Obituary Notice
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Fr. DeECLAN Fallon (1906-1977) FR, DECLAN (OF §S. MARY MAGDALEN, C.P. (FALLON) Pr,Declan (Peter Joseph Fallon) was born in Dublin on 9th. Scptember, 1906. After leaving the Christian Brothers school in Synge Strec, he worke? for some years in Dublin. During this time he acted in amateur theatricals in the Fr.Matthew Hall, Dublin, and the histrionic skills he acquired there made him, in later life, no mean entertainer at many a community recreation, ft the age of 26 he went to our Alumniate at Wheatfield, Belfast. He was the last member of our Province to go direct from Wheatfield to the novitiate. He as professed on 30th. October, 1935, and ordained at Ilkley on 28th, April, 1941. Blessed with more than ordinary good health throughout his‘ life, he always looked younger than his ages but on Sunday, 8th. May, 1977 he complained of feeling unwell. He was admitted to St.Mary's Wing of the Whittington Hospital where on the Tuesday he suffered a severe heart attack, and was given the Last Sacraments, In the course of the next. two weeks a succession of minor attacks occurred, and he died peacefully on Friday, 27th. May. In March of this year (1977) Fr.Declan and'I made our’ community retreat together at Minsteracres, neither of us, of course, realizing that it was his last retreat. But I mention it here for a special reason, because he told me then that that retreat was one of the greatest spiritual experiences of his life. It was an experience that moved him deeply, and quite obviously had a profound effect on him. In the weeks betwern that retreat and his death, I personally heard him, during many periods of shared prayer together, thank God nany times for the grace of that retreat. Surely it is not fanciful to see in it now the manifestation of God's love and goodness in giving his priest such a grace in preparation for the final call which came to him some 12 weeks later. It was during that retreat that Fr,Declan spoke to me at great length of his work and expericnces during his 36 ycars as a priest. He had always been somewhat uncommunicative about his work, and that was the first time that I, who was a student with him and knew him throughout the years, began to realize just how much he had done for God and how significant was his work for sould. I was frankly so impressed that I suggested he should write some record of it all, but he only shrugged the suggestion off. But if we now will never know the full stwry of his labours, it is known to God, and when 911 is said and done that surely is all that matters, The Gospel read at his Requiem Mass at Highgate was from the 25th. Chapter of St.Matthew in which Christ says "I was sick and you visited me....I was a stranger and you made me welcome."' During the last several years that Fr.Declan was stationed in Highgate, the parishoners certainly knew of his devotion to the sick and the handicapped. It was he who organized the special services for the sick’ we have had here over the past few years; it was he who started the special Masses for the handicapped, especially the mentally handicapped, held in the Parish Centre; it was he who conducted numberless ‘pilgrimages of the sick and handicapped to Lourdes. To paraphrase the gospel: in as much as he did it for Christ's sick, he did it to the Lord. For some time, too, in the early years of our Swedish Mission, he was Mission Procurator, and by his efforts collected thousands of pounds in those carly, struggling years, and so helped to plant the Church in Sweden and enabled our missionaries to propage the gospel in that country. But perhaps the most significant work of his life was as a missioner himself. In his early years he gave several missions and retreats in England. But for the past 20 years and more he travelled all,over the Continent giving missions to the American Forces in Europe. It is the range of this work that we unfortunately know re A Hle a Poul
- 2 - (fr. Declan) That it was decply appreciated not only by American service-~men, but by the highest authorities in Washington, is evidenced by the fact that he receited citations and medals from the Pentagon for his work, But more touching and more revealing than any official citation was the personal tribute of one American friend. When, on the evening of the day he died, I phoned the news of his death to our contact in Frankfurt - a Mr.O'Connor - thig is what he said: "Your Order will not be able to replace Fr.Fallon for the comfort and help he brought to so many lonely American exiles in Europe,!! In this, too, he lived the words of the gospel: “Iwas a stranger and you made me welcome," While it is right that we should record, however sketchily, the priestly harvest of Fr.Declan's life, I am sure that he himself would not wish us to dwell on achievements, He would rather, I am sure, that we should pass merciful judgment on the failings that he had, and continue to extend to him the charity of our prayers for the forgiveness of the human defects and deficiencies inevitable in seventy years of life. As a Passionist he would cast himself on the love and mercy of his Crucified Master whom, in spite of all, he tried to serve faithfully to the end. And to Jesus Crucified we too commend his soul that, as he made the final gift of himself to God in death, he may mow share in the glory of the Risen Lord. By the express wish of his family, Fr.Declan was buried in our cemeter at Mount Argus, Dublin. May his soul rest in peace. ny of 3 5 venting Cot Highgate, 3rd. July, 1977
Source: Obituary Notices, Provincial Archive, St Joseph's Province. Passionist Congregation.