Gentle, understanding and compassionate, Catholic Leader, Brisbane, 23 July 1989, p 21:

"His many penitents found him gentle, understanding and compassionate," said Archbishop Rush at the funeral Mass of Fr John Kitts, who for 14 years heard Confessions daily in Brisbane's St Stephen's Cathedral.

Fr Kitts went to the Cathedral each day for all but one year of his time as Chaplain at Villa Maria from the middle of 1965.

"His letter telling me of his increasing weakness and his reluctant decision to retire from the confessional could have been written only by the most sensitive of human beings," Archbishop Rush said.

Fr Kitts' ill-health forced him to retire as Chaplain. Archbishop Rush said in his homily that Fr Kitts "like those to whom the letter to the Hebrews was written, had more than his share of suffering."

"He was also like them in being the sort not to draw back but to remain faithful until his soul was saved," Archbishop Rush said.

"He responded early to the same call that Timothy received. The preaching of the Good News was his life's work in thorough-going service and at the end he would have been able to say with St Paul: I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith."

Fr Kitts was born in Timaru, New Zealand, in 1910 and joined the Franciscans when he was 19. He did his novitiate in Ireland, studied philosophy in Louvain and completed his theology and was ordained in Rome in 1935.

He worked in Retreat houses and gave missions in New Zealand before transferring to Toowoomba in 1956 and to Brisbane in 1959. "His zealous, gentle care for the sick at the Mater Hospital for six years is still spoken of with admiration and gratitude," Archbishop Rush said.

"The medical report which his doctor sent to Archbishop O'Donnell at the end of that time pictures a man who could not be expected to live long. That was the middle of 1965 - 24 years ago."

He then transferred to Villa Maria as Chaplain. After leaving there he lived privately for several month before entering Mt Olivet Hospital as a patient at the end of 1981.

"To say that Fr John Kitts was timid and even fearful is not to be critical of him," Archbishop Rush said. "It is merely to say that he was human.

"Someone else I know, whom his friends rightly called timid, died a few months ago after defying one of the most powerful governments of the world for 35 years in one of their jails.

"Fr John Kitts was shy, sensitive, fastidious in some ways, often fearful and lonely. He loved God and was faithful to him. He found strength in the Church's tradition and in his fond memories of student days with brother Franciscans at Sant Isodoro."

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Prayer Calendar: Deceased Priests who have ministered the Catholic Faith throughout Toowoomba and districts, 1864–2025, Compiled by Annie Carrett, Diocesan Archivist, 2001, Updated by Gabrielle Saide, Diocesan Archivist, 2023:
Rev John Kitts, Unknown date of death

A Franciscan from New Zealand. He served in Warwick and Charleville from 1956-59. He was then appointed Chaplain to the Mater Hospital in Brisbane, where he died.
(Ref. Fr Moran)

Reproduced by permission of Bishop Ken Howell.