RIP. Gerard (Gerry) Burke MSC

Word has come that Gerry died this afternoon, peacefully at St Joseph’s, Kensington. He was 88 

Gerry went to school at Chevalier College, made his novitiate at St Mary’s Towers, Douglas Park, and made his profession on August 5, 1953. We are acknowledging 66 years of profession and MSC ministry.

In looking at the many decades of Gerry’s life as an MSC, the words from St John’s Gospel come to mind, that if everything about Jesus was to be written down, there would not be enough room in the whole world for the books!

But, here is a brief attempt. First of all, Gerry worked for many years in MSC schools, especially in Monivae. Chevalier and St John’s in Darwin. And, in early years, he was at the Sacred Heart Monastery in Croydon. That was just for some starters…

With Eugene Hurley, retired bishop of Darwn

In many years in Darwin from which he retired to Chevalier several years ago, he was on the staff of St John’s College, at Mission headquarters, a prison chaplain, visited the sick… Speaking of the sick, he did a CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) program in Canberra, drawing on this experience at such places as the hospital in Mackay, and he was one of the directors of Encompass in Sydney.

At Chevalier 2022 with MSC Students

In recent months he moved to Kensington monastery. And a joyful memory of Gerry, Sacred Heart Day, Chevalier, 2022