Pope Francis announced that 2015 would be a year dedicated to the promotion of consecrated life.  To mark this year we conducted a series of interviews with men and women who, having grown up in our Parish, answered the Lord’s Call and went onto become Priests and Religious Sisters.

Q. Can we begin with your early childhood memories in Rutherglen?

My earliest memories are actually being at mass in St Bridget’s, Toryglen I think! My Aunt Cathy used to go to confession there and must have taken me; I remember the colourful murals on the walls depicting the sacraments.

We had a very close family, and faith was important and essential to family life.  We always went to Mass, there were big Catholics families in our street, our house was in Pinkerton Avenue; there were five children in our family, I was the youngest by ten years.  It was a very happy childhood, always family orientated; we also had an extended family.  We stayed with my grandmother, and my aunts always visited from East Kilbride.  We were always faithful to being around the family, and the Faith was part and parcel of growing up.  My grandmother died when I was about nine, and she had passed the Faith onto us.

We had great priests in St Columbkille’s.  One of my early memories is of talking to Canon Rooney.  He was once walking up the steps behind the swimming baths from the Church to the School and I was walking behind him, so he started to speak to me and we talked for some time before I told him I would be late for school.  He then came into the class with me so that I didn’t get into trouble. The Canon died when I was eight or nine, and the pupils of Columbkille’s Primary School were all brought down to the Church to file past his coffin.

I remember the priests all being very child friendly.  There was Canon Gillen, Fr Danny Rooney, Fr McNamee, Fr Peter Gorman, whose sermons were excellent, and Fr Martin Kelly, so we had lots of Priests and you had this big range, so as a child you could see these different models of Priesthood and you recognised that there were different ways in which men could express the priesthood in the individual gifts and talents they possessed.  We were very lucky in the clergy that we had, they were great examples.

Q. Were you very involved in the church, were you and Altar Server for instance?

I wasn’t an Altar server, the only clubs that I was in were the first aiders at the Burgh school and the youth club.

Q. You enjoyed St Columbkille’s School?

Yes I loved school, I made great friends.

Q. When did you first think of becoming a Priest?

From an early age around First Communion time.  At that time I felt called, and I felt that nothing else would make me as happy as being a Priest, nothing else would be as meaningful.  I think if you speak to a lot of Priests of my generation most of them will say the same thing, and tell you that they felt called as children.  You didn’t do it for the glory; you understood the life of a Priest was a selfless life, a life that was completely dedicated to the service of Christ.  You understood that you left your family behind, and you were wholeheartedly devoted to Christ, and that was the appeal, that you were a man of God, and you dedicated yourself wholly to him.

My sister was a Poor Clare, but that had very little influence on my decision.  I remember speaking to Monsignor Gillen and he asked me if Marie’s vocation had an influence on my decision and it really didn’t. She was 10 years older than me.

Two of the Nuns in Marie’s Convent had uncles who were Mill Hill Fathers and the Sweeney brothers were Mill Hill Fathers, so there was always that sense the Mill Hill Missionaries would be my vocation, following the example of these men.

One my relatives on my father’s side had been the caretaker at Lochwinnoch, the Mill Hill Junior Seminary, and he was also an associate of the Mill Hill Fathers.  I had the opportunity to go and study with them in Dublin and I loved the seminary.

Q. So you went to study first of all for Mill Hill?

Yes, I studied with the Mill Hill missionaries for four years, and then my father died and I came back to Glasgow.  Mill Hill was a really wonderful experience, and great formation.  I was in Dublin in 1983-6 and we took part in a spiritual year with the Irish Missionary Union.  There were 200 plus religious students all doing the course, and we had some of the best lecturers and thinkers in Ireland teaching us.  The course itself was a foundational course for religious and seminarians to give them and introduction to spirituality, the life of the Church, Theology, Philosophy, as well as Psychology and Sociology and Human Development.  The course was outstanding, you don’t realise that at the time of course, but it was enlightened and comprehensive.  I did Philosophy with the Jesuits in Milltown Park, with Frank Mc Grade, who was also from Rutherglen.

Frank has an interesting story, he was a really bright boy who I think studied Modern Languages at University and also went to study in Paris and then came back to Glasgow to study Law.  At that time he had lost his faith, and had then underwent a conversion experience and was brought back to his faith, and he studied with the Passionist’s in Glasgow who also they had a place in Dublin, where we studied together.  He didn’t take his first vows because he felt that he was being called to the Monastic way of life, so he joined the strictest order of the church, the Carthusians.

I was working in Sussex during the summer holidays one year and the Monastery was down there, so I went to try and visit him, but they didn’t allow visitors.  I think they were only allowed visitors once a year or something like that.  Frank then contracted a brain tumour, and I was then allowed in to see him.  He wasn’t in any pain, it only affected his walking.  He knew it was serious and the surgeon was astounded with how Frank accepted this as Gods will and offered his impending death for the Church and the salvation of others.  He was finally professed as a Carthusian Brother before he died.  Monsignor Gillen and I accompanied his dad at his funeral.

I was younger than Frank, and the strength of his Faith and his relationship with God made a deep impression on me.  The Carthusian way of life is dedicated to prayer and contemplation and nothing is allowed to interfere with that; it’s an extraordinary form of life.  They don’t even speak to each other, except about once a week.  So he was another good and holy man from St Columbkille’s.  As a Priest you are often dealing with people at extraordinary times of their lives, marriages, deaths, baptisms etc. You come to learn that the length of life isn’t that important; in one sense Frank’s life was very brief, but he packed a lot into it, and God brought him back to himself.

Q. So you came back from Dublin and went to London?

Well you studied Philosophy in Ireland and Theology in Mill Hill, London, which was the Mother House.  It was a huge place in North London, there was a number of Scottish guys studying there as well as a lot of Dutch guys.  Mill Hill House was an interesting place because as well as living with your fellow students you also lived with the Superior General and the General Council.  There were also a lot of people passing through, Mill Hill also has orders of Brothers and Sisters as, and so it was a big community.

We also had a farm, the Brothers worked on the farm, and sold eggs and milk.  Although it was London it felt like the country.  The White Fathers had a place close by as well.

Eventually I came back and studied for Motherwell Diocese at Chester’s College.

Q. Was that a big decision, did you spend a lot of time thinking about it?

Yes, after the death of my father there was a recognition that it might be better to be closer to home for my mother, it was a major vocational choice, not in terms of the Priesthood, but how you would exercise the Priesthood.

Q. Did you see any difference between Diocesan and Missionary Priests, for instance Fr John Sweeney talks a lot about the differences between Missionary and Diocesan Priests?

Oh yes, if you are in the missions you are proclaiming the Faith in situations and in areas where it has never been proclaimed before, which is happening more and more in the Western World at the moment actually.  Yes there was a difference, the sense of leaving home and family and going to the missions with all of what that meant.  One of my friends, Fr Gerry Doyle has spent a lot of time in Cameroon and Kenya, and he contracted Cerebral Malaria and has taken a toll on his health.  Another of my friends works with nomadic aboriginal tribe in Pakistan, in the dessert, who have never really integrated into the Pakistan mainstream.  He spends his whole life following these tribes, and has done for about 25 years, which is a really strong vocation, real dedication.  Being a Missionary and the Theology behind missiology, it’s about real enculturation. A western approach to the faith has to be altered when dealing with missionary communities.  It teaches you that the Faith is not confined to a single culture.  Many problems occur when you try and impose Western Culture and values with the proclamation of the Faith. The faith has to be presented in a way which respect and is open to a different culture.

Q. How long were you in Chester’s?

I studied Theology in Chester’s, so that was 4 years.

Q. Was it very different then from Missionary Seminary?

Oh yes, it was a different approach to formation all together, for the reasons we discussed regarding the difference between missionary and diocesan vocations.

Q. Was it a difficult transition?

No, I always felt the benefit of the Mill Hill formation, but I enjoyed my life at Chester’s.

Q. When you were in Chester’s did you have much contact with the Parish?

Not really, by that stage I had been away from Rutherglen for about three or four years, apart from visiting my mother.  I mean I went to Mass, but I always tried to organise some voluntary work in the summer.

Q. In the Parish?

No, there wasn’t a close association.  Monsignor Gillen was a very busy man, with three curates as well as being Vicar General, he was very nice to me and he was very kind during the Ordination year.

Q. What kind of voluntary work did you get involved with?

I worked just in the summer, with the Grace and Compassion Sisters down in England, and also the Cheshire Home Foundation and Jerico-Benedictines.

Q. Did you have Parish Placements?

I had one Parish placement, St Marys in Hamilton, for four years with the late Mgr. Alex Devanny.  You did four or five weekends during the year, then you did two or three weeks, with the weeks getting longer as you got closer to Ordination.

Q. So you completed your Theology and you were ordained?

Yes, Fr Gerry Haddock and I were Ordained together

Q. Was he at Chester’s as well?

Yes, we were ordained in 1992, two years after the Golden Jubilee of the Church building.

Q. Which month were you ordained?

June and then I took up my appointment in September, so I took a holiday in Dublin with some friends, my sister was there as well as her Convent had closed in Edinburgh and she had been moved to Dublin

My first appointment was to ST Patricks in Shotts, where I spent two years.

Q. Who was your Parish Priest?

Fr O’Leary,

Q. How did you find Parish Life?

It was different to anything I had ever done before.  At that time there were two Psychiatric Hospitals in Shotts and I was Chaplain to them both.  I went to say Mass there often and that was of course an extraordinary experience.

When you are first ordained, it’s a steep learning curve, there’s no doubt about that. You’ve got to find your feet and everything you do is for the first time; the first baptism, the first wedding, the first time you administer the sacrament of the sick, they are all learning experiences, and you have to learn quickly.  It’s good to have a Priest to help you with that.  That’s why curacy is important, so you can learn different skills and be guided by a more experienced Priest.  Older priests can also have a different idea of what the Church is.  You have to remember to be yourself as well, because God wants you as you are.  My generation were also the children of the Vatican Council, believing in the liturgical reforms, and that lay people should participate as fully as they can in the Mass, so it was a really energising time.

Pope Francis has heralded a great revival in the Church, with his emphasis on the Joy of the Gospel.  He really has challenged Priests to think about their lives and try to think more of the Joy in the Gospel, within an integrated life.  It’s great to try and reconnect with that joyful missionary zeal.  He has brought this new message of trying to touch people with joy love and commitment to us all and you can see the positive effect it is having.

So as part of that we now employ a Youth Minister in this Parish, and we go on Pilgrimage, we went to Medjugorje, and we are going to the Krakow World Youth Day, with about 30 or 40 young people from the Parish.  We also have outreach programmes and youth groups.  We are trying to reach out to young people and they seem to be responding very well.  So I’m feeling very positive about the Church at the moment, with the primary evangelisation of preaching the Joy of the Gospel; we really need to invest in our young people.

Q. So after Shots, where next?

St Margaret’s in Airdrie, which is to oldest Parish in the Diocese, and I was Chaplain to two schools, St Patricks in Coatbridge, and St Margaret’s in Airdrie.  I loved school Chaplaincy, it was good fun, and the staff were great.  There was always a lot to do with lots of retreats and initiatives in the school

I was in St Margaret’s for two years, and then moved to St Cadoc’s in Cambuslang. I had the great privilege of working with Fr Tom Connelly.  He was great fun, a great priest to work with and a great friend.

Q. How long were you there for

I was there for seven years

Q. Were you a Chaplain there?

Yes to Trinity High School, where again the kids and the staff were great.

Fr Connelly became ill when I was there, and sadly died, and that was a real bereavement for me, a painful experience, he my Parish Priest and a real larger than life character.

I then moved to the Parish of the Sacred Heart in Bellshill and I was working with Fr Andy Ream, who was a really Holy man and hardworking man.  You learn from all of these great Priests.

I then moved here to St Brides in Bothwell as Parish Priest, and I’ve been here for 11 years.  When I moved here Monsignor Burns was here in residence, he had retired as Vicar General, so it was great to again live with another really experienced Priest, to help me settle into life as a Parish Priest.

Q. Finally Father, do you have any advice for young people thinking of priesthood or religious life?

Go for it! If this is God’s will then you will find your joy, happiness and peace there. It’s wonderfully rich and varied life, a deeply joyful and privileged life. You never stop learning or find new ways God calls you to serve him. It’s a life filled with love and the more generously you love and serve the more God calls to love and serve him.

I remember when St Pope John Paul II spoke to young people in his visit to Scotland he said “Do not be afraid to give your life to Christ.” And we should not be afraid Christ doesn’t take he gives. And every day we are reward a hundred fold for the little we offer him. Christ is not out done in his wonderful generosity to us.

So we should not be afraid of our own failing and imperfections, these shouldn’t stop us following Christ. We remember the words of St Paul who says God uses earthen vessels and that when we are weak its then we are strong for we depend not on our own goodness but always on his strength.

Yes, there are doubts and struggles but the light of faith keeps us following in Christ’s footsteps. And perhaps that invitation Christ gives at the beginning of the Gospel to come and see, when the disciples ask him where he lives, is how we should answer that call we hear in our hearts. If you feel Christ’s call accept his invitation to come and see! Don’t be afraid but trust in the goodness of God to  guide.