It was with a heavy heart that I heard about the death of Rt. Rev. Dr. Frank Marcus Fernando, Bishop Emeritus of Chilaw. At the time I got the news I was at the annual retreat of priests of the diocese of Loikaw, in Myanmar.
Bishop Frank Marcus Fernando was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Colombo in the mid-1960s. A few years later he succeeded Bishop Edmund Fernando OMI as Bishop of Chilaw, a post he held for almost four decades, till his retirement in 2005.
Although officially Bishop of Chilaw, he was the undeclared leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. Many recognised in him an innate episcopal dignity. He excelled as an administrator, a writer, a fighter for justice, and a preacher.
People of all faiths, not Catholics only, went to hear his inspiring sermons, especially those given at the national shrines at Madhu and St. Anne’s, Talawila. He mesmerised the congregation with his preaching, in Sinhala and Tamil. He choice of words and metaphors was unique. He was known as “the Fulton J. Sheen of Sri Lanka”.
Many, including prominent Church leaders, tried to imitate him, but none could match his inimitable style of preaching and commanding, God-given voice. Whenever I congratulated him on a sermon, he would tell me how hard he worked on his sermons. This should be an example to all public speakers, not only priests and religious leaders. I was one of thousands who admired his sermons.
Perhaps it was this admiration that prompted me to ask him to ordain me, in 1987. He was President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka at the time, and very busy. Nevertheless, he kindly consented and came all the way from Chilaw to St. Sebastian's Church, Kandana, to ordain me.
I vividly remember his inspiring homily on that occasion. Incidentally, he was also the bishop presiding at my confirmation as a young boy, as Auxiliary Bishop of Colombo. He had an excellent memory. During my ordination homily, he recalled an incident that had occurred at my confirmation: the veil of a girl had touched a lighted candle and caught fire, and the bishop put the fire out with his hand!
After my ordination he would often tease me, saying my mother looked too young to be my mother, and that I looked too old to be her son!
In 1990 I was selected to go to Rome for higher religious studies. Bishop Marcus was one of the first to congratulate me. We kept in touch during my four years in Rome. He never failed to answer my letters. He made it a point to visit me at the Alphonsianum whenever he visited Rome. He had a great devotion to the Mother of Perpetual Help, the original icon of which is kept in the Church of St. Alphonsus, adjoining the place where I lived. He once came to see me accompanied by Fr. Valence Mendis, also a student in Rome at the time and later Bishop Marcus’s successor as Bishop of Chilaw.
Bishop Marcus always encouraged people. As Major Superior of the Redemptorist Congregation during a turbulent time, I faced many a trial for acting according to my conscience, Church orders and the common good. Bishop Marcus was one of the few to support me from behind the scenes for doing what I believed was right and just thing.
He liked and encouraged my style of teaching moral theology, when I was at the national seminary in Kandy. He invited me to preach at his annual retreat in 1997. I was nervous. I felt small before such a giant of a preacher, but he kept pressing me until I accepted. Later, he congratulated me for conducting a good retreat, and hesitantly gave me a few tips on how to improve my preaching, which I was happy to accept. He told me that encouraging and appreciating others was a part of his personal ministry. The world would be a very different place if all of us did likewise.
Despite his busy schedule, Bishop Marcus kept up with things, especially his reading. Every time I published an article in the newspapers or in journals, he would send me a note with his comments, always encouraging. These brief notes would usually end with the words: “May the Good Lord bless your writing hand.”
Even in retirement, Bishop Marcus continued to serve the Church. He undertook an ambitious project to prepare in Sinhala a series of sermons for all three cycles of the Sunday liturgy.
With the death of Bishop Frank Marcus Fernando, Sri Lanka’s Catholics have lost a great leader and pastor. Personally, I have lost a father and a friend.
Whenever I asked him: “How are you, Bishop Marcus?”, his invariable response was: “I am on top of the world!”
If I were to ask him the same question, now that he is gone to his well-deserved eternal reward, I can imagine his response: “On top of the world”, and with this addition – “enjoying eternal life in Heaven.”
Dear Bishop Marcus, thank you for being a great, responsible pastor of the Church in Sri Lanka, amidst your own quota of trials. Thank you also for preaching the Word of God in such an interesting and inspiring way and for making every effort to live what you preached.
We thank God for your exemplary life here on earth.
May you rest in God's peace.
Fr. Vimal Tirimanna, CSSR |
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