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:
Rt Rev Monsignor Patrick McMorrow, died 9 May 1999

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, He has anointed me and sent me to bring good news to the poor."
In commemorating Mgr Patrick McMorrow's Diamond Jubilee of Priesthood in 1993, Bishop Edward Kelly highlighted these words from the prophet Isaiah. It certainly was in the power of the Spirit that Paddy McMorrow lived out his years as a Christian and a Priest. One of six children of John and Anne McMorrow, Patrick was born to a poor home at Geevagh in Ireland on 12th April, 1909. His early education included Summerhill College in Sligo and Seminary studies were fulfilled at All Hallows in Dublin. He was ordained for the priesthood on 25th June, 1933. Six of his class of 20 eventually came to Australia. Father McMorrow, originally ordained for the Ballarat Diocese, arrived in December 1933. He was appointed assistant at Hamilton Parish the following year, but suffered serious health problems. He came to Toowoomba to convalesce at St Vincent's Hospital in 1938. On leaving there a year later he relieved in Stanthorpe before being appointed Assistant at Holy Name Parish in 1940. He never looked back in health and was incardinated into the Toowoomba Diocese in 1944. His years of personal illness and various hospitalisations fashioned him to be at all times deeply concerned for the sick. He later served in Warwick from 1948-49 and then St Patrick's Cathedral until 1950. During the 1950s he was appointed Parish Priest at Our Lady of Lourdes, Toowoomba, and in May 1960 was appointed to St Anthony's. For thirty-two years he remained in that Parish. In 1981 he was named Honorary Prelate, with the title Monsignor. He was also the moving spirit behind the initial construction and further development of Lourdes Home for the Aged, where he retired in 1992, and where part of the complex has been named after him. Dedicated to his priestly vocation and the high ideals it stood for in Faith and discipline, Mgr McMorrow was a man rock-solid in his Faith. He was an inspiring friend of the sick, the dying and the poor, a trusted and compassionate confrere to his fellow priests, extraordinarily gifted in financial matters, management and administration and a true and loyal Missionary of Christ. The gift of Mgr McMorrow's life was celebrated at St Anthony's Parish and he was interred in the Toowoomba Garden of Remembrance.
(Ref. Archives)

Reproduced by permission of Bishop Ken Howell.