A Haven For The Homeless – Fr. Thomas E. Gafney, S.J., 28 November 1932 – 14 December 1997

On the morning of Sunday, 14 December 1997, I was looking forward to a relaxing day off, first by cleaning my room.  I was busy with the vacuum cleaner when a community member burst into the room.  “Bishop Anthony just phoned.  Tom has been killed!”  I turned the machine off, put on a jacket, raced to the cycle shed, and after five minutes was at Tom’s rented bungalow, a simple four room house.  Rachan, the house boy, had come to work at 8:00 A.M. as usual.  He found the front door ajar, and Tom lying on his floor sleeping matt, his throat slit.  Bishop Anthony lived a short walk away, so Rachan informed him first.  I looked across the room at Tom’s body and offered a pray of absolution, but dared not contaminate the crime scene.   Fr. Tom Gafney, SJ

The police arrived and began their investigation, detaining Rachan and Manoj, Tom’s gardener.  Friends came to help move the body to a hospital for a post-mortem investigation, and by evening had prepared the body, waked in our school auditorium. 

Tom, born in 1932, grew up in Lakewood, Ohio.  He dropped out of pre-medical college studies to enter the Jesuit noviciate.  Five years later he moved to South Asia where he completed his seminary studies and received ordination in 1965.  The Jesuits in Nepal then ran two schools.  Tom became the Rector of one, and helped with counselling, accounting, teaching and infirmary work.  

In 1970 his concern for the poor led him to open the St. Xavier’s Social Service Center.  A tourist group had helped some street boys and asked Tom to continue that service.  Tom added that ministry to his school work.  I arrived in Nepal seven years later, to find that the work had expanded to provide a home for about a hundred homeless and often handicapped youngsters.  Tom and his staff provided medical services to government school students, and his social workers visited the poor in the government hospital.  With the help of a psychiatrist, Tom had begun to provide treatment to young Nepali men addicted to hard drugs.   

Tom looked for ever better ways to help these suffering young men.  He supported the Asian Federation of Therapeutic Communities, and learned that simple auricular acupuncture can help calm restless people especially during the detoxification period.  Therefore he seldom resorted to the use of medicines during treatment.  Months of counselling in an open-ended program helped Tom and his staff to slowly guide these men towards greater self respect with self control. Fr. Gafney, SJ with Very Rev. Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ

Simple tasks in the treatment center helped build one’s sense of responsibility.  Some clients ran away.  Others relapsed and often returned for another try.  Tom would not abandon them.  Tom soon learned how Nepal’s drug trade worked.  Nepal’s open border with India, and easy-going attitudes, proved a boon to drug dealers and smugglers.  Tom probably knew who were involved.

Tom was fearless.  He wrote strongly in both Nepali and English, challenging authorities to bring justice to the poor and help to the needy.  His motto for the Social Service Center was “Help for the Helpless” and “Haven for the Homeless.”  He challenged organizations working in social service to serve the poor efficiently and justly, and was a great support to many Nepali doctors and social workers who devotedly served the needy.  These good connections helped Tom to refer cases to the correct servers.

Tom lived the last twenty years of life in rented quarters, generally alone, but was always close to the community, both physically and especially emotionally and spiritually.  For most of those years I was his superior.  He always had time to share a mug of strong, sweet, black coffee with community visitors.  He was a wonderful “sounding board,” never shy to reflect clear, direct, insightful advice when I asked.  He loved to drop in at the Jesuit residence and never missed meetings, community dinners, and special community prayers.  He would forcefully challenge wrong, especially injustice, but never put people down, whether they were the powerful or simple youngsters at the center.  His quick humour would often cool tense encounters. 

Tom was a naturalized Nepali citizen so had no concerns about being sent out of the country.  He could therefore write strong articles and letters to editors concerning the needs of Nepal’s poor and sick people.  Not everyone appreciated such challenges! 

What happened that night?  Tom had joined our research center community for supper and left for the five minute drive home at about nine o’clock.  He seems to have gone to sleep normally.  There was no sign of a forced house entry.  The murder weapon was left in a cupboard amidst folded bed sheets.  We can only guess as to how the murder took place.  Tom was an apostle to the poor and victimized and was ready to stand up for them.  He did so with his life.   In 1998, Fr. Robins, SJ and Bishop Emeritus Anthony Sharma, SJ say Mass in front of the house where Fr. Gafney was murdered. The house became a pre-primary school for poor children.

That Sunday evening I was able to finish the cleaning and to look ahead.  The case would not be solved; not important for me, but the people Tom served were lost.  David, a Jesuit seminarian, worked alongside Tom so could help us get organized.  Our Region Superior honoured me by giving me charge of the Social Service Center – a big yet blessed change from high school teaching!  I enjoyed the next eight years working first with David, and then other Jesuits and a dedicated staff, to build up what Tom had started.  I moved on, but the Nepal Jesuits continue to serve the needy through the center, thanks to Tom’s blessings from heaven.

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All photos courtesy of Bill Robins, SJ

Bill Robins, SJ, is a Canadian Jesuit who lived at Godavari, our original school at the south-east edge of the Kathmandu Valley. He lived in a community of six Jesuits and taught 11 and 12 English until his return to Canada in 2021.

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