Father Jim Pilling SDB (RIP)

This was only the second time in the history of the Great Britain Province that there was a double funeral of two Salesian Priests.  Below in the Homily for these tow fine Priests. 

Homily by Fr John Gilheney at the funeral of Fr James Pilling and Fr James
Gibbons SDB

Church of Our Lady Help of Christians - Farnborough - Hants 16th May 2007

It is unusual for us to bid our final farewells to two of our brothers at
one go, as it were. It presents us with a quandary. How best, as we pray,
to recall some of the significant qualities of each of the two Jims (as
they were recently and affectionately known). Some things they shared,
but each contributed his own self - and their selfs were very different.
But then, I think that our God loves variety. It was God who created
variety in the first place. The Trinity comes to my unskilled mind. The
same mission - different routes.

While our early years often shape our destiny, it is in their active work
and lives as professed members of the Salesian Family, that I would like
to dwell. Their early years in the Congregation followed a pattern
familiar to most of us who have walked with them. They were both boys at
Shrigley, our junior seminary - Jim Pilling from Lancashire and Jim
Gibbons from Durham. Jim Pilling was ordained in 1952; Jim Gibbons in
1960. It is from this point that I would like to separate the two lives
of our brother Salesians.

Jim Pilling for the first 13 years of his priesthood was based in
Battersea - the then residence of our Provincial Office. He was secretary
to the Provincial and probably the only pair of hands in the Office at
the time. James had trouble with his spine and I recall visiting him in
hospital where he was immobilised for several months. But James was a
fighter. Also, he did not see himself being an extra pair of hands in the
Provincial Office for ever and a day! He took the then imaginative step
of qualifying as a Psychiatric Social Worker at the London School of
Economics. It was the time in the 60ies of student unrest - and Jim was
out there, demonstrating with the rest of them!

After qualifying, Jim came to Blaisdon Hall in Gloucestershire - to the
special school we had there. Blaisdon was his home until the school closed
in 1994 - 27 years.. These were Jim's halcyon years for which he will
always be remembered with great affection by countless Blaisdon past
pupils and staff. He had to carve out a role for himself which had not
existed in the school before he came. He introduced a new level of care
for the children and a new level of support for the staff -both teaching
and care staff. He could interpret, tell us the why and wherefore. He was
extremely supportive. His large room became a sanctuary for the excited
and the excitable, the distressed and disorganised - pupils, I mean! -
who would play with sand and water, do the puzzles, draw their fantasies
and fears, feed the fish, clutch the cuddly toys, tell their anxieties
and go back to join the others in a more peaceful frame of mind. Jim
supervised students, sent to us, with great professionalism. He was a
great support to parents and to the sometimes mixed up staff - of whom I
was occasionally one.

Wednesday was a day we didn't see Jim - or we saw a different Jim. He
dressed up -and he was a natty dresser - and his ties were colourful and
flamboyant. He would go to the Child Guidance Clinic in Gloucester where
he worked that one day each week to keep a balance and receive the
support he needed.

There was/is a parish at Blaisdon and good local communities of villages
and small towns. He was a friendly, smiling face, forever patient with a
special welcome for children whom he made feel important. He was
spiritual, charismatic and a good confessor.

When Blaisdon closed in 1994 - Government policy was not friendly towards
the independent Special Schools - he developed fresh interests - a new
career. He joined the Battersea community He became a great lover of the
Holy Land and spent six months in Jerusalem. He led at least four other
groups of pilgrims and studied Hebrew at Heythrop College of London
University, stopping eventually because he was the only student! In an
active semi-retirement he was a member of the Planning Team for the
support of priests - Intercession for Priests. He gathered friends into
the Salesian Cooperators - until diabetes and strokes and restricted
vision gradually took their toll. He joined the Farnborough community in
2004.

As I was preparing these words, I came across - in a large print prayer
book - Jim's - a card with a brief life of, and prayers for the
beatification of, Cardinal Newman. On it there was this saying of John
Henry Newman: "The first duty of charity is to try to enter the mind and
feelings of others." This was Jim Pilling.

This was also James Gibbons and serves as a natural bridge-over between
the two much loved men whom we commit to our God as to a loving Father,
brothers of the risen Christ, and our brothers, too.

James Gibbons was a dynamo of activity and energy. His path after
ordination in 1960 lay along schools and schooling. As a younger man he
was adaptable and moved to where the need was. In those years, mobility
was more common. For seven years he taught at Shrigley - our junior
seminary - where he had been a boy. He had gone there from an independent
school in Sussex - Mayfield - and his companions thought him as rather
posh - until they met him on the soccer field where he was very down to
earth. He loved and followed sport until his last stay in hospital. For
his last two years at Shrigley he was Prefect of Studies - in effect the
headteacher. After that he moved to Bolton - because the need was there.
He taught Geography in which he was qualified and proficient - also
Religious Studies.

In 1970 great development was at the planning stage in our Salesian School
at Chertsey. Our school, as was the Salesian Sisters' school, was in the
throes of changing from a single sex grammar school to a mixed
comprehensive school. This was an untried venture for Salesian schools at
that time. And because the need was there Jim Gibbons came to Chertsey.
It was his home and place of work for the next 22 years.

His halcyon years were as Head of the Intake Year, when the pupils came
from our feeder middle schools. Initially, they were 13+ when they
transferred to the Salesian School - not an easy age to change or deal
with - and Jim had the task of moulding into Salesian ways a hundred and
fifty boys - who were big fish in their junior schools - into contented
small fish in a much larger pool, and at the end of their intake year the
transformation had occurred and they knew a lot about Don Bosco and
Salesian ways - ready to move on through the school.

In the early 80ies the school became completely co-educational, whereas
before, boys and girls were separated until of 6th Form age. Jim, like
many of us, was unaccustomed to teaching and looking after girls but he
made the transition very easily. I have spoken to several women - some as
recently as last Saturday - now in their late 30ies who were very
appreciative and spoke of Jim with great warmth. He was like a pied piper
leading his youngsters. Fond of football would be an understatement - he
had a whole string of teams and membership was highly sought. He took
football trips to Canada in many a summer holiday - well remembered
experiences. Parents appreciated his care and interest. He ran a tuck
shop, and when tuck shops fell from favour he still ran a tuck shop - out
of the back of his car! To some staff he was known as 'Young Lochinvar' -
tall, lean and handsome - but very much a Salesian Lochinvar!

After Chertsey he took a year's sabbatical in California, at a Salesian
Pastoral Centre. He returned to become an assistant chaplain to the junior
end of our growing school in Bolton - but illness struck and he had two
strokes which sapped his energy, and sadly his confidence. He was shy and
inward-looking at the best of times and his illness left him feeling
isolated and insecure.

So the two Jims met up at Farnborough. The gospel we read reminds us of
Christ's words "There are many rooms in my Father's house". In
Farnborough, the two Jims had rooms on the same corridor. I wonder, in
God's House where they are sited! But in God's house we firmly believe
them to be. They were different in their characters and their approach,
but they both responded to God's call. They both, as Salesian priests,
worked out their ministry to the young. The charism of Don Bosco shaped
both their lives.

The first reading - from the Book of Lamentations - is initially a sad
account of our human limitation - that ".My strength has gone, my soul is
shut out from peace, I have forgotten happiness". But then we recall the
goodness of God and God's goodness to us and the paths of emphatic Hope
and continued security that we can quietly follow. There is contentment
in the final line. "It is good to wait in silence for the Lord to save".
The two Jims passed through that stage, and for them it was quite lengthy
- especially for Jim Gibbons who towards the end looked forward to the
Lord taking him home.