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Please join us in saying a prayer for Fr. Gary Dickson, who has announced his retirement from parish ministry due to health grounds.
Many readers will recall that Fr. Gary had to have 4 stents fitted to help the blood flow to his heart last August. He was also diagnosed with Silent Ischaemia.
At the time, we noted that he and Andrew McDowell were among the most courageous and prophetic witnesses to Christ's truth in these difficult times. We also recalled that they had a rare gift for expressing hard-hitting truths in a charitable and well-balanced manner at their splendid Catholic Collar and Tie blog.
Their articles have provided challenge, food for thought, encouragement and fresh hope to readers all over the world.
Just a few weeks after his time in hospital, Fr. Gary kindly posted up a most supportive article about us when we were going through a stressful time, after we had stood up over issues relating to the late Cilla Black's funeral in early September. The kind words of Fr. Gary and several of his readers were a great encouragement to us during a worrying time. We were especially grateful, knowing that Father had been so unwell, but also worried that he was taking time to stand up for us at a time of such ill health. That's the kind of guy he is!
In the months following the death of my own dear Dad in October 2012, we first came across the Catholic Collar and Tie blog. It was a source of great consolation for us to find such a charitable and well written promotion of the True Faith. As such, we eventually became daily readers. I will always be grateful to Fr. Gary for offering the Traditional Latin Mass here on our home-altar for Dad on his second anniversary, with Andrew serving, and for all the kindness that he has shown to Mum and to Angie and I.
Fr. Gary's latest post at Catholic Collar and Tie explains in greater detail the more recent health complications which have forced him to now take early retirement from parish ministry.
In addition to the heart-related issues, these complications include frequent infective exacerbation of his COPD, clubbing of the fingers and evidence of Bronchiectasis.
Father has written movingly: ''Leaving parish ministry has been a very hard decision to make; not being in direct parish ministry is not an easy thing with which to live. I became a priest to support the people of God in their crisis moments; provide them with a liturgy that was God-centred, and teaching that was faithful to the Magisterium. To have left this work for the people of God behind is a real bereavement for me. I struggled with the idea of a younger priest retiring from parish work as I have the belief that we should 'die with our boots on', but when one is carrying in one's respiratory system more than one bug which can be passed to the housebound and vulnerable, one becomes a threat to the health and welfare of those one is attempting to support, so my own desire to struggle on took second place.
While my bishop is probably pleased to be relieved of a priest who became a maverick simply by holding to the red of the Missal and the letter of the Catechism, I have to say that he has been most supportive, and I have no doubt about his genuine desire to seek the good of his priests and the people of the Diocese. I continue to say Mass privately where my cough bothers no one but me and any server, so Masses to which I have committed myself are still being offered; what I cannot do is say on which days I will be offering Holy Mass, since some days the breathlessness is worse than on other days.''
Please say a prayer for Fr. Gary and for the people of his parish at Sacred Heart in Thornley, near Durham. It will be a hard loss for him and for them to bear.
Hopefully, the global ministry of Catholic Collar and Tie will be able to continue in some degree!Â
Sacred Heart of Jesus - Have mercy on us!
Immaculate Heart of Mary - Pray for us!
