Submitted by: Dan Rich

Rev. John J. Hennessy CSC

1879 – Mar. 4, 1965

South Bend Tribune 3/4/1965

Rev. John J. Hennessy CSC, a missionary in India and East Pakistan for 54 years died at 9:30 a.m. today in Holy Cross House on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. he had resided at Holy Cross House since 1961, when he returned to the United States from Pakistan for the first time in 29 years.

His like had centered around the Pakistani people. He began his missionary work in 1906 in India, serving as a teacher and parish worker there. He founded the Bandnura High School in the Dacca diocese (now part of East Pakistan), conducted services at 38 mission stations in his 75,000-square-mile diocese and saw the number of Catholics grow from 10,000 in 1910 to 53,000 in 1961.

Father Hennessy was born in County Limerick, Ireland, in 1879, and came to Notre Dame to study for the priesthood at 16. He was ordained in December 1906 in Washington, DC, and sailed the next day for India. He is survived by a sister, Sister Beatrix CSC, at St. Mary’s.

The Office of the Dead will be followed by a solemn requiem mass at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Sacred Heart Church on the Notre Dame campus. Burial will be in Community Cemetery there. Friends may call after 10 a.m. Friday in Corby Hall.

Editor: His sister, Sister Mary Beatrix Hennessy died 3-14-1965.