Mgr Thomas Horgan

Family foundations

Thomas Erwin Horgan was born on August 8, 1915 at Mintaro in the mid north of SA. In 1918 the family moved to Adelaide. Tom attended the Dominican school at Glenelg and later he boarded at Rostrevor College.

He often spoke of his family life in his many reminiscences. His affection for his parents, Thomas and Margaret and his sisters Mamie, Peg and Sister Joan OP who predeceased him, Kit and Nan who live at Glenelg was transparently obvious.

In 1934 he commenced his studies for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College, Werribee, Victoria and then at Propaganda College in Rome. 

Connection to SFX seminary

Thomas Erwin Horgan was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Adelaide on July 27, 1941, the day on which the foundation stone for St Francis Xavier Seminary at Rostrevor was laid. From 1947 to 1951 Fr Tom was to hold the position of philosophy lecturer at the seminary.

It is symptomatic of the ebb and flow of the life of the Church during the 60 years of his priestly ministry that, by the time of Fr Tom's death in 2002 Adelaide seminarians are once more travelling interstate for their studies, as he had done in 1934 when he went to Werribee.

Apart from his two years at Mt Gambier (1945-46) and his time at Victor Harbor (1981-87) his priestly ministry was centred in Adelaide.

A variety of postings

To list the parishes in which Fr Tom served as assistant or parish priest, Adelaide, Mt Gambier, Colonel Light Gardens, St Marys, Thebarton, Victor Harbor, Glenelg, Semaphore is to tell only a small part of the story.

His avocations included nine years as Vicar General, membership of the Senate (later Council) of Priests, Diocesan Consultor, Army Chaplain rising to the post of Senior Chaplain and several other diocesan committees and responsibilities. His fluency in the Italian language meant that he was often called upon to minister to those for whom Italian was the mother tongue.

From his family he had inherited a love of music and had a fine singing voice.

Fr Tom was 20 years ordained when the Second Vatican Council burst upon an unsuspecting Church. With his usual aplomb he accepted and implemented the changes to ministry that were the fruit of the Council.

Vicar General and Monsignor

When appointed as Vicar General in March 1975 he assumed the title of Monsignor, a title he wore lightly. He disliked being addressed as Mons. He said it made him feel like a World War I battle. It was as Vicar General that he was more than ever solicitous for his fellow priests, who were grateful for his care and concern.

The thousands of people whose lives he touched in all these areas of ministry remember him as a gentle dedicated and compassionate priest who was there for them at times of illness and mourning as well as the joyful celebrations of baptisms, first communions and marriages. The centrality of the Eucharist in his daily life was clear to all.

Whimsically Wodehousean

He was also esteemed as a raconteur par excellence and a man of very dry wit. As a devotee of P. G. Wodehouse and the world of Jeeves, his eloquent use of the English language was unconsciously Wodehousean in its style. Indeed his stories were peppered with whimsical characters of the ilk of Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster and his companions.

As a result of his student days at Propaganda College in Rome he had priest friends across Australia and on other continents. Until the end of his days a simple incident in daily life would trigger in Father Tom's memory a tale of Biffy Gilhooley (or some other character with an equally improbable name) who had been part of Fr Tom's journey and who had earned his place in history through a witticism, faux pas or malapropism. Like the householder of the scriptures he would constantly bring forth from the storehouse of his memory treasures old and new.

Oratory and numerology

Perhaps the apogee of his oratorical powers was his speech of welcome on behalf of the clergy when Archbishop Gleeson assumed the role of Archbishop of Adelaide in 1971. In a droll mixture of prose, poetry, prophecy, puns, persiflage and profundity he entertained his audience with his belief that the number seven was significant in the life of Archbishop Gleeson. (Not only did the name Gleeson have seven letters, his predecessor Archbishop Beovich was similarly endowed.) The hearers were also told that the yet unannounced new Bishop would also have a surname that would be of seven letters. Bishop Kennedy was to fulfill that prediction.

Many other examples of septenary influence in the Archbishop's life were given. The speaker also went on to say that he had recently been given advice by his golfing instructor that could be of value to the Archbishop (and all Bishops?): "Let the club do the work."

Wry self-deprecations

Many of Fr Tom's yarns or remarks were self-deprecatory. Not long before his death, while being assisted by two Sisters to negotiate some stairs he remarked wryly, "One would never suppose that I once played centre half-back for the Rostrevor College first 18."

In 2001 when some of the priests of the Adelaide Archdiocese gathered at Sevenhill for a retreat, it was arranged that we would venture to Mintaro for Mass. It was at Mintaro that the Horgans had worshipped for many years and where Tom had been baptised in 1915.

The Mass was one of thanksgiving for the blessings given to the Horgan clan.

Though he officially retired in August 1990 he continued his pastoral ministry in the Glenelg parish where he lived until his death.

Mgr Tom Horgan died peacefully at home in Glenelg on March 18, 2002 and Requiem Mass was celebrated in St Francis Xavier's Cathedral. It was fitting that he who had often intoned the Salve Regina at the graveside of his brother priests should have thus been farewelled by them at the Centennial Park Cemetery.

The Latin motet Ecce Sacerdos Magnus, Behold a Great Priest, is usually reserved for Bishops. No one would have thought it unfitting if it had been sung at the funeral of one who was for many in the Archdiocese an icon of the priestly ministry.

Requiescat in pace.