Fr Ciarán moves on - July 2010

Fr Ciarán, our parish priest has moved to Wool, Wareham and Lulworth. We miss him and hope he will soon be sent back to us.  However, Father Richard Veal has kindly agreed to celebrate Holy Mass here on Wednesdays as well as Saturday night and Sunday morning.  There will be Adoration and Benediction at 0930 on Fridays, and the prayers of the church and rosary will be said every day at 0910. Why did Fr Ciarán go?

Parish barbeque.  We had over a hundred people in the presbytery garden. The weather was perfect, the food splendid and there was masses for all the children to do.

Family day.   We are grateful to Audrey Burch for the opportunity to use the lovely grounds of her house.  Children helped pick the vegetables for lunch, fed the tortoise and played a heap of games.

Parish breakfast.  All are welcome to join us for a gargantuan breakfast in the presbytery and gardens after the mass on Sunday August 8th. 

Why did Fr Ciarán go?

Answer: God calls each one of his children to serve him in some special way. One of those ways is as a priest. Sadly in this time in the history of the Church, many men are not hearing the call to the priesthood, or are not answering it generously.

We have a growing shortage of priests in this country as in most of the world. Our situation is healthy compared to most other countries. England has more priests per thousand Catholics than any country except Malta. As priests retire in our diocese it is getting ever harder to replace them.

The good news is that as of this September Plymouth diocese will have 9 men in formation for the priesthood at seminary. This is more than we have had for several years. The priest at Wool, Father Geoffrey, went into hospital for a minor operation, and to everyone’s surprise and grief, died in the recovery room. They have now been without a priest for 6 months. There are three churches – Wool, Wareham, and Lulworth with a combined Sunday Mass attendance of 185. Since January there has only been one Mass, at Wool, and the other two churches have been without the Mass. There is also a small Catholic school next to the church in Wool. These three communities needed a priest, and it is easy to see that Blandford’s need was less, with only one church and no school and a smaller number of Catholics.

Bishop Christopher asked Fr Ciarán to help out by moving to Wool, and, good missionary as he is, he accepted. Blandford will still have two Sunday masses celebrated by Father Richard Veal, and also has the service of its deacon, Michael Hughes, who will act to coordinate the ministry of all the people, so that the mission of the church can be carried out effectively.

We give thanks for the example of the generous response of Father Ciarán to the call of the Church, and hope that we will be given grace to respond to our calling as generously as he did in upping sticks and moving for the sixth time.