Mgr Henry Bernard Skehan

Early Life

Henry Bernard Skehan was born on April 17, 1910 at O'Callaghan's Mills, a small village near Ennis in County Clare, Ireland. (In later life he was more commonly known as Harry.)  He was the second child in a family of seven. For much of his early life he lived with his grandparents and finished his primary education at Bodyke National School.

Grandfather Henry Murphy was a wise and well educated man and was a great help to Harry in his early education. To begin his secondary education, Harry returned home and attended St Flannan's College at Ennis. Harry studied for the priesthood at St Kieran's College, Kilkenny.

He was ordained a priest at St Mary's Cathedral, Kilkenny on June 14, 1936 by Most Rev. Dr Collier. In early November the same year he sailed for South Australia. His parents travelled to London with him for a sad farewell.

Early Years in Adelaide

On November 28, 1936 Fr H.B. Skehan arrived in Adelaide to begin his priestly apostolate in the Archdiocese of Adelaide. His first appointment was as assistant priest in the Glenelg parish, where he worked with Fr Richard Denny and Fr Thomas O'Rourke. It was inevitable that to the irreverent the trio should become known as Tom, Dick and Harry.

While stationed in the Glenelg parish, he was Resident Chaplain for two years (1937-38) at Sacred Heart College. Thus began his association with the Marist Brothers whose way of life he admired immensely.

In December 1941 he was appointed assistant priest in the Brighton parish and two years later, he became priest-in-charge. On June 1, 1948 he was appointed parish priest of Brighton, where he remained until he was appointed to Edwardstown in 1950.

Parish Priest of Edwardstown

It would be impossible to write an account of the life of Monsignor Skehan without referring at some length to the 21 years he laboured in the parish of Edwardstown. Indeed the building complexes we came to know as the Catholic Churches, Halls and Schools of Edwardstown and Ascot Park were to a large extent due to him.

When he arrived in the parish of Edwardstown, there were no buildings at all at the Ascot Park part of the parish just a depressing boxthorn paddock. Sunday Mass for Ascot Park was celebrated in the Ascot Park Primary School. At Castle Street, Edwardstown, the church buildings consisted of the presbytery built in 1938 and a church-school-hall built in 1930.

Building Program at Edwardstown and Ascot Park

A lesser man than Fr Skehan would have hardly known where to start, but he made a quick decision. The children and the Sisters must come first. For 20 years the Dominican Sisters had coped uncomplainingly with teaching in makeshift classrooms.

Money was scarce but volunteer labour by parents and other parishioners kept expenses to a minimum. During 1950-51 four more classrooms were built along the western wall of the existing building. This was a start and for all involved “a great start”!
At Ascot Park the parish owned land at Wood Street, but first it had to be cleared of boxthorn. Once again volunteers did the job. It was decided to build a church-school.

The first Mass was celebrated in St Maria Goretti's Church-School on the September 15, 1953. The school opened in 1954, thanks to the Dominican Sisters.

Back at St Anthony's the church-school was unable to cope with the numbers for Sunday Mass. Fr Skehan formed a Church Finance Committee.

A very successful planned giving program was introduced and by 1959 the War Memorial Church of St Anthony of Padua had been built, based on a design Fr Skehan had seen in Sydney. It was consecrated by Archbishop Beovich.

Priestly pastoral care

During this time, on July 8, 1960, he was appointed a Domestic Prelate by His Holiness Pope John XXIII with the title Monsignor.  He was appointed Acting Vicar General with Monsignor Russell and cared for the Archdiocese when both our Bishops attended the Second Vatican Council in Rome.

Monsignor Skehan served the Archdiocese in many other ways e.g. Defensor Vinculi of the Matrimonial Tribunal, Member of the Sites and Architecture Council, Diocesan Consultor, the Council of Priests, the Diocesan Life Campaign, Catholic Charities – the list is almost endless.

He loved his priestly service of his God and God’s people and lived it to the full, celebrating Mass, preaching, catechising, especially little children, celebrating the sacraments, instructing converts. One of Monsignor’s “fortes” was certainly his parish visitation. In this field of his priestly apostolate, I believe he had no equal; he was a real “Good Shepherd”.

The Role of the Laity was very important to him: the Legion of Mary, the St Vincent de Paul Society, the Young Christian Workers Movements, the Christian Life Movement, Young Catechists (“the best way to know one’s faith is to teach it”) and the parish Committee, before parish councils were ever dreamt of.

More Building

The next parish venture was a church hall at Ascot Park. In 1962 St Maria Goretti’s Church-Hall was completed. As Fr John Chambers had been appointed assistant priest in 1961 it was possible to have daily Mass at St Maria's.

Two more schoolrooms and a lunchroom completed the buildings at Wood Street. Meanwhile the school at Edwardstown was becoming overcrowded.

A two-storey school, St Anthony's War Memorial School was blessed and opened by Fr E.J. Mulvihill on September 22, 1968.  The presbytery had been extended to accommodate an assistant priest and the dream of a Regional College, St Joseph’s College, Mitchell Park, as a feeder to Sacred Heart College was just beginning.

Monsignor’s Love of Sport

In his younger days in Ireland, Monsignor had excelled in the Irish sport of hurling. However, in Australia Monsignor had to settle for golf and fishing. Monsignor loved sport and encouraged it within the parish.

Tennis was another sport Monsignor loved. In 1968 he declared open the SA Catholic Lawn Tennis Association's new lawn courts at West Beach. He was delighted when at times the Edwardstown parish tennis club fielded as many as six teams in the various grades of the SA Catholic Tennis Association. 

Monsignor also encouraged football. For years, the Edwardstown YCW football team was one of the strongest teams in the Adelaide YCW competition.

Transfer to Blackwood/Belair

In mid-1971, Monsignor left on an extended visit to Ireland. Prior to his departure, he accepted an appointment to become parish priest of Blackwood/Belair, on his return from Ireland. Typically, he did not return to Edwardstown for a farewell. Instead on his return from Ireland in January 1972, he immediately began his priestly work in his new parish.

To take on a big, new parish was a brave decision for a priest aged 60 who had already worked long and hard for 35 years, but Monsignor was equal to the task.

Peter Donovan who compiled the history of the Blackwood parish wrote that Monsignor Skehan was "good for the parish".  He was a very strong priest both physically and emotionally, he was also a man of wisdom and perception. It was this that made him an admirable administrator and one from whom the Archbishop frequently sought advice.

Monsignor's first, major task at Blackwood/Belair was to build a new church for Belair. After much discussion within the parish, this was achieved and on June 23, 1974, the new Church of Our Lady of the Way was blessed and opened by Fr Thomas Horgan, the Vicar General. During these years, Monsignor Skehan was also responsible for the building of a new presbytery at Blackwood (February 1976) and for restoration work on Blackwood's beautiful St Paul of the Cross Church.

During 1974, Monsignor began celebrating a Saturday Vigil Mass at Clarendon in the Anglican Church of St Ninian's. This was at a time before evening Vigil Mass had become general in the Adelaide Archdiocese.

In early 1986 Monsignor Skehan retired from Blackwood/Belair after 14 busy years. Peter Donovan writes: "Monsignor Skehan left the parish in January 1986, the year of the Golden Jubilee of his ordination, to go into well-earned retirement. Materially the parish was much better served than it had been before he arrived. Perhaps, more importantly, the spiritual life of the parish had been consolidated.”

Although retired, Monsignor Skehan was not quite finished with his involvement in the Adelaide Hills area. In June 1986 a new church was opened at Aberfoyle Park – a new parish which included some areas formerly in the Blackwood parish. The foundation stone for the Nativity Church was blessed and placed by Monsignor H.B. Skehan, Pastor Emeritus of Blackwood, on June 15, 1986”.

During 1986 a very special Mass was celebrated in St Anthony's Church, Edwardstown when two much loved Irish priests celebrated their Golden Jubilee, Monsignor H.B. Skehan and Fr William Collins, both former parish priests of Edwardstown, and a third, Monsignor M.L. Dunne celebrated his Diamond Jubilee.

Retirement

On Australia Day January 26, 1986, Monsignor Skehan retired to live at Francis Murphy Villa, Plympton. Though “retired” he continued to live his priestly life to the full, without the responsibilities of being a parish priest. “I want to keep my hand in,” he said. He did so, celebrating Mass and the Sacraments at Dulwich-Burnside, Richmond and elsewhere, daily and on weekends.

He was a tremendous help to the parish priest of Dulwich-Burnside, his first assistant priest and friend, Fr John Chambers.
Monsignor enjoyed his more than seven years of retirement, describing it as “the best time in my life”!

Besides reading, his interests included establishing fruit trees, caring for his flower garden with its once prize-winning carnation that he had developed in Brighton Days, the H.B. Skehan Special.

He still loved his golf, his fishing, occasional visits to the priests' house at Middleton and the beauty of the South Coast. Reunions with the many friends he had made here in South Australia, still welcoming converts into the Catholic Church and even working to validate some marriages were other important aspects of his retirement.

Monsignor’s sudden death

In April 1993 Mary McInerney and Nancy O’Connor, his Sisters, from Ireland, visited him, along with another sister, Mairead Tuohy, who lived in Moorak, near Mt Gambier. Monsignor enjoyed this reunion to the full in Adelaide, Middleton and Mt Gambier.

On May 7, 1993, just a few days after returning from Mt Gambier, he collapsed and died in the foyer of Southern Cross Homes, Plympton.

Sadly, for his sisters, their reunion in Adelaide changed to a farewell. A Vigil was celebrated in St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral, on the Sunday evening of May 9 and his Funeral Mass was celebrated on the next day. Bishop de Campo (Pt Pirie) and some 70 priests from both dioceses concelebrated.

Archbishop Leonard Faulkner was the principal celebrant, thanking God for the life and priestly ministry of Monsignor Henry Bernard Skehan, “this much loved priest of the Archdiocese of Adelaide.”

His body was buried at Centennial Park Cemetery.

Vale, Monsignor Skehan.

Rest in Peace.