Bede Joseph McGregor OP (1937 - 2024) - an obituary

Bede Joseph McGregor died in 

Bede McGregor op

St Francis' Nursing Home, Mount Oliver, Dundalk, Co Louth on Monday, November 25.

Bede was born in Ealing in England on February  16, 1937, and baptised in Westminster.  He had family roots in Co. Galway.

Bede went to Newbridge College, spending the school holidays on the school campus.

On leaving school in 1955 he joined the Irish Province of the Dominican Order the following September, making solemn profession in 1959, and ordained a priest on July 8, 1962. He spent his noviciate year in St Mary’s Priory Cork. He studied philosophy and theology at St Mary’s Priory Tallaght.

After priestly ordination he studied at the University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome, living in the Irish Dominican Priory, San Clemente on the Via Labicana.

Bede obtained his doctorate in moral theology from the said university in 1964.

On completion of his studies in Rome he was assigned to Nagpur in India, where the Irish Dominicans had set up a community in 1959. The previous year they had taken charge of St Charles Major Seminary. 

Bede spent nine years teaching in the seminary. During his time in Nagpur he edited In Christo, a theological magazine in India

He organised a theological conference in Nagpur, among the invitees at that conference was Kevin McNamara, who at the time was chair of dogmatic theology at Maynooth University. After Maynooth McNamara was bishop in Kerry and later Archbishop of Dublin.

A member of the community in India recalls how well known Bede was in Nagpur: “He regularly gave talks and wrote many articles. Bede was a very pleasant person and a lovely man in community,” he said.

Kevin and Bede became friends and at Kevin’s suggestion Bede applied for a post in Maynooth, where he spent the next 30 years as professor of missiology. Bede was instrumental in setting up the faculty at the college.

He was a member of the Irish Episcopal Theological Commission while in Maynooth.

Before taking up his post in Maynooth he studied an Indian philosopher under the tutorship of Professor Zaehner at Oxford, a Czech academic and convert to Catholicism.

While residing in Maynooth he would regularly spend weekends in St Mary’s Priory, Tallaght, administering the Sacrament of Reconciliation in St Aengus’ Church on Saturday evenings, where he was greatly appreciated.

On retiring from Maynooth Bede was assigned to St Mary’s Priory, Tallaght and appointed director of the Rosary Apostolate in succession to the late Gabriel Harty.

Bede was closely associated with the Legion of Mary, where he was spiritual director to the concillium. His talks were subsequently printed and sent around the world to the Legion of Mary.

He gave a series of talks on EWTN, where on one occasion he had a viewership of over two million.

Between 2007 and 2016 Bede was prior in St Malachy’s Dundalk, where he remained for the rest of his life.

He was spiritual direct and confessor for Redemptoris Mater Missionary Seminary in the Archdiocese of Armagh.

Bede had special devotion to Frank Duff and was vice-postulator for the cause of his beatification.

He was greatly appreciated as a spiritual adviser and confessor.

If one held a different position to him he would listen carefully, still disagreeing, but would always be pleasant and gracious to the person.

May he rest in peace.

Bede's body will be lying in state in St Malachy's Priory from 10.30am to 6.30pm today, Wednesday. Removal to St Malachy’s Church for Evening Prayer at 7pm. Funeral Mass in the church at 11.30am tomorrow, Thursday, November 28. Burial afterwards in St Patrick’s Cemetery.