Obituary – Rev. William Pius Collins
From the Evening Telegram, December 1967 (and from the archives of Ernie Walsh)
In the Office for the Feast of St. Melchiades the Antiphone for Laudes reads, "He who hates his life in this world, keeps it unto life eternal". That this feast comes on Dec. 10th the day that death claimed Father Collins is indeed coincidental for this antiphone could easily be the motto for the life of this great priest. His death was the culmination of a life lived for God in the service of his neighbour. From his very early youth in Placentia he began to see the needs of others and fulfill them.
The kindness and thoughtfulness he displayed to his family was only the start of a life's dedication to others. In the thirty-seven years of his priestly life the people of his many parishes were the recipients of this dedicated service. The criterion he used in serving his people was never the human one. The least deserving, the most unappreciative were the chief objects of his kindness and care. Within the human frame of this wonderful priest beat the heart of Christ that could see in the Zacchaesus' and Magdelans of this world good that we lesser mortals could not see. Linked with this self-sacrificing charity was a brilliant mind, a native intelligence which he had nurtured by voracious reading that covered the gamut of literature from Greek and Latin classics to the latest modern writings. He informed himself of both sides of any issue before taking a stand which more often than not was with the minority. The courage he showed in expressing his point of view and fighting for his opinion was phenomenal. This courage and strength of soul enabled him to withstand hardship, endure misunderstanding and face obstacles with a childlike sense of humor whereby he could smile at himself and the world and see in both the etchings of the finger of God. The remarkable feature of his stand in most issues is the fact that time has proven it to have been correct, something that was rarely evident when the stand was taken.
Content to be the least member of the Mystical Body of Christ, Fr. Collins' priestly life was filled with two driving passions, sacramental service for his people and good education for the children trusted to his care. No hardship was too distasteful to endure if the service of the people was at stake. Rough seas, freezing churches, inadequate food and tiring journeys were things to be laughed at if it meant Mass and the Sacraments to a handful of his flock living in some isolated hamlet. When weekday bination and evening Masses were permitted he increased his activity at a time of life when most people are slowing down. In everything the service he wanted his people to have was the guiding factor and if this meant hardship he was prepared to endure it.
In the education field his activity was remarkable. Having been a teacher himself, Father Collins strove all his priestly life to improve his teachers' lot by providing them with good schools and assisting them bettering their qualifications. This was all the more remarkable when one realizes that the mundane matters of monetary policy and fiscal science completely escaped him. His schools were as good as the best and his teachers were better than most. He even reached the point in his last parish when he had so many trained teachers he could send them to other places or "export them" as he himself so often said. Many of these teachers are qualified today because Father Collins encouraged them and even assisted them financially often at great personal sacrifice. But his interest in schools did not end with the teacher. The children were always the special object of his love. He encouraged them, inspired them, at times even taught them and his interest in their welfare radiated from him in every contact he had with them.
Nor did his sights only rest on the local scene. He was aware of the Church Universal. Father Collins' name was well known in Canadian Social Life circles from his active participation in many conferences both on the Mainland and here at home. His concern for the Church in Latin America made Monsefu, the Arrchdiocesan Mission there, as important to him as his own parish. He was keenly interested in the work of our priests and Sisters there and would have been happy to share that life with them.
His death has left a vacuum that can never be filled. The Archdiocese has lost a great priest; his parish, from which he so recently resigned, is bereft of a kindly father; his family is without its finest member and his confreres separated from their most priestly brother. Yet Christian joy must temper our human sorrow. As Teilhard de Chardin, whom Father Collins admired greatly, wrote in reference to death, "Happy the world that is to end in ecstasy". He lived for eternity. The only rationale for his mortal life was the "ecstasy" of immortality. Fr. Collins saw all the trials and hardships with their successes and failures in this light. For him "the note of pessimism" found no chord of response in his life, for us, it must be alien in his death. He lived his life for God and not for man and no human yardstick can measure it. We can only stand in wonderment and pray with hope that Christ, the Eternal high Priest, will take this great priest, another Christ, to Himself.
Rev. P. J. L.
Notes:
Bination - with reference to the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church, is the offering up of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass twice on the same day by the same celebrant.
Rev. P. J. L. – assumed to be Father PJ Lewis, former parish priest at Merasheen