| Admin_History | Born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire in 1901, the son of an Inland Revenue Officer. Trained for the priesthood at Blairs College, Aberdeen and the Scots College and Gregorian University in Rome. Ordained in 1925. Joined the “White Fathers” (Missionaries of Africa) in 1931. Appointed Bishop of Aberdeen in 1951. Attended the first session of the Second Vatican Council in 1962. Resigned as Bishop in 1963 and died at Grantham, Lincolnshire in 1974.
Born in Gloucestershire, Francis Raymond Walsh moved at an early age to Aberdeenshire and began training for the priesthood at Blairs College. After further training in the Scots College in Rome, he was ordained for Aberdeen Diocese and served four years as Assistant Priest at Inverness. This short period was to be his only experience of Scottish parish life. He was strongly drawn to work on the foreign missions and joined the White Fathers, a religious order dedicated to the African Missions. Their novitiate was in Algeria and the majority of members were from France, Belgium or French Canada. Father Walsh was the first British member of the order.
He was not after all to spend much time in Africa itself but was chosen to promote the work of the order, raise funds on its behalf and recruit future members in Scotland. A man of imposing presence and apparently boundless energy and initiative, he achieved great success, visiting parishes, giving retreats, circulating literature all over Scotland about the work of the White Fathers and encouraging vocations. A particularly courageous venture was his junior seminary called St. Columba’s at Newtown St. Boswells in the Scottish Borders and many boys enrolled. He had advanced ideas about environmental issues and the seminary’s income was in part derived from the farm attached to it. The Second World War cut him (and his brethren) off from their headquarters in Algeria and put an end to the boarding school.
After the War, he took charge of a House of Studies for young White Fathers in St. Andrews and acted as an additional and very influential Chaplain at the University. In 1951, he was nominated as Bishop of Aberdeen where he was to remain till 1963. This was a momentous period for Catholics all over the world culminating in the summoning of the Second Vatican Council. As Bishop, to an extraordinary extent, he anticipated many of the changes which the Council would bring about. For example, he significantly improved the relations between Catholics and other Christians in the north-east, re-modelled his Cathedral along the lines of a Roman Basilica to suit the vision of a renewed liturgy, and introduced new financial systems to bring about a more equitable distribution of resources among his many small and scattered parishes. Such schemes inevitably encountered opposition but he was not a man to choose a quiet life.
He submitted his resignation from the Diocese in 1963 because of a serious scandal concerning his personal life. This caused much damaging publicity and deep and painful divisions among the priests of the Diocese, some of whom appealed to the Apostolic Delegate. Bishop Walsh insisted that he could stop the scandalous- and slanderous- rumours only at the expense of others, He believed that would be basically unjust. His retirement was the only way in which further disunity in the Diocese could be avoided.
His public career ended but he remained on good terms with fellow-Bishops and priests and he died as he had lived- a member of the White Fathers, now known as Missionaries of Africa. |