Church comment: Thank you Harborough for giving me the pleasure, the privilege, and the blessing of spending 19 years in your midst

Viewpoint by Fr Owen O’Neill, parish priest of Our Lady of Victories Church, Market Harborough

When I was a young boy in Ireland, growing up in a family of five, how often my dear late mother used to say to all of us “stop complaining and count your blessings”.

As I have been a priest in active ministry for 55 years, and have now decided that my time to retire from active ministry is drawing nigh, I look back in gratitude over those many years and recall those lovely and fitting words of my mother, because I have so much to thank God for, so much to thank him for his blessings to me and on me. His blessings have been so numerous and so wonderful.

I was ordained in 1965 as a Roman Catholic Priest for the Catholic Diocese of Nottingham which embraces the counties of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Rutland. Unlike many other Christian traditions, when a Catholic priest is ordained for a particular diocese, he remains in that Diocese for all his priestly ministry, except for some specific responsibility for which he may be appointed outside his own diocese.

I have spent 31 years of my priestly ministry in Leicestershire, the last 19 years here in Market Harborough. I think I am currently the longest serving Church Minister in Harborough and district and probably the oldest still active in parish ministry. In mid-September I will be retiring from the responsibility of Parish ministry, but still hoping to help out from time to time, when requested to do so, and especially so at week ends in some of the Catholic parishes adjacent to where I shall be living.

My past 19 years here in Harborough have been years of absolute happiness, fulfilment, joy and blessings. They have been years of real pleasure, of real privilege. To serve the Catholic community in Harborough and district has been so special, so rewarding, so wonderful. To share ministry, to share the joy of our faith with all the Christian Churches here in Harborough and district has been truly a God given privilege.

The love and support of all the different church ministers here in town and district, has been truly remarkable. I am so grateful to each and every one of you for the mutual trust, fellowship, faith and hope, we have shared together. I thank God every day in prayer, for that mutual love and cooperation of Churches Together in Harborough. Churches Together is so wonderful, so prayerful, so supportive. May you go from strength to strength in faith, hope and love.

As I will be leaving you in September, my successor, who will take over on the day I leave, will be Canon Chris O’Connor, who is currently Parish Priest in Grantham. If he will be half as happy and fulfilled and supported here, as I have been over the past 19 years, he will be a very, very happy priest indeed. I’m sure he will give to, and receive from Churches Together in Harborough the same love, support, and the joy of our Christian faith, that has been my experience in this lovely town and district.

To people of faith, whatever that faith might be, to those with no faith, to each and every one, I thank you for the pleasure, the privilege, and the blessing of spending 19 years in your midst.

Fr Owen O’Neill is the parish priest of Our Lady of Victories Church, Market Harborough