Pastoral Care The 150 CLUB (Reminiscences)

The Pastoral Care group have established this Club as part of the 150th celebrations.
The aim of the Club is to allow parishioners to meet in an informal setting as a way of
getting to know each other a bit better. Pastoral Care have been keen to reach out
to the wider community which makes up St Simon’s and it was felt that a regular
opportunity to meet might help this. To date there are twenty of us meeting on
Saturdays at 2.45-4pm on a fortnightly basis.

Please come along and help support this worthwhile initiative.
If you know of any member of our community who may need assistance in
attending either the Club or Mass please contact

Sharon Gallagher on 0141 334
4521 or speak to one of the members of
Pastoral Care after Sunday or daily Mass

Keynotes Issue December 2008

Our 3 year celebration of the anniversary of there-establishment of the Catholic Church in Partick (1855) and the opening of the first church (1858)
has been brought to a fitting end by the discovery that a book has been published in Australia which is the biography of the building’s architect, Charles O’Neill *

Because of his relationship with the explorer David Livingstone who was brought up with him in Blantyre we have always been able to boast of Fr Daniel Gallaugher as the builder of our church.
But it seems that the architect may be even more famous. O’Neill was brought up in Dumbarton and had built 4 of the first Catholic churches in Glasgow before he was 30. Sadly only ours survives **

He then emigrated to New Zealand and became a Member of Parliament there before moving on to Australia where he may have had a minor role in the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. However he
is widely honoured in Australia as the founder of the St Vincent de Paul Society in the subcontinent.

The biography raises the question as to whether he sacrificed his career as a civil engineer because of the time he gave to setting up SVdP conferences.
Indeed at the end there is even a hint of sanctity which is remarkable given that Australia’s only saint to date is Mary McKillop who was also born in Argyllshire.

This may help to put aside any misgivings that may remain after spending £400 000 refurbishing O’Neill’s only remaining monument in Scotland. It is there to remind us that while building it he was
even then active in setting up the first SVdP Conference in the West of Scotland. Many have remarked on the success of the refurbishment. Let us hope that it survives also as a testament to
the Christian virtue of its architect and an inspiration to all of us to try and do likewise.

* Utick, Stephen Captain Charles, Engineer of Charity. Allen &
Unwin.
** The others were St Mary’s Pollokshaws, St Mark’s Shettleston
and St Mary’s Maryhill. Part of St Aloysius Springburn built by
him survives.