Many serve their faith and communities with deep commitment

The good work of clergy is unfairly tainted by the actions of the very few, writes Peter Lyons.

I visited my uncle just before he died.

He spent his life as a Catholic priest.

My sister, who has a wonderful way about her, held his hand and recited the Hail Mary several times.

He was beyond speaking but still seemed to appreciate our presence.

He died a day later.

My father's family were farmers near Helensville.

They eked a living off the land.

Their great-grandfather was an Irishman who had worked on the rail line to Helensville.

They were Catholics in an age where the division between Protestant and Catholic in New Zealand represented a deep social divide.

Catholic families in the 1920s and '30s were encouraged to produce clergy to serve the Catholic Church.

My father's aunts and uncles produced several priests and nuns.

It was a much different age. Nowadays, the Catholic Church struggles to attract local recruits as clergy.

My great-uncle was the parish priest in Thames for several decades.

He had been banished there by Bishop Liston, who ruled the Auckland diocese with an iron rod from the 1920s to the 1970s.

Bishop Liston was a legendary figure.

I suspect my great-uncle lacked the due reverence for his authority.

I have an uneasy feeling this may be a family trait.

I can remember as a youngster that he had a parrot that he kept out the front of his presbytery.

On several occasions in the early 1970s while my father visited his uncle, I stayed out the front.

I taught this parrot several very offensive phrases likely to offend local parishioners and passing nuns.

My Uncle John, who is my father's brother, was destined to be a priest from an early age.

His first parish was Puhoi.

He served with a legendary and much loved priest called Fr Skinner.

He delighted in this experience serving this quirky community of Bohemians who had been lured to this region by false promises and had endured immense hardships to establish a thriving community.

The family names such as the Schollums, Wechs and Wenzlichs still populate this region.

My Uncle John, the priest, went on to serve parishes such as Remuera, Northcote and Papatoetoe.

He loved the parish of Papatoetoe because I think he felt he made a real difference in this community.

His wishes are for his funeral to be held in this parish.

He was a parish priest his entire adult life.

Nearing his retirement, the bishop granted him the title of monsignor.

I suspect this may have been an encouragement for him to retire.

I have little understanding of church hierarchy but I assume this is like being promoted to colonel.

I think he was very proud of this recognition of a lifetime of service.

Fr John was a taciturn and dry character with amazing recall of the minutiae of the parishes and people he served.

He knew the people in the parishes in which he served. He cared about them in his own sometimes gruff way.

He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the families he had served over 60 years as a parish priest.

He had likely married, buried and baptised thousands of people and he remembered all of them.

A Mass was held for John in his old parish of Papatoetoe.

It is not an affluent area.

Our family was deeply moved by the love and respect shown by John's former parishioners.

It was a rare insight into the huge importance of church clergy in the lives of the people they serve.

It was very humbling.

So as my sister and I held his hands as he clung to life, I felt a deep sense of sadness and respect for my uncle.

He has spent his life serving others.

He was by no means a perfect man but he had a deep sense of duty and service to others.

He served his church well.

In this age where clergy are accused of terrible crimes, it is easy to forget the vast majority of those who serve their faith and communities with deep commitment.

Their selfless service to their faith has been tarnished by the actions of a very few.

As my sister recited the Hail Mary, he clutched her hand tightly.

In death, his faith meant everything to him.

It is easy to dismiss religious faith lightly these days.

Although I am not religious, I have learnt to respect the faith of others.

To dismiss or deride someone's faith is arrogant in the extreme.

Most clergy of various faiths have spent their lives serving others.

They lived good lives.

Peter Lyons is an Auckland secondary school teacher.

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