譯自‘Macau News‘
【2020 年 04月 17 日中國澳門訊】 ─ 深受澳門教友認識及愛戴的鄺良神父，已在當地服務逾40年，而在亞洲更服務近60年。
鄺良神父於1939年2月1日生於愛爾蘭科克，在家中八兄弟姊妹中排行第五，他一直都渴望成為司鐸。然而成為司鐸，其實原先是他長兄的意願，而鄺良認為自己成為司鐸的理由都是「不恰當的」。
他小時候住在高爾夫球場附近，每天放學時，經常隔著籬笆，看看司鐸們打高爾夫球。這促使鄺良這樣考慮，有一天要成為司鐸 ─ 去打高爾夫球。他說：「當然，這是成為司鐸一個不恰當的理由，但做司鐸的意思已種下了。」
他也很欣賞他的長兄 ─ 渴望成為司鐸 ─ 他是一位技術不錯的足球員，鄺良希望自己也精於足球，而司鐸聖職再一次喚起鄺良的興趣。「另一個不恰當的理由！」
無論鄺良最初的理由如何，父母都對他的抉擇感到十分高興，他於1952年進入了愛爾蘭利默里克郡Pallaskenry的慈幼會中學唸初中。他說：「我們都渴望成為司鐸及傳教士，但並非每人都堅持下去。」
他在學校感到十分愉快，並進入了進學期，經過深入的反省及準備後，才矢發初願。鄺良接著完成兩年哲學及學術課程，以及在愛爾蘭實習兩年。
在他初學期間，鮑思高慈幼會總會請求志願者到香港服務。他憶述說：「我想當時我們都自願。」然而他並沒有向東方起行，直至1962年完成他的培訓為止。鄺良於1962至1969年，在香港（九龍）的鄧鏡波學校任教，這所中學是慈幼會士於1953年創立的。
在派往澳門前，他返回愛爾蘭，於北可爾代爾郡的梅努斯大學（Maynooth College）攻讀神學，這所學院有愛爾蘭「國家修院」之稱。他在那裡逗留四年，於1972年12月17日晉鐸，並於1973年返回香港。
鄺良於1975年前往澳門，在慈幼中學擔任教學工作。慈幼學校為當地歷史最悠久的教育機構之一，是雷鳴道神父於1906年（清朝末年）創立的。
他於慈幼中學教授英文，當時這是一所男子職業學校。正如鄺良所分享的，在早年 ─ 在學生能進入大學教育之前 ─ 他們的使命，就是讓畢業生在離開慈幼學學後，能早日就業。他於五年前停止任教，但仍與願意做額外作業的學生，做一些批改作文的工作。他說：「當然作為一位司鐸，我永不言休，直至有人對我說，我已過了『出售期限』！」
他在餘暇時 ─ 如果這不是他每兩年前往愛爾蘭探親的旅程當中 ─ 他喜愛休閒閱讀。鄺良表示他總是喜愛勞勃•勒德倫的書。此外，他也喜愛F. Jack McArdle這位神修作家：「我喜歡他簡約、樸實、貼地的文筆。」
他喜歡引用這句與大家分享：「勉力在人們身上看到他們最美好的一面；即使沒有人是完美的，我們都有優點，而我們都同等地為天主所愛。」
Fr Aidan Conroy: “God loves each one of us equally”
“Always try to see the best in people”
By ‘Macau News’
Macau, China, 17 April 2020 — Known and beloved by many of the faithful in Macau, Father Aidan Conroy has been serving as a priest in the city for over 40 years and has been in Asia for nearly 60 years.
Born 1 February 1939 in Cork City, Ireland, to a family of eight as the fifth child, Conroy had always wanted to become a priest. But initially, it was actually his elder brother’s ambition, one that Conroy himself considered for all the “wrong” reasons.
Having lived near a golf course throughout his childhood, he frequently glimpsed past its fence when heading home from school every day and saw priests playing golf. This had a young Conroy pondering becoming a priest someday – to get to play golf. “Of course, it was a wrong reason for becoming a priest, but the idea was planted,” he adds.
He also admired his elder brother – who wanted to be a priest – as a good footballer and, wanting to be good at the sport himself, priesthood yet again piqued Conroy’s interest. “Another wrong reason!”
Whatever his early reasoning, Conroy’s parents were happy with his choice and he entered Salesian Secondary College in Pallaskenry, County Limerick in Ireland for his junior cycle of secondary education in 1952. “All of us aspired to be priests and missionaries,” he says. “But not all persevered.”
He was happy there and went forward to the next stage, the novitiate year, a period of deep reflection and preparation before taking his first vows. Conroy then completed two years of philosophy and academic studies, followed by two years of practical training in Ireland.
During his novitiate, the Salesians of Don Bosco Society had asked for volunteers for Hong Kong. “I think we all volunteered,” he recalls. He would not make the journey east, however, until after he completed his training in 1962. Conroy taught at Hong Kong’s Tang King Po School, a secondary school founded by the Salesians in 1953, from 1962 to 1969.
Before being assigned to Macau, he returned to Ireland for theological studies at Maynooth College, in north County Kildare of Ireland, known as the “national seminary” of Ireland, and remained there for four years. Ordained on December 17, 1972, Conroy returned to Hong Kong in 1973.
Conroy made the move to Macau in 1975, taking an official teaching position at Instituto Salesiano (IS), one of the city’s oldest educational institutions, founded in 1906 by Fr Louis Versiglia near the end of the Qing dynasty.
He taught English at IS, then a vocational school for boys. As Conroy shares, in the early years – before students could aspire to university education – it was their mission to make their graduates easily employable once they left IS. He stopped teaching five years ago, but still does some composition work with pupils who volunteer for some extra work. “Of course, as a priest,” he says, “I will never retire until someone tells me I am past my ‘sell by date’!”
With extra time on his hands – and if he’s not in Ireland for his biannual trip to visit family – he likes to read for relaxation. Conroy says that he’d always enjoy a Robert Ludlum book. Aside from that, his favourite spiritual writer is F. Jack McArdle: “I like his simple, homely, down-to-earth style.”
A quote he’d like to share is this: “Always try to see the best in people; we all have good points, even though no one is perfect, and we are equally loved by God.”