Story Added: April 2006
REV FR PATRICK KENNY [1929-33] Rev Dr Patrick Vincent Kenny was undoubtedly one of the great characters of the Brisbane Archdiocese. His passion for the Eucharist, the priesthood and the Church and his total commitment to that ideal mixed with his strong, sometimes eccentric humanity made him a powerful character. |
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Pat had been known as ‘Caesar’ since his student days and was the youngest of eight children born to James and Sarah Kenny. Sarah was from the Shannon family. Catholicism was as real to both families as the bread on their tables. Both families produced priests and religious. Pat was born at Kingston, south of Brisbane in a world so different from today as to be unrecognisable. He attended Nudgee from 1929-33.
His life covered one of the greatest times of change that the world has known. Fr Pat’s greatness as a character lay in his living in these transitional times, but not always easily. Just six weeks after Pat’s birth Anzac troops landed at Gallipoli and forged something of the Australian character and identity. In the month of his birth, 12,000 citizens pledged total abstinence from alcohol after the US Secretary of State condemned alcohol. King George V also offered to abstain. Pat was never a follower of these fads.
Fr Kenny was ordained to the priesthood in St Stephen’s Cathedral on July 25, 1940 and completed 65 years of priesthood in July 2005. He had a number of appointments before going to Rome in 1948 to study cannon law and received his doctorate. In January 1954 he was appointed parish priest of St Patrick’s Pomona until October 1960 when he moved to Gympie as parish priest.
He spent the next 32 years at Gympie becoming the image of the Church in that parish for thousands of people. He made a significant impact on the community and gained the respect of many people of other faiths. He was very proud of his doctorate in cannon law and his involvement in the practice of Church Law. He was a foundation member of the Cannon Law Society of Australia and New Zealand and served on the Brisbane Marriage Tribunal regularly driving down to Brisbane for that involvement. He held a pilot’s licence and often on these trips to Brisbane, he would not differentiate between driving and flying.
In his own way, he brought his compassion to his legal view. If there was ever a conflict between the law and what was pastorally best for people, the law would often lose out. It was passion that led Fr Kenny to do many things, not least of which was his devotion to attending priests funerals.
I think there are many ways of measuring greatness and if consistency and conviction are a part of greatness then Fr Pat Kenny in his life was indeed a great character. He could well have sung with Frank Sinatra “ I did it my way,” with great conviction.
Extracted from Eulogy by Fr John Dobson