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Published Quarterly by
VICE-PROVINCE OF CALIFORNIA - OREGON
Volume 1, No. 2
San Francisco, California
June 1973
When Fr Cassian celebrates the golden jubilee of his Ordination to the Priesthood on June 29, 1973, every friar in the Vice-Province will rejoice with him in true fraternal fashion. Many friars of older vintage in the Province in Ireland will rejoice with him and in affection. Missionaries in Zambia, Cape Town, and New Zealand and maybe a few friars in the Curia in Rome will remember him with gratitude as their Canon Law teacher or guardian or friend. His apostolate in the past fifty years looks like a travelogue. Donegal to Kilkenny, Burlingame to Bend, Glengariff to Gilchrist, and from St. Patrick's, Wilmington via St. Mary's, Ukiah to St. Francis, Los Angeles. The people of God whom he has helped and guided in various parishes, and especially the Third Order in St. Francis parish, will rejoice also with his friars when he celebrates fifty golden years as a Priest.
His association with the Capuchins goes back to 1908 when at the very early age of eleven he began his high school studies in Rochestown. In 1914, when the guns and cannons of World War I were echoing through Europe, he entered the Order. On August 27, a few days after the death of Pope St. Pius X, he became a Capuchin Novice in Kilkenny. A degree in Celtic studies was awarded him from the National
University of Ireland in 1919. On the completion of his theological studies he was ordained to the Priesthood in Holy Trinity Church, Cork on June 29, 1923 by Bishop Daniel Cohalan. Fathers Fintan and Conleth, God be good to them both, were ordained worked for many days. (These two friars worked for many years.) In 1923, his Superiors selected him for higher studies and, after studying for three years in the Gregorian University in Rome, he received his doctorate in Canon Law.
He taught Canon Law to the theology students of the Irish Province from 1926 to 1943 in Rochestown and in Donegal. He was Guardian in Ard Mhuire for six years and long before he introduced, during his administration, a form of government very much in keeping with the spirit of Pope John XXIII. He was Novice Master for our brothers for a few years. Only one of his novices persevered and with a touch of humor, Father Cassian have persevered if he had not been an ex-soldier."
When he celebrated the golden jubilee of his birth, he was ready for a new apostolate in a new environment. In 1947 he became a member of the Novitiate Community in Wilmington, Del. He worked in many parishes on the East Coast, taught Canon Law for one year, and for nine long years he was Guardian of St. Patrick's Monastery in Wilmington. For the past fifteen years he has enjoyed his apostolate as a hospital chaplain and an assistant pastor in many of our parishes in California and Oregon.
Father Cassian is a humble, simple, likely Capuchin, well informed and interested in the past, the present, and the future. He is approachable and kind, and gifted. He has a good sense of humor and good common sense. Optimistic and joyful, he goes through life with a deep serenity that carries its own charism.
May Father Cassian O'Shea continue to work and to smile, to pray, and to edify the friars of the Vice-Province and to edify the to come.
Father Cyril Kelleber.
Provincial Editor
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FR. EVANGELIST KELLY, O.F.M. CAP.
Editor
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FR. THOMAS BLOMBERG, O.F.M. CAP.
Associate Editor
. . . . .
BR. EDWARD JOHNSON, O.F.M. CAP.
Published from Buenaventura Center, San Francisco, California