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Edmund ‘Ted’ John Patrick COLLINS

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Edmund ‘Ted’ John Patrick COLLINS

New South Wales Police Force

Regd. # ?

Joined via the NSW Police Cadets on 21 April 1947

Cadet #  653

Resigned about 1957

Stations:

Died  8 August 2014  St Joseph’s Aged Care Home, Kensington, Sydney.

83 old

Funeral  19 August 2014, 2pm in Darwin

Edmund John Patrick COLLINS
Edmund John Patrick COLLINS
Edmund John Patrick COLLINS
Edmund John Patrick COLLINS
( Supplied by Catholic Church )
Ted Collins, who was Bishop of Darwin for 21 years, has died in Sydney after ongoing health issues.
Darwin, December 24, 2004. Bishop Ted Collins near the location he was sitting at when Cyclone Tracy struck. The bishop was giving a midnight mass radio broadcast when the cyclone hit, smashing the glass windows above him. Luckily those directly above him were spared and he did not get showered with glass. Cyclone Tracy, packing winds of up to 217 kph, struck in the early hours of Christmas day, 1974. The cyclone demolished 90 percent of Darwin’s buildings, killed 66 and left 45,000 people homeless. (AAP Image/Paul Benjafield) NO ARCHIVING
Death of Bishop Ted Collins, Former N.S.W.P.
Former N.S.W. Police Officer Edmund (Ted) Collins died on 08.08.14. He was also the Emeritus Catholic Bishop of Darwin. I regrettably don’t know his service history in the Job.Below is an excerpt taken from the Catholic Diocese of Darwin’s website. I met the then Father Collins when I started at the B.C.I. in 1981. I lived at Randwick then, and he was Parish Priest there. I doubt we ever agreed on anything religion-related, but he wasn’t a bad bloke, and I was surprised to learn he’d been in the Job. When he was appointed Bishop of Darwin in 1986, it was probably the first time a Bishop was featured in Police News!!!Dis.

via TBL Website Forum
http://www.tbl.australianpolice.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=19094++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Bishop Edmund John Patrick Collins, familiarly known as Bishop Ted, died late on Friday night, August 8, at St Joseph’s Aged Care Home in Kensington, Sydney. At the actual time of his death, his older sister, Madge, her son and daughter, Gerard and Anne and Father Pat Austin MSC were present.

Throughout the day and indeed over preceding days, many Missionaries of the Sacred Heart from the adjoining Monastery, many Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart as well as friends and relatives visited him.

Bishop Ted had been declining in health over recent months, with multiple and ongoing health issues.

Bishop Ted was 83 years of age. He was Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Darwin for 21 years from 1986 to 2007. He was a man of great kindness and pastoral gifts, much loved not only by members of his own Faith, but by all who came in contact with him.

A Requiem Mass will be celebrated in St Mary’s Cathedral, Darwin and Bishop Ted’s body will be laid to rest in the Crypt of the Cathedral.

The funeral for Bishop Ted will be held at St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Cathedral on Tuesday, August 19, at 2.00pm.

May his gentle soul rest in peace.

Bishop Eugene Hurley
Bishop of Darwin.

 

Location of Death in Sydney         Location of Funeral & Interment in Darwin

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Ted Collins Village in Darwin

http://www.vinnies.org.au/page/Find_Help/NT/Housing/Ted_Collins_Village/

What is the service?

Ted Collins Village is a 20-unit housing complex that provides accommodation on 6 to 12 month leases for people in Darwin. The Village was opened in 2011 and is named after Bishop Edmund ‘Ted’ Collins who led the Catholic Church in the Territory for more than 20 years. The facility was built in response to Darwin’s extreme housing crisis, which has contributed to a high occupancy rate and to large numbers of people and families living in poverty in the area. We provide property management services to the tenants of Ted Collins Village. We ask that tenants retain the referring agency as their case manager and therefore that resident’s transition out of the Village within the 12 month period is stipulated in the lease.

 

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LIFE STORY: BISHOP TED COLLINS MSC

http://www.misacor.org.au/join-us/msc-life-stories/1122-life-of-bishop-ted-collins-msc

SOMETHING BETTER: Edmund ‘Ted’ Collins answered a call to “something better”
By Damir Govorcin, Published in 2003.

Why did Ted Collins toss in a promising career in the NSW police force to join the priesthood? Well, says Ted, now the Bishop of Darwin: “It was like indigestion … the idea kept coming back up”.

The bishop’s trademark sense of humour and easygoing nature have made him a much-loved figure in NSW, South Australia and the Northern Territory over the past 40 years.

This year, to mark the 40th anniversary of his ordination, celebrations were organised at St Mary’s Cathedral in Darwin and at his former parish in Randwick, where he had two stints as parish priest at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (1964-67 and 1978-85).
His former parishioners showed their appreciation by packing a function room at Randwick Racecourse for a luncheon and concert to celebrate the life of a man they call “a true shepherd”.

“Bishop Collins is such a wonderful person, and he is greatly missed at Randwick,” said parishioner Joan Taylor.
“With his genial disposition, he has overcome many obstacles in his life and I pray that he will spend many more years looking after the Top End.”
Bishop Collins says he has been overwhelmed by the love and support he has received over the years, and was delighted to “return home” to Randwick to see so many old friends.

“I spent 12 years at Randwick, so it has a special place in my heart,” he says. “It was terrific to see so many familiar faces and I was amazed by the turnout.”

Ted Collins, the youngest of five children in an Irish-Catholic family, grew up in Bermagui on the NSW far south coast.

He was a keen sportsman and loved surfing, cricket, golf, rugby league, rugby union and Australian Rules.
“Bermagui was great place to grow up,” he says. “There was always plenty to do.

“I was always active and tried my hand at many different sports.

“I’ve got nothing but happy memories from my childhood.”  There were tough times, though.

He was only five when his mother died, leaving his policeman father the task of raising five children on his own.

“It was a big blow, losing Mum at such a young age,” says Bishop Collins.

“It put a lot of pressure on Dad, but he did a great job.

“Just my sister Madge and I are alive.”

It was only natural that Bishop Collins would follow in his father’s footsteps, joining the police force at the age of 16.

He was based in Sydney for eight years, describing his tenure as a policeman “as some of the happiest times of my life”.

“Becoming a policeman was something that was in the blood and it was my way of helping serve the community,” he says.

“I saw some gruesome things, but that was part of the job.
“I had happy memories in the police force and I wouldn’t have left the job if I wasn’t going on to something better.

“I would lock someone up while they were getting sober, but I didn’t feel I was helping them enough.”

The “something better” that was beckoning him was the priesthood.

And, in July 1963, at the age of 32 he was ordained by Cardinal Gilroy.

Apart from his two stints as parish priest at Randwick, Bishop Collins served in the parishes of Hindmarsh, Adelaide (1968-70), and Nightcliff, Darwin (1971).
He became superior of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in the Northern Territory and director of Catholic Missions in the Territory (1972-77) before he was ordained Bishop of Darwin in 1986.

“I always felt drawn to the priesthood,” he says. “I wanted to do something better with my life.

“I felt being a priest gave me more of a chance to help someone by getting to know them and helping them with their problems.

“I haven’t had any regrets with the choice I made.”
Bishop Collins will never forget the night Cyclone Tracy destroyed Darwin in 1974.

He was attending Midnight Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral when the cyclone hit on Christmas Eve, smashing everything in its path.

“We were told that the cyclone was going to hit at six on Christmas morning, but by 11.30pm it had hit and it was the most terrifying experience of my life,” he recalls.

“I will never forget the roar of the wind … the lights went out in the cathedral and windows were smashing, with glass all over the place.

“It was a devastating time … many lives were lost and people’s homes were totally destroyed. I didn’t get any sleep that night and I said a few decades of the rosary.”
Bishop Collins says he was excited to be appointed Bishop of Darwin, but he had a “gut feeling that it was going to happen”.

“Before I went on a sabbatical to New Mexico I knew that I was in contention for the position, so it wasn’t a shock when I got the job,” he says.

“When I got a call in the middle of the night from my provincial to say I was appointed, I didn’t think twice about accepting the position.”

His reign as bishop hasn’t been without controversy.

He campaigned strongly against the Northern Territory Parliament’s decision to legalise euthanasia.

The Federal Government overturned the decision, banning euthanasia in the Territory.

“Euthanasia is murder and you can’t legalise murder,” the bishop says. “I fought tooth and nail, along with many other people, to stop it. “And, thank God, it was banned.
“I have sympathy for people in pain, but it’s not the way out. “God will take you when he wants to.”

Despite heart bypass surgery a few years ago, the 72-year-old bishop shows no signs of slowing down.
“I went in for back surgery, but then the doctor told me I needed a bypass,” he says.

“I can still play golf, but walking long distances can be a struggle.”

Asked what he will do in retirement, Bishop Collins says: “Probably play more golf”

 

 

 

 

LIFE STORY: BISHOP TED COLLINS MSC
LIFE STORY: BISHOP TED COLLINS MSC

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Ted Collins, former Bishop of Darwin, dies aged 83

Published: 11 August 2014
Edmund John Patrick COLLINS
Bishop Ted Collins, who was the Bishop of Darwin for 21 years, has died aged 83, reports the ABC on Yahoo7.

Bishop Ted, as he was known, died late on Friday at the St Joseph’s Aged Care Home in Kensington in Sydney, a statement from the Church said.

He was Bishop of Darwin between 1986 and 2007.

‘He was a man of great kindness and pastoral gifts, much loved not only by members of his own faith, but by all who came in contact with him,’ said Darwin’s current Bishop, Eugene Hurley.

Bishop Ted did not rush to become a priest, working in the police force until he was 24 before deciding to join the priesthood. ‘I had this sort of longing to follow the Lord a bit closer and I said “but I have to go back to school to learn Latin for instance”… so I decided to do it, I launched out into the deep,’ he told the ABC in 2007.

While working in the NT on Indigenous Catholic Missions Bishop Ted encouraged the use of Aboriginality in faith, allowing didgeridoos and clap-sticks to be played during masses.

Bishop Ted was also an outspoken opponent of the NT’s voluntary euthanasia laws, which he believed could be perilous for disadvantaged people.

Read full article: Darwin’s Bishop Ted Collins dies aged 83 (ABC/Yahoo7)

FULL STORY

Territory mourns for Bishop Ted (news.com.au)

 

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