Fat cats and poor women priests are on the increase in Ireland, according to the Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry, the Rt Rev Richard Henderson, speaking after the ordination of mother-oftwo the Rev Maureen Ryan at St Mary's Cathedral, Tuam, yesterday.
Bishop Henderson said he was pleased with the increase in the number of women priests. "Here in Ireland the number of women priests is still in the tens or twenties and not in the hundreds. But we are pleased with the steady increase and it suits us in the Church of Ireland, especially in the West, where Maureen has got tremendous support from the congregation, the community and the clergy," he said.
The bishop said he had the utmost confidence in Mrs Ryan and that the ordination was a sacred event and a personal one for the Oranmore woman and her family.
"My family have been very supportive in all of this," said Mrs Ryan. Her husband, Prof Paul Ryan of NUI Galway, was at the ceremony with their son, Paul, accompanied by his wife, Liz. Their daughter, Jenny, and her husband, Sean, will be present on Sunday when Mrs Ryan takes communion.
The preacher at the ceremony, the Rev Michael Graham, said that Mrs Ryan's task as a priest was to help both the rich and the poor to hear the voice of God.
"You are to help them see the Christ in the presence of the homeless man with threadbare coat as well as the fat cat in the Mercedes and help them find Christ in each other," he said.
Mrs Ryan (54) has spent almost a year working in the parish union of Tuam and Cong as a deacon and she also works as a psychologist and a writer. She is the second woman priest to be ordained at St Mary's Cathedral. The first was the Rev Nicola Harvey-Neill who was ordained there over three years ago.