“Do this in memory of me.” Following Christ’s command, on Easter Sunday, April 2, 1972, Bishop John McCormack of Meath ordained John McEvoy and his nine classmates into the priesthood of Christ as Columban missionary priests in Dalgan Park Navan. Later that year, Fr John left for Fiji and plunged into the study of the Fijian language. Then came a series of parish appointments. The first one was in the Columban parish of St Agnes in Suva. His friends from that parish still rally around when he needs them. This was the honeymoon but got him ready for a few tough years in his next Suva appointment, Tamavua. During this time, he had many side trips, at Christmas and Easter, to the outer priestess islands of Kadavu and trips to Peru and Manila to participate in Liberation Theology courses.
One of his most taxing parishes was Vanuakula. This stretches for miles along the Wainimala river Fr John recalls crossing the river – by foot, of course - about 100 times each time he did his parish visitation of the villages. They are all scattered along the river. It would take a week to cover all the villages up the Wainimala.
He first stint as Parish Priest was at Vatukoula, a parish with a large gold mine. These were among his happiest years, he claims. The miners went on strike, and they found a good friend in their parish priest and a home in the presbytery though he was constantly threatened with having his power and water cut off by the Australian mining company “Emperor Gold Mines”.
Then in the 80s, as often happens with Columbans, Fr John was invited to do promotion and vocation work in Ireland for four years. The success of this can be gaged by the fact that the current Parish Priest of Ba here in Fiji, Fr Pat Colgan of Belfast, was recruited by John as was the current Philippine Director, Fr Paul Glynn as well as the current Columban spokesman in Pakistan – Fr Tomas King.
He has the distinction of having been to prison! After the Fiji Coup of 1987, he and fellow Columbans, Frs Paul Tierney and Tom Rouse, happened to be at an anti- coup rally in Suva. Eighteen were arrested and imprisoned in the central Suva Police barracks. This led to about 13 Court appearance during the next 12 months. The verdict was that the 18 involved were guilty of unlawful assembly but then the judged dismissed the case.
It was while he was Parish Priest of the huge parish of Ba that I recall visiting him. It was just after Cyclone Kina had come through Fiji in Dec-Jan 1992-93. This was the second largest cyclone to hit the country, (with 23 deaths) after Cyclone Winston in 2016 ...Read more
