Religious Lynch-pin
Franciscan priest recalls half century of service to Navajo

Father Conall P. Lynch, O.F.M., sits for a photograph Saturday in the chapel at Little Sisters of the Poor in Gallup. Lynch has served as a Franciscan priest for more than 50 years on and around the Navajo Reservation. (Photo by John A. Bowersmith/Independent)

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup didn't exist when Father Conall P. Lynch was born 83 years ago.

But to those who know and love him, Lynch has become an institution in the diocese he came to serve more than a half century ago. Originally from the New York City community of Queens Village, Lynch was ordained a Franciscan priest and was assigned to the Navajo Reservation in 1951.

Fifty-four years later, Lynch still retains a trace of his New Yorker accent, but it is clear the Navajo Reservation is his home. In a recent interview, he spoke about the Navajo people with great affection and talked about his years on the reservation.

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Of Irish descent, Lynch said one of his grandfathers came to the United States after jumping an English prison ship. He believes his grandfather had been arrested for a minor infraction ("The English wouldn't give you a break," he explained) and made the decision to jump ship in Liverpool, England rather than be shipped to Australia. That decision eventually led him to America and a life in New York City.

Lynch said that while growing up, he was familiar with the ministry of Franciscan friars. His older brother became a priest, and he himself began to feel the call to the priesthood in his teens. His desire, he said, was always to work with the poor.

Lynch's calling led him to theological studies in Oldenburg, Ind., where the Most Rev. Bernard T. Espelage, the first bishop of the Diocese of Gallup, had also studied and had been ordained. While in Oldenburg, Lynch became interested in working in the American Southwest after other Franciscans visited and talked about the mission field. After his ordination in 1951, Lynch was assigned to St. Michael's Mission in Arizona, which had been founded by Saint Katharine Drexel in the late 1890s.

He later went on to serve at Navajo Reservation parishes in Lukachukai and Chinle, Ariz. and at the Catholic Indian Center in Gallup.

"Everything was so vast and so big," Lynch said of his first impression of Navajoland. Transportation was difficult, he recalled, air conditioning was non-existent, and the work was frequently very lonely.

Although he had learned about theology in seminary, Lynch said he knew nothing about Navajo culture when he arrived at St. Michael's. The best advice he was given, he recalled, was to get to know the Navajo people and learn from them.

And though he attempted to learn the Navajo language, Lynch said he never got beyond the very basics of the language or got very "highfalutin" with his vocabulary.

"The best way to learn Navajo is to be born Navajo," he joked. "It is a difficult language."

After coming to the Navajo Reservation, Lynch began to see how the Irish and the Navajo have had some similar experiences experiences born of oppression. Because of Irish oppression at the hands of English authorities, Lynch said he could understand the resentment Navajo people have felt about the oppression they have experienced.

Influences on life
Lynch was asked about influences in his life. After more than five decades of working with other Catholic clergy, several people came to Lynch's mind. Bishop Espelage, also a Franciscan, was a big influence, he said. According to Lynch, Espelage didn't want to be named bishop of the Gallup Diocese, which was created in late 1939. He only agreed to do so at the request of church officials. And even though Espelage came to the position reluctantly, Lynch explained, he was a very good bishop who worked tirelessly to raise funds for the newly established diocese and to promote the Navajo people to the outside world.

Lynch also expressed admiration for the early Franciscans at St. Michael's who studied Navajo language and culture and produced scholarly volumes on those subjects. The value of their research still stands nearly a century later. Another influence was Father Dunstan Schmidlin. The City of Gallup named Father Dunstan Park after Schmidlin, another Franciscan priest who served as chancellor to Espelage and to his successor, Bishop Jerome J. Hastrich. Schmidlin is fondly remembered by many local people for his work to promote community activities particularly softball and basketball teams for women.

But perhaps more than any one person, Lynch said the Navajo people and their culture have proven to be one of the strongest influences on his life. Although he's currently living at the Little Sisters of the Poor facility in Gallup, Lynch said he would prefer to be at the mission in Houck, Ariz., on the reservation that became his home 54 years ago.