Cathal Barry
Founder and administrator of several Cheshire Homes for children and adults with severe physical and intellectual disability dies in Argentina
Tributes have been paid to Limerick-born missionary Fr Liam Hayes SVD, who died in Argentina at the weekend.
Fr Hayes (65), from Cappamore, was the founder and administrator of several Cheshire Homes for children and adults with severe physical and intellectual disability in Oberá, Argentina.
Divine Word Missionaries provincial Fr Patrick Byrne SVD said Fr Hayes was “an extremely holy man who was dedicated to the poor and disadvantaged in society.
“He also very conscious of the plight of those with disabilities and worked at all times to help them,” he told The Irish Catholic.
Independent Senator Rónán Mullen worked at the homes with Fr Hayes for a brief period as a volunteer in 2004.
“Fr Liam Hayes was a remarkable person whose kindness and concern for some of the world’s most forgotten people made a powerful impact on all those he knew and worked with,” Senator Mullen said.
Dignity
The senator said Fr Hayes “believed fervently in the dignity of every human life and welcomed people of all creeds who wanted to help in the homes”.
Senator Mullen recalled that, in his annual Christmas letter, Fr Hayes “would recount all the visitors and residents from the previous year, but also those who had died.
“He faced his own suffering with the same faith and hope that marked his life and work.
“He is now with those people whom he and his staff befriended, who went before him and whom he never failed to recall,” he said.
Fr Hayes was buried in Misiones, Argentina, on Wednesday.
