In Memory

Rev. Linus M. Wall, S.F.M.

1919-2011

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Fr. Linus Michael Wall died peacefully on Wednesday, July 13, 2011, at Scarborough General Hospital. He was in his 93rd year, the oldest member of Scarboro Missions at the time of his death.

The son of Joseph & Bridget Wall, Linus is predeceased by his brothers James and Bernard of Linden, New Jersey, and his sister Genevieve (Kennedy). He is survived by his brother Joseph of Harbour Main, Newfoundland, along with many nieces and nephews.

Born on March 26, 1919, in Harbour Main, Newfoundland, he took his primary and secondary education in the area before entering St. Francis Xavier Seminary in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and eventually being ordained for the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society in Toronto on June 27, 1949.

Fr. Linus spent 57 of his 62 years of priestly service outside of Canada. The first five years were spent in the Dominican Republic where he was assistant pastor in Bani and Hato Mayor. In 1954 he was missioned to British Guiana (present day Guyana). He was pastor of New Amsterdam parish and served as consultor to the Regional Superior from 1956 to 1960 and again in 1964. For 42 years he was pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Georgetown. Due to ill health, Fr. Linus returned to Canada in 2003.

Fr. Linus celebrated his 90th birthday in 2008 among his Scarboro community in Canada. Of this milestone, Superior General Fr. Jack Lynch wrote: “Those of us who live with this hearty Newfoundlander have come to appreciate more and more each day his wonderful approach to life, his youthful vigour and enthusiasm—remarkable in a man who, without complaint, now goes for dialysis three times weekly. One day I asked if he feels a certain level of frustration going to the hospital three days a week. ‘Heck no!’ he said, ‘I am so grateful to God that I am alive and can enjoy walking and life in general. What have I got to complain about?’”

Having lived in Guyana for 57 years, Fr. Linus loved the Guyanese people and he concerned himself with what was going on in the country. He saw the needs of the church of the future resting mainly on the shoulders of the laity and he encouraged the laity in every way he could.

On the day of his death, the parishioners of Our Lady of Fatima parish in Georgetown gathered at the parish church to pray the rosary for him. The parish celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving for Fr. Linus on July 20, with Bishop Francis Alleyne, OSB, as the principal celebrant. Parishioner Andrew Kerry writes: “The entire liturgy was one of celebration for a priest who made an impact for so many years on the lives of so many people. The entire liturgy was planned the way he would have wanted, entirely by lay people.”

In Canada, the Mass of the Resurrection was celebrated in the St. Francis Xavier Chapel at Scarboro Missions on Saturday, July 16, with Superior General Fr. Jack Lynch presiding and Fr. Russell Sampson, another former missioner to Guyana, as homilist. Fr. Linus was buried in Our Lady Queen of the Clergy cemetery on the grounds of St. Augustine’s Seminary. We thank Fr. Linus for his example of faithfulness to mission and for his commitment to priesthood. May he rest in peace.

A parishioner remembers Fr. Linus Wall, S.F.M.

The following is excerpted from a tribute received by Andrew Kerry in memory of Fr. Linus Wall. Mr. Kerry is a parishioner at Our Lady of Fatima Church, Georgetown, Guyana, where Fr. Wall served for 42 years.

I have known Fr. Wall all my life. I have been told that I learned to walk and talk in Our Lady of Fatima Church and I still do walk and talk in Fatima, although not the way I did 40-odd years ago. It was because of Fr. Wall’s example of deep faith, commitment and encouragement that I was inspired to serve in lay ministry.

I remember the first Mass I served as an altar server for Fr. Wall when I was 10 years old. It was the feast of All Souls and I was very nervous. After Mass he thanked us and commended us on good serving and with a smile he turned to me and said, “Young man you did not respond ‘Amen’ when you received communion.” A few years later, he encouraged a few of us to become lectors, I being the shortest had to use a box to see over the lectern, but he said it was okay, “One day you’ll get taller.”

In my 20s, he asked me to train as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, which I accepted soon after. Fr. Wall then encouraged me to conduct communion services in the absence of a priest, which entailed my sharing and reflecting on the Word of God, and he let me have access to his vast collection of homiletic resources. His parting gift to me when he left Guyana was a suitcase full of books.

Fr. Wall had a prophetic vision. With the lack of priestly vocations and the aging of priests, he saw the future of the church in lay formation. In the mid-1970s he helped implement a diocesan policy to train lay people and Our Lady of Fatima had more people in training than any other parish. Fr. Wall would express his encouragement by sitting in on some of the training sessions. He truly believed that much of the work in the parish could be done by lay people. For years he encouraged and empowered us.

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