Spirit Talk & The Professional Medium Issue 1 | Page 6

Now a feisty octogenarian
Melbourne Catholic Priest
Father Bob Maguire is
outspoken, witty, smart, and
eccentric. He knows his stuff
too. Not just about weddings
and funerals and the pomp
and ceremony that goes with
it either. The now retired
Father Bob seems to have his
eye on what’s going on all
over the place, not just in his
corner of the world. No doubt
about it, Father Bob has a
direct line to God. But then
again, don’t we all? A few
years ago I had the pleasure
of his company and this is
what we talked about;
Robert J Maguire came to our
shores and our attention via
Ireland, Scotland and the army.
He was always bemused during

his military days when soldiers
would curse up a storm then say,
“Sorry Padre,” expecting him to
be offended by coarse language.
Bob would just laugh, an early
heads-up this was no ordinary
minister in our midst. His own
father, Mr. Maguire senior, was a
sailor and a “bit of a drinker” so
colourful words were nothing
new to the padre.

movie Roots to enlighten me just

During his illustrious career

a lot more to Father Bob than

Father Bob’s open-mouthed and
open-minded approach on radio
and TV with the likes of John
Safran has managed to grab and
turn our attention to religion. To
some extent he’s hauling God
into the 21st century. Having
never lost the spiritual link to his
own personal heritage, he spoke
in a ribald but nonetheless fond
fashion of his family and then
described a scene from the

how important spiritual heritage
is. In the movie, a black slave is
released and his white master
says something like, “You are
going to be on your own out
there.” The suddenly free slave
replies, “No I won’t, for behind
me there are ten thousand
ancestors.” Very early in the
interview it is obvious there was
radio and late night TV. He whips
off the table cloth of religion
without disturbing the place
setting, thus necessarily revealing
the table underneath holding
everything up. He knows there is
a need to bring God back into our
hearts, but he is also savvy
enough to know that in this
modern day and age it aint going
to be easy.
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