The Library of Father Bob Maguire

 

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.