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Chaplain's Corner
We welcome our new Chaplain
Father Mulligan to our organization and wish him God's
blessings and best wishes as he joins us in our endeavors
as fellow Hibernians.
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Father Peter Lappin
1911 - 1999
We
join the Salesian Community in mourning the
passing of one of their most outstanding priests
and our friend, Father Peter Lappin. He was our
dedicated and devoted spiritual leader and was
dearly loved by all. As our Chaplain he will
surely be missed by all Hibernians in Rockland
County.
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Laura and
Teresa
Good friends
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The
Priest of the People - Father Peter
Lappin, SDB, Buried Today
By Peter W. Sluys
Editor-in-Chief
Rockland
County Times August 11, 1999
"Sagairt oir is cailis chrainn/Bhi le
linn Phadraig in Eirinn" [Golden Priests
and wooden chalices in Ireland, in
Patrick's time." - St. Oliver Plunkett,
Patron Saint of Ireland, 1680
Father Peter Lappin, friend to hundreds,
admired by thousands, died last Sunday at
his home at the Marian Shrine in Stony
Point and was buried today in the
Salesian Cemetery in Goshen.
The death of Father Lappin was
unexpected, and came after a brief
hospital stay for mild pneumonia.
Father Lappin got up last Sunday morning,
August 1, and came down the stairs in the
residence, apparently suffering a heart
attack on the way, and collapsing to his
death on the stairs.
As word spread on Sunday through the
Irish community and the greater community
of Rockland County, thousands paused to
mourn the passing of a man whose humor,
devotion to life as a Priest,
intelligence, wit and kindness have made
a difference in their lives.
They turned out on Tuesday and Wednesday
at a wake in memory of Father Lappin, at
a prayer service held by the Ancient
Order of Hibernians on Wednesday, and at
Father Lappin's funeral mass held last
night at the Pavilion Church of the
Shrine.
That hundreds would come to honor and
remember Father Lappin and pray for his
eternal rest would come as no surprise to
those who knew him. He was a man with a
tremendous gift for making friends, and a
tremendous capacity for hard work.
In his life he was Priest, teacher,
journalist, author, producer and game
show contestant. He witnessed firsthand
many of the horrors of the twentieth
century, but his faith, his love of God,
and his reverence for life and his love
of people made every day a new day in
which he could win a soul and help his
fellow man.
Father Lappin's career as an author
encompassed more than 22 books, many of
which were best sellers.
The book that was last published before
his death was a biography of Jerome
Coniker, and his Apostalate for Family
Consecration.
Coniker talked to the Rockland County
Times on Monday, and expressed his sorrow
at the death of Father Lappin, saying "He
will be greatly missed. He was a great
Priest.
"I originally met Father Lappin when we
were trying to find somebody to give a
conference on St. John Bosco. Father
Lappin was highly recommended to us as an
authority on St. John Bosco, and he
eventually did more than 40 programs with
us.
"I knew of his skill as a writer, and was
very impressed by the work that he had
done on the programs, so I asked his
superiors whether or not he could write a
book about the beginning of our
apostalate here. They agreed, and Father
was assigned to us for a year.
"I got to know him very well, and I count
the time that I spent with him as a great
privilege. As a writer he was absolutely
meticulous. He wanted to make sure that
every detail was correct. Yet, he was
always a true Salesian. He had St. John
Bosco's deep love for children, and he
always had candy or a treat in his pocket
for the children. He represented the
spirituality of St. John Bosco in a very
special way. He will be deeply missed."
Though Father Lappin had been the
biographer of Coniker's apostalate for a
year, he never set aside his work for his
beloved Salesians, and shortly before his
death, finished the history of the
Salesians ministry in Rockland County,
which is now on its way to the printer.
Those two tasks finished, Father Lappin
was ready to begin as a columnist for the
Rockland County Times, when death
intervened.
IRISH ROOTS
His love for his native country of
Ireland and all the people of Ireland
burned brightly in Father Lappin's
breast, and it was that love that was
testified to at the wake, and at the
funeral (see sidebar). It was a love that
Father Lappin also reflected in his best
selling [and likely autobiographical]
novel "The Land of Cain," published in
1958.
That book begins, as so many of Father
Lappin's sermons and talks did, with a
generous shot of humor. The opening
paragraph reads:
"Brian O'Connell Burke Sheridan Tracey
opened his eyes.
The name had been conferred on Brian too
early for him to resist. Michael Tracey,
his father, had given it to his first
born for, boy and man, he and Father Pat
Quinn, the parish Priest of Drumree in
Country Antrim - a village of 500 souls,
400 of them Protestants and lost - a
great pity to see such neighbors lost! -
had read with passionate interest the
speeches these great orators had
delivered in freedom's cause...
His wife Mary, poor creature, lay in bed
weeping until they returned to her aching
arms the new heir to the Kingdom of God."
A LOVE FOR BELFAST AND IRELAND
Peter Lappin was born April 29, 1911 in
the City of Belfast in Northern Ireland.
He was born into an upper middle class
family, which meant that education - so
often denied to Catholics in the Ireland
of that day - was open to him.
In an earlier interview with this
reporter, Father Lappin spoke about how
he had enjoyed his education, and how
important that education had been to him.
The schools he went to as a youth were
only the beginning of a lifetime of
education that took him next to
Cowley-Oxford in England.
From there to Turin, from there to Rome,
and eventually to Fordham University
where he earned his master of arts in
communications, and to Columbia
University where he took post graduate
studies at the Advanced School of
Writing.
Sean Devery, one of the founders of the
Ancient Order of Hibernians in Rockland
County, said that "I can only think of
two Irishmen who could speak seven
languages. Eamon DeValera [the first
president of the Free Republic of
Ireland] was one of them, and Father
Peter Lappin was the other. Father Lappin
loved to speak Gaelic, and was fluent in
it."
Garnerville resident Peg Matone remembers
one dinner when Father Lappin overheard
some diner speaking in a somewhat uncouth
manner in a foreign language, and went
over and addressed them in that language
and asked them to mind their manners.
Then he asked them if they didn't like to
speak that language, whether or not they
might like to converse in Chinese, in
which Father Lappin was expert.
Father Lappin's love of Ireland was well
established by the time that he was a
teenager. He breathed in the heart of
Ireland, and returned that heart with
interest as a strong supporter of a
united Ireland and the Nationalist cause.
As a young boy, he lived in the age of
General Michael Collins, DeValera and the
early 20th century fighters for Irish
peace and freedom.
When he was five years old, Ireland was
convulsed with the Easter Week Uprising,
and as the young Peter Lappin grew, so
grew in his heart a love of Irish freedom
and independence, a love he cherished to
the day he died.
As a young man, he fought for the freedom
and the unity of Ireland, and wore
proudly the black beret with leather
badge which proclaimed his loyalty to the
principles of the Irish Republican Army.
Father Lappin himself only said to this
reporter of his early life that "I felt
very strongly about the need for Irish
freedom and Irish independence, and
supported it with every fiber of my
being."
THE LOVE OF CHURCH
Growing alongside Father Lappin's love of
his family and his country was a love of
the teachings of the Roman Catholic
Church, and Father Lappin early felt the
stirring of his vocation.
"It's fair to say that the feeling of a
vocation was present very early in my
life and never left me."
By the time he was in his teens, the
decision for a vocation had been all but
made.
Father Lappin recalled "In the Ireland of
that time, there was no greater joy in a
Catholic family than having a son become
a Priest. But at the same time, if a
young man who set out to become a Priest
didn't become a Priest, the shame was
immense. He was known as a 'spoiled
priest' and referred to in that way."
There was little danger of Father Lappin
ever becoming a spoiled Priest.
He underwent a period of formation as a
postulant in the Salesian Order, at the
same time that the patron saint of the
order - Don Bosco - was passing through
the process of becoming a saint. Don
Bosco had been declared venerable by St.
Pope Pius X four years before Father
Lappin's birth, and by the time Father
Lappin was 16, Pope Pius XI had concluded
that Don Bosco had practiced to a heroic
degree the virtues of faith, hope and
charity.
Shortly before Father Lappin entered the
Salesian Order, Don Bosco was pronounced
blessed and on April 1, 1934, Don Bosco
was declared a saint.
By that time, Father Lappin had been a
Salesian postulant for almost a decade,
and it was as a postulant that he left
Ireland, England and Italy, and sailed
for the turmoil of China.
MAKE ME A MISSIONARY
Don Bosco had always wanted to become a
missionary, but his confrere, Father
Joseph Cafasso, persuaded him that his
missionary goals were for others in the
order, not for him.
Once, Father Lappin remembered, a Priest
entered Don Bosco's room and found him
staring at a picture of a Priest who had
been martyred in China. The Priest
reported that Don Bosco had tears in his
eyes, and that the saint said "I wish my
sons of the oratory would go to China.
How much good they would accomplish! If
the Lord were only to give me 10 Priests
of the kind I want, I would go and set up
our tents in that region."
The Lord did in fact give the heir to Don
Bosco the Priests he wanted, and in 1935,
Father Peter Lappin left Europe to take
the place of Father David Hourigan, who
had been killed in missionary service in
China.
"When I stepped off the boat in China, it
was as if I had stepped into a different
world. But I was excited - it was the
missionary world of which Don Bosco had
dreamed, and in which I was glad to
serve," Father Lappin said.
For more than 13 years, Peter Lappin was
as far away from the Ireland of his
dreams as it was possible to be, in the
midst of a China in war and revolution.
Ordained a Priest, Father Lappin followed
the lead of Don Bosco, and cared for the
children of China in Shanghai. Poverty
and care were his constant companions,
but his obligations to his children, and
to the Christians of Shanghai were ever
most in the young Priest's mind.
When the Japanese captured Shanghai there
existed an uneasy truce between them and
the Salesians, but near the end of the
Second World War - in 1943 - Father
Lappin was interned by the Japanese, and
maltreated, as so many Japanese prisoners
were.
"You had to be very correct in your
dealings with the Japanese, especially
the officers. They were very certain to
make sure that you paid them all the
honor they felt were their due," Father
Lappin said.
Notwithstanding, Father Lappin's humor
reasserted itself time and time again, as
he and other prisoners of war mocked
their Japanese captors in ways both
serious and frivolous, most of which
passed over the head of the Japanese.
Even though constrained as a prisoner of
war, Father Lappin continued to fight for
the children, using his best efforts to
insure that they were fed, clothed,
housed and educated. Father Lappin - like
Don Bosco before him - believed that "My
system is based entirely on reason,
religion and kindness" and kindness was a
big part of what made Father Lappin as
popular as he was among the Chinese.
The defeat of the Japanese came, and
Father Lappin and his religious confreres
were released from prison camp,
physically much the worse for wear. But
Father Lappin put aside any concerns for
his own health, and immediately went to
United States war ships at Shanghai, to
get food for the children of the
missions.
"The generosity of the sailors and their
officers was extraordinary," Father
Lappin remembered. "The captain said
'Father, I can't give you anything unless
it has been declared ruined and thus
surplus by the government.' The captain
then turned to his second in command and
said 'Exec, I think the food on this ship
has been absolutely ruined. It's
obviously surplus. The heat's gotten to
it'."
Father Lappin headed back with a truck
load of food for the children of the
orphanage, courtesy of the United States
Navy.
Though his heart ached for Ireland, there
was no time to leave, as China was now
caught up in the turmoil of the Communist
revolution. Father Lappin stayed at his
post until the Communist Chinese under
Mao Tse Tung took over the mainland, and
- in their turn - interned Father Lappin.
No matter how much he desired to help the
children of China, with the coming of the
Communists, the end of Father Lappin's
mission was clear. By intelligence, by
wit, and by an immense stamina, he had
served for more than 14 years in the
mission field of China, fulfilling the
dream of Don Bosco that Salesian tents
would in fact be pitched in that region.
Years later he was to tell this reporter
"My work in China developed a love for me
for the mission fields that I have never
lost. It means a great deal to me when
anybody supports the missions."
BACK TO IRELAND
His years of service in the missions now
complete, Father Lappin went back to
Ireland, where he was greeted by friends
and relatives with whom he had stayed in
constant contact. For the first time in
more than 20 years, he got to see the
country that he loved, and to spend time
in Belfast, the city of his birth.
Then his superiors ordered him to the
United States, where his skills as a
writer would soon come into bloom.
Two weeks ago, at the Feis, this reporter
sat down with Father Lappin to discuss
his literary work and he said "I've had
quite a following, but you've made a
mistake in one of your earlier reports. I
have not written 26 books - I've only
written 22; and only a few of them have
been best sellers."
Those best sellers included the
monumental "The Land of Cain" written by
Father Lappin in 1957, shortly after his
graduation from Fordham and Columbia
University.
They also include many books penned for
the Salesians, including "The Stories of
Don Bosco" [now in its second edition]
and the leading biography of Don Bosco,
"Give Me Souls."
Father Lappin's work as a writer
proceeded with the full blessing of his
superiors, who recognized the talent in
the now seasoned Priest. However, that
writing came in the context of a Salesian
life, completely committed to the young,
and to the threefold cord of poverty,
obedience and chastity.
Father Lappin well knew that his talent
as an author could bring him a great deal
of personal success. His best selling
books brought hundreds of thousands of
dollars into Salesian coffers, and even
his last book "The Apostalate for Family
Consecration" - brought more than
$100,000 for the Salesian order.
However, money and its allurements had no
appeal to Father Lappin, who lived a life
of poverty.
Father Lappin never made a show of his
poverty, but he lived in one room, with a
wall of books, with a bed, a dresser, a
small desk, and - in later years - a
computer.
Above the bed was a crucifix, and among
his pictures were those of his favorite
saint, Don Bosco.
His books - many translated into foreign
languages - lined one wall of his
bedroom, but they were not an object to
be shown off. They were covered by a
blanket or sheet, to be referred to only
when the necessity arose.
This is not to say that Father Peter
Lappin didn't have an author's pride.
"You see this copy of The Land of Cain,"
Father said, handing the book to this
reporter, "this copy is pirated. They
didn't pay a royalty on it, the publisher
didn't get a dime for it. The book was so
popular, they pirated it overseas, and
printed it cheaply."
The Land of Cain was the first novel that
Peter Lappin ever wrote, and it won
plaudits worldwide.
Into The Land of Cain Father Lappin
poured all the love and heartache that
only a man who has been kept from his
homeland in Ireland for more than 25
years can have. Into that novel he poured
everything of his Irish upbringing, and
the trauma that suffused Ireland.
And the result was beyond Father Lappin's
expectations. One critic wrote "By any
standards this is an absorbing novel and
it is all the more remarkable because it
is a first novel. The author, Father
Peter Lappin, is one of the finest
Catholic writers to appear in many a
year. Not only will any reader enjoy
every minute of his book, but when you
finally put it down, breathless from its
impact, you will realize that you have
been enriched."
Though Father Lappin was proud of his
first novel, he was prouder still of his
biography of Don Bosco, a book that has
now gone through several editions.
His scholarly work for the Salesians also
took a great amount of his writing time.
By the early 1960's, some of Father
Lappin's books had been made into movies,
one of which won a prize at the Venice
Movie Festival. He had been named editor
of the Salesian Bulletin, placed on the
editorial board of the Biographical
Memoirs of St. Don Bosco, was named to
the Catholic Press Association, was named
a Faithful Friar of the Knights of
Columbus, and had been named to the
International Order of Alhambra.
He had also been elected a member of the
Cambridge Society of Biographers, and
scripted and produced a series of
religious TV programs and done much work
for radio and television.
In fact, if the Salesian Order had a
voice in the 1960's and early 1970's,
that voice was the voice of Father Peter
Lappin, who had by now become a citizen
of the United States.
A NEW CITIZEN
Though the United States was now his
adopted country, Ireland was never left
behind.
His headquarters for his work in public
relations was Marian Shrine in Stony
Point, where Father Lappin would find him
home from the late 1950's until his
death, more than 40 years later.
For a traveler who had seen the world, an
assignment to Stony Point was nothing if
not ironic, but the Salesian Fathers knew
that the growth of their order and the
love of Don Bosco could be served more
powerfully by Father Lappin's written
word and Priestly ministry than by that
ministry alone.
They gave Father Lappin the platform to
write, and he did not disappoint them.
He also quickly became involved in the
life of the Irish community and the
greater community in Rockland County.
"In 1962 we brought the Ancient Order of
Hibernians back to Rockland County, and
Father Lappin was involved from the very
beginning," Suffern resident Sean Devery
said.
"He loved the Ancient Order of
Hibernians, and played a major role in
bringing the Hibernians to reality in
Rockland County. When we talked, he would
always talk about Belfast, and how much
he loved it. You know, he would go to
Belfast every year, bringing money to buy
anything that the children needed. That
was his great joy - to stay at the
cathedral in Belfast, and to help the
children. He was very active in promoting
our first Emerald Ball in 1962, and
worked hard with Ray Sheridan on the St.
Patrick's Day Parade. He was a man who
loved everything Irish. He was just an
extraordinary person to be with.
"The thing about Father Lappin that was
so special was not only his love for
Ireland, but his love for people. I
suppose he got this in his bringing up.
I'll tell you one thing, he's sorely
missed," Devery said.
By the late 1960's, the Rockland County
Irish community was galvanized not only
by the founding of the Ancient Order of
Hibernians in the county and the
commencement of the countywide St.
Patrick's Day Parade, but also by the
unjust federal prosecution of the
so-called Fort Worth Five.
Father Lappin took his full part in the
fight which led to the freedom of those
charged, assuming a role of leadership in
Irish American affairs in Rockland
County, which he did not relinquish to
his dying day.
More than leadership, her earned the love
of the Irish community, by his presence
as a Priest, confessor, and certain
friend, whose wisdom and sense of humor
was always there, even in the darkest
hour.
When the Ladies Ancient Order of
Hibernians was founded in 1975, Father
Lappin - the county chaplain of the
Ancient Order of Hibernians - was there
to be with them every step of the way.
PEG MATONE REMEMBERS
"Though of course I had met Father Lappin
earlier, I really began to know him in
April of 1976 when we all became involved
with the Ladies Ancient Order of
Hibernians. From there, we got to be good
friends, and it was a joy to have him
over my house for dinner. He was the
Priest who officiated at the marriage of
two of my daughters, and he baptized two
of my grandchildren, Sean Welsh and
Maggie O'Rourke.
"He was always very strong for anything
that involved Ireland, but his favorite
word was unity. He always told the Irish
community to work together. If I remember
anything, it's his constant prayer that
we work together.
"His sermons were always memorable, but I
remember a phrase that showed how deeply
he loved life. Father said one time that
'the most beautiful thing was the face of
a newborn child.' That was a quote I had
never forgotten.
"His sense of humor was also remarkable.
I retired from the Clarkstown School
District in June of 1987 and Father
Lappin was the guest speaker at my
retirement dinner. He got up to start to
speak and said 'I thought this was only
going to be a small get together. If this
is a retirement dinner, it will be a hell
of a wake.' He stole the show.
"I think Father Lappin was the most
wonderful Priest, and he was certainly
wonderful to women. He was very kind to
anybody who needed help, but that sense
of humor was marvelous. I'll say that he
certainly knew me too well," Matone said.
"He once told me that people like me were
the reason that he never got married. I
told him the reason he never got married
is that no one would have him.
"He was a brilliant man, and a dear
friend, and a person that I am going to
miss tremendously," Matone said.
Another member of the Ladies Ancient
Order of Hibernians, Feis leader Pat
Dwyer, also had several of her children
married by Father Lappin. "He was the
greatest speaker. I first got to know him
in 1975 when we asked him to speak at the
North Rockland Conservative Women's Club.
The first thing he did was ask 'How many
Democrats are here' and when a person
raised her hand, I think he was a little
embarrassed, but he covered it all up
with the greatest of good humor. He was
the most personable man in the world, a
great Priest and a great friend."
A REPORTER REMEMBERS
Father Lappin was more a journalist than
he would ever admit, but it was that
knowledge and experience that he had in
journalism that made him a particular
friend of those whose beat is Rockland
County. He knew the limitations of a
reporter's life, and knew the joys of
reporting as well.
In the interviews this newspaper was
privileged to have with him, his love of
life, his ability as a writer, his love
of his Priestly vocation all shone forth,
but more important was his love of
people.
Money for him had no attraction, except
as a means to help the poor children that
had been confided to his care through the
Salesian Order.
Several years ago, Father Lappin ran a
fundraiser with the help of Patrick
Moroney to help raise money to take to
the children of Ireland. His friends and
supporters contributed thousands of
dollars, and the joy on Father Lappin's
face was great, because that meant that
he could help plenty of Protestant and
Roman Catholic children in Belfast, help
in a way that would bring unity to the
torn city of his birth, that would bring
peace and healing.
He stayed in constant touch with affairs
in Belfast, relying on a network of
friends throughout the Nationalist
community, and especially relying on
Father Des Wilson, whose work for the
poor in the poorer parts of Belfast
Father Lappin always admired.
For Father Wilson, Peter Lappin was a
special Priest, and when this reporter
spent time with Father Wilson last year,
the last thing that Father Wilson said
was "Please remember me to Father Lappin
- he's a great man and a great Priest."
Despite the severe heat of July, Father
Lappin was there at the Rockland County
Feis on July 18, ready at 9:00 a.m. to
lead the holy sacrifice of the mass.
Anyone who ever attended a mass led by
Father Lappin knew that this was a Priest
in the old mold - the golden Priests
which St. Oliver Plunkett hoped would
always be part of Ireland's heritage.
The mass said, Father Lappin spent time
in the central tent with Feis leader Pat
Dwyer and all the hard workers of the
Feis.
He deflected all praise from himself, and
poured praise on Dwyer and the Feis
committee, saying how wonderful all their
work had been and how important it had
been.
Later in the day, he took a seat with the
bagpipers of the AOH Pipes & Drums of
Rockland County, listening to the beauty
of the bagpipe music and bantering with
those who were there.
Father Lappin's banter always had a
serious purpose, and that was the
salvation of souls. One person who had
just spoken to Father Lappin walked past
this reporter and said "Father's just
torn a strip out of me, and you know,
he's right."
Then it was this reporter's turn to sit
down with Father Lappin and hear how he
loved the Feis. An experienced reporter
himself, Father Lappin dictated his
comments with a fluid style, never to be
matched, never to be forgotten. His
quotes were perfect, and little touches
of poetry. They were given for the
edification of all, for the praise of
all, and laced with more humor than you
might hear in a night of Hal Roach or of
Jackie Mason; but the humor was never of
the hard, cutting kind. It was always
gentle, much like the humor that St. Don
Bosco must have used with the boys and
with his confreres in the oratory.
Father Lappin was in no sense a plaster
saint, but he was the best of what this
earth has to offer - a true Priest, a
true friend, a man who believed in an
ideal and fought for it, and somebody who
knew well the healing power of Christ,
and was a vessel of that healing power to
others.
On July 23, Father Lappin and I were
going to have lunch at Francesca's in
Garnerville, to discuss his upcoming
columns with the Rockland County Times.
He called to cancel that day, not saying
that he was checking himself into Nyack
Hospital for a brief touch of pneumonia.
Within a week he was out of the hospital,
calling the newsroom and speaking with
joy about the upcoming arrival of John
Cardinal O'Connor on August 16, a day
that was going to be special for the
youth. And then there was a promise of
another luncheon appointment soon.
DEATH COMES TO THE MANSION HOUSE
The promised luncheon appointment was not
to be. On Sunday, August 1, in the 88th
year of his life and in the 55th year of
his Priesthood, Peter Lappin woke up, and
began to walk downstairs to get ready to
serve the people of North Rockland as
Priest and friend as he had for more than
40 years.
On those stairs, a heart attack overtook
him, and he was discovered by another
Priest shortly thereafter, dead by 6:40
in the morning.
His body was taken away, only to be
returned to the Pavilion Church on
Tuesday, where Rocklanders paid their
respects to their friend.
In writing his stories of Don Bosco,
Father Lappin said "When one considers
the lifestyle of Don Bosco, the manner of
his death seems very ordinary. His life
had been full with visions with
prophesies, involved in great events with
great people. It had been a life in which
the extraordinary had become the
ordinary. Yet when he came to die,
nothing was evident in the way of
visions, of prophesies, of moments of
high drama."
And so it was with his ardent pupil,
Father Peter Lappin. The way of his death
was so ordinary, yet not the reaction
that it provoked. For when in North
Rockland has there ever been such a scene
as there was this week when hundreds came
to pray for the eternal rest of the
Priest of the people; when hundreds came
to thank God that they had had the
privilege of knowing and sharing in the
life of Father Peter Lappin.
In The Land of Cain, Father Lappin wrote
of the book's hero in the last paragraph
as he had written in the first:
"Leaving the foredeck, Brian gave a last
look at the fading glimpse of the Irish
shore. The roll and the dip of the Gaelic
Prince became more pronounced and she
thumped against the sea, warning him that
a rough voyage lay ahead. But as he
climbed the ladder to the bridge, he told
himself that the little ship had gone out
often in such rough weather and just as
often had returned, laden with the riches
of her travels. After this voyage she
would come back again to the Irish shore.
And so, he assured himself, in God's good
time would he."
And in God's good time he has, leaving
his life and his example as a blessing
for all who loved this golden Priest of
Ireland.
Return to Top
An
Irretrievable Loss (editorial)
Rockland County Times August 11,1999
Father Peter Lappin died this Sunday last
past, faithful to the end to his Salesian
vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
He had been a Priest of the Salesian
Order of Don Bosco for more than 50
years, and a postulant and brother in
that Order for 10 years more.
He led a life that was the stuff of
novels. Imbued with a love of Ireland
that never left him in 88 years, he
fought - as a young man - for Irish
freedom and independence.
In the Ireland of that day, however, no
matter how great the need for fighters
for Irish unity, there was still a
greater calling, and that was to be a
Priest of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.
That is the calling to which Father Peter
Lappin aspired, and that is the calling
in which he gave his life.
His heroism, his accomplishments, and his
service to the people are recounted
elsewhere in this paper, but the facts of
his life don't go anywhere near
describing the effects of his life.
For more than 20 years, Father Lappin was
a fixture at events of the Ancient Order
of Hibernians, the Irish community in
general, and the greater community of
Rockland County. When Pearl River
resident Brian Pearson was fighting for
his rights, Father Lappin was in the
midst of the fight, leading the Pearson
committee in prayer and - no doubt -
praying daily for success.
When anybody was in need, Father Lappin
was there.
Every year, in August, Father Lappin
would go to his hometown of Belfast, and
stay as a guest in the cathedral there.
He would bring with him money that had
been donated by his many well wishers,
and saved by himself, money which went to
the poor families and children of
Belfast, without distinction to their
religion.
In Father Lappin's heart there was no
room for hate, but there was ample room
for the gospel. For him, the vows of
poverty, chastity and obedience were
continuously forged in the light of the
gospel, and he poured himself out to
continually serve the people of Rockland
County as well as the people of Belfast.
An author with more than 22 books to his
credit [many of them best sellers] Lappin
turned away consistently from the money
that his books brought, and donated the
money to his Salesian Order, or to needy
children. In this, he was the living
embodiment of Saint Don Bosco, who
himself was influenced by St. Francis
DeSales, the patron saint of journalists.
For Father Lappin, Don Bosco was no
plaster saint, but a living reality whose
words of wisdom were held close to Father
Lappin's heart.
In the horror of the Second World War,
Father Lappin protected Chinese children
who had been confided to his care,
keeping them safe from the menace of war,
even while suffering as a prisoner of the
Japanese.
In the confusion and turmoil of the
Communist Revolution in China, Father
Lappin risked much to keep charge of his
young people, remembering always that
they were confided to his care, and never
failing in that duty.
When the mainland of China fell to the
Communist regime, Father Lappin came to
the United States and began his career as
journalist, author, and television
personality.
The temptations of fame were certainly
very real, but Father Lappin turned
against those temptations as surely as he
turned towards the example of Don Bosco.
Don Bosco once said "The idle, at the end
of their lives, will suffer great remorse
for the time they have lost." That was
one of Father Lappin's favorite quotes,
and he lived in a way to make sure that
they quote never applied to him.
At the Feis two weeks ago, Father Lappin
was there to say mass, and spent the rest
of the day with the people he loved - the
community of Rockland County.
When he spoke to this newspaper at the
Feis, he spoke not only of the glory of
the Irish community, but how important it
was for all people to live together in
unity, and how he wished people of every
community as much grace, fun and
happiness as the Irish community was
celebrating that day.
Then he talked about how he was going to
write a paid column for the Rockland
County Times beginning this month. The
money was not for Father Lappin, but it
would have gone in some way to helping
the poor children of Belfast, or the
Salesian cause.
No author who achieved more fame lived
more simply. To the end of his life,
Father Lappin lived in one room of the
residence on the grounds of the Marian
Shrine. In his room was a bed with a
crucifix over it, and a wall of books,
covered by a blanket.
To Father Lappin, there was no greater
joy than meeting people and serving them.
His sermons penetrated the heart, drawn
as they were from a lifetime of
experience.
His love penetrated the heart, which is
why Rockland County mourns today and will
mourn for months at such an irreplaceable
loss.
Father Lappin's confidence in the love of
Christ, his love of his superiors, his
confreres, and the people he served, his
love of Ireland, his love of the Church,
and his love of the poor children
confided to his care will make his memory
a continuous blessing.
It is customary to say that when a person
dies at the age of 88 - especially a
person with the accomplishments of Peter
Lappin - that they have lived a long and
good life. With Father Lappin, that is
certainly true.
But there is nonetheless a grievous sense
of loss, as Father Lappin still had so
much more to contribute to the Irish
community, the people of Rockland County,
and those individually who sought his
counsel, from whom he heard confession
and to whom he gave the sacraments of the
Church.
He ended his life as a Priest as he had
begun it, in service to others. He was
walking down the stairs to begin a Sunday
of service when death overtook him.
In his book "Stories of Don Bosco" Father
Lappin wrote of a prayer that Don Bosco
had taught the boys that were confided to
his care. That prayer was part of the
"Exercise for a Happy Death". Don Bosco
wrote:
When my feet benumbed in death, shall
warn me
that my mortal course is drawing to a
close-
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me!
When my eyes, dim and troubled at the
approach of death, shall fix themselves
on you,
my last and only support -
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me!
When my ears, soon to be shut forever to
the words of men, shall be open to hear
your voice pronouncing the sentence of my
irrevocable doom -
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me!
When I shall have lost the use of my
senses;
when the world shall have vanished from
my sight;
when my agonizing soul shall feel the
sorrow of death -
Merciful Jesus, have mercy on me!
That merciful Jesus whom Father Lappin so
greatly loved will surely have mercy on a
servant so devoted to him and to his
flock.
May the soul of Father Peter Lappin,
along with the souls of all the faithful
departed, in the mercy of almighty God,
rest in peace.
All of Rockland County mourns the loss of
a man so many were privileged to call a
friend
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