Low Down Articles
Valley Lives
Article 114 of 146
This article first appeared in the "Valley Lives" column in the December 7, 2016 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Lomer Rooney
Priest remembered for openness, sensitivity
By Mary Fahey
Lomer Rooney had parishes in Farrellton, Cantley, Chelsea, Hull, and others over the course of his 40-year career as a priest. At one point, the Venosta-raised man of the cloth was tending to three parishes at once. He was busy, said his sister Rhea Peck, but he loved his priesthood, and knew that was the right path for him.
Rooney died in Gatineau on Nov. 4. He was 70.
"At the age of five, [Rooney] knew he wanted to become a priest," said Peck. "He used to play priest at home, and he would have an altar set up, and he would get his brother Kevin to be his alter boy, even if he didn't want to be.
"He was a great priest. He understood the ins and outs of people's lives."
Rooney was the oldest of ten siblings - six girls and four boys - and Peck said she'd always maintained a close relationship with her brother, with Rooney sometimes calling her several times a day to chat. He was close to his family, and he had a loved one always at his side in the final days of his life.
Peck recalls one evening when the family sat down to dinner. Rooney announced his intention to join the priesthood.
"When those words came out of the oldest in the family, I can remember it sent tears down Mom's face and Daddy's eyes filled up. It was quite an exciting moment in our household," said Peck.
Rooney gave his first mass in Kazabazua in June 1976 at the age of 30. At the time of his death, he was serving as the parish priest for the Our Lady of the Annunciation church in Gatineau. One of his favourite tasks as a priest was delivering funeral masses; he developed a bit of a specialty in the area, said Peck, taking on funeral gigs whenever he could. He was often named in people's wills to perform their funerals. He was always calm and never nervous, said Peck, and others took comfort in his sense of ease.
"He was really there for us. We thought because he was a priest he should live forever," said Peck.
Rooney passed on his reverence for funerals to his friend, Barry McNulty. McNulty, 43, was a close friend of Rooney's for about 35 years. McNulty knew Rooney through the church as a boy, and their friendship only blossomed from there. He saw Rooney as an older brother figure, he said; his influence was instrumental in McNulty's choice to become a funeral director.
"He helped me out along the way and gave me a lot of advice and guidance and helped shape me," said McNulty. "I could talk to him confidentially about anything... I probably talked to him two or three times a day, every day."
Rooney baptized McNulty's children and oversaw the burial of his family members when they died. He was always present in McNulty's household, and he became like a grandfather to his children. Peck felt the same way; Rooney was always around for her and her family, and he even found the time to go to her grandchildren's baseball games. He added a personal touch to the lives of everyone he interacted with, she said, which was a great many people.
"He was well known in the community and well liked," said Peck. "He knew how to put a smile on [your] face."