Introduction to the Pontifical Mass of Christian Burial for Fr David Coffey
St Mary’s Catholic Church, Concord, 30 April 2025
Welcome to St Mary’s Church in Concord for the Pontifical Mass of Christian Burial for Fr David Coffey, a priest of the Archdiocese of Sydney. David was born in Lismore in 1934, one of four children to Leo and Mary. He was educated at St Joseph’s Mildura, Marist Brothers Eastwood, and St Patrick’s Strathfield, graduating as dux of St Pat’s in 1951. He studied at St Columba’s Seminary, Springwood, and St Patrick’s College, Manly, and was ordained a priest at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney by Cardinal Gilroy in 1958. He then served as Assistant Priest in the parishes of Bankstown (1958), Flemington (1959) and Bondi Beach (1960).
Academically gifted and drawn to the queen of sciences, theology, David was a true scholar-priest. He received his Licentiate in Theology in 1958, and his Doctorate of Sacred Theology magna cum laude in 1960 from the Catholic Institute of Sydney. He was in fact amongst the first group to graduate with the STD in the years following the establishment of the ecclesiastical faculty. He joined the faculty of the Institute himself in 1962 and in the decades that followed he taught generations of our clergy and led the Institute in its evolution. In due course he pursued further studies at the University of Munich (1964-66) under the mentorship of two of the most renowned dogmatic theologians of the twentieth century, both periti at the Second Vatican Council: Michael Schmaus and Karl Rahner SJ.
In 1967 David returned to the Catholic Institute of Sydney. He was soon appointed Dean of the Faculty (1970-75) and, from 1976, President of the Institute (1976-81). He was a founding member of the Australian Catholic Theological Association and twice served as its President (1975, 1990). In 1991 David served as Visiting Professor at the Aquinas Institute in the University in St Louis Missouri and in 1994 was appointed to the William J. Kelly Chair in Catholic Theology at the University of Marquette in Wisconsin (1994-2005), a position he would hold until his retirement in 2005. He was widely published in the areas of Christology, Pneumatology and Trinity. When I visited him recently, he was still up for a discussion of matters theological!
A warm welcome to David’s sister-in-law Annie Coffey, as well as his nieces and nephews who join us today. I greet also Fr David’s friends, classmates including Fr John Ford, his academic colleagues and students, and all those taught or influenced by Fr David. Concelebrating with me today are: Parish Priest Rev. Fr Paul Crowley; his successor as President at the Catholic Institute, Rev. Prof. Gerard Kelly; and other brother priests. Also present are Prof. Hayden Ramsay, another of Fr Coffey’s successors as leader of the Institute, and several members of staff.
For 67 years, Fr David shared his many intellectual and pastoral gifts for the betterment of the Church and those called to serve her, and today with great confidence, we commend him to almighty God.
