On the evening of Thursday 8 September, St Stephen’s hosted a special Mass of Thanksgiving to celebrate Bishop Pat Lynch having been ordained a priest 50 years ago. The news had just come through of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II as people began to gather in the church, so the Mass naturally included special prayers for her.
Patrick Lynch was born in Cork, Ireland in 1947 and was ordained a priest on 21 July 1972. He served in a number of places before coming to London in 1984, being appointed eventually to the Archdiocese of Southwark where he was assistant priest at Nunhead and then parish priest at South Norwood. Around 1994 he was appointed Vicar for Religious by Archbishop Michael Bowen, a role he held for over 10 years. Then on 28 December 2005 he became auxiliary bishop for Southwark, where he had responsibility for the South East area of the diocese which comprises the deaneries of Bexley, Bromley, Camberwell, Greenwich, Lambeth and Lewisham. Many St Stephen’s parishioners will remember Bishop Pat coming to confirm young people regularly over the next fifteen years.
When he was ordained bishop in 2006, Pat was appointed the bishop responsible for Migration Policy and about six years later, along with Cardinal Vincent, was involved in setting up the Santa Marta Group and leading the work against human trafficking and human slavery for the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. Despite retiring, he is still involved with the Santa Marta Group and still the chair of the Grow Edo Support Group – a small charity that supports three dioceses in Nigeria and a community of Religious Sisters with their work against human slavery and human trafficking in Edo State, Nigeria.
Due to health reasons, Pat requested to retire from his pastoral duties as bishop, and this resignation was accepted by Pope Francis on 28 November 2020. In 2021, Bishop Pat came to live in the presbytery in Welling. At weekends he is usually called upon to say Mass outside the parish, but those attending Mass on weekdays are blessed to have him saying Mass either alone or along with Canon Edward.
The photos of the Mass and of the celebration in the hall afterwards have been provided by parishioner Desmond Miller, who appears in the first photo. The Mass was concelebrated by a number of priests, mainly deans from the SE area of Southwark which Bishop Pat served. The homily was given by Fr Victor Darlington, who is now the Episcopal Vicar for the SE area.
