Avia Collinder, Gleaner Writer

Father Paul Walsh credits the heavenly Father with his record of success at St. Anthony's - Photos by Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

This is the second instalment in our feature on super dads, being presented for the month of September.

The story of St Anthony's Children's Home and the man who started it is proof positive that what a child needs, more than anything else, is at least one parent who will demonstrate that he or she is indeed loved.

It's an early Tuesday morning in the summer when a willowy teenager bounces through the doors of St Anthony's and says to the man standing guard under the tree, "I going off for my lesson now, Dad."

"That's Bambi," says Father Paul Walsh, turning to us. "I got her when she was two months old," the octogenarian adds, proudly watching while Bambi exchanges place with another teen who has just returned from driving lessons.

These teenagers are among the more than 200 children at St Anthony's, who are raised by Father Walsh and sent to the best of schools and colleges, equipped with all the skills that children in more affluent homes experience.

turned down career in medicine

He may not be wealthy, but Father Paul Walsh - the man who turned down a career in medicine to answer the call to become a priest - ensures that the 200 children who call him Dad are not deprived of life's basics and, even more important, of a parent's love.

"God has a great sense of humour. He gave me all the bright ones," Father Walsh chuckles, as he told us how well his children have done, many going on to good professions after completing college or university.

While he notes that some of his children are troubled by the separation from their parents, he states, "Every child I take into my home I take as my own child. All the children call me Dad."

Father Walsh smiles as he recalls how reluctantly he had answered the calling to be a priest.

It's not a nice thing to believe you might be going mad. This was Father Walsh's experience when in college a voice in his head told him that "I want you to become a priest."

raised in loving home

Father Walsh was born Paul Patrick Noel Walsh to Simone Vennat and Richard Walsh in Brooklyn, New York, on Christmas Day, 1926.

He reflects, "I was raised in a very loving home, with strict morals and discipline. Very early in life our parents taught us to love prayer, Holy Mass, Communion, the Rosary, and our God and Heavenly persons."

In January, 1946, he entered St Joseph's College Pre-Med Programme in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with the intention of becoming a doctor, and graduated in 1948.

Walsh enjoyed college and it did not take him long to find a girlfriend. Before long they were talking about getting married after graduation from medical school.

But, on Christmas Day 1946, his 20th birthday, while dancing with his fiancée, Paul heard the words, "I want you to become a priest."

The demand, which he believed was from God, was repeated again in similar circumstances the next year, and soon the student had to share new information with the woman he loved.

"My fiancée was greatly disappointed with this news, but she understood I must follow my conscience."

Paul Walsh entered Callicoon Franciscan Minor Seminary in August of 1948 and then the Franciscan Novitiate in Patterson, NJ, in August 1949, followed by Holy Name College in Washington, DC, for four years of theology. On September 18, 1953, he was was ordained a priest in the Franciscan order.

More than 60 years later, he notes, "My divine calling has never changed."

In the same manner in which he was initially called, Father Walsh was instructed to go to a country with the descendants of ex-slaves and help in bringing them back to a love of God. He was sent to Jamaica with three other Franciscan brothers in 1953 and helped to start Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church in St Andrew.

among the poorest

It was during this time, realising that he was among "the poorest people in the world", that he fell in love with their children.

In 1960, he was back to the United States to work in a prison in Dannemora, New York. He recalls, "I kept in touch with those poor families and children back in Jamaica, and continued to support them financially by sending them all of my salary."

In September 1973, he requested transfer back to Jamaica, to work as the pastor of Our Lady of Angels Church in St Andrew. Shortly after, with the help of a group of businessmen who are today his board of directors, he began St Anthony's Children's Home in Barbican.

The house, he said, was a miraculous find, costing much less than the going market rate.

Father lives in a tiny cottage at the bottom of the vegetable garden, where a statue of Our Lady of Mercy looks gently towards his door.

FOCUS ON YOUTH

"This home," he tells Outlook, "is run differently. The whole thing is based on the youth. We believe in the 10 Commandments. None are left out. Mass is held every day and holy hour is kept five days each week."

Reflecting on the home's longevity, he says, "There is not one moment when the Lord and I had any conversation about money. I assumed that if this was what he wanted me to do, he would provide."

The main supporters of the home are the board of directors and the Catholic parish of Jacksonville in Florida, whose youth group come to Jamaica each summer to spend two weeks with their island brothers and sisters, camping out in every corner of the home.

Although he never did marry and have children, Father Walsh has ensured that the children given to him by God are not lacking in anything.

He notes, "As a family we pray together daily, focus on Christian values and principles, and not on conversion to the Catholic faith.

"In the words of Pope Paul II, 'It is most important that man experience love. Man cannot live without love, as life will seem senseless if love is not revealed.'

"I love each child that I help to raise; I will always be here, as their dad, until our Heavenly Father leads me Home."

working 'children'

His 'children' include a private investigator in Canada, a doctor who is a hospital director in Trinidad, a nurse, Neptune, New Jersey, USA; a computer technician and realtor, Neptune, New Jersey; a member of the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom; a nurse in Wembley, England; a real-estate agent in Canada; an airport supervisor in Jamaica; a deputy director of Customs in Jamaica; a nurse in Rockville, USA; an airport supervisor in Miami, Florida, USA; a social worker for the Department of Corrections, Canada; a car salesman, Jamaica, and a police officer in Canada.

He is also proud of the fact that many of those who have left the home are married.

Joyce Moore, the mother-in-law of one of his daughters, told Outlook, "It was Father who married them (her son and Father's daughter). He did it right here (in the large front yard of St Anthony's)."

Father Paul Walsh gets a hug from two of the smaller children

The Catholic Father has his own tales to tell.

"I rescued one mother who was living on a porch with her four children. Now the mother is married. She has been married for five years," he beams.

Father Paul Walsh believes fervently in building families in which further generations will flourish.

Teachers, engineers and medical doctors number among the children whom Father Paul Walsh has raised at St Anthony's Children's Home in St Andrew.