On 26 April, Good Shepherd Sunday, Pope Francis ordained 19 priests for the Diocese of Rome. In his homily he said: ‘And this is the nourishment of the People of God; that your sermons are not boring; that your own homilies reach people's hearts because they come from your heart, because what you are saying is truly what you have in your heart. So give the Word of God, and thus your doctrine will be joy and support for the faithful of Christ; the scent of your life will be the testimony, because the example builds.’

Bust of Fr Michael Donoher

Organizational Chart of Fr. Michael Donoher Memorial School, Inc.

Our Lady of Candelaria Church.

Memorial plaque where Fr Donoher's remains lie

On 16 March many Columbans, at the invitation of parish priest Fr Marty A. Dimaranan,  took part in a Mass in Our Lady of Candelaria Church, Silang, Cavite, in the Diocese of Imus to mark the 27th death anniversary of Columban Fr Michael Donoher who had been parish priest there from 1938 until 1970. Fr Donoher was then transferred to the Diocese of Iba, Zambales. His remains lie in the church in Silang.

Fr Daniel O'Malley, Regional Director of the Columbans, Philippines, and Fr John Keenan at memorial plaque

Fr John Leydon, who served in Silang some years after Fr Donoher left, was the main celebrant and Fr John Keenan who was an assistant to Fr Donoher in Silang, was the preacher. Before the final blessing a plaque in honor of the late Columban priest was unveiled inside the church where he is buried.

Fr John Keenan with some parishioners

L to R: Fr John Keenan, Fr John Leydon, Fr Marty A. Dimaranan

Burial place of Fr Donoher's remains

Fr Michael Donoher, from County Roscommon in the west of Ireland, like many other Columbans who left their homelands to come to the Philippines or to go to other countries where Columbans served, was a priest about whom his parishioners could say, ‘What you are saying is truly what you have in your heart.’ His 32 years of faithfulness to the people of Silang, a period that included World War II, spoke powerfully to them of the faithfulness of God to them. Six of his fellow Columbans in the Philippines died violently during those war years, their deaths a testimony of God’s presence among the people in the worst of times, a God who did not abandon his people.

Fr Michael Donoher

These were priests who kept ‘in mind the example of the Good Shepherd, who came not to be served but to serve; not to stay in his comfort, but to go out and seek and save what was lost’, as Pope Francis said to the young men he was about to ordain.

During the Mass

We thank God for the faithfulness of Fr Michael Donoher and of many others like him.