St Catherine of Alexandria Roman Catholic Church Littlehampton
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Fr Carl and Deacon Adrian

  

Thanks to Fr Carl on his retirement

Spoken by Peter Ripley at Mass on Sunday 24th October 2021

Fellow Parishioners,

As most of you will know this is Father Carl’s last Mass as our Parish Priest and he is due to move out of the Presbytery tomorrow.

I welcome this opportunity to give him the Parishes’ heart-felt thanks and very best wishes for the future.

Father’s first Mass with us was on Sunday 10th. September 2017 and we are fortunate indeed that he was sent to look after us, and has done so over the last 4 years.

No Priest ever before and hopefully none will ever again have to go through so many terrible months almost of solitude, when we were shut out of this most precious and sacred place of worship and he was virtually shut in.

Throughout the lock down singlehandedly, Father Carl maintained Mass on his own, daily and invariably both the mass intentions and his prayers were for us and for our well-being. In this way he kept the spirit of St. Catherine alive until collective worship became possible once more, as it is today.

This outstanding service can only have been driven by Father’s constant, outspoken and obvious devotion to our Lord. An example for us all to follow.

Perhaps above all Father Carl is characterised by a deep spirituality, something always evident in his homilies.

Saint Paul tells us that spirituality marks the road to salvation and the following are his words, written while he was under arrest in Rome:

“The unspiritual are interested in only what is unspiritual, but the spiritual are interested in spiritual things. That is because to limit yourself to what is unspiritual is to be at enmity with God: such a limitation never could and never does submit to God’s law.
So then ….. there is no necessity for us to obey our unspiritual selves or to live unspiritual lives. If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die”.

Accordingly, we have much to thank Father Carl for and I have the pleasure to give this donation to him on behalf of St. Catherine’s Parish and St. Joseph’s Rustington.
Please stand and applaud him, while I make the presentation.
​
May God Bless you all.
Peter Ripley, Chairman St. Catherine’s Parish Finance Committee.



Picture
Fr Carl, who is celebrating his Silver Jubilee to the priesthood later this year, was present at a Mass concelebrated by Bishop Richard for this year’s Jubilarians at Arundel Cathedral on Thursday 27 May 2021. Fr Carl is front row, third from the left. We think...

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Fr Carl enjoys a quick cuppa!
​Fr. Carl in his back garden (!) enjoying a five minute break. 
His new piece of garden furniture has been bought with donations from the parish. 
It does have a lovely parasol but it was not quite sunny enough to use that day.
​Maybe next time!
The parish is part of the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton Diocesan Trust registered charity no. 252878.      www.abdiocese.org.uk