The Requiem Mass of Father John Cummins was celebrated by Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare & Leighlin on Saturday 2 February 2019 in the Church of the Holy Rosary, Abbeyleix.
Bishop Nulty welcomed those who gathered in the church and said: “Father John was Parish Priest here in Abbeyleix for eighteen months. Having served for four years in Naas; five years pursuing further studies in Rome; five years as Chaplain in the Institute of Technology in Carlow; twelve years in the Cathedral Parish, eleven of those years its Administrator, and a much too short year and half here with you in Abbeyleix.”
Speaking about the attitude Father John had towards the priesthood, Bishop Nulty said: “Someone put it well “Father John made being holy positive again”. At a time when the Church needs more good priests on the pitch, it feels as if God scored an own goal last Wednesday evening. John was not just a good priest, he was a great one as tributes of recent days vouch.”
Bishop Nulty continued: “John was a great preacher. A great man to stay in touch with friends, as many lay as clerical, with couples he married, with former colleagues from Carlow IT, and of course with family.
“The late and great Saint John Paul II saw a priest as “a man for others”. I couldn’t but note the responsorial psalm refrain last Wednesday: “You are a priest forever, a priest like Melchizedek of old” (Ps. 109:4b). Father John Cummins was that priest, a priest to his finger-tips.”
Concluding his homily, Bishop Nulty said: “May Father John be welcomed this day into the embrace of a loving God in Eternity, and may we find strength in God’s love and in His presence with us on days like this. And I’ll stop now before I hear John whisper in my ear: “jeepers that’s more of it!”.”
Father John Cummins was laid to rest in Newbridge, Co Kildare on Monday 4 February after Mass in Saint Conleth’s parish church.
Read the full text of Bishop Denis Nulty’s homily here.
ENDS
