(Flickr/Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk)
Rev. Enda McDonagh, a renowned Irish priest and theologian, died on Feb. 24 at the age of 90 after suffering a fall. Irish president Michael D. Higgins said upon hearing the news of McDonagh’s death that he always enriched events “with his generous and deep, compassionate scholarship.”
Father McDonagh was born on June 27, 1930 in the small farming village of Bekan in the west of Ireland. The future chaplain to Irish president Mary Robinson and an advisor to an Irish prime minister, he recognized his vocation and avocation early on, pursuing both the priesthood and academia. After attending St. Jarlath’s College in Tuam, he went on to the Irish national seminary at Maynooth, where he obtained a bachelor of science degree in 1951 and was ordained in 1955. Postgraduate studies followed at Maynooth, where he obtained a doctorate in theology in 1957. He would later earn a degree at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicu