FIFTY YEARS ago, Fr Lionel Henry SDB was ordained to the priesthood along with 27 other young men in the south of India, unsure of where his priestly life would take him.
Today, he is retired from active ministry and resides with his brother in Armadale, but the 78-year-old continues to bring Christ’s message to those in need, despite his own health problems.
One of only three Salesians in the Archdiocese of Perth – the others being Fr Albert Saminedi SDB (parish priest of Girrawheen) and Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB – Fr Henry recently celebrated his Golden Jubilee of ordination to the priesthood, and will also mark 60 years since his first profession as a Salesian later this month.
Fr Henry told The Record he felt immense gratitude at reaching the two milestones.
“I’m very grateful to God, grateful to my parents, to my formators, and to all those who crossed my path and helped me,” he said. “I’m very thankful to the Lord for what he has done for me.”
Fr Henry was ordained a Salesian priest on April 8, 1964 in Katpadi, in the Vellore Diocese in India, and ministered in a variety of areas in the Subcontinent.
“I worked mostly in north-east India, in a State called Meghalaya, in the city of Shillong, but then I had stints of work in Nagaland, Assan, and in Bhutan, where I was vice-principal of the technical school,” Fr Henry recalled.
His priestly work in Australia began in 1984 in Sunbury, Victoria, and included time in New South Wales, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
“I worked in different places in Perth – Victoria Park, Kelmscott – and then I went to several places in the Wheatbelt in WA – Goomalling, Wongan Hills and Kellerberrin,” Fr Henry said.
“Then I had a short posting in Palmerston in the Northern Territory. Then I came back and was made parish priest at Guildford. The way I’ve been travelling around I call the whole world home now, because I’ve been all over the place.”
In his retirement, life hasn’t gotten any less hectic for Fr Henry, who says there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything.
“I’m attached to the Legion of Mary in Kelmscott as well, and that keeps me going with some work,” he said. “There are also people who need help or visiting… some parishioners who are elderly.
“I don’t have a time where I can sit down and read comics or fiction, there’s always something to do on a regular basis.”
For several months prior to Easter, Fr Henry even provided instruction in the faith to a Hindu man wishing to convert to Catholicism, before baptising and confirming the man on Easter Sunday.
With two stents in his heart and battling dermatitis, Fr Henry may not be as healthy as he once was, but he considers himself blessed to be as well as he is.
“If my health was better I would be more vigorous, but I have to spend time monitoring myself. But at my age I don’t think I can grumble too much,” he said.
“When my health allows me, I go to India, to the place where I worked, not for holidays, but for organising help for people in Meghalaya, so I go every three or four years whenever I can.”
Reflecting on his 50 years of priesthood, Fr Henry says it has been a “marvellous” life, despite the inevitable challenges along the way.
“You have your ‘days of calamity’, but I think all walks of life, even married life, have their challenges,” he said.
“I have not felt any loneliness… it all depends I think to a great extent on the individual. Some characters want to have noise and people around them, but fortunately or unfortunately I’m not one of them.”
Fr Henry has many fond memories of his pastoral work as a priest, both in Australia and India, and says he wouldn’t change any part of how his own journey has panned out.
“I’m certain that I’ve had less heartaches than very many others who are with families, and so I consider myself very fortunate and blessed by the Lord and his mother,” he said.