Late Fr Don Burke SMA.

                 

I’ve never asked this question to any priest that I have known in my lifetime, but if I was to ask them is there a particular time of the year that they would like to die it would be in and around the season of Easter.

Fr. Daniel “Don” Burke a priest who lived his early days in the Stephen Street area of Waterford City born into the family of Maurice and Laura (nee Coffey), a family that also included five siblings, his brother Fr. Maurice, his sisters Mary (Stephens) and Peggy (Hennebry) who all predeceased him and sisters Laura Burke and Patricia Troy, while he did not make it to the Easter Season, he almost got there dying on March 31 (Spy Wednesday) this year and was buried in Cork on Good Friday.

Aged 88 while born in Waterford the greater part of his long life was spent away from the city as he followed his brother Maurice in becoming a Society of African Missionary (SMA) where he got to see and work in different parts of the world in his near 60 years as a priest.

Daniel or Don as he was known was born on March 4, 1933. After completing his leaving cert like many men of the time he found work working with the ESB, but after just four years he answered the call that his brother Maurice had answered earlier on and joined the SMA Novitiate at Cloughballymore in County Galway in September 1955. After he completed his Philosophy and Theology studies at the SMA seminary in Newry, he was ordained on December 10, 1961.

His first mission was to Lagos where he was to remain for the next 22 serving the people in the Mushin and Shomolu areas, two very poor areas, but he quickly set to work. The area had large numbers of unemployed young people who came from rural areas with little or no skills, looking for employment that did not exist. Don however established a scheme which helped train young people various skills such as in carpentry, plumbing and farming which helped them to integrate back into their own community with a vital trade.

In 1984 the SMA Superior General in Rome decided to end Fr. Don’s time in Lagos, and decided that his next posting should be to Poland, to be part of an international team tasked with re-establishing an SMA presence in the country.

Having to learn a new language as he had to do when he moved to Africa after his ordination was the least of his problems in Eastern Europe as he had to adapt the way he lived to live under constraints of the communist regime. Just as he had done while in Lagos he used his energy and zeal as he set about recruiting young people for missionary priesthood as a member of his own community.

In Poland he was known for his involvement in pilgrimages on foot to the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, a journey that could take up to three weeks to complete. On these journeys he would mingle with thousands of young Catholics as they gave expression to their faith.

Thanks to his work in Poland, the SMA now have priests serving as missionary priests in Central African countries as well as in Egypt, Morocco, Tanzania and Togo.

His next posting after nine years in Eastern Europe was back in Zambia where he spend 18 years. Back in Africa he worked in the Diocese of Ndola and spent much of his time in a very poor region, Chipolokusu which is on the outskirts of Ndola, a city in the centre of the country.

Here he worked in an area where people had no education opportunities or health care facilities. But by now in his priestly life he was well used to such conditions and set about building a school that had no walls, just a large roof that came down almost to the ground, held up with large strong poles. He also served as Vocations Director, was the chaplain to the local hospital and to educational establishments that did exist but for many they could not enter, as well as the chaplain to the local Nursing Training College.

He would also find time to write many pamphlets and booklets which he would hand out to other missionaries working in the area to help them in their work.

After retiring, Don would spend a short while at the SMA parish in Walthamstow in London, before moving to the SMA community at Wilton in Cork where he would live a very active life, getting to know many involved in the many programmes happening within the SMA Community and at the Parish Centre, and also took part in many outings organised by the local Senior Citizens group.

In January of this year failing health meant that he transferred from Wilton to St. Theresa’s Nursing Unit on the Blackrock Road where he received the full time care that he needed.

In his years as a priest, he influenced so many people as a missionary priest and lead them to the Christ that he loved, and it is well known that even though he was retired for some time before his death he is still fondly remembered in the areas in which he served.

His remains reposed at the Community Chapel from where he was brought to St. Joseph’s SMA Church in Wilton on Good Friday morning. As it is not permitted to celebrate a mass in the Catholic Church on Good Friday and the morning of Holy Saturday, a Service of the Word was celebrated by the SMA Provincial Superior Fr Malachy Flanagan with Fr. Anthony Kelly another member of the SMA Community and a Priest that worked with Fr. Don in Zambia. After the service his remains were taken from the church and was buried with his brother Fr. Maurice.

Fr. Don is survived by his sister Laura and Patricia, his nephews and nieces, those that he worked with in the Archdiocese of Lagos in Nigeria and the Diocese of Ndola in Zambia, his confers in the Polish SMA Province and the members of the SMA Community in Cork.