Yet outside the Catholic community, he remains today an almost unknown and unremembered figure.. I only knew Murphy as the country’s first Catholic bishop so it came as something of a revelation to read about a Monsignor Murphy in Bernie Mullens’ book, ‘The Bow End of Rain’ in which she describes her family life in Palapye. I should know a great more about Murphy’s earlier years in this country having listened to the lengthy eulogy at his funeral in perhaps 1980, not the usual once, but twice.
The government, presumably unable to work out what its spokesman might say about him, asked the Church to provide biographical information. It must have passed on the text of the speech which had been drafted for the Papal representative. Having listened to this speech, it came as a shock when Vice President Lenyeletse Seretse then delivered the same speech, word for word. If the government at that time was unable to assess Murphy’s contribution to the wider Gaborone community, we today are bound to find it even more difficult. Yet there are small insights which can give us clues about him. Sheila Bagnall, for instance, was incensed by the then new Papal Humane Vitae with its pronunciations about family planning.
