By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
FATHER John Allen made everyone who attended Mass feel like they were the only person in the room.
“I used to go there (to the parish) when people I knew died, he’d be conducting a church service and you’d swear to goodness he was only talking to you, but all the other people felt the same thing,” Les Donaldson said this week.
“He just had that nice, flowing style.”
Les, of Donaldson Real Estate, has lived in Narre Warren for 45 years and has never known anyone that stood out in the local community more than the late Fr John.
The adoration for the Catholic priest will see the community – including Les as auctioneer – join together early next month for a special auction night held at John’s parish, Our Lady Help of Christians in Narre Warren, to commemorate a year exactly since John died on 12 July from pancreatic cancer.
A 240-page book chronicling Fr John’s life, entitled Rainbow Over Narre Warren and penned by his sister, Elsie Johnstone, will be officially launched on the night.
“When he died it reminded me a little bit of Ash Wednesday,” Les said, one of the 1500 people who attended John’s funeral last year.
“We woke up the morning after Ash Wednesday and heard all these people had died and you could hardly eat breakfast, you felt empty, then when I was rang up and told Fr John passed away – and I’ve even got that feeling by just talking about it now – you really felt you’d lost someone in your family.”
Next month’s fundraiser will see a range of items auctioned off to raise money for a new parish centre, including John’s beloved Essendon Football Club memorabilia collected over a lifetime.
“I’ve heard stories where if Essendon were playing on Saturday night, Mass seemed to finish a bit short and if they were playing in the afternoon Mass sort of started a bit later,” Les said.
John worked as a parish priest at Our Lady Help for 16 years, c-oordinating Sunday Mass in the ever-growing and multicultural community of Narre Warren and overseeing the introduction of primary and secondary schools in the area, and an extension of the church.
“He was responsible for being in charge of the growth of Narre Warren,” Les said.
“It went from a small little sleepy hollow where we just had an ordinary catholic church, nothing fancy, to what we’ve got today.”
Parishioner and John’s close friend Trevor Scott couldn’t agree more with Les’s sentiment.
“He was a people’s priest,” Trevor said.
“He related to the parishioners, he wasn’t a boss or anything like that, he was a friend.”
Even mere hours before he died almost a year ago, Fr John remained ever selfless.
“Three hours before he died, I went in and saw him and he said ‘how is everything, how is everyone going?’” Trevor said.
“But he’s thinking of others, that’s what got me.”
The auction night will be held on Saturday 12 July in the Don Bosco Hall at Our Lady Help of Christians in Narre Warren.
For more information regarding the trivia night, contact the parish on 9704 7934.
