Two bishops and six priests celebrated a combined 275 years of priestly ministry in the Hamilton diocese on August 30 at St Matthew’s Church in Hillcrest.
Hamilton Emeritus Bishop Denis Browne celebrated his 60th anniversary as priest. He was followed by Fr Richard Pipe who was celebrating his 50th jubilee and Monsignor Trevor Murray his 40th anniversary.
Celebrating 25 years as priest were Christchurch Bishop Michael Gielen and Frs Alphonso Dujali, Rico Enriquez, Darren McFarlane and Robert Sharplin.
Auckland Bishop and Hamilton diocese apostolic administrator Stephen Lowe was present at the celebrations.
Bishop Browne was Hamilton bishop for 20years. He was translated from Auckland to Hamilton in 1994. He served as Bishop of the Cook Islands and Niue from 1977 to 1983. He was ordained priest by the late Auckland Archbishop James Liston on June 30, 1962.
NZ Catholic caught up with Fr Pipe who gave the homily at the Mass. In his homily, he discussed how
each priest’s path is different and guided by God.
“Everyone has their own story of the journey. They are all unique. Our story is basically shaped by God. Each one is different,” he said.
Fr Pipe said he did think he was going to be a priest.
“I never thought I’d be a priest. I never considered I was academically qualified. They told me to
pray and so I did,” he said.
“It just goes to show God can work through any situation. If he has a job for him [as a priest], it doesn’t matter what people think. You’ll get through.”
Fr Pipe said each priest has his own vocation journey.
“One of the things I’ve done once was build a clinker, build a boat. It ended up by having different planks and different shapes. I was sort of saying that is what life is like,” he said.
Asked what it was like to celebrate 50 years of priesthood, Fr Pipe said with a laugh, “I go on to
51 next year. It’s just another day. You just keep going.”
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