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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2008 /  Irish Pallottines celebrate 50 years in Wyandotte

by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published August 1, 2008

Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic Irish Pallottines currently in Detroit are (from left) Fr. Michael Cremin, Fr. Brendan Walsh, Fr. Derry Murphy, Fr. Gerry Frawley, Bro. Faustino Paez, Fr. Denis O’Brien, Fr. Bertie Flanagan and Fr. T.J. Moloney.

Wyandotte — About 300 supporters joined with members of the Irish Pallottines last Sunday to celebrate the community’s 50 years of presence in the downriver community of Wyandotte.

A picnic followed Mass celebrated under a tent on the grounds of the Pallottines’ property. The old house on Fourth Street, purchased in 1958, and now the recently added building on Orange Street, serve as the base for the U.S. activities of the Dublin-based Irish Province of the Society of the Catholic Apostolate.

Priests and brothers of the SAC are known as Pallottines, after their founder, St. Vincent Pallotti (1795-1850).

From Wyandotte, Pallottines have traveled to parishes in various parts of the United States for a half-century, making appeals for support of their missions in the East African countries of Tanzania and Kenya.

Although Irish Pallottines also serve in South America, it is the African missions that have been the focus of U.S. fund-raising, said Fr. Bertie Flanagan, SAC, director of mission promotion.

“The African missions could not function without support from the outside, because people in Tanzania and Kenya are struggling just to survive,” he said.

For most of the past 50 years, the U.S. mission appeals effort provided the largest source of support for those missions, because the Irish Pallottines’ home base was poor itself. But that has changed, as Ireland has become more prosperous in recent years. “Now, Ireland is the ‘Celtic tiger,’ and they are able to raise money comparable to the U.S.A.,” Fr. Flanagan said.

Most Pallottines who have served in Detroit through the years have served in the missions themselves, and have been able to tell first-hand of the challenging conditions they have faced.

Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic Fr. Michael Cremin, SAC (right), pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Wyandotte, sings “Danny Boy” at the Irish Pallottines’ 50th anniversary, accompanied on accordion by Brian Bonner.

In addition, Irish Pallottines have served in parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit, and also some other parts of the country, mostly in Texas and Nevada. Currently, Fr. Gerry Frawley, SAC, is pastor of St. Anne Parish in Ortonville; Fr. Michael Cremin, SAC, is pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Wyandotte; and Fr. Brendan Walsh, SAC, is involved in youth ministry in the archdiocese.

Fr. Flanagan said the Pallottines’ faithfulness to their founder’s vision of involving the laity in the work of evangelization and catechesis has paid off in the African dioceses, as declining vocations in Ireland have been more than made up for by native African vocations to the priesthood and lay ministries.

“Today, we are following his example,” he said, and offered a comparison between now and about 40 years ago in a Tanzanian diocese in which he served.

“In 1967, in the Diocese of Mbulu, there was a missionary bishop from Ireland, 30 Pallottines from Ireland, 20 priests from Italy, and a dozen African priests. Today, in the Mbulu Diocese and the Singida Diocese that was split off from it, there are 80 African priests, including 23 African Pallottines, and an African bishop,” Fr. Flanagan said.

Few Irish Pallottines remain in Texas or Nevada, these days, but no withdrawal of the order from its Wyandotte-based mission support work is foreseen, said Fr. Frawley – recently elected provincial delegate (superior) of the Irish Pallottines in the U.S., in addition to his pastorate in Ortonville.

“We hope there will be a continuing presence here for a long time to come. We are very thankful to the people of Wyandotte, and we offer our very sincere thanks to the Archdiocese of Detroit, especial to Cardinal Adam Maida and Msgr. John Zenz, who have been so supportive,” he said.

The work being done to spread the Catholic faith in Africa is important to supporters such as Dr. John Newell and his wife, Nancy, members of St. Frances Cabrini Parish in Allen Park.

“I’ve been volunteering with them for 30 years,” Nancy Newell said.

Her husband placed the Pallottines’ work in a global context. “What they’ve done in Africa is just tremendous. In Europe, the Catholic Church is just going downhill; so their work in Africa, where people are hungry for the faith, is so important,” John Newell said.

Dennis Hayes, president of the United Irish Societies, said the Pallottines have also meant a lot to the local Irish-American community. “We have so many families with deep Irish roots in this area, and having a real Irish priest available for a funeral or a wedding has been very important,” he said.

For more information about the Irish Pallottines, call (734) 285-2966, or write them at 3352 Fourth St., Wyandotte 48192.