s was a tough place in the ’40s. Rationing was in place as food was scarce at the end of World War II. There were potatoes and meat for dinner but just tea and bread for breakfast and supper and there were often times when Willie yearned for another slice of bread.
He had a bit of a reputation as a prankster and was “reasonably bright” by his own admission. He loved maths and science subjects but only regards himself as average at languages.
Although never a rebel, he did defy all convention when, at the age of 14, he sat down in the family kitchen and smoked a cigarette in front of his father. Surprisingly, the reaction was muted, which took a lot of the thrill from his act of defiance but the smoking habit stuck until 1989.

Priesthood

At 17, he entered St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, having made up his mind to join the priesthood during his Leaving Certificate.
Before he was ordained, Fr Willie admitted he was only at two dances before going to Maynooth and wasn’t sure if he had ever fallen in love.
“Yes, I have been attracted to people of the opposite sex and I have found my friendships with women an enriching experience and something I value enormously. My relationship with women is influenced by my commitment to the celibate life no more than a married person attracted to someone else must think of his commitment to his partner,” he says.
He spent three years in the restrictive atmosphere of Maynooth, where he achieved an honours BSc before transfering to the Irish College, Rome for his theological studies at the Lateran University. He said at the time it was one of the most exciting places in the world. He stayed for seven years.
“I have a great love for the Italians; there is a freedom about them which the Church should sort of disapprove of but I can’t help admiring. The quality of life too is extraordinary, particularly in the emphasis on the extended family. I loved the food over there and could eat spaghetti and lasagne ever day of the week,” he recalls.
He was ordained a priest in Rome in 1959 and remained there for three more years to complete a doctorate in Canon Law at the Pontifical Lateran University.
On his return to Ireland, he taught for a year at Coláiste Einde in Galway while studying for his H Dip Ed at UCG and joined the staff of St Flannan’s College, Ennis in 1963. He went on to teach maths and physics for 25 years.
He was popular with the student body who affectionately nicknamed him “Billy Badger” and took his teaching so seriously, he was alleged to have cried one day in class when a student couldn’t see the same beauty and clarity he saw in trigonometry.
“I didn’t enjoy every class every day but while the maths stayed the same, the students kept changing all the time in this endless variation of the human personality.
“I had some of the angry young men in the ’60s and I thought they were marvellous challenging individuals. The ’70s is a period I associated with troubled youth. They were much sadder and had given up hope while the ’80s worried me because it became so materialistic and the struggle to achieve top points took a lot of the humanity out of it.
“In my early years at Flannan’s, I was put up to ridicule once by a student and I beat him but I vowed after that never to do it again and I kept to that,” he says.
In 1988, he was appointed curate at Ennis Cathedral and became administrator there in 1990. He has been pastorally involved with ACCORD, formerly the Catholic Marriage Advisory Council, since its foundation in the Killaloe diocese. He has worked with marriage tribunals at diocesan, regional and national levels.
Throughout his life, he has been immersed in hurling. He was involved in coaching at St Flannan’s with Fr Seamus Gardiner and Fr Hugh O’Dowd and during his tenure, the college won five Harty Cups and All-Ireland titles. He was also a Clare selector at U-21 and senior level.