By Paul Dobbyn
DIVINE Word Missionaries Father Liam Horsfall’s extraordinary commitment was celebrated recently when he retired after 15 years as chaplain to St Patrick’s College Shorncliffe.
Congregation provincial Fr Henry Adler celebrated a Mass to mark the occasion.
It was held at the same time as the college’s Edmund Rice Feast Day Mass.
Fr Horsfall, 87, concelebrated with some old friends, other Divine Word Missionaries priests from across Queensland.
College acting assistant principal identity Paul Corfield said the Mass and a farewell morning tea had been planned as a fitting tribute to Fr Horsfall’s service at the school and the wider community.
“On the same day in India, Fathers from Jharsuguda, Puri and Lungai, places where Father Liam worked at during his time in India, also held Masses in his honour,” Mr Corfield said.
“Many of the sisters and priests Father Liam worked with in India also sent messages of goodwill.”
The Graceville-born priest celebrates 58 years as a priest this month.
After working for a year with Main Roads he joined the Divine Word Missionaries and went to Marburg, west of Brisbane, for three years then on to Techny, near Chicago in the United States, to study philosophy and theology.
His first posting was to the mission in Orissa, south-west of Calcutta (Kolkata).
He has been based in Brisbane since returning from Papua New Guinea in 1991, first as parish priest at Hamilton and then as chaplain at both Emmaus nursing home and St Patrick’s College.
From 1977, Fr Horsfall led annual trips to India apart from the few years from 1985-91 when he was posted in Papua New Guinea.
He led several immersion trips to India, giving St Patrick’s senior students the opportunity to work with the poor, the marginalised and the outcast.
On a trip in 2011, Fr Horsfall and his immersion students visited the leper colony in Jharsuguda that he started while provincial.
St Patrick’s College commissioned local artist Donna Gibb to create a painting which captured the priest’s long and productive life.
“This painting told the story of his life from his time in India right through to his impact here at the college,” Mr Corfield said.
