By Anthony Barich
Fr Daniel Foley’s greatest joy in his 80 years of life and 55 of priesthood is the formation of people – and many who grew out of the Young Christian Workers movement still practicing their faith today have him to thank.
Fr Foley – the second cousin of the late Perth Archbishop William Foley – who celebrated his 80th birthday at Lockridge on 26 August, clearly remembers legendary YCW founder Cardinal Joseph Cardijn of Belgium standing on the dais at Leederville and declaring himself “80 years young”.
Back then, the YCW and NCGM (National Catholic Girls Movement) were a powerhouse of apostolic work, bringing their lapsed Catholic friends back into the faith and defending Christian values.
“Many of the young people who took up leadership in the diocese were schooled in the ‘See, Judge, Act’ ethos of the YCW movement, and a great many young people came through,” Fr Foley aid.
Some of his eager young men of the YCW took action when they tore down all the provocative posters of a young lady called Sabrina from His Majesty’s Theatre who was performing there and brought them back to him.
“I put them on top of the wardrobe at Leederville and they’re probably still sitting there – I didn’t know what to do with them,” he said. This was but a microcosm of the “very apostolic sort of work” the YCW was involved in.
“There were many young men and women who are practicing Catholics around the place who owe their Catholicity to the YCW,” he said.
Like Cardinal Cardijn, Fr Foley, who just moved into the Little Sisters of the Poor retirement home, also saw forming youth in the Gospel as a priority. To this end, continuing the evangelistic legacy of Lockridge founding priest Fr Terry Cahill was his top responsibility.
“I would say from my point of view I’ve found tremendous satisfaction in the formation of people, and I saw that as my first job going to Lockridge, to carry on the work done in that field,” said Fr Foley, one of the first students of St Charles Seminary who entered within five years of its inaugural Rector, Archbishop Launcelot Goody, founding it.
“There was a tremendous amount of good will and talent there that needed to be tapped into, and I saw my task as tapping into it.
“My part was to harness something of that talent, and they were harnessed very willingly.”
When Lockridge started it was under the auspices of Morley, and Fr Foley said that Fr Cahill “spent a tremendous amount of time and effort in schooling people of Lockridge in Vatican II documents and developing their spirituality”, as did his successor Fr Charles Tory.
Fr Foley built on this, moving the parish into a bigger church. “There was a stigma attached to Lockridge at one stage about the demographics, unemployment etc, but I think it’s grown out of that now,” he said.
Leederville was Fr Foley’s first posting after being ordained by Archbishop Goody with Fr Anton Hesse and Fr Michael Brown OFM, who concelebrated Fr Foley’s 80th birthday Mass with current Lockridge parish priest Fr Francis Ly, his predecessor Fr Vinh Dong and Redemptorist Father Hugh Thomas, who was giving a parish retreat. Archbishop Barry Hickey attended the festivities after.
After assisting Mgr John Moloney at Leederville, “who was very particular about the way the bell was rung in the church”, he assisted Mgr Edward Kennedy at Subiaco, where he was flat out with weddings and hospital ministry to Princess Margaret, Charles Gairdner and King Edward.
After a short stint with the well-known Fr Edward Power at Kensington he spent time with Mgr John Wallace at Nedlands, who retired due to ill health, before taking on the new parish at Kambalda.
There, he enjoyed a few “very happy” years of fraternity among the Goldfield priests of Frs Maurice Toop (Boulder), Frank Dillon and Tim Corcoran (Kalgoorlie).
From there he came down to Attadale for the best part of 10 years, then did a short stint filling in at St Kieran’s Osborne Park before arriving at Lockridge, where he spent over 10 years, “enjoying every moment”.
At Lockridge he succeeded Fr Hesse, who was ordained with him and, like Cardinal Cardijn – who he described as a “sprightly man who left his mark on the world” – many Catholics today arguably owe their Catholicity to the Perth priest.