Former soccer star ordained
A former Northern Ireland soccer international and Manchester United player was ordained to the priesthood in Dublin last weekend. At one time in his football career, Fr Philip Mulryne (above) earned up to £600,000 a year. He swapped his kit for the Dominican habit when he retired from professional soccer in 2009.
In his homily, Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia, who travelled from Rome for the event, told Fr Mulryne, 39, that “you have known the meaning of working hard to attain a goal, and now the goal is Christ.”
Ordinations to the priesthood in Scotland are the highest for two decades, according to Bishop John Keenan of Paisley, President of Priests in Scotland, who said the figures suggested a possible vocational alternative to conventional party politics.
The bishop praised the country’s vocation directors for reaching the 20-year high, which stands at 12 new ordinations, the first time such a figure has been reached since 1997, and a vast improvement on the low of 2008, when there were no priestly ordinations.
Thanking all those who had prayed for ordinations, Bishop Keenan said, “what is becoming increasingly clear is that our country needs spiritual leaders to take over the reins from our political leaders in order to guide us out of a cultural decline that is now beyond the power of politics to solve”.
Citizenship charges ‘too high’
The cost of applying for UK citizenship is too high and unfair, with an adult requiring £1,282 to cover the cost of their application, the Church of England’s General Synod was told in a debate this week. People with indefinite leave to remain, but no citizenship, can’t vote or take up their full civic responsibilities, despite paying tax, the Synod heard. It unanimously passed a motion asking the Archbishops’ Council to make recommendations to the government and encouraging bishops to raise the issue in House of Lords debates. The Synod also urged parishes to raise the subject with their MPs. Ben Franks, the member of the House of Laity who initiated the debate said, “Many people save over years to pay for their applications, there are also those whose difficult situation leads them to go into long-term, high-interest debt from unscrupulous lenders to do so.”
The Bishop of Lancaster, Michael Campbell, has announced that the grade-II listed Pugin Church of St Thomas of Canterbury and the English Martyrs (above) will be the second church in Preston to be run by the traditionalist Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP).
The institute will take over responsibility for the church in the autumn, following a request from Bishop Campbell and in agreement with Mgr Gilles Wach, prior general of the institute and Canon Adrian Towers, the rector of the parish. The English Martyrs’ church will specifically provide for the celebration of the Mass and the other sacraments in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, although the ordinary form celebration of Mass in English will continue to be celebrated for at least 12 months. The move will secure the English Martyrs for the future, according to Bishop Campbell. The decision “offers a much-needed practical and pastoral help,” he said.
“Priesthood in Ireland is not in a good place” the censured Redemptorist Fr Tony Flannery has warned as the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) revealed that as many as nine Irish priests have taken their own lives in the past 15 years. A series of ACP meetings around the country have heard priests voice concern over the impact of their increased workload as they get older, caused by the decline in priest numbers and the bishops’ promotion of clustering.
They also highlighted concerns over priests’ basic salaries with some dioceses paying €13,800 (£12,200) compared to €25,000 in others.
Poor welfare support for a priest who falls ill was also highlighted. Speaking to The Tablet, Fr Brendan Hoban of the ACP said most diocesan priests now live alone, without the support-systems of the past, and “many are breaking under the strain”. He said there was a sense among priests “that things have collapsed on our watch – as well as a great sadness that we’ve given our lives to something and it’s breaking down around us”.
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