A priest yesterday begged those in power to review policies towards
homeless people to ensure there is no repeat of the fate suffered by
Josef Pavelka.Fr Ger Fitzgerald, a friend of the Czech national who slept in a public toilet, said: “We need to unite to ensure what happened to Josef will not happen to others.”
Mr Pavelka’s plight gained national attention on Apr 10 after Judge Patrick Durcan described his public toilet accommodation as a ‘scandal’. Just 24 days later, the 52-year-old’s body was found in a laneway in Ennis.
In his sermon yesterday, Fr Fitzgerald said: “Josef’s passing was a tragedy and has brought much publicity to our town, not of all of which has been positive. It is time to unite, to take action.”
Josef’s best friend, Polish national Piotr Baram is attending a residential treatment programme for his alcohol addiction.
Fr Fitzgerald said that “It is not important if Josef wanted one euro, nor is it important that he was an alcoholic. What is important is Josef’s humanity.
“To those in power in Ireland, I ask you, I plead with you, on my knees, to you as a representative of Jesus here in Ennis, I ask you to review your policies we have towards the homeless and the weak.
Fr Fitzgerald recounted, on his first day in Ennis as a priest, how Josef helped him with his luggage and then told him: ‘Very important big problem —€2’.
Fr Fitzgerald said that he needed “no euro coin for Josef today” and, instead, presented his remains with a priest’s Stole, the cream and purple vestment that Fr Fitzgerald was ordained in two years ago.
“Josef always wanted this. So, to show a new unity from the Church with the poor, to show unity with Josef — to you Josef I present the Stole that I was ordained in.”
To laud applause from the congregation, Fr Fitzgerald said: “Josef, I hope you like it. Amen.”
The Stole was placed on Josef’s coffin and later buried with his remains at the town graveyard at Drumcliffe.