Clergy Changes
Archbishop Malcolm is now in the process of making decisions regarding some of the clergy moves in the summer reshuffle of priests which will be taking effect from September, and he has informed us of the changes which will affect the Cathedral. Fr Stephen has now been appointed the Priest Hospital Chaplain for the Royal University Hospital and Broad Green Hospital Trusts. He will continue to reside at the Cathedral and be involved celebrating Masses here but the main focus of his ministry will be the hospitals. Fr Dominic, having served here for the last two years will be moving on to serve as Assistant Priest in the parishes of St Matthew’s and St Cecilia’s, Tuebrook – both of these are busy parishes with large primary schools.
There are three men to be ordained to the priesthood at the Cathedral on Saturday 7th July and one of the newly ordained men, Philip Carr, will take up his first priestly appointment here at the Cathedral as Assistant Priest.
We will also be welcoming Fr Silviu Climent next week. Originally from Rumania Fr Silviu has recently helped out in a number of parishes within the Diocese. He has been appointed here for a limited time to improve his English and become familiar with diocesan procedures in preparation for incardination as a Liverpool Diocesan priest.
Along with changes here the work to the presbytery at St Vincent’s is now in full swing and it is expected that the White Fathers will move in to St Vincent’s Presbytery in August and take responsibility for the parish from September as well as taking on other responsibilities within the Diocese.
So there are considerable priestly personnel changes within the city centre but the wider picture across the Diocese is that there is an ongoing decline in the number of priests available to serve the parish communities and be available for other essential ministries.
This Sunday three candidates- Tony Downes, Chris Housbey and Anil Lukose will be ordained to the permanent diaconate by Archbishop Malcolm at an afternoon service of Mass at 3pm. On Monday the local catholic secondary schools will be hosting a Mass for the year seven children across the city as a welcome and preparation for their move to new schools in September. The Union of Catholic Mothers gather for their annual Mass at the Cathedral at 7.30pm on Wednesday. Children from the Cathedral parish will be making their First Holy Communion next weekend. Fr Dominic will celebrate mass at 11.00am on Saturday morning in the Crypt with most of the children and their families and a few of the young choristers will receive the Holy Eucharist for the first time at the Solemn Mass next Sunday.
I enjoyed attending a very successful Concert given by ‘The Priests’ last Friday at the Philharmonic which had been jointly organised by the Friends of the Cathedral and Nugent. The whole event was made possible by the hard work and organisational ability of Pat Murphy and I am very grateful to her for all the time and energy she committed to coordinating such a large scale successful event.
Please note that the Statue of Our Lady of Walsingham from the National shrine will be coming to the Cathedral from Thursday 21st- Saturday 23rd June to begin a series of visits to the Catholic Cathedrals across the country as part of a pilgrimage of prayer and devotion to Our Blessed Mother.
Canon Anthony O’Brien
Cathedral Dean
