Golden jubilee of Fr Oliver McCrossan celebrated in St Johnston

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Gratitude was the theme of the evening in St Johnston on Friday as Fr Oliver McCrossan celebrated 50 years since his priestly ordination.

A large congregation of family, neighbours and friends turned out at St Baithin’s Church to mark the golden jubilee of the Columban Missionary.

Fr Oliver, born and reared on the Main Street in St Johnston, was joined by Bishop Niall Coll, Bishop of Ossory and a native of St Johnston, concelebrated the Mass alongside Pastor Emeritus Monsignor Dan Carr and Fr Philip Kemmy, one of the administrators of the parish.

Fr Oliver said the occasion was “a Mass of thanksgiving and gratitude for the life I have received and the gift of your prayers”.

In preparing for the occasion, his mind wandered back to that word: gratitude.

For his late parents, Tom and Ruby, and his extended family members. 

“To this community in St Johnston where I grew up with kind neighbours and kind people,” he said. “They taught me and showed me Christian values and helped me all through my life.

“To the people and friends in parishes of the Philippines where I worked for many years. To the Columban Fathers, the priests who worked with me and the Sisters and lay missionaries who have helped and guided me along the way in my journey of life.”

Gratitude, too, for the gift of faith he received.

Fr Oliver was ordained on Easter Sunday 1975 at St Columban’s College, Navan by Bishop John McCormack, Bishop of Meath, having previously been educated at St Baithin’s NS in St Johnston and St Columb’s College in Derry. 

He joined the Society of St Columban and moved to the Philippines as a missionary priest in 1976. He spent a large portion of his priestly life there and recently returned for a period at the end of 2024.

He said: “I am proud of my culture, proud of my country and how well respected our people are wherever they go. We are right to be proud of our people.” 

He paid a special tribute to his sisters Gay - who sadly died in 2013 - and Beck for their unwavering support.

Fr Oliver added: “We are all on the same journey in life. Let us continue to support one another, build bridges with each other, not walls. To remain steadfast to appreciate the value of our relationships and appreciate the community and the good people who surround us.” 

He thanked those who came from “all over the world…even Killea and Newton!” for the celebration. 

Bishop Coll, a proud son of the parish of Taughboyne, spoke of how Fr Oliver’s ordination “sparked” his own young imagination at St Baithin’s NS. A school visited by the newly-ordained cleric, the first St Johnston native to become a priest, saw three of its alumni enter the priesthood - Bishop Coll along with Fr Joseph Gillespie and the late Fr Joseph O’Donnell.

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“On behalf of the people of the parish of Taughboyne, congratulations on 50 years of priestly service,” Bishop Coll said.

“I remember him coming to the old school up in Blueball. I remember the great excitement in the parish and the great pride the people of St Johnston had.”

As the Catholic Church mourned the death of Pope Francis, Bishop Coll told how Fr Oliver had anticipated many things close to the heart of the late pontiff - particularly his missionary work.

Bishop Coll praised Fr Oliver’s endeavours in the Philippines and recalled how he was so good at “galvanising” people at home to aid his work. 

“The stories come back about the great work you did,” he said.

Bishop Coll remembered his own time in Rome in the late 1989s and hearing Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich speak at the Synod on the Laity about the need of the Church to “awaken the sleeping giant of the laity”. Fr Oliver’s work, he remarked, reflected that very vision.