IT HAS been four years since Tempo priest Father Pat McCaffrey passed away at just 66 years of age, and he is still mourned by family and friends both locally and in his beloved Pakistan.
Fr Pat spent years living and working there as a Columban missionary and since his death niece Siobhan McCaffrey has continued the good work.
Recently Siobhan was out in Pakistan for six weeks, her fourth visit to the country her uncle spent so much time in.
Fr Pat spent 15 years in the south of the country between 1979 and 1994 before returning to Pakistan in 2009 where he became a parish priest in Lahore.
He died a year later while in position and is buried behind the school and church compound where Siobhan was working.
She explained the purpose of her most recent visit.
“I went out just to work with the teachers in a school in the parish where Father Pat was, just to help them improve their English and while I was there was working with some of the children in the school, some of the older classes.
“I also laid the foundation stones for one of the churches that was funded by us and then the last Saturday night they had an offical blessing at the Church while I was there.”
On her first visit Siobhan admitted her surprise at the conditions she faced.
“Some of the smaller schools I went out to children were sitting on mats on floors with a blackboard in front of them.
“A lot of them have to pay basic school fees and a lot of the families can’t afford that so a lot of the funding we give goes towards making up the fees that were paid and the teacher’s salaries.
“It is very basic. I’m teaching myself here and I come from teaching in a primary school classroom which has computers in it and an interative white board, all the mod cons and then you go to a classroom where all the chairs and tables are rickety, you have the blackboard on the wall and chalk and maybe the children haven’t books because the parents can’t afford to buy them. “They may be able to pay for school fees, but not the books. It’s worlds apart.”
In the four years since Fr Pat’s death there has been significant work done in the community from the £40,000 plus raised.
Two extra classrooms in one school encompassing a science lab and a library and three churches have been built, while the most recent batch of funding will hopefully go towards kitting out another school built in the area.
“It was great to get out and see where the money is going and to be able to keep on doing what Fr Pat would have been doing himself.
“There were people still crying to me about him in the last six weeks there.
“He was so well thought of, both here and in Paksitan.
“He touched the hearts of so many people and when he died I think the whole parish were mourning for him, not just the McCaffrey family.”
The group’s last fundrasing effort, a country night in the Westville Hotel raised further money for the cause as work winds down in the Lahore parish.
“This was to be our last big fundraising event as the Columbans are actually leaving this parish in June so we just wanted to give them a hand and finish off all that they have ongoing and leave a memorial to Father Pat there.
“We’re delighted the amount of support we got for Monday night, never mind the people that attended, the donations and money that has come in otherwise.
“It has just been unbelievable and we’re thankful to people for it.”
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