| Father Paul Lomas writes:- |
|
There
are not too many married priests in the Catholic Church but since 1992
many former clergy from the Church of England, I
was raised in Droylsden where my parents, Joan and Roy still live,
and brought up in the Church of England. I was very much involved in
the life of St. Andrew’s Church in Droylsden. I was an altar server, a
Sunday school teacher and eventually a Reader. It
was at the Youth Club there that I met my future wife, Andrea. She was
fourteen and I was sixteen when we went on our first date! I trained as
a teacher of chemistry and taught in Salford. We were married in 1975.
Our son, Andrew was born in 1976 and daughter, Claire was born in 1981. I
gave up teaching in 1979 and became a salesman. Over the next ten years
I sold engineering products and eventually mobile telephones, rising to
the role of sales manager. I
had always felt a calling to the priesthood in the Church of England,
but only tested this vocation in the eighties. I was recommended for
training and was ordained in 1989. I became curate in St. Margaret’s
Hollinwood and after three years became Rector of the Holy Family in
Failsworth. These
were both “high” Anglican parishes and I considered myself a
catholic working in the Church of England. My great dream was that the
Church of England would once again become part of the Catholic Church.
While at Holy Family I began to realise that this dream wasn’t likely
to happen and so decided that I needed to be a Catholic in the Roman
Catholic Church. Andrew
had become a Catholic in 1996 when he was at university
and at Easter 2001 Andrea, Claire and I were received at In
2002, I began training within the
Shrewsbury
diocese in preparation for ordination. I was
ordained deacon in July 2003 at Shrewsbury Cathedral along with the
permanent deacons. I was then ordained priest by Bishop Brian on 22nd
November 2003 in Bishop
Brian appointed me as assistant at St. Joseph’s in Sale
. I
enjoyed tremendously my time with Mgr Peter Walton and the people of St.
Joseph’s, particularly my time spent with the young people in the
parish and at St. Joseph’s Primary School, along with Blessed Thomas
Holford Catholic College in Altrincham, where I was chaplain. Also,
during the last two years, I have been involved with On September 7th. 2009 we will have been in Heald Green for 2 years. This year we celebrate fifty years as the Catholic Parish in Heald Green. It is my privilege to be the priest for this parish and I look forward to the year of celebration ahead. |
both single and married
have
become Catholics. As celibacy was not compulsory in the Church of the