The Late Father Falconer

New Zealand Tablet, 8 June 1922, Page 21

The Late Father Falconer

Rev. Father James Falconer, who was so well known in Fortitude Valley and Mitchell parishes, and who was much esteemed and loved by thousands of Quoenslanders for his gentleness of nature, noblo character, and unostentatious charity, died on Saturday afternoon, May 20, at the Mater Misericordiae Private Hospital, after a 'painful illness, which he bore and accepted with characterestic fortitude (writes the Brisbane correspondent of the Catholic Press). A native of Wellington (N.Z.), ho was in his scholastic days a splendid Rugby footballer, and an allround athlete of no mean order; but, his health failing soon after his ordination, he was induced to come to Queensland, where it was thought the genial climate would restore his old vitality. God, however, willed otherwise, and the lovable young priest, after bearing uncomplainingly a cross of suffering, especially for the last two years, has at the early age of 30 years been called to his eternal reward. During his illness both of his parents died, and, to the great joy and consolation of the invalid son, his Protestant father was received into the Church before his death thanks, as Father O'Flynn, in his panegyric on his dead comrade said, to the sedulous prayers of a brave Catholic Irish wife and a devoted priestly son. The death of his loved mother a few months back was also a heavy blow to the young priest, who was passing in his. own agony, let us hope, his purgatory on earth. At the first two Masses on the following Sunday morning, Rev. Father O'Flynn spoke in the most feeling terms on the death of one who had so endeared himself to all who knew him, a man who was in the truest sense,one of nature's noblemen, and who as a priest devoted himself whole-heartedly and unsparingly in his mission. He, incidentally, recalled one of the last sermons that Father Falconer delivered in St. Patrick's, on the suffering souls of Purgatory, and said the memory of that beautiful sermon shall always remain with him and those who were privileged to hear it.. During Father O'Flynn's references to Father Falconer, there was scarcely a dry eye in the congregation, and when the solemn strains of the "Dead March from Saul" were slowly issuing from the organ, tho loss of the kindly, generous-hearted priest and more than friend was deeply felt. ,The remains of the deceased were placed in St. Patrick's, the church he loved so well, after the last Mass on Sunday; and during the day and evening hundreds of the parishioners visited the church to say a prayer for the repose of the soul of one they loved so dearly. On the following Monday morning a Solemn Requiem Mass was celebrated in St. Patrick's, after which the funeral left for Nudgee Cemetery, where the bodv was committed to the graveyard, which contains the remains of many other dead priests and several nuns.—R.l.p.