Courtney McGrailFr Pat Egan SDB recalls the late Fr Michael Ross
Fr Pat Egan SDB
Santo subito was the spontaneous cry of the crowd in St Peter's Square at the death (April 2) of Pope John Paul II and at his funeral (April 8) in 2005. The Church's practice was that a cause for canonisation could only begin five years after a person's death. Pope Benedict XVI dispensed with that rule 20 days later (April 28) and the cause was officially opened on June 28 that same year. John Paul II was beatified May 1, 2011 and canonised 27 April 27, 2014 by Pope Francis.
When Don Bosco, founder of the Salesian Family, was beatified in 1929, one of his Salesians was heard to remark, "Don Bosco a Saint? Who'd have ever thought it!" His being utterly engaged in the things of this world could make people miss what was really happening underneath!
The Salesian Rule speaks of Don Bosco as deeply human, rich in the qualities of his people, open to the realities of this earth; and just as deeply the man of God, filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and living "as seeing him who is invisible".
These two aspects combined to create a closely-knit life project, the service of the young. He realised his aim with firmness, constancy and the sensitivity of a generous heart, in the midst of difficulties and fatigue. He took no step, he said no word, he took up no task that was not directed to the saving of the young. As Don Rua, his first successor said six years after Don Bosco's death, "truly the only concern of his heart was for souls". He could just as well have been talking about Fr Michael Ross.
Fr Michael was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus in February 2016. From May he showed a big loss of weight, underwent five doses of chemotherapy to little avail, and spent his days between his community in Crumlin and St James's Hospital, Dublin. Cared for lovingly by his eldest brother Denis from Toronto for the last two weeks of his life, he slipped away quietly on Sunday afternoon, October 30, during a Novena of prayer for the intercession of the Venerable Frank Duff on whom Michael had done his PhD doctoral thesis in 2014.
On the evening of Michael's death, his long time friend June Vause said of him: “He loved the work he was doing, and loved meeting people.” Michael was a Salesian priest with a vast outreach to thousands of people through healing, prayer, the Legion of Mary, Radio Maria which he helped set up in Ireland, and in his earlier years had shown endless energy in numerous initiatives for young people—true devotion to the nation, the Salesian Retreat Team, Good News for Youth magazine, Youth work camps and summer camps, the Maynooth English Language School, University Chaplaincy, Study Buddies… to name just a few.
He was a priest who reflected the saint whose way of dealing with people, especially the young and those most in need, he had vowed to follow when he made his first profession as a Salesian of Don Bosco on August 26, 1973 in the same Salesian chapel of Mary Help of Christians, Pallaskenry, Co. Limerick, in which his Requiem Mass was celebrated and from which he was carried to his final resting place in the community cemetery.
May Mary whom he loved with all his heart wrap her mantle around him.
May he now know just how great and wonderful and loving is the God he served and who finally took his breath away!
Santo subito? Why not?
Fr Pat Egan is Provincial Secretary of the Irish Salesians