Father Jack Wiremu Smith has arrived in Gisborne as the new assistant to Monsignor Frank Eggleton at Saint Mary’s Star of the Sea church.
Now in his late 70s, Father Smith comes from Ngati Kahungunu and was born near Wairoa. But a great grandmother came from the Coast so he does have connections here, he says.
He humbly insists there is nothing special about him and he will “just be a priestly presence and an assistant to Msgr Eggleton.”
Smith entered the seminary in Sydney at the age of 33 with the Marist priests.
He was transferred back to Napier to Mount St Mary’s Greenmeadows to complete his training.
He was ordained on Takitimu Marae, Wairoa, in 1977.
Before training to be a priest Smith was a lay brother.
“I learned cooking before moving onto wine-making, as my cooking skills were less than acceptable.
“Then farming in the Manawatu and Whangarei.”
In 1991 Smith was appointed as the sixth rector of Hato Paora College.
Smith’s appointment was extremely significant because he was an old boy of the college and he was the first Māori rector.
Smith also taught at St John’s Hastings and a catholic boarding college in Gladstone, NSW.
He also had time out of the priesthood and ran a mental health housing facility for 30 clients in Te Puke.
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