Fr Vincent Kavanagh – The Novena Priest

Vincent would probably have loved to have been assigned to one of the Redemptorist missions in India or the Philippines. Instead, he was sent to Esker as assistant to the novice master and remained there until 1964 when he was transferred to St Clement’s Retreat House in Belfast. Periods in other retreat houses in Galway and Limerick followed.

The development of a ‘team approach’ to the ministry of the monastery church brought Vincent to Limerick as leader of the team in 1971. The famous Holy Family Confraternity had celebrated its centenary a few years earlier. Although beginning to show signs of decline, its members still met in considerable numbers three times a week.

The team began by trying to breathe new life into it. The annual retreat put well-known figures from the world of business, sport and politics into the sanctuary to give witness to their faith in an interview conducted by Vincent or some other Redemptorist. Common today, it was revolutionary more than 40 years ago.

Devotional
life

The weekly ‘perpetual novena’ was a feature of the devotional life of every Redemptorist church in Ireland. Vincent and his team improved the quality of what was on offer, boosting the numbers attending several times each Saturday. More importantly, they gave a new format to the annual novena preceding the feast of the Mother of Perpetual Help each June. For Vincent, this Solemn Novena was truly a ‘Festival of Faith’.

 The large church of Mount St Alphonsus was filled to capacity 10 times each day from early morning until late at night. Congregations spilled over into the monastery corridors or into the large marquee erected in the garden.

The emphasis was on joyful celebration, with music and song led by priests or lay cantors. Local bands contributed to the atmosphere of celebration by playing in the churchyard before and after the event. The surroundings of the church were decorated with flags and bunting. A large number of confessors provided the sacrament of reconciliation all day long.

When there was not enough room for them in the church, Vincent hired caravans for use as confessionals in the car park. He appreciated how people ‘own’ what they are involved. Myriads of lay helpers came as car-park and church stewards, first-aiders, caterers, petition sorters and cleaners.

So successful was the Limerick novena that other places were soon applying for novenas: novenas became an alternative to parish missions in places like Carlow cathedral, Holy Cross, Galway Cathedral and in towns and parishes throughout the country. The ‘Solemn Novena’ is still a major part of the apostolate of Irish Redemptorists in both their own churches and elsewhere.

Vincent engaged a business consultant to advise on new approaches to ministry. He recommended ‘saturation advertising’ for the novena and Vincent was only too willing to oblige. The novena posters were hardly distinguished for their artistic quality, but the bold black lettering on a florescent yellow or orange background glowed in the headlights of a car on a dark night. Posters appeared within a 20 mile radius of a church hosting a novena. Car-stickers and handbills in the windows of homes and local businesses proclaimed the news. Children clamoured for badges asking “Are you one of the 20,000?” Or 30,000, or 40,000: the number increased yearly and Vincent never underestimated the attendance! Radio advertising was beyond his budget, but he managed to get local, and even national, radio to carry news about traffic conditions on roads around the novena church, giving the impression that something serious was afoot!

In 1977, with the support of the Irish bishops whose dioceses hosted novenas, he wrote to the Holy See asking for a personal message and blessing from the Pope for all who made the novena.

It came in the form of a letter from the Secretariat of State. Two years later, he sent a married couple to convey the thanks of all novena-goers to the new Pope, John Paul II. Thanks to Msgr John Magee, the Pope’s Irish secretary, a private audience was arranged for them. The photograph shows the Holy Father, Limerick novena book in hand, blessing a copy of the picture.

Vincent Kavanagh was no ‘sacristy priest.’ He devoted energy to fundraising for what became known as ‘The Poor Campaign’ to help poor families in time of financial crisis such as the return to school, first Communion and Confirmation.

It was done with great discretion and courtesy that preserved the dignity of people. It continues to thrive today. The church team also ran an employment agency, a marriage introduction bureau and social clubs for young adults and married couples.

Vincent’s preaching style was vivid and direct. His sermons were short but the language was crafted with care. The happy phrasing of an idea was likely to be recycled in another sermon. While the preaching emphasised an optimistic view of the Church and its faith, he could be hard-hitting, especially when it came to the fundamentals of justice.

Preachers who did not measure up to his high standard, or confessors who failed to show an outreach of welcome in the confessional, were seldom asked back!

Faithful

Fr Vincent Kavanagh was a man of deep but unassuming prayer. He was faithful to community prayer and to times of personal prayer – meditation on the Gospel early in the morning, visits to the Blessed Sacrament and rosary in the course of the day and in the evening.

The energy he put into the solemn novena was deeply rooted in his fidelity to the charge given to the Redemptorists by Blessed Pope Pius IX when he entrusted them with the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help – “Make her known to the world!” Vincent Kavanagh made her known to millions and his personal devotion to Mary was unshakeable but manly.

After several years of declining health, Fr Vincent Kavanagh returned to the Father’s house on May 15, 2015 and was buried in the community cemetery of Esker.

Fr Brendan McConvery CSsR is a confrere on Fr Kavanagh’s.