Vocations stories

Fr Tony Egar CP has moved 14 times in his 60 years as a Passionist priest but one constant has been the influence of his three ‘families’ along the journey. The sprightly 84 year old spoke to The Southern Cross after his diamond jubilee on July 18.

With older brother Rob in the seminary and sister Ruth in the convent by the time he turned 16, there was a certain inevitability about Tony Egar choosing a religious vocation.

The youngest of nine children, Fr Tony recalls visiting Rob, who was seven years older, at St Francis Xavier Seminary.

“They had a swimming pool there and that was a great attraction for me,” he said.

“Luckily my motivation changed.”

In his final year of schooling at Christian Brothers College, Tony met Passionist priest Fr Philip Brosnan at a school retreat and he made a big impression, to the point where Tony made contact with the Monastery at Urrbrae.

Despite living relatively close by in Parkside, he had little to do with the Passionists until then, his childhood centring around St Raphael’s parish with confession on Saturday, Benediction Saturday night and Mass every Sunday.

He described his parents as “remarkable”. His father Eugene started off as a ‘gopher’ at The Advertiser and rose through the ranks to work on the linotype machines before retiring in his early 70s.

“Having Eugene and Dorothea (Doss) as parents was a pure gift in the lottery of Life. They were married in 1920, bore nine children between 1922 and 1940, experiencing an economic depression and a Word War in that time.

“I’m still discovering and appreciating more and more how much of themselves they gave to us.”

Despite the “subtle influence” of his parents’ deep faith, Tony said they left the decision of his vocation entirely up to him.

There was a moment of doubt when he visited his brother Paul, a pharmacist at Berri, after finishing school.

“I had this great holiday where I fished in the river, swam and went hunting, drove a car for the first time and thought ‘I’m crazy for entering the monastery’,” he said.

“II had already arranged to come back in July for Rob’s ordination so I thought I’ll save face and go for the six months and then come home.”

So off he went as a 16 and a half year old on the train to Sydney on a six-month experiment. But when he arrived at St Ive’s juniorate he instantly “felt at home”.

Much later in life he questioned whether it was just because he was from “a very good Catholic family” with a brother in the priesthood and a sister in the convent but he thought “no, this is where I’m meant to be”.

After his novitiate he took his vows at Goulburn and returned to Adelaide for his priestly studies at the Monastery.

He then went to Marrickville in Sydney for a ‘sacred eloquence year’, but after about four months he was sent to Goulburn to assist the Novice Master.

At the age of 28, he was appointed director of students at Holy Cross Seminary in Templestowe.  It was a tumultuous time with the changes in the life of the Church.

“One change to religious life after Vatican II was that we used to get up at 2am in the morning and chant the office,” Fr Tony explained.

“This changed because it didn’t fit in with our mission…one of the things we emphasise now is that our community life is the beginning of our mission, we don’t see it as a life in the monastery and then a life outside the monastery, we live as Passionists but our community life is an influence on who we are, how we are with other people.”

It was in the late 60s and early 70s in the parish of Marrickville, a working class area with a lot of Italian and Greek migrants, that Fr Tony came into the contact with the reality of parishioners’ lives.

The “raw life of people” hit him on the day he arrived and a woman who had been beaten by her husband turned up on his doorstep looking for assistance.

“I came into contact with this reality of life,” he said.

“These people taught me so much about how to be a priest.”

In 1978-79 Fr Tony undertook a course in spiritual direction at Denver, Colarado, in the USA. He then returned to Adelaide and spent a couple of years back home in Adelaide.

Wherever he went, Fr Tony felt supported by this ‘family’ of people he “walked with, worked with and endeavoured to serve”.

“At every baptism, every marriage and every celebration of death, I feel privileged to be a part of the ‘family’, being able to be with them in such intimate moments of life,” he said.

“And that relationship ripples out into their ordinary everyday lives.”

Fr Tony referred to Cardinal John Henry Newman, who was so influential in changing attitudes towards the laity. When asked what he thought about the laity, Newman’s reply was ‘well the Church would look pretty silly without them’.

“And we priests would look silly without those who make up the vast majority of the Church,” Fr Tony said.

“We do not exist to make a community, a fraternity, within ourselves, but only to serve.”

In 1997, Fr Tony volunteered for the Passionist mission in Papua New Guinea.

“I was 57 and I decided if I’m going to do something a bit different, I better do it now,” he said.

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