Bishop Robert Healy DD 1925 - 2002

My memory of Bishop Robert Healy is and will ever remain a very happy one.

I arrived in Perth on 29 July 1971 as an assistant priest in the parish of Swanbourne and I became its parish priest in 1974.

On the 2 August 1971 I was invited to the annual luncheon in honour of St Alphonsus at the Redemptorist Monastery, North Perth.  At lunch time one of the priests introduced me to the then Father Robert Healy parish priest of Cottesloe my neighbouring parish.

Very soon we became good friends and remained good neighbours for eight years till I transferred to Victoria Park on 28 January 1979 as parish priest.

I remember I had attended both his Ordination Silver Jubilee and Golden Jubilee Celebrations and I remember also that when he was appointed an Auxiliary Bishop of Perth I happened to be on holiday overseas and I cut the holiday short to be present at his Episcopal Ordination.

Talking about our friendly relationship I would like to mention that in return he had attended a Memorial Mass for my late father (Philip) in January 1976 and another Memorial Mass for my late brother (Julian) in September 1995.  He presided at my Ordination Silver Jubilee Celebration in 1993 and he preached the Homily and he presided also at my Thirtieth Anniversary Mass in 1998 - both Celebrations were held in the Manning Parish.

After Swanbourne I moved to Victoria Park, Moora and Gingin-Chittering parishes and Bishop Healy was always a great support to me in my successive appointments especially in difficult times - not just as a good friend but also as an Auxiliary Bishop.

In 1990 I was appointed parish priest of Manning and Bishop Healy was in residence in the same parish.

He soon started coming to the parish church invited or uninvited and he used to say that I was his parish priest.  In reply I used to say that he was my assistant bishop.

In fact this had become very true because whenever I had to be absent from the parish, the bishop always supplied (covered) for me, not to mention his regular attendance for the annual Holy Week Celebrations and on so many other occasions including two blessings of St Pius X School new extensions and an Ordination to the Diaconate of Father Ian Esmond (also from Manning).

I moved to Osborne Park in the year 2000 after serving Manning for ten years with the good help of an "assistant bishop" and again he visited my new parish twice in two years.

Three first cousins of the late Bishop Healy namely: John Poole, Anne Healy and Kathleen Joynes live in the Osborne Park parish and Bishop Healy celebrated his Priestly Golden Jubilee in Osborne Park. When the Bishop died we celebrated some Memorial Masses in the presence of his local and overseas family members.

In all honesty I must say that Bishop Healy and myself worked happily together for 31 years like two good brothers and I still miss him.

My only argument with him and my only apology which I had tendered to him worth mentioning were as follows:-

• In 1996 when he received the Honorary Doctor of Laws from Notre Dame University I took him together with his house-keeper Mrs Kath Johnson to Fremantle for the Celebration and as soon as he received it I told him that that was invalid because at that time they were not teaching Law at Notre Dame.
• On another occasion I was picking some roses from the front garden and a passing motorist sounded the horn to me.  Unaware that he was the Bishop,  I waved to him with the secateurs in my right hand - for which I phoned to apologise.

May the Good Lord reward Bishop Healy for all the good he has done through his priesthood and grant him eternal rest.

Father Michael Gatt
26 February 2003