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Fr Cyril Hally SSC | Few who met Fr Cyril Hally in the decades that he was active in the Australian Church were not impressed by his sharp intellect, abiding spirituality and lifelong ‘youthful’ enthusiasm for the cause of bringing the Kingdom of God into existence on Earth. He lectured in missiology, missionary anthropology, mission history, and later, peace and ecology. He helped missionaries who now work in many parts of the world “to read the signs of the times” as Pope John XXIII said.
In the words of Fr Gary Walker SSC, Fr Cyril was “indefatigable”. Over years he built up an extraordinary network in many areas of life. “He touched the lives of hundreds if not thousands of people with his vision and understanding of what was happening to the Church and the world.”
Born at Temuka, South island, New Zealand in 1920, at age 19 Cyril entered the St Columban Missionary Society seminary in Essendon Melbourne. The Columbans foundation was to take the Gospel into China and it was there that Cyril expected to spend his ministry. But it was not to be. Within a few years of his ordination, Mao’s communist revolution saw the suppression of foreign missionaries and imprisonment of Catholic bishops, priests and religious under charges of anti-revolutionary activities.
Fr Cyril instead became a chaplain to Asian students in New Zealand. He later studied in Rome and graduated with a licentiate in Canon Law. In 1951, he was sent to Japan but he was only there for just over a year before he was recalled to the staff of the Columban seminary in Sydney.
After studying linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, he joined the staff at St Columban’s seminary at Dalgan Park, Co Meath, Ireland. The Irish Columban ecological activist and author, Fr Sean McDonagh, a seminarian then, vividly recalled Cyril’s weekly class in Gregorian Chants for the discourses into anthropology, linguistics, or current affairs like the Vietnam War.
“The phrase I remember most from Cyril’s lips was ‘in my opinion’. Cyril expected missionaries to have opinions about a range of broad issues based on solid reflection and research.” said Fr McDonagh.
When describing the Church’s mission in the contemporary world “enculturation” was a word often used by Fr Cyril to explain the openness and respect which missionaries should take to the indigenous cultures people they will live with. Fr Cyril’s long held belief was that New Testament’s strength lay in its ability to adapt to its host society without any diminishment of its gospel truths.
In the post-Vatican II Church, Cyril was appointed to a church ‘think tank’ in Brussels, ‘Pro Mundi Vitae’ which specialised in in- depth studies on topics and issues of the Church that needed researching. In 1972 was made First Secretary to the National Catholic Missionary Council, Sydney, set up by the Australian Bishops Conference.
For many years Fr Cyril was Director of the Columban’s Pacific Mission Institute and lectured missionaries who were heading for cross-cultural mission in Australia or other parts of the world. He was awarded the inaugural Philia Prize for vision and initiative in religious work in Australia. He was a leading light in the ecumenical peace and justice group “Pax Christi”. In 2002 Catholic Earthcare Australia inaugurated the annual Cyril Hally Lecture on the ecology. |
