Throughout his 60 years as a Passionist priest, Fr Kevin Dance CP kept being thrown into roles for which he felt unprepared, reports hobart.catholic.au.
At one stage, after an appointment to a parish in Sydney, he hung a learners’ L plate around his neck at Mass and told parishioners: “I know nothing. Please have mercy on me.”
Fr Kevin Dance CP in Bourke, NSW. PHOTO: Supplied, via hobart..catholic.org.au.
As his milestone anniversary approaches, Fr Kevin reflected on his early days on Tasmania’s West Coast and in the Huon Valley, and his varied ministry encompassing teaching, parish, leadership, political and missionary roles including a remarkable 12 years as the Passionists’ representative at the United Nations in New York.
Through it all, a self-effacing Fr Kevin has been guided by the desire to “help a few people to carry the load of life, and to do it with a bit more joy”.
“It’s been an incredible privilege to be invited into the deepest experience in people’s lives – to share that and to find the presence of God,” he said via telephone from the Passionist Community’s St Brigid’s Retreat in Marrickville, Sydney, a few weeks before his diamond jubilee.
Fr Kevin was born at Queenstown where his father, Rigney, was a miner. However, the young family soon moved to the Huon Valley for the sake of the health of his mother, Thelma. Fr Kevin was the third of six children. Three sisters became nuns. Trish (dec) and Jill joined the Josephites and Judith Anne became Sr Angela (dec) of the Little Company of Mary. The other siblings are Lynette and Bernard.
He was educated at St Joseph’s Convent, Geeveston, and then as a boarder at St Virgil’s College in Hobart.
“I was graced by having two wonderful parents. Faith was important but it was not thrown down our throats,” Fr Kevin, 83, recalled.
“We were a very simple family who grew up on the land and prayed the rosary every night.
“We only had Mass once every two weeks in Geeveston, and it was a six-mile round trip walking to and from church. We would stop at our grandfather’s house on way home, for dinner.
“We had no car or other transport and the reach of life was only as far as our legs would take us. It was a very simple life.”
In his final year at St Virgil’s, foreign missionary work started to interest a teenage Kevin.
“A Passionist then gave a retreat and I was fascinated by this man, Fr Albert, and I labelled him in my mind as ‘the wild man of God’. He struck a chord with me. Shortly after, the Passionists arrived in Hobart to take over St Joseph’s Parish, and I met them there, things moved on, and I thought, ‘I will give this a try’.
“I was intrigued by their humanity, how down-to-earth they were, and their missions in Papua New Guinea, so that was what set me on course and led to me to ask if I could join them.”
Fr Kevin was ordained on a snowy winter’s day at St John’s Church, Glenorchy, on 28 July, 1965, by Archbishop Guilford Young.
The Dance family in the 1960s. PHOTO: Supplied, via hobart.catholic.org.au
Among his many priestly roles, Fr Kevin served as director of philosophy students at the seminary; a ‘wonderful’ nine months at St Joseph’s Parish in Hobart where he started a youth choir and youth group; leader of youth retreats in Sydney and facilitator of adult education; priest at Marrickville parish, Sydney; eight years as Provincial for New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand; and 12 ‘enjoyable, exciting, challenging and frustrating’ years as executive director of Passionists International at the UN.
“The contrast of the simple lifestyle I grew up with to then be sent into the centre of things in New York, where the nations of the world would meet, was extraordinary,” he recalled.
“I took the values of family and faith to help me speak words of justice, hope and peace in things we advocated for among the nations of the world.”
This was followed by three years as Superior of the Passionist Community in Port Moresby, finally fulfilling his teenage missionary ambitions.
After returning home with dengue fever and then recovering from a brain haemorrhage, he served for two years as parish priest at St Paul Apostle parish, Endeavour Hills, Melbourne.
“The Chinese curse ‘may you be born in interesting times’ – I see it as a blessing,” Fr Kevin added.
“I kept being thrown into things I did not feel I had the experience to do.
“I was never prepared for what was asked of me, and yet everything I’d done before helped me to be with the people and speak God’s word of encouragement with them.”
Fr Kevin Dance will celebrate Mass at St Joseph’s, Hobart, at 9.30am on 20 July. The 60th anniversary of priestly ordination of Fr Kevin and Fr Denis Allen will be marked with a thanksgiving Mass at 11am on 21 July at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, Sandy Bay.
This article by Wendy Shaw was published on the website of the Archdiocese of Hobart.