- Albin Hennequin
- Athanase Gonelli
- Bernard Cunningham
- Denis Ward
- Edward Harrop
- Gerard O'Brien
- Henry Paul
- James Cronly
- John Cooper
- John Spiteri
- Julian Messina
- Lam Vu
- Leonard Busuttil
- Luciano Rocchi
- Paul Hanbridge
- Paul Winter
- Peter Hand
- Robert Stewart
- Romano Franchini
- Stanislaus Dawidowicz
- Tung Nguyen

DENIS WARD, OFM Cap.

I WAS BORN in the Beaudesert hospital (South East Queensland) at 11pm on June 5th 1951to Kathleen and (Timothy) Brendan Ward. I am the eldest of six children and in order of age: Denis (46) Laurie (44), Mary (42), Brendan (41), Annette (37) and Michael (35).

My parents were born in Beaudesert and have spent all their lives in the district. Both my parents are of Catholic Irish descent. After they were married they bought a property in upper Kerry about 100 kilometres south of Brisbane and there ran a typical family dairy farm. My great-grandfather, Patrick Ward, from County Monaghan in the North of the Republic of Ireland came out to Australia around 1859. He was the first person to actually live in Kerry.

It was a real struggle for Mum and Dad in the early days. They only had a small farm and with a growing family it was a real juggling act with limited finances to pay the bills. However we never felt that we did without. Living in the country was a big advantage for there was plenty of scope to do things. We went to a little one teacher state school at Darlington, about 5 kilometres south of home. Around thirteen children attended in my time and at one stage got down to eight. In grade one there were four in my class and after a couple of years there were only two. For the most part we were the only Catholics attending. One afternoon a week one of the assisting priests in the parish (there were three priests in the parish) would call in and give us religious instruction. Fr. Charlie Casey (now PP of Lowood I think) was a favourite of ours, he would always be telling us funny stories and making us laugh. We had a great time with him and what made it all the better was that the others were inside doingchool work. At only one stage did we have trouble with bigotry, our family against the rest of the school. This was mainly manifested in the playground, but it did not last long.

I attended the Beaudesert State High School and so all my education was by the State School system. Going to high school was a traumatic experience for me, especially in the first few weeks. It was big transition from a little one teacher school to a major high school with so many students. By and large my school years were quite good, there were difficult times of course which each person has to work through. I am extremely blessed to be part of such a close and loving family.

Apart from school I grew up in a very Catholic environment. Mum and Dad practised and lived their faith. They attended Sunday Mass regularly and are what I call people of a deep, practical faith. They were not fanatical or overtly religious in their understanding of the faith. I remember when we were quite young each of us taking a chair out from around the kitchen table and kneeling down to pray the rosary. They have had such a profound influence on me for the good through the example of their love and care for each other and their practical witness to the Gospel life. I have been just so blessed.

In those days it seemed to be the done thing that the eldest son went back on the farm and so after completing grade ten, I left school at the age of fifteen. Because of this I did not really apply myself to studies during last two years of school and achieved average results.

And so began the first of my twenty years of working on the farm with Dad. We were mainly involved in dairying but for a number of years grew tomatoes as a side line cash crop. Bloody hard work! These were good years for me and Dad and I got on very well. The one thing I felt deprived in was not having money. I had enough for my personal needs, but I did not get a wage as such like the rest of my family who were able to buy things they wanted. I was always conscious of the fact that we never had enough money, and so much of it went back into improving the farm.

During this time I played a lot of sport: cricket, football, tennis, squash, golf etc and thoroughly enjoyed it. I did the usual things of the time, went to dances had a few drinks, more than I really needed on a few occasions. I was always a regular Mass attender as were most of Kerry boys. The whole district was very Catholic and so it was very much a part of the rhythm of life. We would on many occasions go to the vigil Mass, then to the pub and then to a dance or a party.

My life took a dramatic change at about 4pm on 20th July 1975. I was playing in rugby league football game with the Beaudesert side against Caboolture at Caboolture when it happened. I was making a charging, busting and deceptive run downfield when I was tackled heavily from behind and received a serious hip injury, which put me in hospital for five weeks and three months on crutches.

I remember - as I was lying on a stretcher in the ambulance on the way to the Redcliffe hospital - making a bargain with God. I knew I had done something pretty bad to my leg and I said to God: "If you get me out of this I'll do anything you want". Well, he took me at my word, although it took time to be realised.

I did eventually make a full recovery but a few years later I began to develop back trouble, partially due to the hip injury. I suffered a fair bit of pain and was not able to work freely or play sport. I was a physical person in that I worked on the farm and played a lot of sport. These were the things that I place a lot of stock in and so when unable to do these things I lost a lot of confidence in myself.

Looking back it was not an easy time for me. There were times when I had pain killers every night so I could get some sleep. I remember heroically offering my sufferings up to God, but wondering at the same time : "Why Me, Lord?" However, it was not all doom and gloom. I began to look more deeply into the things that matter in life, God, my faith.

One weekend a few of us went down to the Gold Coast and stayed at Kirra. I remember going to Mass at Coolangatta on the Sunday morning after a Saturday night celebration. As I walked out after Mass there was piety stall there and I went and bought a miraculous medal and chain. I did not wear it straight away but gradually got into the way of it. In the past we used to get medals and chains at the Parish Missions run by the Redemptorists. We would wear them for a few months and then lose them at swimming, or something else, and so get out of the habit of wearing them. This time, however was different and I have been wearing one ever since and still have the same chain.

I have always looked upon this experience as a pivotal one in my journey of faith. It was an outward sign of what was happening within. I began to think more deeply on God and what the future held for me. What did God want of me? There was a growing tension within me about the way I was living, just sort of drifting along without any direction in my life.

It was around this time that I also became involved with the Knights of the Southern Cross and began doing a lot of charitable work. Hospital visitation; visitation of Vietnamese Refugees at Wacol; work at Boys Town; helping to organise the parish fetes; general work around the convent school and Church when needed; day retreats etc.

Through this involvement with the Knights I became very active in organising camps for quadriplegics who had been former patients at the P. A. Hospital in Brisbane. I was a member of St. Mary's Parish Council in Beaudesert for a couple of years before I entered the Capuchin Order.

During my late twenties I began buying religious books etc, especially recent apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the saints and Padre Pio. Later on I became involved in prayer groups in this deepening search for meaning and direction in my life. I was searching but not really knowing what I was searching for. I had always thought about the priesthood from a young age and what it would be like, but felt it was not for me. My brother Laurie was going to the priest of the family, at least that is what I maintained. I had a phobia about study and even had bad dreams about going back to do my matriculation. I had always been attracted to marriage and a family but this had not come to pass.

All during this time I was searching for God without really realising it and God was waiting in the wings gently prompting me in my struggle to discern his will for me; and all the while I was looking in the wrong places. In one sense I was avoiding the ultimate question by skating along the top of the water like a skipping stone and not wanting to sink into the depths of who I was before God and his will for me. This avoidance manifested itself in a very active life in Church based activities, which, though good in themselves, became a means for me to avoid stopping and quietening myself so as to listen to God's will for me.

In my early thirties I became a close friend with Bishop James Foley (Cairns) who was then Fr. James. He was lecturing in philosophy at Banyo Seminary in Brisbane and used to come up on the weekends to help our PP with confessions and Masses. I suppose you could say he was like a spiritual director. I regularly went to confession to him and often we would talk for quite awhile about things that matter.

On one occasion I spoke to him about an article I had read in the paper, about the number of priests leaving the priesthood and I said how sad that was to see this happening. We spoke about it for awhile and then quite out of the blue he said to me, "why don't you give it a go?" Well I could not rest after hearing those words, they hit me like a bombshell. In some way they were the words I did not want to hear and yet in one sense I was almost relieved that they were said.

It was an incredible and wonderful moment: I felt God had spoken to me in such a clear and definite way and I knew then and there that I had to find out if this was the path for me. I did not know how, when or where, all I knew was I had to find out. I had to give it a go.

I did not mention this to anyone for about a week or so and then I told Mum and Dad. They were surprised but not shaken by this revelation, which for all of us was still something, "out there". It was a growing thing for me and remained constantly on my mind; it both excited me and frightened me for it meant taking a huge step into the unknown. To take this step also meant severe repercussions for Mum and Dad. I had to consider them, for they were intimately caught up in my decision. If I left it effectively meant that they would have to either sell the farm or at least give up dairying. It would be a daunting prospect entering into the twilight years of their lives.

I went and saw my PP, Fr. Terry Ganzer, who was very helpful and encouraged me to pursue this call. I made a few inquires to the Diocesan Vocation Office in Brisbane but for varying reasons I never made direct contact with the vocations priest. It was suggested to me that it would be best if I completed my matriculation before considering to apply to join the seminary. This seemed to be the general thinking of some of the religious Orders, the Franciscans being one.

However, the diocesan priesthood did not really appeal to me and I mention this to Fr. James and he asked me what did I want. I really did not know but I thought the Franciscans were something along the lines of what I might be looking for. He put me onto Fr. Julian May OFM, the chaplain at Boystown. Fr. Julian was very kind to me and made arrangements for me to see the Franciscan vocations friar in Brisbane.

I went down to Brisbane in late 1985 and met him after the first Mass of one of their newly ordained friars. Although he was very pleasant, as were the other friars, they seemed preoccupied with the occasion of the day. I got the distinct impression that I was too old for them and they were insistent that I do my matriculation first. They left the door open for me to continue to remain in touch with them, but the whole meeting left me feeling flat.

I felt I had to do something so at the beginning of 1986 I began doing my matriculation by correspondence. Even though I found the discipline of study difficult, I surprised myself and was doing very well. After a couple of months Dad hurt his back and was laid up for a long time. I got further and further behind in the studies and eventually gave it up. This left me in limbo, not knowing what the Lord had in mind for me. I was desperate and so I began a fifty-four day Rosary Novena to Our Lady to help me. Twenty-seven days of petition followed by twenty-seven days of thanksgiving. At the end of the twenty-seven days of petition God sent someone to me. I was attending a prayer day in Brisbane where I met Margaret Mary Hayes, the sister of a girl I once went out with. She had some knowledge of religious Orders and after I had told her of my dilemma, she said that she was sure that either the Sacred Heart Fathers or the Capuchins would be a possibility. I had done some reading on the life of Padre Pio and sthis seemed to be a sign that I should contact the Capuchins. She gave me the telephone number of Br . Joseph at St. Laurence's at Wynnum North.

I rang Br Joseph a few days later and I will never forget his response, which was one of welcome. We made arrangements for me to come down for a weekend. I got off the phone that night feeling quite ecstatic, it was an answer to a prayer and a confirmation for me that this was where God was calling me. The rest is history, I applied to join the Postulancy Program in 1987 and by the grace of God here I am today a member of the Capuchin Fraternity.

Once my decision to join the Order was confirmed my sister Mary and her husband Peter bought the farm off Mum and Dad. So it is still in the family, which pleases me no end. Mary and Peter already lived in Kerry and so they did the appropriate dealings and simply swapped houses. Dad continued to help Peter until illness forced him to retire. The Lord was very good to us in the way things have worked out. The first time I came home after entering the Order was the first time Dad and I really embraced, it was a very moving experience for me and shows how the Lord gives to us in abundance when we are generous ourselves.

I suppose if you asked me what attracted me to the Capuchin Friars it was the fact that they accepted me as I was. It was their sense of welcome. The first friar I met when I came down to Wynnum was Br Gerard O'Brien and his gentle and friendly manner made me feel at home. I really did not know much about their charism or their work but as time has gone on the Capuchin charism and spirit was the very thing I was looking for. The common touch of being one with the people, their simplicity and humanness, the contemplative dimension of their life impressed me.

My advice to those who are considering religious life would be to first pray for the gift of discernment. Find someone you can talk to about such matters, maybe a vocation director. Also remember that one does not have to be perfect to enter into this life but to pray for a humble and contrite heart. Be open to the ways of the Lord as he speaks to you in the events of your life and in the lives and words of others. In other words, to listen! Eventually it may mean taking the plunge and finding out what is God's plan for you.