Tributes to Fr Enda McDonagh RIP + Updates

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Dr Ann Smith former HIV Corporate Strategist, at CAFOD: Enda McDonagh, priest, theologian and a towering figure in influencing the life of the Catholic church and of Christianity in Ireland and beyond, died on 24th February, aged 90, in St Vincent's hospital, Dublin, where he was admitted following a fall. A native of Mayo, Enda was ordained to the Tuam archdiocese and at the age of 28 was appointed Professor of Moral Theology and Canon Law in Maynooth University. Such a distinction so young marked Enda as someone destined for a bishop's hat or similar but his engagement over decades in open discussions on the direction of the Catholic Church, including his disagreement on the ruling of Humanae Vitae and his advocacy of a greater role for women in the church, drew official disapproval and meant his rise through the hierarchical ranks was not to be. Described in recent years by a friend as "the best bishop Ireland never had" the loss to the hierarchy was a gain to church and wider society in Ireland and beyond.

Throughout his career and in his retirement Enda espoused many and diverse social issues, seeking to bring an informed, liberating, gospel-led theological response to complex challenges whether in relation to ending Apartheid, pursuing women's rights, upholding those of the Travellers community, addressing the crisis in Northern Ireland, challenging the injustices highlighted by HIV, both in his encounters with women and men affected in so many countries of Africa and Asia and in his pastoral engagement with gay men in New York in the 1980s, and subsequently in Ireland and the UK, and much more. In all of these he consistently and courageously defended the right to personal conscience, often at considerable cost to himself. In all of these he stood alongside the powerless, oppressed, marginalised and unjustly treated women and men for whom the gospel brought news of liberation, justice and acceptance.

From the early 1990s Enda was theological adviser on HIV to CAFOD, Trócaire, and international networks of Catholic agencies seeking to bring a faith-based, informed and effective programme response to the many social and ethical challenges posed by that pandemic. In 1994 he published what became a seminal paper "Theology in a Time of AIDS" where he named four core values he regarded as kingdom values. He asserted that these needed to underpin attitudes, actions and decisions informing responses to HIV.

The first of these is truth. Absence of truth brings misunderstanding and mistaken responses. Truth is costly and the cost should be borne by those best able to pay. Freedom is the second value, Freedom of God's creative and covenant love engendering human freedom of choice, as both a gift and a task. The third value is justice, called for at personal and social levels and particularly favouring the powerless and oppressed. Peace is the fourth value, and demands a conversion of heart to accept the other, the excluded, those discriminated against, so that all can flourish together in God's community.

Enda's own life was one marked by these values. May he now be rest in the love of a God whose kingdom he sought to realise throughout his life.

Archbishop Michael Neary: It was with great sadness that I received the news yesterday of Father Enda McDonagh's death in Saint Vincent's Hospital, Dublin. A colossus on the Irish theological landscape for more than six decades, he continued to research, write, and inspire throughout his distinguished teaching career and during the years of his retirement.

Father Enda was known and respected by people of all theological hues and none, and because of the way he wore his learning so lightly, and because of his genuine humility and personal warmth, people felt comfortable in his presence, and enriched by the encounter. While he had well thought-out opinions of his own, he was always utterly respectful of those who had different and sincerely held opinions, and his good-humoured and personable manner always saw to it that nobody felt belittled in a discussion or debate.

While the Archdiocese of Tuam was always proud of the fact that he was a priest of this diocese, he was at home in every diocese because of the simple fact that he taught generations of Irish priests, most of whom served in Ireland, some of whom brought the Gospel to the very ends of the world. Many will point to Enda as the person who opened their minds in the quest for faith seeking understanding.

Born on 27 June 1930 in Bekan, Co Mayo, Father Enda attended the local primary school where his parents were teachers. He received his secondary education at Saint Jarlath's College, Tuam, and from there he went to Maynooth in 1948 where, as things turned out, he was to spend the rest of his life. He was ordained to the priesthood in the College Chapel of Saint Patrick's College, Maynooth, on 19 June 1955. He took undergraduate degrees in science and theology before embarking on postgraduate work in theology culminating in a Doctorate in Divinity (DD) in 1957. He continued his studies in Rome and Munich and was conferred with the Doctorate in Canon Law (DCL) in 1960. Already, in 1958, he was appointed Professor of Moral Theology in Maynooth, a position he was to hold until his retirement in 1995.

Despite his high profile as a scholar, theologian and intellectual, and despite his being in demand by so many educational institutions and public personalities, Enda never forgot his native place and maintained contact with his brother priests in the Archdiocese of Tuam. During his retirement it was more convenient for him to attend various diocesan functions and celebrations, and he was always perfectly at ease and thoroughly entertained by the stories and anecdotes from pastoral ministry - for which he prepared many, but never had the opportunity to experience for himself.

Tá laoch ar lár. Go raibh leaba aige i measc na naomh.

Requiescat in pace.

Fr Gerry McFlynn: Fr Enda McDonagh who has died at the age of 90, was one of the most gifted theologians in the Irish Church in modern times. A native of Co Mayo, he was appointed Professor of Moral Theology and Canon Law in Maynooth College at the remarkably young age of 28, a position he was to hold for some 36 years. His early upbringing in the stark rural poverty of the west of Ireland, informed a lifelong burning sense of the need for social justice for the excluded, the oppressed and those unjustly treated.

Fr McDonagh was at the forefront of the debates and controversies resulting from the ferment in the Irish Church caused by the changes heralded by the Second Vatican Council. While always loyal to the Church, he could be outspoken when occasion demanded as in his opposition to Archbishop John Charles McQuaid and the Catholic hierarchy over Humanae Vitae.

A close friend of the Taoiseach, Garret Fitzgerald, at whose funeral in 2011 he preached and a chaplain to President Mary Robinson, he was at home with people from all walks of life. Deliberately sidelined by the hierarchy for promotion to College Vice-President and President, he devoted his energies to a wide range of issues including AIDS, the Anti-Apartheid Movement, ecumenism, the environment and climate change, Travellers' rights and women's rights in the Church. He was also concerned about the crisis in the north of Ireland and, in particular, the extent to which the churches had contributed to the situation and how they could still be agents for change. A theologian scholar, he had a refreshing openness to what was new. He was the author of many important books including Immersed in Mystery and The Risk of God.

Even throughout his long retirement he continued to take a keen interest in events in church and society. He had a warm spirit and was always willing to give generously of his time to individuals and issues. On a personal note, I have happy memories of his lectures in Moral Theology during my time in Maynooth. In later years, at conferences, I heard him give lengthy talks without a single note to hand such was his encyclopaedic knowledge of his subject.

In short, Enda McDonagh was the perfect theologian. May he Rest In Peace.

FUNERAL MASS

Fr Enda McDonagh's funeral Mass can be viewed Sunday morning at 11am by going to:

https://maynoothcollege.ie/news-events/2021/reverend-professor-enda-mcdonagh-r-i-p

See also:
RTE John Bowman programme dedicated to Dr Enda: www.rte.ie/radio1/bowman-sunday-830/