2715 Work and temperance - and 74 years a missionary in Japan
austraLasia #2715
Work and temperance - and 74 years a missionary in Japan
BEPPU: 15 September 2010 -- Move over, Vincent Cimatti, and make
a little room for your faithful companion Francis Drohan, and perhaps
there's a little work still to be done in paradise?
Let's hear from Fr Cipriani, Provincial in
Japan as he returns from the funeral rites of this faithful missionary,
71 years in Japan.
"Yesterday we bade good bye to Fr Drohan. The
church in Beppu was filled with Salesians, Salesian Sisters, Caritas
sisters, Cooperators and friends.
He had been hospitalized in May in Miyazaki and though he had
brief moments of getting better, he never recovered completely. At the
end of August, (he could not stay any longer in the hospital since the
3 month period had passed, he was sent to the Home for the elderly in
Beppu ( some 200km from Miyazaki). The house at Miyazaki
installed an elevator, to have him back.
He was happy to be togetheragain
with the confreres, but day by day his health got weaker and weaker. He
no longer could take food. It was on Sunday morning, 12 September, at
9:35 that he left for paradise. He was 91.
The confreres of the house had just finished Sunday
mass in the chapel just in front of his room. I received the news just
minutes before starting the First Mass of the newly ordained priest. Fr
Kitagawa, in Chofu. I was able to let the confreres know the sad news
and have a memento in the mass.
Fr Drohan arrived in Japan in November 1936 at the
age of 17. He had made his first profession in the same year in the
novitiate at Oxford. At first he was at the studentate in Tokyo where
he studied and at the same time helped in the nearby technical school (
printing, tailaoring etc ). At his renewal of vows in 1939,
underneath his letter of request, the Rector had written: ‘Si e’
comportato bene: Ama il lavoro’. I think this is a note that
describes best the life of Fr Francis: He was a hard ‘worker’: as a
priest, a teacher, a translator, a linguist and a skilled carpenter.
In 1941, months before the start of the war, he was
sent to Australia to study theology. He had to remain there until after
the war. He was ordained in Melbourne in 1946. (He returned to
Australia many years later for a brief spell, teaching in Adelaide,
amongst other things).
He returned to Japan in 1953 and was assigned to the
school at Miyazaki. He worked hard. Unfortunately his health
deteriorated. He contracted TB and had to spend some years in hospital;
during his convalescence he acted as chaplain to the FMA in Yamanaka, a
place very near Mt Fuji. He was back in Ireland for 2-3 years and again
in Japan in Meguro Salesian junior High School. After two years there
he went to Osaka where he spent a further five years, giving a very
great impulse to the study of English ( it was a time when the Japanese
were very eager to learn English). He started the Language Laboratory:
one of the first in the Salesian schools, reaping great
successes. Everyone recognized his high professionalism and at the same
time his closeness with the other teachers and the students. He was
very demanding but never harsh. He knew how to wait for the right time
for the individual student.Then, after five years in Australia, in 1976
he spent a little time at the Catacombs of St Callisutus in Rome, and
after a brief stay in Ireland returned to Japan in November 1980, first
in Osaka, until the retirement year for school, 65 and then to Miyazaki
where he spent the last twenty six year. 'L’anima silenziosa della
casa' (the silent soul of the community). He was the first into the
chapel in the morning, served the communities of the Caritas Sisters as
a chaplain for Mass, benediction , confessions. He was confessor
both for the confreres of the house and for all priests and religious
of the area.
Work and temperance marked him out. He kept always
doing things. One of his most rewarding work were the many translations
he did. He translated the most important documents of the Caritas
sisters from Japanese/Italian into English. They are a treasure for the
future of the Sisters since English is ever more used as a common
language. He also translated many articles and books from
English/Italian/French into Japanese for the Salesians and the Salesian
family, the main ones being Petite vie de Don Bosco, Robert Schiele’;
'A metà con don Bosco' the life of Fr Rua by Guido Favini and
the Lives of Salesian Family Saints. This last has been published in a
10 booklet series.
We are very grateful to the Irish Province and the
Congregation for having sent us a so great missionary. Thank you Fr
Drohan. Pray for us all from Paradise". _________________ AustraLasia is an
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