HONG KONG (SE): Jesuit Father Séan Coghlan died peacefully at St. Paul’s Hospital, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, in the early hours of September 2. He was just shy of 88-years-old and had been a priest for 56 years.
Born in Limerick, Ireland, on 29 October 1933, Father Coghlan entered the Society of Jesus at Emo, Portalington, Laois, on 7 September 1951. He first arrived in Hong Kong in 1959 as a scholastic, returning to Ireland in 1962. He was ordained to the priesthood on 29 July 1965 in Milltown Park, Dublin. He returned to Hong Kong in 1967 and professed his final vows on 15 August 1970 at Wah Yan College, Kowloon.
According to the Chop Suey-Wah Yan College Hong Kong memories Facebook page, Father Coghlan taught at the two Wah Yan Colleges in Hong Kong and Kowloon and was principal of Colegio Mateus Ricci, Macau, in 1981.
In 1988, he was asked by then Jesuit regional superior, Father Robert Ng, to take up the post of principal of Wah Yan College, Hong Kong, where he worked until 1996.
He was also a member of the English Religious Broadcasting Advisory Committee of Radio Television Hong Kong, and was warden of Ricci Hall, at the University of Hong Kong, from 1996 until he stepped down in 2010. However he continued to minister there.
A September 2 post on the Facebook page of Ricci Hall noted that Father Coghlan was the longest-serving warden of Ricci Hall. It said that he stressed that educators should have faith in the future generation and that he believed that young people would be able to exercise their true potential once given freedom and respect.
A funeral Mass is scheduled to be celebrated by John Cardinal Tong, the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Hong Kong, at 10.00am on September 25 at St. Ignatius Chapel, Wah Yan College, Kowloon. Burial will follow at St. Michael’s Cemetery, Happy Valley.
May he rest in peace.
