Father Pat O’Shaughnessy

By Terry Dickson

LONG BEACH — In the early 2000s, Father Pat O’Shaughnessy was pastor of St. Michael Parish in Biloxi when he learned some college students from his home country of Ireland were playing soccer on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for William Carey University.

“He went and found them and befriended them, because he knew they were away from home and he knew what it was like being a young person away from home,” said Father O’ Shaughnessy’s good friend and fellow Irishman, Father Tommy Conway.

“One Saturday night, these students were traveling across Highway 90 right in front of Edgewater Mall and had a horrible accident where one of them was killed.” Traecy Staunton, a 20-year-old freshman who came to Mississippi from her native Ireland on a soccer scholarship, perished in the accident.

“Father Pat had the job in the middle of the night of phoning her parents back in Ireland to tell them the horrible news,” said Father Conway. “The next day, he said, ‘I’m going to Ireland’ and I said, ‘You don’t even know the family.’

“Then Father Pat said to me, ‘It doesn’t matter. I talked to her family on the phone and I’m going to accompany her body back to Ireland. I’m not going to let her go back by herself. He packed up whatever was important in his life and brought her home to her parents and stayed for the funeral.”

Father Conway then read in the Irish condolences where Staunton’s family commented that, every year since her death as long as he was able, on the anniversary of her death, as well as Christmas, Easter and every Irish holiday, Father O’Shaughnessy called them in Ireland to see how they were doing. “That’s the kind of guy that he was,” Father Conway said.

Father O’Shaughnessy died after a long illness April 19 in Hattiesburg, where he had resided for the past 18 months. He was 80.

A native of Limerick, Ireland, Father O’Shaughnessy completed his ecclesiastical studies at St. Patrick’s College, Thurles, County Tipperary. He was ordained to priestly ministry June 8, 1968, at the Cathedral of the Assumption in Thurles and arrived in the Diocese of Natchez-Jackson on August 27, 1968.

His first assignment was as an associate pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Pascagoula, then associate pastor of St. Michael Parish, Vicksburg, and St. John Parish in Oxford while he was continuing his graduate studies at the University of Mississippi, and then he was assigned to St. Alphonsus Parish in Ocean Springs.

He served as pastor of St. Michael Parish, Biloxi; Sacred Heart Parish, Hattiesburg; St. Thomas Aquinas, Hattiesburg; Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, Lumberton; and St. Joseph Mission, Poplarville. He retired to St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Long Beach in 2009, where he was of great assistance to pastor Father Louis Lohan.

“His original intention was that he wouldn’t help anyone anywhere anymore,” said Father Lohan, who is now retired and lives in Ireland. “Then, he began to stick his nose into little bits of this, that and the other, and he really enjoyed it and got sucked back into full ministry, especially with the 7:30 a.m. Sunday Mass. They became his family. He really ministered to them and they ministered to him. He was a tremendous help to me. He would take a Mass for me any time during the week or, if I needed an extra hand during the weekend, he was there for me.”

Father Lohan said he will miss his chats with Father O’Shaughnessy.

“I’ll miss that you could sit down and have an honest conversation with him,” he said. “He didn’t hold back. He would tell you what he thought about something, and I could tell him what I thought, and he respected that. I really have missed that for the past three or four years because we haven’t been able to communicate or talk at all. My memory of him is that he had a huge, big heart. He was very goodhearted.”

Paula Spears met Father O’Shaughnessy when he was pastor of St. Michael Parish in Biloxi.

“When he moved to Long Beach and began celebrating Mass at St. Thomas, I had the honor of cutting his hair for many years,” said Spears.

“Father Pat never met a stranger. He would stay a while and tell jokes and visit with each person in my salon. He got to know them and wanted to make sure all were well. Later on I had the privilege of serving on a committee, formed by Father Tommy, we called ‘Team Pat.’ We met monthly for about five years. Our task was to be sure Father Pat was taken care of, that he had all he needed with regard to food and healthcare. Father Pat was a kind and gentle man, loved by many, who will miss him greatly. I considered him a very dear friend, as did most people he encountered.”

A popular scripture verse often recited at funerals comes from the Second Letter of Timothy and reads, ‘I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.’ Father O’Shaughnessy embodied that verse through his priesthood and his sporting exploits.

In addition to being an avid golfer – he scored a hole-in-one on a course in Ballybunion – and cyclist, Father O’Shaughnessy competed in the Boston Marathon and successfully completed an IronMan Triathlon in Hawaii on Oct. 14, 1989, with a time of 12 hours, 53 minutes and 11 seconds.

“When Father Pat came to Mississippi, he couldn’t swim and part of the IronMan Triathlon was a 2.3 mile swim,” said Father Conway. “He learned to swim at the Southern Miss Natatorium, where where he was taught by Mike Giles.”

Father O’Shaughnessy competed in the IronMan Triathlon to raise money for a cure for Cystic Fibrosis, which claimed the lives of his brother and sister. He was also one of the original organizers of the State Farm/Archie Manning Cystic Fibrosis Golf Classic.

As young man, Father O’Shaughnessy was an accomplished rugby player.

“He would have played rugby for Ireland, which was a huge honor, except God was calling him to the priesthood,” said Father Conway. “So, at 18 years of age, he told his coach he was going to the seminary and his coach said, ‘What a waste.’’

However, the Irish rugby team’s loss became Mississippi’s gain, as reflected in his nearly 56 years of priestly ministry.

“His priesthood was such a gift to the people of Mississippi,” said Bishop Louis F. Kihneman III, who was principal celebrant for Father O’Shaughnessy’s Mass of Christian Burial April 30 at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Long Beach.

Bishop Kihneman touched on the many relationships Father Pat established with people in South Mississippi and beyond.

“All of you here have a special memory of Father Pat,” said Bishop Kihneman. “I have special memories of him also. Some of them were when he came to my office and was ready to give me a piece of his mind, which he did. I truly loved him for that because I knew where he stood.”

On a serious note, the bishop said, “When we come to the Eucharist, it’s special for us priests and it is an opportunity for us to share the love of Jesus Christ that we all have in our hearts as priests with the people.”

“That, in the end, was at the center of Father Pat’s life,” said Bishop Kihneman.

“He truly believed in the Eucharist and he truly believed that the Body and Blood of Christ were being given to the faith community to be brought to the whole world. It was part of his missionary spirit coming from Ireland and serving his entire priesthood here in Mississippi. He gave us a great gift. It’s such a blessing for us to share and celebrate that gift of his life.”

On April 29, there was a visitation at Father O’Shaughnessy’s home in Long Beach.

Another Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated that same morning at St. Fabian in Hattiesburg.

A Mass of Christian Burial was also celebrated in Ireland on Friday, May 3.

Father O’Shaughnessy was laid to rest in Loughill Graveyard, Newcastle West, County Limerick, Ireland.