THE
P RTAL
November 2015
Rome and thence eternal salvation. Augustine Hoey
was a Mirfield man for forty eight years. It is an oddity
of this book that both the editors and Fr Hoey have
persuaded themselves that he was there for the richly
symbolic period of half a century.
Page 17
with high rise tower blocks on all sides. People had
opened their windows to see what all the commotion
was. They were shouting abuse, friendly and otherwise,
to their neighbours and friends while the forlorn
gathering of balloon carrying ecclesiastical wellwishers gathered below on the imaginary grass space.
Many of us spend much of our time running away The music stopped. Everything went quiet … There
from God. Augustine Hoey’s curious life has been was a moment of expectation and then a familiarly
spent running towards God but from the oddest of wobbly voice emanated from the loud hailer.
places into which he has defiantly inserted himself. A
child of very indifferent health, he has cheated death
Helloo…
on four occasions: once when he was three; once as a
F… off
disobedient teenager on the cliffs at Filey; once during
We’ve brought you something lovely!
the blitz; and once in the unlikely surroundings of
Bollo….
St Mary, South Elmsall, whilst of all things he was
We’ve brought you Mary, Joseph and Jesus in the
preaching a sermon.
middle of Millfield
(Beer cans were now raining down)
This biographical memoir, whilst adopting the not
Release the balloons!”
entirely unreasonable chronological approach, relies
heavily on the dicta of its subject. The occasions on
And that might have been his epitaph: but of course
which he is silent cast perhaps as much light on his it won’t be. South Africa, of which much more could
concerns as those on which his clarion voice is heard have been written, itself reveals the steel that has
at greater length.
formed this soldier of Christ. His love of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, and his devotion to her Shrines, and
Despite the noise of movement and of activity his endless care for those who have come to him for
(whether turning the dung heap, acting at University counsel in their darkest days give the lie to the notion
or preaching, teaching, shriving, cleaning, leading and of a life lived out among the coffee spoons.
whether here, there or elsewhere) what shines through
is the silence of prayer, a love of the mother of God and
Father Hoey has been a very great missioner, perhaps
a fierce attachment to the outpouring of Christ on the a greater confessor and an irritatingly amusing leader
Cross.
of men. To settle in Walsingham as a monk and to
devote one’s life to intercessory prayer is unremarkable.
It must, on balance, have been uncomfortable living To do so at the age of 98 is encouraging; at least to
with Augustine. The man who is alleged to have said