Father Paul Gardiner SJ OAM

Father Paul Gardiner SJ OAM

Fr Paul Gardiner died at Penola on 18 March 2017 at 93 years of age.

He came to Penola in 1999 to be Chaplain to the Mary MacKillop Penola Centre and we were blessed with his presence for 18 years.

At the Centre we regularly sought his wise counsel on the displays and information about Mary MacKillop.

He was Postulator for the Cause of Mary MacKillop from 1984 to 2008 and wrote the positio, the document accepted by the authorities in Rome resulting in her Beatification in 1995.  He was a very learned Jesuit Priest who taught Philosophy and lectured on Scripture, Latin and Greek in Seminaries.

He considered it appropriate to live in Penola where Mary MacKillop commenced her work in 1866. His legacy is one of deep faith in God, the certainty of God’s love for us all and our need to accept in Mary MacKillop’s words that ‘we are but travellers here’. May he rest in peace.