Fr Gillespie thanks people of Letterkenny on Silver Jubilee of Priestly Ordination

Fr Kevin Gillespie was typically gracious on the evening he celebrated his Silver Jubilee of Priestly Ordination at St Eunan’s Cathedral in Letterkenny.

A native of Gaoth Dobhair, Monsignor Gillespie is currently the Administrator of St Eunan’s Cathedral. Previously he served as curate in Baile na Finne and at St Eunan’s Cathedral before working for a period at the Congregation for Clergy in Rome.

Mgr Gillespie’s principal role was assisting with Vatican Ceremonial duties and he accompanied both Pope Benedict and Francis on foreign visits.

The College of Consultors of the Diocese of Raphoe elected the V Rev Mgr Kevin Gillespie as Diocesan Administrator in March. The Diocesan Administrator has a caretaker role to ensure the basic administration of the diocese until a new Bishop is appointed.

“Thank you for coming out this evening,” Fr Gillespie told the congregation. “It’s lovely to see you and as people come up and you get to know them. I’m here in this parish now – thank God – for seven years and it’s a big parish and it takes a while to get to know people.

“But I have a great sense of satisfaction that practically everybody who comes up I’m I recognise you. I know you. Of course, the life of a priest is very much, well it should be, the life of the people in all of the moments of life and the Cathedral gives that.

“It’s such a rich environment in which for us to share the life of the people. From the beginning of life at baptism to the celebration of love and commitment in marriage, and as we know so often when we walk together with our people in their times of sorrow. I think for all of us priests we carry all of our people with us very deeply in our hearts. We pray for you. Even just driving around the parish, we think of you.

“As we pass the house here and there, we think of a baptism or a marriage or a funeral or a conversation or something that we have had. There’s no doubt – I’m sure I can speak for all of us as priests – the richness of the experience of the priesthood is so rewarding and so beautiful. We thank you for allowing us to share your life, allowing us to minister to you, and we thank you for your patience with us, which you need very often and in great measure. Go raibh míle maith agat.”

The former Bishop of Raphoe, Dr Philip Boyce, ordained Monsignor Gillespie in 1999 and wished all the very best for the future.

“Kevin just a word of thanks and congratulations as you look back on 25 years as a priest,” Dr Boyce said. “I had the privilege of ordaining you. I was Bishop just for four years at the time and it was a wonderful ceremony – unforgettable – and now after all these years you will have understood a little bit better of that mystery about which you spoke.

“We thank you for following the word of truth that invited you and though it brought your deeper and deeper into the mystery that is we above all of us, nevertheless it is a moment in which you feel the presence of the Lord nearer to you.

“We thank you for your fidelity over these years. I knew you when you were a student in the Irish college in Rome, and later on as a priest serving the congregation for the clergy now the dicastery as it is called. Then again you are here back in Letterkenny.

“I always appreciated your presence in your work and I’m sure the people here have Letterkenny and very happy to have you. The priest means so much for all of us, for alll of the people in the parish and they thank you today for all you have been for them over the past years.

We thank the lord for his fidelity to you and for the gift that he has given to you and the priesthood. It is something that we find to understand fully but it becomes clear to us priests as we serve the Lord day by day and then enter into a mystery that is above us but one that is very fulfilling in our lives.

“So on behalf of all here present, we thank you Kevin and we wish you many more years of service here and many more fruitful years of being the spiritual father of many people here Letterkenny or wherever the Lord may call you. May he always be with you and be the joy and strength of your heart.”