Catholic Bishops in Kenya Recall Late Irish Spiritan Priest as “effective” Administrator, “good disciplinarian”

“We remember him as a very vibrant, very loving, very fatherly, and very good disciplinarian who actually took us for who we were and he would see potential in each and every student,” adds the Kenyan Catholic Bishop, who has been at the helm of Embu Diocese since his Episcopal Consecration in November 2024.

He thanked God for the gift of Fr. Paddy to the people of God in Kenya. He said, “We thank God for him, and we pray that the values and virtues he lived and instilled in us may continue to grow not only in us but also in those who are behind us, the ones we take care of in their families and even in their parishes and in the Dioceses that we are serving.”

Known to his family as Pádhraic, Fr. Paddy passed on while undergoing treatment at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, where he was born on 12 December 1942. He had one sibling, Sr Bríd, a member of the Order of Preachers (OP/Dominican Sisters). 

Fr. Paddy was admitted to the Spiritan Novitiate in Kilshane, Ireland, in 1960 and made his first profession the following year. He was ordained a Priest in 1971 and commissioned to Kenya in 1973 and enrolled in language courses before starting Parish ministry in the present day Malindi Catholic Diocese.

The late Spiritan Priest taught at St. Mary’s Kwale Junior Seminary until 1978, when he was transferred to the Queen of Apostles’ Minor Seminary of the ADN. There, he first served as Vice Rector; he was Rector from January 1982 – July 1987, when he took a sabbatical in his native country, Ireland.

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He returned to Kenya in 1989 and offered lectures at Tangaza University College (TUC), now Tangaza University (TU), the Nairobi-based Catholic institution of higher learning that is jointly owned by some 22 Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (ICLSAL).

In another interview with ADN Communications, Bishop Kamomoe recalled his two-year experience with Fr. Paddy at Queen of Apostles’ Minor Seminary. 

“I could see a man who was highly gifted and a very effective preacher. He was able to do administration and run this seminary in a very effective way,” one of the Auxiliary Bishops of ADN and alumnus of Queen of Apostles’ Minor Seminary recalled. 

Bishop Kamomoe further recalled that Fr. Paddy “nurtured our vocations, even our faith and you could see a very committed Priest who was very much focused on the mission.”

“We are quite a number of Priests (and) we thank God even Bishops; about four Bishops who are products of this great Priest,” he said, underscoring the important role Fr. Paddy played in inspiring Minor Seminarians to give their lives to the service of God as Clergy. 

The Kenyan Catholic Bishop, who presided over the March 24 Requiem Mass of the late Spiritan Priest continued, “We have so many things we can talk about Paddy Roe and we can try in fact to emulate his life, even as Bishops.”

He went on to recall Fr. Paddy’s willingness to continue serving the people of God in Kenya even in his old age.

“He fought to the end, even after retirement I could see him lecturing at Tangaza University and even being a member of the Board at St. Mary’s school, which is our school. So, he fought to the end, and you can see it is self-evident that from the work he did, you can see the fruits of his work,” said the Auxiliary Bishop of ADN since his Episcopal Ordination in April 2024.

The late Spiritan Priest had a keen interest in Scripture; he had obtained a Doctorate in Divinity (DD) in 1998 from Maynooth University in Ireland. 

From mid-1990s to the year 2008, Fr. Paddy was in Ireland, where he offered lectures at Kimmage Mission Institute, headed the institute’s department of Mission Theology and Cultures, and became the pioneer Director of Spirasi, Ireland’s national centre for the rehabilitation of victims of torture; he also served as Bursar of the Spiritans in Ireland Province.

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He then returned to Kenya and based at the Spiritan Theologate in Nairobi, continued to offer lectures in Scripture and Systematic Theology at Tangaza University College (TUC).

From 2009-2012, he served as the Principal of the institution that was then a constituent College of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). He retired in 2021 and left Kenya for Ireland, first settling at Laval House in Kimmage, and then moved to Nazareth House in 2023.

He was laid to rest on March 24 at Dardistown Cemetery in Dublin after a Funeral Mass in the Church of the Holy Spirit, Kimmage Manor. Messages of condolences are being submitted and viewed virtually here.