Death of Fr Tohill - Salesians Eastern Province USA

austraLasia #2772
The sudden passing of Fr. Bernard Tohill, SDB
HONG KONG: 21 December 2010 -- The following note has just arrived in my inbox from Fr.
Lanfranco Fedrigotti, Hong Kong.
“The peace of the Lord be with you always! I have to come to you with the sad news of the
sudden death of dear Fr. Bernard Tohill. Here below please find a provisional obituary notice of
this great Irish-Chinese Salesian. Let us pray for his eternal rest. God bless! In Jesus Mary
Joseph Don Bosco, Yours affectionately, Fr. Lanfranco M. Fedrigotti”
PROVISIONAL OBITUARY OF REV. FR. BERNARD TOHILL, SDB
By Fr. Lanfranco M. Fedrigotti, SDB, Rector of Salesian Missionary House, Shau Kei Wan,
Hong Kong (China)
The Salesians of Don Bosco of the China Province of Mary Help of Christians, with both great
sadness and deep gratitude to God, announce the sudden death of dear Fr. Bernard Tohill, SDB,
this evening before 7:00 p.m. in Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, Hong Kong.
At 6:00 p.m. dear 91-year-old Fr. Bernard was still happily with us, sitting in his wheelchair and
having supper with his fellow elderly confreres of Casa Braga (Salesian Missionary House, Shau
Kei Wan), assisted by the house nurse. Then, suddenly at about 6:15 he lost his color and
consciousness. Fr. Rector and the ambulance were immediately called, and Fr. Bernard was
given first aid assistance. As suggested by one of the elderly confreres, Fr. Rector gave him the
papal blessing in articulo mortis with the plenary indulgence. In about 5 minutes the ambulance
arrived. On the ambulance Fr. Rector anointed him with the oil of the sick. In a few minutes, Fr.
Bernard was in the resuscitation ward (Eastern Hospital is less than 1 km from Salesian
Missionary House). Outside the ward Fr. Rector and the nurse prayed for Fr. Bernard, but at
about 7:00 they were told that the resuscitation had failed to revive him, and he was certified
dead. Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze Kiun, SDB, informed, arrived immediately. With him, Fr. Rector
and Bro. Anthony Pun, a young Chinese Salesian who had also arrived, recited the Rosary for
dear deceased Fr. Bernard. Before leaving the mortuary, after praying besides his body, in the
name of all his dear ones, Fr. Rector kissed Fr. Bernard’s forehead in sign of gratitude, affection,
and undying love.
The death of Fr. Bernard Tohill is a great loss for his big family in Northern Ireland (Belfast),
where he was born, one of eleven children, on August 12, 1919, and baptized the next day. He
was always very close to his relatives who, numbering a few hundred with dozens of nephews
and their children, have all along also been very close to him. How he enjoyed their visits from
far-away Ireland, Canada, Australia…! On the desk by his bed, there are already several
Christmas cards which he received in these last days, sent by his relatives. So his last thoughts
were for you, dear relatives of Fr. Bernard.

Fr. Bernard’s death is a great loss also for our China Province, where he arrived, newlyprofessed,
73 years ago in 1937 and where he spent 51 of his 73 years of Salesian life, being one
of its rectors (1952-1958) and provincials (1958-1963).
Fr. Bernard’s death is a great loss for the whole Salesian Congregation. The 22-year interruption
in his stay in our Province (1963-1985) is due to the fact that he was for two years and a half
provincial of the San Francisco Province in the USA and for 19 years a member of the general
council with the Rectors Major Fr. Luigi Ricceri and Fr. Egidio Viganò. He was for 6 years
(1965-1971) regional superior of the immense English-speaking Region, which included the East
Asia provinces. In this region he had become a Salesian, making his first profession in
Beckford, England, in 1937. Then, for 13 years (1971-1984), he was general councilor for the
Salesian missions, after which he had a year of spiritual renewal in Ireland (1984-1985). His 13year
missionary service made him, perhaps, the most traveled Salesian in the history of the
Congregation. We don’t know how many times he traveled by ship, after his first trip to come to
China. However, he kept count of all the times he took a plane of some kind or other. They add
up to 1,538!
Dear Fr. Bernard Tohill’s death is above all a great loss for our community of Salesian
Missionary House and Casa Braga, where he passed the greater part of the last 20 years of his
life. In 1990 he was the first confrere-in-charge of Casa Braga, our province’s home for elderly
confreres. In 1991 he was miraculously cured from a very serious disease through the
intercession of the Servant of God Fr. Giuseppe Quadrio and the expert care of Dr. Kwok.
During these years, several times for several months he resided in the St. Joseph’s and St. Mary’s
Homes for the Aged of the Little Sisters of the Poor, offering the chaplaincy services of which he
was still capable and receiving the motherly and sisterly care of the Sisters. In 2006 for a few
months he enjoyed his last stay in Ireland, living with and being cared for by the Salesian
confreres of Pallaskenry.
Here at home, for many years he was the regular confessor of several of our confreres. In Braga
House, as long as his health allowed it, he was the promoter of cheerfulness and serenity,
especially during meals. All along, he was for us a wonderful example of fidelity to our Holy
Rule, of pastoral zeal, and of ardent love for the Church and the Congregation. He was a man of
deep faith and fervent prayer, praying regularly the complete Rosary with its 20 mysteries every
day. He kept up a deep friendship with the past pupils he had served during his early years as a
young Salesian in Hong Kong. Only yesterday, four past pupils of 1948 came to visit him,
taking pictures with him before the crib, chatting happily with him, admiring his enduring sense
of humor, stronger than his senility.
May I conclude for the time being with a few words told me by dear Fr. Bernard Tohill on
August 7, this year. At 5:00 p.m. he appeared at the door of my office, sitting in his wheelchair,
pushed by the nurse who accompanied him to hospital this evening. He told me: “Father, there
are many problems and difficulties in the Congregation. But we have Jesus in the Blessed
Sacrament together with us. There is something that I want to tell everybody: ‘We must have
confidence in Him! We must have more confidence in Him!’”
May the faith of Fr. Bernard continue in us who have been blessed with his love and friendship.