On 13 October 1964, Patrick Keegan took the floor to speak to the bishops of the Second Vatican Council, the first lay person to speak in a General Congregation, writes Pat Jones in The Tablet.
It was the final day of the debate on the draft decree on the lay apostolate. Fr John Fitzsimons, an English national chaplain to the Young Christian Workers (YCW), recalled in his eulogy at Keegan’s funeral that there was “a murmur of anticipation around the assembly as Archbishop Krol led a layman to the microphone”.
Archbishop Derek Worlock, Keegan’s lifelong friend and co-worker, described Keegan “in shiny new shoes making his way across the perilous marble floor” to address the Council fathers, greeting them in Latin before reverting to English. “It was an overwhelming moment for me,” Worlock said, some 20 years later. Keegan himself recalled being desperate for a cigarette afterwards.
It was a long way from the beginning of the Council, when the preparatory commission working on the lay apostolate had met without any lay people present. Keegan’s address signifies the way in which the Council discovered itself in process and practice as well as in texts.
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Pat Jones, The legacy of a lad from Lancs (The Tablet)
Patrick Keegan website (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)