WAITARA The Marist Fathers are leaving Waitara in August, signalling the end of 160 years of the Society of Mary in Taranaki. NZ Catholic understands Frs Earl Crotty, SM, Frank Twiss, SM, and Gordon Kerins, SM, will probably be farewelled at a function after 2pm Mass at St Josephs, Waitara, on August 23.
The Marists are leaving after an agreement between Palmerston North Bishop Peter Cullinane and the Marists provincial leaders.
Waitara parish priest Fr Crotty said they are naturally sad to be leaving.
The Marists have made many friends in Waitara and at Fitzroy parish, where community superior Fr Twiss has worked, he said.
Fr Twiss has also been chaplain to the New Plymouth and Waitara police and is a former president of Fitzroy Rotary.
Frs Crotty and Twiss will go to Napier, where one will support parishes, especially Napier South, and the other will support the Marist community in Taradale and liaise with another in Wairoa.
Marists are used to moving on to a new mission area. It is banana box time again, Fr Crotty said.
It is not yet known where Fr Kerins will go.
[He] has been retired here since 1986 and, at 93 years of age, is naturally finding leaving here difficult, Fr Crotty said.
Fr Kerins still plays three holes of golf a day on good days and is an avid reader, tends to orchids and is a fount of information about local Maori. He had worked at Maori mission stations at Normanby and Waitara.
Bishop Cullinane has appointed Fr Tom Lawn as parish priest at Waitara and Inglewood and another priest will be appointed as assistant.
Fr Crotty said Fr Lawns appointment is good news because he is an experienced pastor in Taranaki.
Marist Fathers visited Mokau in north Taranaki in the 1840s and Waitara between 1846 and 1856 as missioners to Maori. Fr Maurice Tresallet, SM, was Taranakis first resident priest in 1860.
There have been Marist parish priests in Waitara since 1983.
