St Joseph’s Church packed to celebrate Father Paul Daly’s silver jubilee

Photo: Phil Cunningham

Silver Jubilee Mass for Father Paul Daly

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Over 550 people packed St Joseph's church in Heywood for the Silver Jubilee Mass for Father Paul Daly.

It was on 22 July 1990 that Father Daly was ordained as a Catholic priest in St Mary's, Denton. The Bishop who ordained him, Archbishop Patrick Kelly, together with the Archbishop of Birmingham, three other Bishops, and 40 priests, joined a full church for a Mass of Thanksgiving on Sunday 19 July.

The Mayor Surinder Biant and Mayoress Cecile Biant, Deputy Mayor Ray Dutton, Deputy Mayoress Elaine Dutton, Liz McInnes MP, local councillors and council officers, clergy and members of other churches, inter-faith colleagues and local parishioners joined in the Mass and stayed afterwards for refreshments.

In his sermon, which included a paragraph in Polish, Father Daly spoke of the inspirational people he has met over the last 25 years, saying: "I look back on my response to God these past 25 years and cannot say I have ever regretted a single day. I have tried to be a ‘good priest,’ but a little voice tells me ‘have I really tried to be a holy priest?’ Not in an unworldly, removed, kind of a way, but to grow in holiness while deeply immersed in the excitement and also the humdrum of the every day?"

He went on to say: "In the prayer prayed over me and every priest at their ordination the Church boldly asks that the spirit of holiness penetrate right down to the gut; that the Holy Spirit get under our skin.

"I am grateful to Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen, former Abbot of Pluscarden, for this explanation of what the prayer means: ‘In the ancient world it is here, in the viscera, the deep inside, that the emotions live. It is here that fathers and mothers, for example, suffer and feel for their children. And it is there that the Father is being asked to send the Spirit of holiness. So at ordination and every year we pray: Let this man not be a dry old stick, burned out, withered, or cold and hard and angry. Renew the Spirit of holiness – in his guts, in his insides, in his heart, his affectivity, his emotions, feelings, desires. The Spirit of holiness is inside or nowhere. Priesthood is in our insides, in our hearts, or it’s nowhere.'

“What is holiness but gazing in wonder at the face of God. We, mere mortals, cannot see the face of God and live. And yet God, of his own love, has revealed his face to the world. The face of God revealed to the world is Jesus, the face of mercy. In Jesus God looks with love upon the world. He looked with compassion on the crowd because they were like sheep without a shepherd (by the way when it says in the Gospel that he took pity on them, it’s that word again, you know, the one for the insides. It hit him in the gut, it moved him to the heart, to see the needs of people not just for the material things of life but for purpose, direction, hope, salvation). When we, as priests, cease to be moved by the needs, physical, emotional or, spiritual, of those in our care (of any faith or none, church-goers or non-church-goers) then we can hang up our collars.

“And we who gaze upon that face of mercy do not die; what’s more, to gaze on the face of Jesus – to be radiated by the face of Jesus - makes us more alive than ever. We are energised by our encounter with Jesus so that we don’t simply gaze upon the Lord, we reflect his gaze upon the world. We see as he sees and are moved as he is moved. We respond as he responds. He lives in us and works through us."

He ended by saying: "There is no privilege greater than talking in fragile hands ordinary bread and wine, and saying ‘this is my body’ ‘this is my blood’. There is no privilege greater than standing at a bed side at 3am saying, with the full force of the angels and saints at your back, ‘go forth, Christian soul’. There is no privilege greater than listening to someone’s tale of choices badly made and decisions regretted and, untying those knots by saying ‘I absolve you from your sins’. There is no privilege greater than being allowed to stand with people at life’s most joyful moments and its most tragic ones, at life’s beginning and life’s end and every stage in between."

At the end of Mass, Father Daly was presented with a priestly stole and a blessing from Pope Francis.

Father Daly said: "I was totally overwhelmed by the great turn-out. What moved me the most was the wonderful diversity of those who came together and the spirit of joy was written on people's faces. I deserve none of this because all I have done is my duty. All I ask from people is that they pray for me."

The collection during the Mass raised £1,500, which will be split between the parish's Developing World Fund and the St Vincent de Paul Society, which supports the Heywood Foodbank and other support to those in need in Heywood. The Developing World Fund supports CAFOD, the parish's twin parishes, orphanages in Uganda and initiatives to protect women from trafficking in Albania.