Fr Delahunt ‘just like Christ’

FATHER Eugene Delahunt was yesterday described as being “just like Christ who loved you with absolute compassion, and who spent time forgiving sinners.”

The glowing tribute to the Irishman, whom many parishioners said was a “living saint” was made by Fr Paschal Tiernan who delivered the homily at Father Delahunt’s funeral service at the St Finbar’s RC Church, Diego Martin. Officiating at the service was Fr Thomas Lawson. Father Delahunt passed away last Thursday at the age of 90 at the St Finbar’s Geriatric Home. Fr Delahunt entered the Dominican Order in 1932 and was ordained in July 1939 at the age of 25. He arrived in Trinidad on Good Friday, 1945. Fr Tiernan said many parishioners would have met him in various ways, through “the 9 am mass here which he conducted almost daily for nine years, where he heard confessions before, and after rushed off to give sacred communion,” although he had retired.

Fr Tiernan told former parishioners that  Fr Delahunt “left his own family and you welcomed him into yours. He loved you with absolute compassion and he was just like Christ. He gave and spent his life as a living icon of the good shepherd. Over the years he served as parish priest at Maraval, Sangre Grande, San Juan, Siparia, St Ann’s and Carenage. He was responsible for construction of schools and was active in the early days of the credit union movement and the Catholic Youth Organisation. The funeral service was attended by scores of priests, who led the casket into the church, as well as Archbishop Edward Gilbert, Papal Nuncio Emil Tsherrig and Bishop Sydney Charles of Grenada.