FR MICHAEL Keane, the founder of the Knock Marriage Bureau, was described at his funeral Mass yesterday as “strong-willed”, “passionate” and “a champion of the underdog”.
Archbishop of Tuam Dr Michael Neary delivered the homily at the requiem Mass for Fr Keane (86), who died on Saturday at Claremount Nursing Home in his native Claremorris, Co Mayo.
The archbishop recalled Fr Keane’s tussles with church authorities in the 1970s and 1980s. “When it came to ecclesiastical authority and dealing with various church leaders, Fr Michael had a colourful and sometimes fraught series of relationships with more than one archbishop,” Dr Neary said.
“In recent times, with the relative mellowness of retirement, he was able to look back and acknowledge these occasions with a sense of humour.”
In the late 1970s, Fr Keane, while a curate in Willington, Templeogue, Dublin, disagreed with his superior over how the parish should be run. This led to his being disciplined by the archbishop of Dublin. For 23 years, Fr Keane was not permitted to say Mass in public, until a jubilee year reconciliation in 2000, when he was reinstated and had his Mass-saying permission restored.
The Knock Marriage Bureau, founded in 1968, introduced more than 48,000 people to each other – resulting, it claims, in more than 900 marriages. Fr Keane would be best known for founding the bureau and, in the process, becoming known as “Ireland’s Cupid priest”, Dr Neary said.