Martin O'BrienLeading priest Fr Paddy Delargy speaks to Martin O’Brien about the ‘essential mission’ of being a Catholic
With a Catholic population of more than 8,000 souls the parish of Kirkinriola in predominantly unionist Ballymena is one of the largest parishes in Down & Connor and one of the most vibrant.
The parish’s most famous member is The Irish Catholic columnist Baroness Nuala O’Loan.
And the Parish Priest is Fr Paddy Delargy (67) a son of the Glens of Antrim, former hurling county minor, educationalist and lover of Latin and Greek whom I have heard described as “one of the best bishops the diocese has never had”.
He was brought up in Cushendun, one of a family of 10, three of whom died in infancy from Rhesus incompatibility, a blood disorder.
“Only years later did I appreciate the extent of the cross that was for my parents,” he recalls.
After primary school he proceeded to St MacNissi's College, Garron Tower where after spells at Queen’s University and the Gregorian in Rome and a lengthy stint as a lecturer in St Mary’s College, Belfast, he would return as President for 13 years until 2002 when he became Parish Priest in St Colmcille’s in east Belfast before moving to Ballymena in 2009.
The Ballymena parish directory tells you that there are 49 active parish groups spanning the alphabet from the altar servers to the youth club with everything from the Marian Movement, the Mother’ Prayers Group, the Order of Malta and the Knights of St Columbanus catching the eye in an impressive list.
My visit to Ballymena to meet Fr Delargy was prompted by the recent arrival of a beautifully illustrated book written by him in which he has struck an innovative way of getting parishioners to engage with some of the most challenging pastoral and moral and ethical issues of the day.
In Hold your Head up High and other stories (Shanway Press) Fr Delargy has penned nearly 20 parables distilled from the many thousands of conversations he has had in his 42 years as a priest, chaplain and teacher.
The title ‘Hold your Head up High’ are the passionate and evocative words of an elderly dying nun bewildered and distressed by the child abuse scandals that have rocked her order and the Church, to her nephew, a young Catholic priest setting out on his vocation, in one of the most tenderly written stories in the book.
Fr Delargy explained that those words were inspired by the passage in the Gospel “when you see things begin to happen, stand erect and lift up your heads, for your deliverance is drawing near” (Lk 21-28).
He tackles a good range of issues including care for the dying, IVF, celibacy, the role of women in the Church and the legacy of the Troubles and teases his parishioners with references to characters or an amalgam of persons they might think they recognise.
“The fictional stories and dramatised discussions in this book present religious and laity alike trying to come to terms with controversial aspects of twenty-first century living,” writes Fr Delargy.
What shines through in the book and in conversation is this priest’s deep faith, his firm adherence to traditional teaching combined with a healthy readiness to acknowledge and respect diverse views from within the rich and dynamic mix who find space under the overarching umbrella that is the Roman Catholic Church.
In a discussion on homosexuality in the book, for example, one of his characters, a priest whom he calls Fr Brendan, calls for “an effort to truly understand all points of view”. “The Church must be open to the world and listen with empathy.”
Fr Paddy has clearly fallen under the spell of Pope Francis and his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, while praising Pope emeritus Benedict.
There is an interesting cameo in which two priests, Frank and Barney who “could be Francis and Benedict,” says Fr Paddy with a twinkle in his eye, discuss the importance of praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament and their shared admiration for the Sisters of the Adoration on the Falls Road who were recently spectacularly strengthened by the arrival of three new recruits from three different professions, Irish teacher, Sr Máire McAteer and postulants, the barrister Elaine Kelly and BBC journalist Martina Purdy.
Both in conversation and in parts of the book Fr Delargy refers to those words “joy” and “Gospel” again and again.
“I liked Pope Benedict because of my interest in scholarship and Theology and the way he gives succinct accounts of the Catholic faith that is easily assimilable.”
However he finds that Pope Francis “goes beyond that and carries it to the vast populace”. “He does it in such a way that he gives people hope that they can do better.”
He cites Francis’ call to priests to live with “the smell of the sheep” and says this means going out to meet the poor “even if the person asking me for £20 is telling a fabrication”.
Fr Delargy says that Francis “wants you to think in a way that makes the message [of the Gospel] intelligible”.
The Pope’s insistence that the essential mission of Catholics in every parish is to go forth to proclaim the Gospel is being responded to boldly in Ballymena.
“We have a Parish Mission given by Vincentians in October and in preparation for that a mission team of 50 people will go out in twos knocking on doors to interest people in it. We did this before but it will be better this time.”
As recommended in Evangelii Gaudium [15] they will be engaging with three categories of people, “the faithful who regularly take part in community worship, those who lack a meaningful relationship to the Church and those who do not know Jesus or who have always rejected him. We’ll go to those three groups of people.”
A “welcoming committee” is also being formed because “we know we could be more welcoming to people and get to know who they are.”
Fr Delargy stresses that the beautiful All Saints Church is a welcoming non-preachy place and that he wants those lapsed Catholics who return now and then to attend e.g. first communions or marriages “to have both happy and challenging memories from what they have seen and what they have heard in the homilies”.
He is already working on a second book based on The Joy of the Gospel in which ten parishioners will set out “how they live the love of God in various different situations” and is clearly proud of “how ordinary people do extraordinary things in my parish”.
Long before Fr Delargy arrived, for several years in the mid-Nineties the disgraceful protests by loyalist extremists outside Our Lady’s Church in Harryville off the Larne Road in Ballymena – demolished in 2013 on health and safety grounds – made headlines around the world.
As recently as 2010 it was still being frequently targeted with paint and various missiles.
Fr Delargy points to the decision of the DUP controlled Ballymena Council in 2013 to confer the Freedom of the Borough on its most famous native, Catholic movie star, Liam Neeson, as an important development signifying happier times.
“That wouldn’t have happened in the past,” he said. The DUP had opposed such an honour in 2000.
During the ceremony Fr Delargy made a point of going over to sit beside and have a chat with the late Rev Ian Paisley and his wife.
He recalls Paisley saying “‘I’m surprised you coming beside me’ and I said ‘why?’ and he replied ‘because you are a Roman Catholic priest and I thought you wouldn’t want to sit beside Ian Paisley in Ballymena.’”
They went on to have a good conversation which included a feisty discussion about Paul’s Letter to the Galatians.
Fr Delargy remarks that while the apparent thaw in the political temperature at local level is welcome inter-church relations in the town are “not as friendly as they should be and that is not down to any lack of desire on the Catholic side”.
One imagines that his starting point for any significant inter-Church dialogue might be one of his most favourite lines: “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.”
It’s the first sentence of Evangelii Gaudium.