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Volume 25 No. 1 | Autumn 2015
RIP Fr Victor Stevko SVD and Fr Gerard Mulholland SVD
The Divine Word Missionaries AUS Province lost two much-loved confreres in recent months,
with the deaths of Fr Victor Stevko and Fr Gerard Mulholland.
Fr Victor
died after
a long illness, on
September 6, 2014,
aged 84. A Vigil Mass
was held for him at
the Slovak Catholic
Church of Sts Cyril and
Methodius, where he
had been chaplain to
the Slovak community
for many years. His
funeral Mass was
held at the St Arnold
Janssen Chapel, Marsfield.
Born in New York City on August 16, 1927, Fr Victor’s
parents, Victor snr and Rosalia, had emigrated to the US
from Czechoslovakia. When Victor was five years old, the
Stevko family returned to their homeland in Slovakia, where
he completed his schooling. Victor entered the minor
seminary to begin his high school studies in 1941 and then
the novitiate in September 1947. One month later he was
sent to the United States to continue his novitiate training
in Techny. He arrived wearing his cassock and carrying a
violin, taking his final vows in 1955 and being ordained to
the priesthood on June 9, 1957.
Fr Victor began his pastoral ministry in September, 1958, at
St Anselm’s Church on Chicago’s south side, and then took
up a missionary assignment to Indonesia, arriving in Jakarta
in 1960. In 1965, Fr Victor was named pastor of St Mary of
Fatima parish at Wangkung in western Flores. For 17 years
he faithfully administered to his people in the local parish
and also the 30 outlying mission stations, with horseback
the only means of transportation, travelling up and down
the mountainous terrain.
Fr Victor moved to the SVD community in Marsfield,
Sydney in 1994, becoming the chaplain for the Slovak
community, a role he remained in for 16 years, until his
retirement in 2010. As his health deteriorated, Fr Victor
needed the specialised care at the Yallambi Centre
nursing home, where he lived until his death. He was
dearly loved by the staff there, and everyone who came
to know him was deeply impressed by his humble,
welcoming ways. He always had a smile and a joke for
everyone who came his way.
Fr Gerard
, a much loved member of the SVD AUS
Province, died on November 26, aged 58, some months
after being diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. His
funeral Mass was held at St Mark’s, Inala in Brisbane, the
same church in which he was ordained, and the same
parish community to which he had been pastor until his
illness forced him to retire.
Fr Gerard was born in Maryborough, on July 18, 1956, the
second child of four to Patrick and Winifred Mulholland.
Before entering the SVD, Gerard worked in a variety of
jobs, including as an ambulance driver and a Workplace
Health and Safety Officer, all the time doing volunteer work
on the side. He joined the St Vincent de Paul Society in
1991, and was soon elected Conference President and then
Regional President.
The St Vincent de Paul Society asked Gerard to go to PNG
to help during a time of severe drought and in 1998 he
returned there to work in Aitape after a deadly tsunami
destroyed the area. It was while he was in PNG that Gerard
decided to join the Society of the Divine Word.
After ordination in 2006, Gerard’s first assignment was to
PNG where he worked in Fatima in the Archdiocese of
Mt Hagen. When an injury forced him to move back to
Australia in late 2009 he became director of the Janssen
Spirituality Centre in Boronia, Victoria. In 2011 he returned
to his beloved Queensland, assigned to St Cecelia’s Parish
Hamilton and then also to St Mark’s, Inala. Gerard also
served as the Province Communications Officer.
After being diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease,
Gerard was cared for lovingly at the Marsfield SVD
community, before passing away in Macquarie University
Hospital. It was a blessing to have Gerard in AUS Province,
as he was one of the few Australian-born SVDs and was
thus a great resource to confreres who have come here
from other parts of the world. Gerard loved telling jokes,
and his bright personality always left us with a smile.