Work Starts On Making Waterford Priest A Saint

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.