austraLasia #2772 The sudden passing of Fr Bernard Tohill SDB
HONG KONG: 21 December 2010 -- The following note
has just arrived in my inbox from Fr Lanfranco Fedrigotti,
Hong Kong.
"The peace of the Lord be with you always! I have to come
to you with the sad news of the sudden death of dear Fr.
Bernard Tohill. Here below please find a provisional
obituary notice of this great Irish-Chinese Salesian. Let
us pray for his eternal rest. God bless! In Jesus Mary
Joseph DonBosco, Yours affectionately, Fr. Lanfranco M.
Fedrigotti"
PROVISIONAL OBITUARY OF REV. FR. BERNARD TOHILL S.D.B.
By Fr. Lanfranco M. Fedrigotti, S.D.B., Rector of Salesian
Missionary House, Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong (China)
The Salesians of Don Bosco of the China Province of Mary
Help of Christians, with both great sadness and deep
gratitude to God, announce the sudden death of dear Fr.
Bernard Tohill S.D.B., this evening before 7:00 p.m. in
Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, Hong Kong.
At 6:00 p.m. dear 91-year old Fr. Bernard was still happily
with us, sitting in his wheel-chair and having supper with
his fellow elderly confreres of Casa Braga (Salesian
Missionary House, Shau Kei Wan), assisted by the house
nurse. Then, suddenly at about 6:15 he lost his colour and
consciousness. Fr. Rector and the ambulance were immediately
called and Fr. Bernard was given first aid assistance. As
suggested by one of the elderly confreres, Fr. Rector gave
him the papal blessing in articulo mortis with the plenary
indulgence. In about 5 minutes the ambulance arrived. On the
ambulance Fr. Rector anointed him with the oil of the sick.
In a few minutes, Fr. Bernard was in the resuscitation ward
(Eastern Hospital is less than 1 km from Salesian Missionary
House). Outside the ward Fr. Rector and the nurse prayed for
Fr. Bernard, but at about 7:00 they were told that the
resuscitation had failed to revive him and he was certified
dead. Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze Kiun S.D.B., informed, arrived
immediately. With him, Fr. Rector and Sc. Anthony Pun, a
young Chinese Salesian who had also arrived, recited the
rosary for dear deceased Fr. Bernard. Before leaving the
mortuary, after praying besides his body, in the name of all
his dear ones, Fr. Rector kissed Fr. Bernard’s forehead in
sign of gratitude, affection, and undying love.
The death of Fr. Bernard Tohill is a great loss for his big
family in Northern Ireland (Belfast) where he was born, one
of eleven children, on August 12, 1919 and baptized the next
day. He was always very close to his relatives who,
numbering a few hundred with dozens of nephews and their
children, have all along also been very close to him. How he
enjoyed their visits from far-away Ireland, Canada,
Australia…! On the desk by his bed, there are already
several Christmas cards which he received in these last
days, sent by his relatives. So his last thoughts were for
you, dear relatives of Fr. Bernard.
Fr. Bernard’s death is a great loss also for our China
Province, where he arrived, newly-professed, 73 years ago in
1937 and where he spent 51 of his 73 years of Salesian life,
being one of its Rectors (1952-1958) and Provincials
(1958-1963).
Fr. Bernard’s death is a great loss for the whole Salesian
Congregation. The 22-year interruption in his stay in our
Province (1963-1985) is due to the fact that he was for two
years and a half Provincial of the San Francisco Province in
the USA and for 19 years a member of the General Council
with the Rector Majors Fr. Luigi Ricceri and Fr. Egidio
Viganò. He was for 6 years (1965-1971) Regional
Superior of the immense English-speaking Region that
included the East Asia Provinces. In this Region he had
become a Salesian, making his first profession in Beckford,
England, in 1937. Then, for 13 years (1971-1984), he was
General Superior of the Salesian Missions, after which he
had a year of spiritual renewal in Ireland (1984-1985). His
13-year
missionary service made him, perhaps, the most travelled
Salesian in the history of the Congregation. We don’t know
how many times he travelled by boat, after his first trip by
ship to come to China. However, he kept count of all the
times he took a plane of some kind or other. They add up to
1538!
Dear Fr. Bernard Tohill’s death is above all a great loss
for our community of Salesian Missionary House and Casa
Braga, where he passed the greater part of the last 20 years
of his life. In 1990 he was the first confrere-in-charge of
Casa Braga, our province’s home for elderly confreres. In
1991 he was miraculously cured from a very serious disease
through the intercession of the Servant of God Fr. Giuseppe
Quadrio and the expert care of Dr. Kwok. During these years,
several times for several months he resided in the St.
Joseph’s and St. Mary’s Homes for the Aged of the Little
Sisters of the Poor, offering the chaplaincy services of
which he was still capable and receiving the motherly and
sisterly care of the Sisters. In 2006 for a few months he
enjoyed his last stay in Ireland, living with and being
cared for by the Salesian confreres of Pallaskenry.
Here at home, for many years he was the regular
confessor of several of our confreres. In Braga House, as
long as his health allowed it, he was the promoter of
cheerfulness and serenity, especially during meals. All
along, he was for us a wonderful example of fidelity to our
Holy Rule, of pastoral zeal, and of ardent love for the
Church and the Congregation. He was a man of deep faith and
fervent prayer, praying regularly the complete Rosary with
its 20 mysteries every day. He kept up a deep friendship
with the past-pupils he had served during his early years as
a young Salesian in Hong Kong. Only yesterday, four
past-pupils of 1948 came to visit him, taking pictures with
him before the crib, chatting happily with him, admiring his
enduring sense of humour, stronger than his senility.
May I conclude for the time being with a few words told me
by dear Fr. Bernard Tohill on August 7, this year. At 5:00
p.m. he appeared on the door of my office, sitting in his
wheel-chair, pushed by the nurse who accompanied him to
Hospital this evening. He told me: "Father, there are many
problems and difficulties in the Congregation. But we have
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament together with us. There is
something that I want to tell everybody: ‘We must have
confidence in Him! We must have more confidence in Him!’"
May the faith of Fr. Bernard continue in us who have been
blessed with his love and friendship. _________________
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