Dear Parishioners,
I am glad to have this opportunity to say hello to you all. I truly look forward to meeting with you in August and, please God, getting to know you in the coming years.
There is no doubt in my mind that I have a lot to live up to, in attempting to follow in those gentle but firm footsteps of Fr Martin Jennings. Like all of you, I know him to be a man totally dedicated and self-giving. I can only hope to step, even lightly, in the footprints of kindness that he has left behind.
I am thankful to Fr Peter and Fr Dan for all they have done in Tubbercurry and Cloonacool over this time when the parish was without a resident priest. I am thankful too, to all who have worked in the background in both communities of the parish to ensure that services were in place, phones were answered, and the daily needs of the people were responded to in a professional and helpful manner. None of this is taken for granted as I prepare to live in your midst.
We will work together to ensure that the life of the parish – the faith of all in Tubbercurry, Cloonacool and all its townlands is nourished and deepened. It is hugely important to me that we work in a spirit of togetherness and flexibility and please know that I will do all in my power to serve you and be there with you at all the significant moments of life.
I hope to have daily Mass in the parish with as many people as possible in attendance and am suggesting that from the weekend of August 15th we will have Mass at 9.30am each day – Monday, Wednesday and Friday in Tubbercurry, Tuesday and Thursday in Cloonacool with a Vigil Mass in Tubbercurry and Sunday Masses in Cloonacool and Tubbercurry. We will see how this works out and, if need be, revisit it in time.
Though I am sad to leave my own parish of Kilmovee, I am grateful to have had the chance to be here for so long and thankful to Bishop Kelly for appointing me to the parish in 2009. Equally, I am thankful to Bishop Paul for putting his trust in me now in asking me to be your parish priest.
For now, thanks for reading these few lines and please pray for me and the other priests involved in diocesan changes this year.
God Bless you all,
Vincent