Father Ray, affectionately known to all
who knew him, the founder and director of the Pattaya Orphanage in Thailand
passed away on Saturday August 16 at the Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, at
age 70.
As
the news of the passing of one of Pattaya’s true icons spreads throughout
the international media, nowhere is his passing felt more than in his
adopted home, Pattaya. This man of God has touched the lives of many, given
hope to the hopeless, provided shelter for the homeless, and was one of the
world’s rare individuals, a man who has truly left a legacy, proving that
one man indeed can make a difference. Although mere words cannot begin to
express the way he has forever changed literally thousands of lives, Pattaya
Mail pays tribute to him this week on page 18. Rest in peace Father Ray, you
will be missed.
On Monday morning at 11 a.m. Father Ray’s body was
returned to his beloved Pattaya Orphanage from Bangkok where he was laid
until his funeral, scheduled for Thursday August 21.
Hundreds of his children, the deaf, the dumb, the blind,
the crippled and the orphans and almost all of his helpers lined up carrying
black and white flags, to respectfully greet the van retuning Father Ray’s
body as it drove through slowly to the hall. Most of them were weeping and
bowing to the coffin.
The
long procession followed Father Ray to where a memorial service was held by
Father Philip Bunchong. In attendance were Father Ray’s older brother Fr.
Donald Brennan, a priest himself and his younger sister Sharon Brennan-Puttel
along with one of her 5 daughters, Sharon. Father Ray’s cousin Wayne, who
spent most of the time with him in Pattaya, was not aware of his adored
cousin’s death until the family decided to chose a quiet moment alone to
break the sad news.
Mountains
of wreaths were already placed around the hall from all the different
departments Father Ray had founded in his long, hard-working life.
The coffin was opened and all the people stood in line to
take a last look at their beloved father, priest and friend and say their
last farewell. Again all the people and the children stood in line to put
flowers on the coffin and to pray in silence.
After
the ceremony Thomas B. Van Blarcom and Krukkkrom Prabhawat of TQPR Thailand,
whose company is in charge of the handling the details and PR of the
funeral, said, “We are here to help so the people at the Orphanage can go
on with their important daily business. We will make all necessary
announcements within Thailand and also in foreign countries, especially in
England and Denmark, because some orphanage foundations are based there.”
Father
Ray was born on December 7, 1932 and the story of the boy from the American
City of Boston is undoubtedly an interesting one. With one brother and one
sister in the family, Ray was not the quiet or studious one. In fact Ray was
wild and adventurous, and when he told his family that he had received
“the call” to become a priest no one thought that this lad, who had
previously said that his ambition was to make a million dollars before he
was thirty years old could possibly last through the rigors of the training,
let alone the priesthood itself.
Father Ray was fond of recalling those times past, and
while musing over his boyhood ambition he said, “In a way I have made a
million, but in a different sense.”
Father
Ray’s sense of adventure took him to Southeast Asia, where he spent time
as a Vietnam Auxiliary Chaplain. He was then based in Loei Province and
spent ten years there. However, as fate would have it, Father Raymond
Brennan found himself in Pattaya thirty years ago.
Pattaya in those days was a different place. “It was
certainly not a heavenly city,” he said, but Father Ray was also a
different man way back then, even if he was ‘heaven sent’ for Pattaya.
Father Raymond Brennan, though he did not know it, was about to become a
‘real’ father and found an orphanage!
After
the Vietnam conflict some Thai women found themselves abandoned by their
American boyfriends, leaving them with fatherless babies. Enter the Father
from Boston. “The first baby was given to me by a mother who couldn’t
look after her. I gave her to the women who were caring for the church. I
went out and bought baby bottles, but forgot the nipples. I had to go back
to buy nipples and diapers. Then word spread and one baby became two, then
two to four and four to eight,” he said and laughed.
Not
only the abandoned, homeless orphans found their way to his all supportive
arms, but deaf children, handicapped children, blind children and street
children were taken in. The church house had to give way to purpose-built
schools, dormitories, kitchens, playgrounds and refectories, till today we
have the Orphanage, a Deaf School, Old People’s Home, Street Kids
Projects, School for the Handicapped and a Blind School. From that initial
eight, there are now over 600 kids who look upon Father Ray as their true
“father”.
Father Raymond Brennan fought hard for his Pattaya
children. It is no wonder that he and his works have been honoured by the
Thai Royal Family members, the Thai Prime Minister and the Queen of Belgium
among many others. In the year 2000, Fr. Raymond Brennan CSSR was named
Pattaya Person of the Millennium in a ballot conducted by the Pattaya Mail.
The
wild boy from Boston needed all the street-smarts he had acquired to keep
his ever-growing family’s heads above water in the last 30 years. Like the
occasion when he “appropriated” a large army container. “I needed it
more than the army did,” was his response. On the walls of his cramped and
chaotic office hung a faded poster proclaiming, “How much can I get away
with and still get to heaven?”
On December 5 last year, coinciding with the HM King’s
Birthday, Father Ray celebrated his 70th birthday with 650 of his children
and many supporters.
In all, 750 children and young people are in the care of
the Redemptorist Orphanage, Home for Street Children, School for the Blind,
Vocational School for the disabled and the thousands more that have passed
through in years. All have received the love and best available education
and training, so that, as Father Ray insisted, they could earn a better
living honestly rather than living on the street. This year alone, eighteen
Pattaya orphans are studying at Universities in Thailand.
Looking back, Fr. Ray believed God has blessed the
venture. He feels blessed, too. Children who have grown up and married
delight in bringing their babies to show him. Teenage residents like to pat
his ample stomach to bring them luck in exams.
Father Ray’s work has only recently been separated from
the Roman Catholic Church and placed in the hands of the ‘Father Ray
Foundation’. It now continues under the guidance of Father Philip Bunchong,
who took over as director in November 2002.
Speaking of his life as a priest, he acknowledged that he
had difficulty with meditation. Always a man of action, he found periods of
inactivity stressful rather than relaxing. “My work is my prayer,” said
Father Ray.
When asked whether he would be sad to retire, Fr. Ray
said, “No, I am going to stay around and help. I am the children’s
favourite father and my door is always open to them. I thank God I have been
able to give them a home and love.”
Well, Father Ray, your children and in fact all of
Pattaya joins with the world to salute you. We thank you for your
immeasurable contribution to our city and the lives of the thousands you
have helped. May you rest eternally in peace in the arms of the Lord.
