Pastoral Placements
Continuing a series of articles written by students for the priesthood from our diocese describing their Pastoral Placement. This article is from Dan Fitzpatrick, who worked on the YMT for the Diocese for two years (also playing the base guitar!) before beginning a Theology & Ministry Degree.
As part of my pre-seminary year in Valladolid, I was sent on a 4-week pastoral placement throughout January. I was lucky enough to be able to work in a parish in Chiswick, London. Having never been to London before I was excited to experience our capital city and the busy lifestyle for which it is famous. Christmas flew over and before I knew it I was on a train heading for Kings Cross. I had no idea what to expect and I was looking forward to my first pastoral placement. As I am a seminarian I feel called to work with people and to spread the message of Jesus personally, so it was a welcomed experience after being in the college seminary for 4 months.
My journey to London from Spain, via Gateshead, as well as my classmates own journeys impacted me spiritually. I could not help but be reminded of the early Christians heading out from Jerusalem to the many places helping to bring the message of Christ, as described in The Acts of the Apostles. The Church and presbytery where I stayed is on a busy high street and has a congregation of over 2000, this includes many young families.
There were two priests and another student living in the presbytery; the parish priest was Monsignor James Curry (who had previously been the secretary to Cardinal Basil Hume and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor), the curate was Michael Daley and the student was Kevin Moule from Allen Hall. They were very welcoming and got me working straight away. I quickly began to realise how busy a day was in the life of a priest. We’ve all heard the anecdotes about priests baptising a baby one hour, then the next hour marrying a couple and then the next burying an old parishioner, however actually seeing this and a whole lot more really does put it in context. I remember thinking, “What was I letting myself in for?” However I was up for the challenge and knew that working with God's people at that time in Chiswick was a gift.
I was quickly accepted as one of the team and with it was given many tasks to do around the house and the parish. My first day involved secretarial jobs, such as ringing parishioners and filing paper work, with some DIY jobs around the presbytery and the church. I then had my first experience outside the presbytery when the parish priest took me to the home of a sick parishioner, where we give her communion. My room in the presbytery was in use for three days so I stayed with some Comboni Sisters, in their convent. To eat and spend time with the sisters was a great humbling experience; their humour and enthusiasm for life overwhelmed me.That night I also got my first experience of London, when I got the tube to Westminster to see some of the sights lit up in the dark.
Sundays were the busiest days, with six masses. I gave a little introduction to myself in each of those on my first Sunday. My days were usually full up with many places to attend, people to see and events to prepare for. The parish is very active and always has groups on an evening (from RCIA, baptism preparation to youth groups and bereavement meetings).
I was given a list of sick and elderly parishioners, which I got through, visiting one or two a day. This experience was very inspiring for me, listening to wisdom from a lot of people who have ‘been there and done it’ in life. My youth ministry skills (from having been on our diocesan Youth Ministry Team for two years) helped me a great deal with the confirmation classes and youth groups. I believe Christianity is to be learned and achieved working among the people of God, and this placement helped do just that.
The people I worked with inspired me, and the energy of the parish really affirmed me in my calling. I was able to work on promoting peace (for Peace Sunday) with some parishioners, where we made a display, had a holy hour for prayer and I wrote an article in the parish newsletter. The challenge of seeing a task through from idea to completion within the parish was a learning experience, and very affirming from the parishioners.
The parish was associated with a local primary school and I would go into a year 3 class (8 year olds) each week to help them with their work. I loved working with the children and the fun that it brought. They were mostly Chelsea football fans, which made for some funny conversations when I shared my love of Newcastle United. Winding the boys up about this often distracted them from their work (which I don’t think their teacher was overly happy about), however I found it important to show young children that Christians (priests, seminarians or otherwise) are normal and can have a laugh
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I have taken away a lot of happy memories away from my placement in Chiswick and have learned many things about a priests life and working with the people of God. To work in that parish with those people was a valuable experience and a precious gift that I will cherish.