I couldn’t believe my ears when the bishop asked me to come to St Wilfrid’s as your priest in charge. I was being asked to come back home, to the place where I was received into the Catholic Church, and where I was ordained to the priesthood nearly twelve years ago. I had no hesitation in saying ‘yes’ to the bishop’s request. I have a deep sense of peace and joy about this new task. I am excited at the prospect at working with you, but also a bit apprehensive: I am aware of my own limitations and I don’t want to let down a community which means so much to me! Please pray for me.
I think that most of you know that I shall be ‘part-time’ for the first couple of months. I don’t retire from my prison chaplaincy work until November. We will have the usual weekend Masses, and I shall be available for the Sacrament of Reconciliation before the Saturday evening Mass. There will be a modified and reduced programme of weekday Masses. This may vary from week to week, so please read the newsletter very carefully. I do ask for your patience and understanding during these couple of months. It will be a question of keeping the essential things going and leaving everything else until I start full-time in mid-November.
As I reflect on this new stage of my life and ministry, I keep going back to words of Pope John Paul II when he addressed 35,000 young people in Cardiff in 1982. The Pope said that he hoped that, as long as the memory of his visit lasted, it would be remembered that he had come to Britain 'to call you to Christ, to invite you to pray!' Although I have had no time to form definite plans for the way the parish might develop, I am trying to keep those words of Pope John Paul as a sort of backdrop to my thinking and praying. I would be very happy if it were to be said of me, 'Father Colin came to Coalville to call us to Christ and invite us to pray.'
