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 told The Southern Cross after his recent diamond jubilee.
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.
Fr Tony Egar CP, back home in Adelaide and celebrating his Diamond Jubilee. PHOTO: Southern Cross.
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 Ives 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.
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.”
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.
After a short stint in Port Moresby, he spent the next eight years in the small coastal town of Vanimo, near the West Iryan border, where he was novice master and also involved in the local diocese as a parish priest.
“My life would have been much poorer without that experience,” he said of his time in PNG.
“It was very challenging but very enjoyable.”
Returning to Australia he took a “re-entry course” and for four years was the Community Superior at Marrickville, followed by two years at Endeavour Hills in Melbourne.
In 2015 he came back to Adelaide where he continues to help in the parish, support Teams of Our Lady and provide spiritual direction.
Despite leaving at such a young age and returning only for brief periods, being back in his birthplace has been “like a hand fitting into a glove”.
There was the added bonus of being reunited with Ruth and Rob and being able to accompany Rob in his dying days last year.
His ‘family’ of Passionist Brothers and Sisters also continues to be an influence.
“The experience of living closely in community with so many people of different personalities, different life stories, different ages, creates a rich tapestry of brotherhood, struggles, divisions, reconciliations that are part of all our lives,” he said.
“I think of the marvellous opportunities that I have had to keep on growing, studying, being accompanied on the journey, that would not have been possible if I wasn’t part of the Passionist family, and the very real people with whom I have walked.”
This is an abridged form of a feature article by Jenny Brinkworth, published in The Southern Cross, the publication of the Archdiocese of Adelaide.