As we look forward to the opening of Fr Willie’s canonisation cause next month, it is interesting to look back through history to those who have made this work possible.
There are many people to thank for this step; men and women whose intervention and advice at different stages were decisive in opening Fr Willie’s cause. But there are two whose contributions were the most decisive of all.
The first, of course, is well known – Alfred O’Rahilly. He was the author of the original and classic biography of Fr Willie. O’Rahilly studied to be a Jesuit, left before ordination, married and became a professor of mathematical physics in University College Cork, became a politician, spent time in prison during the Irish war of independence, and subsequently became President of the university. On the death of his wife he became a Holy Ghost priest. Not without quirkiness, O’Rahilly was a polymath, writing and lecturing on religious, scientific, economic and sociological topics and we are told that he was a whirlwind of energy in every task he took up. His biography of Fr Willie was a bestseller, running into multiple editions and multiple translations. While he was in favour of opening Fr Willie’s cause, he does not seem to have been an active promoter beyond having written his classic biography. Nonetheless his work was the foundation on which devotion to Fr Willie was based.
The second person was less well known, but of equal importance. Fr Charlie Doyle, also a Jesuit, was Willie’s older brother. The two were inseparable as children. It was Fr Charlie who preserved Fr Willie’s private spiritual notes and diaries, and it is these papers that let us see the growth of sanctity in Fr Willie’s soul. He wrote his own biography of Fr Willie called Merry in God, although it was published anonymously. Fr Charlie did much work in the background on Fr Willie’s cause in the 1920’s and 1930’s, preserving testimonies, liaising with the Roman authorities and answering objections to the cause. In the early 1940’s he was told that Fr Willie’s cause was to be put on hold until a later date. 80 years later we take up that work and carry it forward, based, in large part, on his own humble and hidden work.
With gratitude for the work of Monsignor Alfred O’Rahilly and Fr Charlie Doyle, we look forward to the work ahead.
Please join us in this project! You can…
Join the Father Willie Doyle Association https://williedoyle.org/register/
Ask for Prayers https://williedoyle.org/ask-for-prayers/
Report Favours https://williedoyle.org/report-favours/
Make a donation https://williedoyle.org/donate/