A Waterford priest may be on the path to Sainthood after
over 100 people came together in Clonmel recently to talk about him and his
short life.
Popular priest Father Colm
O’Brien served in Saints Peter and Paul Parish in Clonmel for eight years after
he was ordained in 2000 at Saint Paul’s Church in Waterford before he was
transferred by the then Bishop of Waterford and Lismore William Lee to the
Parish of Tramore and Carbally in the summer of 2008, but he was to die after
battling cancer on September 16, 2009. Father Colm was just 36 years old at the
time.
Fr. Colm was born in Waterford
City on 20 January 1973, the son of Thomas and the late Josie O’Brien, living
in Belvedere Dive and attended school at Saint Paul’s Primary and Secondary Schools
in Lisduggan.
From an early age Father Colm
always showed signs of wanting to be a priest and once he had completed his
secondary education he began his priestly studies at the former Saint John’s
College Seminary in Waterford City, completing his final year of studies at the
National Seminary at Maynooth College after Saint John’s was closed due to
declining numbers entering the college to study.
The current Bishop of
Waterford and Lismore Alphonsus Cullinan recently said that many people had
been impressed by the character and holiness shown by Fr Colm O’Brien.
Bishop Cullinan said the
question of promoting his cause for beatification and canonisation has arisen.
Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan
called the meeting to explore whether the live of Fr Colm was marked by the “heroic
virtue” which would justify the Church calling Fr Colm a ‘Servant of God’.
To become a Saint the Bishop
in a given Diocese usually initiates the investigation.
Any Catholic or group of Catholics
can request that the bishop open a case. They will need to name a formal
intermediary, called the “postulator,” who will promote the cause of the saint.
At this point, the candidate is called “a servant of God.”
A formal investigation examines
“servant of God’s” life. Those who knew the candidate are interviewed, and
affidavits for and against the candidate are reviewed.
Also, the candidate’s writings – if
any exist – are examined for consistency with Catholic doctrine. A “promoter of
justice” named by the local bishop ensures that proper procedures
are followed and a notary certifies the documentation.
The proceedings of the
investigation, called “Acta” or “The Acts,” are forwarded to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints in Rome. The
Congregation for the Causes of the Saints is large, with a prefect, a
secretary, undersecretary and a staff of 23 people. There are also over 30 cardinals and
bishops associated with the congregation’s work at various stages.
The Congregation for the Causes of
the Saints appoints a “relator” (one of five who currently work for the
congregation) who supervises the postulator in writing a position paper called
a “positio.” The positio argues for the virtues of the servant of God and can
be thousands of pages long. The congregation examines the positio and members
vote “yes” or “no” on the cause. “Yes” votes must be unanimous.
The final decision lies with the
pope. When he signs a “Decree of Heroic Virtue,” the person becomes
“venerable.” Then two stages remain: beatification and sainthood.
Throughout most of Catholic history,
the canonization process was rigorous. One of the key figures in the
investigation in the Vatican was the “devil’s
advocate,” who functioned like an opposing attorney by challenging the candidate’s holiness. This is the origin of
the often-used English phrase referring to someone who takes a position to
challenge another person to prove a point more fully.
In the early ‘70’s, Pope Paul VI
revised the canon of the saints to exclude those whose historical existence
could not be verified. For example, St. Christopher, the protector of travelers, was removed,
although many Catholics still have a St. Christopher medal in their
automobiles.
In 1983, then Pope John Paul II who
would later become a Saint himself changed the waiting period from 50 years to
five years after a candidate’s death, one of a number of new rules he brought
in.
Speaking after the meeting in
Clonmel Bishop Cullinan said “it was a wonderful meeting, celebrating the
holiness, goodness, simplicity and faith and it was a beautiful sense of grace
on the night”, adding “he was a person who touched a lot of people. He would
arrive late to almost everything because he would stop to talk to everybody
from the car to the house and he couldn’t get from one end of the street to the
other without having several conversations”.
Bishop Cullinan is appealing to
people who knew Fr Colm O’Brien to send their accounts to info@waterfordlismore.ie marking the
subject line ‘Fr Colm O’Brien.
Fr Colm was buried with his mother
who died some years before him in the grounds of the Sacred Heart Church in
Ferrybank.
