Missionary who was deep and innovative thinker
BREIFNE VINCENT Walker, who has died aged 61 after a short illness, was a Spiritan (Holy Ghost) missionary for whom the Gospel imperative to love God and neighbour had immediate social and political consequences.
He was born in Dublin and grew up in Bray, Co Wicklow. Having attended Spiritan schools, Willow Park and Blackrock College, he was ordained in 1976 in Kimmage where he had studied theology and to which he later returned as a part-time teacher.
His first appointment as a missionary was to Ghana in 1977 where he was to work in pastoral ministry for three years. He later returned to west Africa as lecturer and formator at the Spiritan International School of Theology in Enugu, Nigeria.
In one of a number of letters to The Irish Times over the years, he contrasted the courtesy shown to him by Nigerian immigration officials with the “atrocious” treatment, by the Irish authorities, of Fr John Achebe who was imprisoned on a visit to Ireland last year.
With qualifications from Maynooth and UCD as well as a PhD in moral theology from TCD, Breifne was quick to champion the cause of the oppressed in Ireland and abroad.
A deep and innovative thinker, his theology was informed by his conviction that the place for the Christian was with those on the margins of society, those who had no voice and those whose fortunes were compromised by injustice, personal or structural.
A historian with an active interest in contemporary politics, he was acutely aware of how politicians could work towards the betterment of society and the world, but also how they could seek to justify acts of injustice, criminality and war – all in the name of the State.
As teacher and mentor, Breifne was greatly respected and loved by students and staff, becoming “Uncle” to many in Nigeria. His students will recall his understanding of Christian discipleship as being self-implicating, and he published scholarly theological reflections on the ethical stance of the “bystander” – the person who sits by and watches.
At the time of his death he was bringing to completion a project which would radically question the applicability today of received teaching relating to “just war” theory.
On his return from Ghana in 1979 he became part of the Mountjoy prison chaplaincy team for three years and it was there he developed a keen awareness of the needs and rights of prisoners.
He was actively involved with the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Amnesty International, the Anti-Apartheid Movement, the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas and campaigns for the victims of miscarriages of justice.
One of his favourite charities was Trust, which was headed up by his good friend Alice Leahy, and it was typical of his generosity to the homeless that money gifted to him to take a holiday in Florence for his 60th birthday was instead set aside for that organisation.
One of his last public engagements was at a lunch hosted by his long-time friend, President Mary McAleese, in Áras an Uachtaráin in February and he took great solace from the visits of the President to see him in his final weeks as he faced imminent death.
Fr Breifne Vincent Walker CSSp: born May 16th, 1947; died May 11th, 2009