FANCY having not one, not two, but an extraordinary three brothers ordained to the priesthood.
That’s the reality for Irish sisters Mary and Catherine Dooley, recent visitors to Brisbane archdiocese.
They’d made the journey to be reunited with all three for the 50th anniversary of ordination of their second brother, Fr Brendan Dooley, retired parish priest of Acacia Ridge, on Brisbane’s southside.
“We’re like five peas in a pod,” Catherine said across the well-occupied dining room table in Acacia Ridge presbytery, beside Our Lady of Fatima Church.
The delightful sisters had made a promise to their mother, Mary, who died in 2000 aged 92, to celebrate with all three brothers as jubilarians.
“She was very proud of her three fine sons and two fine daughters,” Mary said.
“When Brendan came home for his silver jubilee, it was like a wedding.
“She said, ‘I won’t be around for their golden jubilees but I want you girls to make sure that there’s a celebration for the boys’.
“That’s why we’re here.”
Fr Maurice Dooley remained a pastor in Ireland and spent some years as a missionary priest. Now a formator in a seminary, he marked his jubilee two years ago.
Their brother, Fr Joseph, was sent to minister in western New South Wales and will mark 50 years of priesthood “at home in Ireland” in three years’ time.
Fr Maurice was quick to point out “three priests in one family was no big deal”.
“In those times in Ireland there was a surplus of seminarians,” he said.
“We knew of a family with four.”
The Dooleys maintain faith “was never drummed in”.
“Having faith was very normal,” Mary said.
“Everyone went to Mass and went gladly.”
Also “normal” for the siblings was a peaceful household.
“We were sitting around the fire two nights after Mummy’s funeral and asked, ‘Can anyone remember having a row with another member of the family?'” Catherine said.
“We all said, ‘What’s a row?'” Fr Brendan said.
“We’ve never had an argument or a falling-out, from when we were small children to now,” Catherine said. “(And) none of us can remember an unhappy moment in our childhood.”
The Dooleys first watched Maurice leave to study for the priesthood and his brothers followed, ordained in All Hallows’ Missionary College, Dublin, a college “first run by secular priests” and established in 1842.
In 1892, it was “handed over to the experts … the Vincentians”, Fr Brendan said.
The quick-witted Irishman said he “didn’t know” of the call to priesthood straight away.
“I joined the public service,” Fr Brendan said of post-school decisions.
“In those days they encouraged you to do evening classes and I was in the middle of that when I went on a weekend retreat.
“At the retreat I was asked by a priest who knew the family quite well, ‘Why aren’t you studying to be a priest?’
“‘I hadn’t thought of it’, I said.
“‘Well, you should’.
“I eventually listened.”
Fr Brendan, encouraged to complete his commerce studies, had a seminary class initially made up of 40 men – “the usual amount”.
And there were six groups of them.
Of his group of newly-ordained priests “eight went to England, 24 went to America and five went to this part of the world”, he said.
Arriving in Brisbane soon after ordination, in 1961, Fr Brendan spent a number of years in various parishes.
“In my case I had been picked up (for Australia) before I went to the seminary,” he said.
“In Clayfield I first did my rounds.
“Then I was in Ipswich, Beenleigh, Hendra and Booval … a wide scattering of parishes mostly in the Greater Brisbane area.
“When I arrived in those first parishes I still had a lot to learn – I learnt to be pastoral.”
It was in 1975 that the move to Acacia Ridge eventuated.
“It was my first parish (as parish priest) and my last parish,” Fr Brendan said.
“I refused to move … I became my own man here.”
“Very, very happy” during the ensuing decades and continuing to live in the presbytery he built – “one of the first big jobs, along with five classrooms for the school” – Fr Brendan retired in 2003.
Since then, Sunnybank parish has administrated the Acacia Ridge faith community.
Fr Brendan has enjoyed the move “away from paperwork” and other activities among active and retired clergy.
Many of them gathered for Fr Brendan’s golden jubilee Mass on June 18 in Our Lady of Fatima Church and the archdiocesan celebration on June 30.
Even former Sunnybank associate pastor Fr Adrian Sharp attended the June 18 Mass, on a break from overseas study.
“His (Fr Brendan’s) homily at the Mass was quite amusing,” Fr Adrian said.
“He went through a string of thank-yous, and then said, ‘There were some other things I wanted to say, but I didn’t write them down. I’m retired’ …
“Everyone laughed.”
While Fr Joseph headed southward not long after the Mass, the laughing didn’t cease as the remaining Dooleys spent more days together.
As they revelled in each other’s company and will continue to keep in touch, the matriarch of their family is never far from their minds.
“Something that really jumps out to me, as a highlight (of priesthood) was my mother’s funeral in 2000,” Fr Brendan said.
“The three of us celebrating was something … She was always looking forward to her three sons burying her.”
