Written by Philip Harvey
The phone call came through on Tuesday morning. Frank O’Connor,
former Mayor of South Melbourne, was sorting Father Bob Maguire’s library and
would the Carmelite Library take it? Everything had to be out of Fr Bob’s
shopfront charity service in Albert Park “by yesterday”, as they were
relocating to Port Melbourne. Intrigued by the very idea of what such a
collection might hold, never mind our open policy of receiving donations, I
answered Yes. Frank said he’d be around in the afternoon.
Religion, as it is called, was the subject matter we were
interested in. Frank and his mate Tony arrived in different vehicles with
fifteen boxes of religion. This, I was told, was about a third of the
collection, the other two-thirds being divided into fiction and non-fiction.
Tony said they took some time to decide which category to place Fr Bob’s many
books on the Collingwood Football Club. Being Collingwood myself, I was quick
to respond that that is classified under Dream Literature. It’s an odd thing, I
thought to myself, that the Catholic parish priest synonymous with South
Melbourne would barrack for the Magpies.
Come Thursday the staff had the chance to unpack the boxes to
see what we could see. The expectation of finding numerous titles on social
action and pastoral theology had to be put to one side. Bob’s library did not
hold much in the way of liberation theology or the works of Catholic
alternative social work, nor much of the literature of care and counselling
often to be seen on the shelves of a parish priest. Larrikinism was not on display.
Instead, this was the collection of a well-read thinker, an
explorer of ideas and student of big subjects. We could track his interest in
public debates, knowledge of which he had immersed himself in while engaging his
own voice in those cultural engagements. Islam, for example, and Christian
relations with Islam were on show throughout his library. Also, the various
outpourings of atheist thought were well-represented and well-studied, source
material for his own conversations in that area of inter-religious dialogue.
Two overworked items have been picked out to help illustrate the life of
Fr Bob through his books. The first of these is the 2002 edition of Eugene
Peterson’s ‘The Message’, Large Print Numbered Edition. This is Peterson’s
celebrated and still contentious contemporary language translation of the
Bible, valuable for those who want the Scripture to talk direct to them in
no-nonsense terms, not so valuable for those who want the most accurate version
of the original. For some ‘The Message’ is more paraphrase than anything else,
speaking the sort of Message capital M that people like Fr Bob wanted to
deliver every week. His copy is falling apart. The spine has come away, with
haphazard repair jobs involving excess of black tape. Old bookmarks drop out
when you lift it up. This is a Bible that has been rummaged through with
familiarity for the duration of its two decade life.
Another well-worn book that caught my eye, and one of the few signed ‘RJMaguire’
on the flyleaf, was ‘Revolution in a City Parish’, translated from the French
of Abbé Georges Michonneau (London, Blackfriars Publications, 1949). An Emerald
Hill Bookshop bookmark was positioned permanently at page 75, at the section
heading ‘Charitable Activities’. Here is just a little of what this priest had
to say to Fr Bob, and us, soon after the War: “Over and above this general
picture, there are certain peculiarities to be remembered in the exercise of
charity in a working-class parish, when that charity is meant to have a
missionary purpose. One is that this need not be intended as propaganda;
despite the apparent contradiction here, the statement is absolutely true. The
very fact that we love our neighbours will be a more powerful witness to Christ
than any attempts we might make to capitalize on it will be. If our motive for
practising charity is to draw others into the Church, the recipients will shy
away; they will realize that there are invisible strings on our gifts. If, on
the other hand, our motive is the love of God, that love will shine through the
gift and through the giver up to the very source of the love; we need not worry
about that. When we help anyone and then try to get that person to come to Mass
or to approach the sacraments, he cannot help but recognize our mixed motives; and,
usually, he refuses to be bought by our aid.”
Frank O’Connor, it transpires, is on the Board of the Father Bob
Maguire Foundation. He is described as being a colleague and advisor to Fr Bob
for over 30 years. In his eulogy at St Patrick’s Cathedral he “told the service
the larrikin priest only wanted to make the world a better place.” (The
Guardian, Friday 5 May 2023) This struck a different note from the boisterous
anecdotal style of other eulogies at Bob’s funeral. “We know he’s done so much
and he’s inspired so many others to follow that path. The world is a better
place because of his work.”
A special sale of Fr Bob Maguire’s books is now happening in the
Carmelite Library, books being sold at $10, $5, and $2 each. You are invited to
visit the Library to claim some of these bargains. Each book is marked with a
memento stamp, as a reminder of a priest who thought before he spoke.
