‘A wonderful capacity for friendship’: Fr Colin Warrack SJ

Jesuit Father Colin Warrack SJ died on Thursday 17 April, 2025 aged 94 years in Cherryfield nursing home. His concelebrated Requiem Mass took place on Wednesday 23 April 2025, at 11am at Gonzaga College SJ Chapel, where Jesuits, family and friends gathered to bid him a final farewell.

The principal celebrant was Tom Casey SJ. Tom Layden SJ, former Provincial, gave the the homily, and current Provincial Shane Daly SJ delivered the final commendation. He was laid to rest in the Jesuit plot in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Father Warrack was born on 2 August in Nairobi, Kenya. His early education included study at St. Mary’s, Nairobi, Kenya; and he later studied Inter B.Sc. Biology in London and UCD.

He entered the Society of Jesus on 7 September 1953 at St Mary’s, Emo, County Laois, and took his first vows there two years later on 8 September 1955. He was ordained at Milltown Park Chapel, Dublin on 31 July 1964 and took his Final Vows at Clongowes Wood College SJ, Kildare, on 2 February 1967.

Colin taught in various Jesuit schools, including ten years in Clongowes Wood College SJ, from 1966–1976. He spent 23 years in Gonzaga College SJ where he was part of the Pastoral Spirituality Apostolate from 2001–2024.

In his homily Tom Layden referenced the significance of Colin dying during Easter time. He said that in the Gospel they had all heard read at the Mass Jesus sought to reassure his followers, telling them, “‘Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God and believe also in me’. Those are the words that the Lord addresses to us as we mourn the passing of Colin and commend him to the Father’s loving care and infinite mercy.”

Fr Tom said that the central focus of Colin’s life was his faith in Jesus Christ whom he knew as the way the truth and the life. His relationship with the Lord Jesus was nourished by his personal prayer – time spent with the Lord, listening to His word, pondering His presence in his life and our world and interceding for the many people who would ask Colin to remember them in his prayers.”

However he cautioned against any attempted hagiography of Colin saying that was not what he would have wanted. “Colin saw himself as being a real part of the human family, sharing in the human experience of having failings and being weak. He would want us to focus more on the glory of God revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, rather than on himself,”

Nonetheless, Fr Tom felt it was important to state that, “So many of us have experienced the Lord’s consolation coming to us through Colin. Through his humanity, and through his ministry. We want to acknowledge that and give thanks to God for it,” he said, going on to share his experience of Colin as a teacher. “I first met him in Clongowes in the 1970s where he was my biology teacher for three years. Science didn’t come easily to me. It was only really in those years that I began to feel comfortable and confident. Colin was an encouraging and patient teacher.”

Fr Tom also recalled Colin’s love of nature and the outdoors. “He enjoyed going up the mountain and camping out in his tent. We didn’t talk so much about ecology back in the 70’s, but we did talk about the environment. Colin had a great sense – going back to his boyhood in Kenya – of God’s glory in the created world and our responsibility to honour and take care of the gift of the mountains and the rivers, the land and the sea. He encouraged me to read the works of Teilhard de Chardin SJ.”

In the days after his death, many of the sentiments expressed by Fr Tom in his homily, were echoed on social media by past pupils of Colin. As was shared, “I have had a lifelong interest in reading and studying different philosophies, an interest inspired and encouraged by Fr Warrack… He was probably more impactful, in a quiet and understated way, than he ever realised… I felt very lucky to have been his pupil. And still do. May he rest in peace.”

Agus ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.