Fr. Sylvius

From the desk of Fr. Ignatius Waters, cp

Sunday, 2nd September 2018

For the last ten years, Fr. Sylvius crossed the car park, every Thursday and Saturday morning, to hear confessions. He was always anxious about it – this crossing – and with good reason, especially in recent years. The wind seems to blow through our carpark like winds howl through mountain valleys. And Sylvius was so fragile he was afraid of being blown over and falling. And on Saturday morning, June 23rd last, he did fall but it was after he reached the seeming security of the church porch. He tripped and fell and hit his head on the stone steps. He was taken to St. James Hospital where he died on Tuesday, 26^th of June and his funeral mass was on Friday,29^th of June.

Our Cemetery has been transformed in the last year and Sylvius was heard to say, “It’s so beautiful we’ll all be dying to get into it!” I wonder did he have a premonition that it would be happening so soon for him? Sylvius worked in South Africa for most of his priestly life and In January 1998, I went there to give him a well – deserved six month’s break. My six months developed into nine years, during which I came to know and appreciate his work in the mining towns of Westonaria and Carletonville and later in Hartbeespoort. All the years he was very aware of the need for security and I remember the shock it was when we heard there was a break -in at his house in the middle of the night, the windows were all shattered and he was dragged out in his bare feet and pinned down with an iron bar on his throat. He must surely have felt he was about to be killed. Experiences like that do terrible things to you. So, he came home to Mount Argus. In the years since then, he suffered from Parkinson’s disease and grew progressively more frail. Still he was quietly content, felt so secure and was so grateful for everything. He was always quite reserved and became more so towards the end. The words he spoke more than any other were words of gratitude and appreciation.

We thank God for him. Despite the Parkinson’s and the frailty and the fear of falling, he was faithful right to the end to the Confessional and to Sunday mass in St. Gladys. May he rest in peace.