“You always felt better”: Fr Greg remembers the priest who set him on the road to priesthood

“You always felt better after spending time with Father Owen O’Neill.” Someone said it at his funeral, and Fr Greg Tobin knew exactly what they meant.

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On Monday 9th November, the diocese’s priests and deacons walked in procession from the garden into Nottingham Cathedral, and some smiled or waved. They wore white vestments, the robes worn at Mass. In the light from the windows, the red of the poppies on the altar stood out against the white. Bishop Patrick celebrated the annual Mass for its deceased priests, deacons and members of religious orders.

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Fr Greg, parish priest of Fr Greg is parish priest of four churches: St Mary’s in Marple Bridge, the Annunciation in New Mills, St Anne’s in Buxton, and St John Fisher and St Thomas More in Chapel-en-le-Frith. He had travelled about two hours to be there. He was at the altar with the other priests, and says it is “always a privilege to come and say Mass for the deceased priests.”

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Fr Owen was a curate, an assistant priest, in the parish where Fr Greg grew up. “The reason why I’m a priest is because of the priest in my parish as a young man,” Fr Greg says. Fr Owen “had a huge effect on me as a young boy,” he adds, and “planted the seeds of my priestly vocation in my soul.”

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Asked whom he had in mind during the Mass, Fr Greg thought first of Deacon Peter Swarbrick, who died in July. A deacon is an ordained minister who serves at the altar and in the community. When Fr Greg was parish priest in West Bridgford, he looked after Cotgrave and Keyworth, where Peter served.

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Peter, Fr Greg thinks, was the administrator of a local tennis club. “I convinced him to come and work for the Church instead of the tennis club.” Peter took on the parish admin and the newsletter, and he knew everybody, which mattered to a priest who did not.

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“He was one of life’s gentlemen,” Fr Greg says, and “he worked tirelessly for the Church.” Asked for the first thing that comes to mind, he answers: “Service. Yes. Dedication and service.”

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November opens with All Saints on 1st November, and the next day is All Souls, when the Church prays for everyone who has died. Fr Greg points to Remembrance Sunday on 8th November, when “the whole country stops.” “They shall not be forgotten,” he says, “and it’s the same in the Church.”

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“We pray for the dead because they need our prayers,” Fr Greg says. We are made for heaven, he adds, but it would be “arrogant to presume immediate salvation.” Catholics believe that after death many of us still need to be made ready to meet God, and that prayer helps. The Church prays for those “still awaiting the glory of heaven.”

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Fr Michael Eastwood, ordained in 1960 and now retired for four years, preached at the Mass. He asked the congregation to look at the cross and think of the words “I did it for you.” Christ endured it, he said, “out of love for each one of us.” Asked to name one priest, he declines, because “they’re all so good.”

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For a parish that has lost its priest, Fr Michael says, its grief can be offered to the Lord. The parting is “only a temporary separation,” and “we look forward to being reunited with them in heaven.”

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Fr Owen died in 2021, and Fr Greg remembers him as “such a kind man, such a holy man.” At every Mass, he says, “We always pray for them, sometimes by name.”

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If someone once planted a seed in you, you could remember them in prayer this month, even if you have not prayed in years. Find your nearest church at dioceseofnottingham.uk, light a candle and pray for them. Who would you name?

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If Fr Greg’s story sounds a little like your own, you can find out more about priesthood at dioceseofnottingham.uk/vocations.