The Gospel call to solidarity and justice is one that can only be lived in community with others. It is not a journey we make on our own. There are times when our brothers and sisters on that journey pass from this life into the full embrace of God. When they do, it is good give thanks for their lives and witness to the wider community the contributions they have made.

Michael Murphy was a mentor to me when I began my work in 2006 as a young animator in Toronto for Development & Peace – Caritas Canada. He himself was the animator for “the good people of Saskatchewan” (as he called them), a position he’d held since 1993. 

Mentoring can be such a simple affair sometimes. Michael told me to get myself a “large portable travel bag,” to easily transport my DPCC workshop materials from parish to parish. I had been struggling to carry multiple boxes and papers, pens and other nonsense.

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I learned how to effectively organize the DPCC members in my region by listening to how Michael organized those in his. When it came to forming those members on our annual Fall and Share Lent campaigns, Michael was the master of “the campaign skit,” writing many funny and insightful sketches to help deliver the campaign messages a wide audience. Former colleague Siobhan Rowan said, “I always very much enjoyed Michael's great sense of humour and fun and the energy that he brought to gatherings. Skits! I remember one with him and Rich where he had us in stitches as he played Saint John Paul II. I can still picture him...”

He grounded our mission of Solidarity in the everyday lives of ordinary people – always attentive to concrete needs and realities more than theory. After a long training on the theory of ‘results-based management,’ he observed that DPCC was like a helium balloon. The role of the animator was to “hold on to the balloon” to keep it close to the ground (grassroots) and prevent it from “floating off into space.”

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Another colleague, Mary Corkery, recalled driving with him to a meeting in Muenster, Saskatchewan when they encountered a raging dust storm. “He said, ‘We’re late, hold on, we’re going through’ and then he hit the gas pedal. Windshield covered in dirt, we made it to the meeting.”

When I met him, Michael was in the twilight of a long career in international development that stretched back to 1969 when he was a CUSO volunteer in Zambia. He was my colleague for three years before he retired in 2009. Even in retirement he remained an active contributor to the work for justice, serving on many committees and boards in both the Catholic world and in his local community of Saskatoon. I continued to stay in touch with him in various ways until his passing a month ago at 81.

Michael (Míċeál) Joseph Murphy was born in Limerick, Ireland and came to Canada as a young man in the 1960s. When people talk of the Irish spirit, I think of Michael (and his love of Jameson whisky!) He was warm, kind, and funny with a healthy dollop of mischief. Some final words are best left for another animator who worked beside him more years than I, Paul Lemieux. “It’s difficult to put into words all the things Michael will be remembered for. He was the glue that kept our team meetings together. Be it rounding us up to play a game of volleyball or for skits on one theme or another.

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I think of how he was always faithful to the roots of his work overseas and the deep consciousness and understanding he had for people in the South. He was respected for his tenacity, his outspokenness – be it right or wrong, his attention for detail, and competitiveness to get the best results for the greater good. What came through always was his love for his children.  And his genuine interest in the wellbeing of the family members of his colleagues. He was a genuine salt of the earth man.”

May the road rise up to meet you Michael. May the wind be always at your back. May the sunshine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.