Fr Sean McManus
A LOCAL priest celebrating the 50th anniversary of his ordination has told Kinawley parishioners that his heart is never far away from the village.
Fr Sean McManus, a prominent Irish-American priest who has been based in Washington, USA , for many years, returned to his home parish for the celebrations.
Fr McManus, the president of the Irish National Caucus, held a service at St Naile’s Church in Kinawley on Saturday evening to mark the occasion and said he owed everything he was to his home parish.
He was ordained on September 1, 1968, but the date was brought forward to accommodate travelling family members.
Speaking on Saturday evening, Fr McManus said, “Today I am very conscious of my ordination 50 years ago. But I am also very conscious of my baptism right here in this church 74 years ago.”
“It was here – like many of you -that I was baptised into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; here I became a member of the body of Christ, here I became a member of the Catholic church, the sacrament of Christ on earth.
“Right here in this church. St Patrick’s, Killesher, I made my First Communion and received Confirmation.
“So, everything I am, my entire Catholic faith, my Catholic identity, and my Catholic ethos, I owe to the parish of Kinawley, to my family and relatives, to my neighbors in Clonliff, and to all the wonderful people of this parish,” he said.
“That is why my heart is never far from Kinawley.”
Fr McManus, who has been in the United States since 1972, added that the 50th anniversary of his ordination was ‘about giving thanks for the gift of Jesus Christ’, without whom there would be no priesthood.
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