Born: 22 December 1948, Glenard Road, Salthill, Galway City, County Galway
Entered: 07 September, 1966, St Mary’s Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 23 June 1978, Gonzaga College SJ, Dublin
Final Vows: 22 August 1988, Kitwe, Zambia
Died: 20 July 2021, St Ignatius, Lusaka, Zambia - Southern Africa Province (SAP)

Transcribed : HIB to ZAM 22 August 1988

1966-1968 St Mary’s, Emo
1968-1971 Rathfarnham Castle - studying
1971-1973 Milltown Park - studying Philosophy
1973-1975 Canisius College, Chikuni, Zabia - Regency, studying language
1975-1977 Milltown Park - studying Theology
1977-1978 Tabor House - studying Theology at Milltown
1978-1979 Missionary Institute, The Ridgeway, London, England - studying Theology
1979-1980 St Kizito Pastoral Centre, Monze, Zambia
1980-1982 Catholic Church, Namwala, Zambia - Parish Priest
1982-1983 Galway - Chaplain at Coláiste Iognáid
1983-198 Jesuit Residence, Kitwe, Zambia - teaching
1986-1987 Joint HIB/BRI Tertianship - Tullabeg and St Beuno’s
1987-1993 Jesuit Residence, Kitwe, Zambia - teaching
1993-199 St Ignatius, Lusaka, Zambia

https://jesuitssouthern.africa/2021/07/20/fr-joseph-keaney-sj-rip/
RIP
Fr Joseph Keaney SJ
22 December 1948 – 20 July 2021

The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) mourns the loss of Fr Joseph Keaney SJ.

After a long battle with serious illness he passed away peacefully this afternoon, Tuesday 20 July 2021, at St Ignatius Jesuit Community in Lusaka. Fr Keaney will be remembered for his pastoral care and missionary zeal. He was a friend to many and will be fondly remembered.

We commend Fr Keaney to the Lord, knowing that he is now at peace and has no more pain.

https://ordo.jesuitssouthern.africa/obit/07-20-2021%20%E2%80%93%20Joseph%20Keaney.pdf

Fr Joseph Keaney, S.J.
(1948-2021. In Zambia 1973-2021)
20 July 2021

Fr Keaney was born to Gerry and Ena (nee Conway) Keaney on 22 December 1948 in Ballyhaunis, in the West of Ireland. He went to the Jesuit St Ignatius College in Galway for his secondary education and immediately afterwards, entered the novitiate in 1966, with his school mate Martin Curry. He was always close to his family, especially his siblings Mary, Chris, Gerry and Hilary who later would visit him on occasion while he was at St Ignatius.

He followed the usual program of training, completing a degree in English and Mathematics at
the University College Dublin, followed by philosophy in Milltown Park. He was missioned to Zambia and taught at Canisius Secondary School from 1973 to 1975, while also learning chiTonga. After his theology in Milltown Park he was ordained in 1978. He did a year’s course on Missiology at the Mill Hill Institute in London before returning to Zambia in 1979.

His first assignment was in pastoral work in Tonga land - Namwala, Monze diocese from 1979- 1981. He developed a kidney condition and returned to Ireland for treatment. He recuperated in his old school of St Ignatius in Galway. He was advised to avoid the rough roads of rural areas and so was assigned to pastoral work in Kitwe (1983-1993). In 1987 he was appointed parish priest of the new parish of Our Lady of Africa and worked energetically to erect the new church. He was very sociable and outgoing and loved to go to all the celebrations in his parish. He himself afterwards freely admitted that he was a friend of Mr Moshi and Johnny Walker. During his stint in Kitwe, he went for his final year of training – tertianship - in the Irish/English program. It was a time of great growth where he began to come to grips with his shadow side and started to cope more positively with his recurring bouts of depression.

When he came to St Ignatius in 1993, he was, in many ways, rejuvenated and more interested in helping others to cope with their problem. Within a few years the parish became more vibrant with greater lay participation and with plenty of opportunities for the youth to pay their part. In Kitwe he felt himself more on the outside of things with the need to construct a new church and losing himself in activity. When he came to St Ignatius, he shifted his energies to helping others to grow through their own experience of life. He spent long hours listening to personal problems and getting to know his parishioners from the inside. During his funeral, which was on-line due to Covid restrictions, many dozens of posts were sent in by the parishioners, thanking God for the priest who listened to them, who was in touch with their problems and who knew a great number of them by name. His liturgies were always lively and full of the joy of the Good News. He often proclaimed the Gospel reading reciting it by heart to make it more personal. In distributing Holy Communion he would use individual names. He was parish priest from 1983 to 2015 during which time he was also the superior of the Jesuit community at St Ignatius (2004-2009). After a sabbatical in Ireland and the States in 2015, he returned as an assistant (2015) but was also acting parish priest from 2016 to 2018. In 2018 he went to Ireland for medical treatment as he developed a serious bone condition ostereoporosis). Gradually his mobility was restricted and he began to experience a lot of pain in the simplest bodily movements. He returned to St Ignatius using a battery driven wheelchair which enabled him to move freely on the lower floor from his office to his bedroom to the dining room. He became more confined to bed in his last couple of years. He could still continue to help others and people were deeply impressed how he could live with so much pain and discomfort with such patience. Purified by his patience on his bed of pain, he became a pure offering to the Lord who called him to Himself on 20 July 2021.

Born: 27 June 1912, Harbour View, Cobh, County Cork
Entered: 01 September 1928, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 13 May 1942, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1949, Manresa House, Dollymount, Dublin
Died: 28 October 1986, Jervis St Hospital Dublin

Part of St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin, and living at Our Lady of Consolation, Donnycarney, Dublin at time of his death.

Father was a British Naval Officer and died in 1916. Mother is supported by a Government pension.

Youngest of four boys with one sister.

Educated firstly at Convent and National schools, he went to PBC Cork for one year and then to Mungret College SJ for three and a half years.

Chaplain in the Second World War

by 1970 at Kitwe, Zambia - working in Educational TV

Born: 31 May 1919, Palmyra Park, Galway City, County Galway
Entered: 07 September 1936, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1949, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 05 November 1977, Canisius College, Chikuni, Zambia
Died: 02 December 1992, Heathrow Airport, London, England in transit to Jesuit Residence, Kitwe, Zambia. - Zambia-Malawi Province (ZAM)

Transcribed : HIB to ZAM 03/12/1969

Father was a National school teacher and he died in 1925, as was his mother, and the family moved to live at Maree, Oranmore, County Galway

Second of fve boys with two sisters.

Earle education was at a National school and then at Coláiste Iognáid.

by 1952 at Chikuni, Chisekesi, N Rhodesia (POL Mi) working - fourth wave of Zambian Missioners

◆ Companions in Mission1880- Zambia-Malawi (ZAM) Obituaries :
In a letter written in January 1953 by Fr Colm (as he was known and not by his other names) to his Provincial, he wrote ‘Since July, new schools have been finished at Pemba, Haamapande, Siggubu, Ntambo, Lumbo, and Ntanga; new teachers' houses at Pemba, Ntambo, Sikabenga, Njola, Civuna, Fumbo, Ntanga and Nyanga’. He was Manager of
Schools since 1952 having learned ciTonga after he arrived in 1951. So much in so short a time!

Colm was born in Galway in the west of Ireland on 31 May of 1919. He was fluent at the Irish language which influenced the other languages in which he was proficient. After juniorate, philosophy, regency in Clongowes Wood College and theology, he was ordained priest in Milltown Park, Dublin in 1949. After tertianship, he came to Zambia in August 1951.

Education was his field of work for the forty years he lived and worked in Zambia. As Manager of Schools, he built both new schools and teachers' houses as exampled above. He became education secretary in Chikuni, Civuna and Monze up to 1960 and was responsible for building the church at Monze town. In the early days, he traveled by bicycle, motor bike and landrover setting up, visiting and inspecting schools.

Someone compared Fr Colm to that Irish 6th century Saint Columba (after whom Colm took his name). ‘He (Columba) was able, ardent and sometimes harsh but mellowed with age. The description is also apt for Colm. He was extremely able. As an educationist and administrator he was highly capable and was driven by a generous zeal for the Lord's work. Like other outstanding people there was also a negative side to his very positive character, at times he would appear moody or even harsh. But this was only a passing phase; like his patron Columba, he mellowed with age’.

His work in education continued in Lusaka from 1960 to 1976. He worked in the Catholic Secretariat as Education Secretary General 1960 to 1964 and combined this with the job of Secretary General 1964 to 1976. He was convinced of the value of education and the apostolate of education was his first preference. Charles Lwanga Teacher Training College was launched by him and he was responsible for the establishing and developing of lay missionary teachers (LMA T) so sorely needed in the early days of independence. He came to be widely known as a good organiser and administrator, a chairman who could be relied upon to give satisfaction, get work done and produce results.

In 1970 he was nominated by the President of Zambia to be chairman of a high level commission to review salaries, salary structures and conditions of service for the Public Service, including police and defence forces on a nationwide basis. However, he had not left his building skills behind in Monze for he planned and executed the Catholic Secretariat Building – Unity House on Freedom Way, as well as the residence at St. Ignatius Church in Lusaka.

His work became widely known and he was invited to cooperate in the setting up of a Bishops' Secretariat in Lesotho which occupied him from 1977 to 1978. He retired to Kitwe to be engaged mainly in pastoral work.

He was very loyal to his friends and devoted to others, ready to put himself out to help them. In the midst of all his education work, he was first and foremost a priest, very conscientious to his call to grow in the love and service of the Lord and bringing others to Him, helping others to seek and find God in their lives by his preaching, Mass, sacraments, retreats and counselling.

As the years went by, his health became quite a serious problem especially heart and circulation difficulties. He was in Ireland for treatment but his mind was made up to return to Zambia since he had become a Zambian citizen in 1966. At Heathrow airport on his way back, he collapsed and died on the 2 December 1992.

◆ Fr Francis Finegan : Admissions 1859-1948 - MICHAEL O'Riordan