Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge has presided over a memorial Mass remembering ordinations at St Stephen’s Cathedral over the last 150 years.
The Mass is part of sesquicentennial celebrations at St Stephen’s that will run until May next year.
Dozens of priests and deacons from across the Brisbane archdiocese attended the Mass and stood to “give thanks to God for the service ministry of our bishops, presbyters and deacons across generations”.
During 150 years, Archbishop Coleridge said there are no records of the exact number of priests who have been ordained in the cathedral, but it is believed the number could have reached 900.
Fr Martin Mulhall was the first priest ordained in the “new” St Stephen’s Cathedral in 1877.
His first assignment was as an assistant priest in Ipswich.
“Since then, many hundreds more priests and deacons have been ordained here, and those who gather here in St Stephen’s this morning represent them all,” Archbishop Coleridge said.
Comparing the journey of St Paul to the experience of priests ordained in Brisbane’s St Stephen’s, Archbishop Coleridge said, “Through the years of ordination we have been taken to places we didn’t expect”.
“At times we’ve been taken to places we’d rather not go. There have been many surprises and a few shocks, many twists and turns.
“Martin Mulhall went from Brisbane to Rockhampton to Melbourne and eventually to America where he died in 1908.”
After the memorial Mass, Bishop Emeritus of Cairns, James Foley spoke at a luncheon for priests at Brisbane’s Tattersall’s Club.
Bishop Foley was himself ordained in St Stephen’s by Archbishop Rush in 1973.
In a light-hearted speech he recounted his memories of the cathedral as a boy, and offered some renovation tips “if I was king for a day and had an unlimited chequebook”.
