Redemptorist Community News
Parish Priest
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Fr Tim Buckley C.Ss.R Parish Priest |
Other members of the Redemptorist Community
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Fr . Andrew Burns C.Ss.R The Rector |
Fr Andrew Burns is the Rector of the Community in the Monastery.
Other community members are the parish priest plus those listed below.
Bishop Ralph Heskett C.Ss.R
Fr Anthony Cassidy C.Ss.R (retired)
Fr. Michael Henesy C.Ss.R (semi-retired)
Fr Philip Jones C.Ss.R (retired)
Fr. Michael McGreevy C.Ss.R (retired)
Fr. Tom Molloy C.Ss.R (retired)
Br. Michael Duxberry C.Ss.R
HOMILY AT THE REQUIEM MASS OF FR JAMES CASEY CSSR
Delivered by Fr Richard Reid CSsR
REV’D FR JAMES CASEY CSSR RIP
I can’t believe that I am here preaching at this funeral. I know he was 92 years old and I could see him becoming frailer on each visit but somehow I thought we’d always have Fr Jim Casey CSsR always by our side.
The news of his death has gone worldwide - I know his family are spread in various places around the World - but he was a former Secretary General who served for a long time in Rome. The news literally went world wide as confreres in our 82 countries learnt of Fr Jim’s departure from this life to the Father’s house. When we Redemptorists die, our name is written on a piece of paper called the Officilia and that is sent to every province in the world, a thing that Fr Jim did for hundreds of Redemptorists, but if you are a well known figure you get your picture and story on the internet. I am saying all of this on purpose as some of you may not know the grandness of the man we are celebrating today!
Language was very important to Jim - the correct and proper use of the art of language was something always at the forefront of his mind. This was very true when he worked in Publications, when he went to Rome as a student, when he was in Hawkstone Hall, when he went to Rome as the General Secretary, as Rector of Sunderland and then Rector here in Bishop Eton and then for the past years as a retired religious and priest - preaching the word of God was of paramount importance for him - every homily, even to the last one he preached from here was skillfully crafted before it was presented.
I first really got to know Fr Jim in Rome, 34 years ago. From him I learnt the art of Redemptorist hospitality! I was a 20 years old student, hadn’t even taken my first vows yet, my first time ever in Rome, Jim took me on long walks around the eternal city and showed me from his perspective the magnificence of Roma. He made me so welcome in our wonderful massive house in Rome, and I was a nobody.
Italian is a beautiful language and Jim made it is his business to master that language as well as all the other languages that people wrote to him as Secretary General - I think he managed most of them and we had seven official languages back then, however I think him Vietnamese was at times tested!
I remember two words he taught me in Italian. He told me that many people like to learn Italian and that means saying please and thank you - per favore and grazie - but Fr Jim told me that one had to learn the real words of Italian and they are words like battiscopa and cicatrice. Battiscopa means skirting board and cicatrice means scar! I remember them or this day however. I have never been able to get them into a conversation when I am ordering a Pizza Margherita in Rome!
Scala news produced the following,
"The Redemptorist General Curia in Rome and the Province of London express their condolences on the passing of Fr. James Casey, C.Ss.R., on Thursday, April 16, 2026, at the age of 92.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, on January 17, 1934, after serving in the Royal Air Force, he began his vocational journey by entering the Redemptorist novitiate in Kinnoull, Scotland, in 1956. He made his religious profession in 1957 and, after completing his studies at Hawkstone Hall, was ordained a priest on January 12, 1964.
In the early years of his ministry, he worked for Redemptorist publications in Chawton, where he edited the magazine Novena, contributing to evangelization through written media. He later furthered his education with studies in Rome, earning a Licentiate in Spirituality in 1976.
His pastoral service included mentoring students at Canterbury in the 1980s, as well as ministry as parish priest and rector at St Benet’s, Sunderland (1984–1987). He later served in the Hawkstone community, collaborating with other brothers in formation and spiritual life.
Father Casey played an important role in the life of the Redemptorist Congregation when he was appointed General Secretary from 1991 to 2000, a period that encompassed much of the leadership of Father Juan Lasso de la Vega and the beginning of Father Joseph Tobin’s term. His service in Rome was characterized by tireless dedication, contributing clarity, organizational acumen, and a fraternal spirit.
On his return to the UK, he continued to devote himself to local mission as rector in several communities: Bishop Eton, Liverpool (2002–2008), St. Benet’s (2008–2011) and again Bishop Eton from 2011 until his final years, where he was a faithful and close presence in the community.
Fr. James Casey will be remembered as a Redemptorist of profound spirituality, dedicated to the service of the Congregation and committed to pastoral life.
We thank God for his life, his vocation, and his generous service. May he rest in peace."
Office of the General Secretariat of the C.Ss.R
Family man - I feel that I know you all, and I have never met most of you, however I heard Jim speaks frequently about you all. He was very proud of you all.
A man of deep spirituality - a man who tried to be holy but never claimed to be holy - and I think he was holy in a very real sense. A man who was aware of his frailty and I dare say, aware of his sinfulness. However as a Redemptorist Priest he knew the message that we proclaim constantly - Copiosa apud eum Redemptio - with the Lord there is Plentiful redemption. Today our hope, our desire and our prayer is that James Casey is now enjoining the fullness of the Lord’s redemption and mercy and glory today.
I think it only proper to allow Fr Jim to speak for himself now as I’m sure he is already thinking I have ruined this homily. This is from an article that he wrote in BE Alive 2017 and I think it could have written just now.
Article BE Alive 2017
“Like the big child I am, I wanted to go home to our beloved Bishop Eton - yes, to the building, but more importantly to the community that gives life and purpose to the building. Waiting for the day of deliverance/homecoming was any- thing but easy.
What eased the pain of waiting were the constant visits to the Royal of the different members of our community. Not a day passed without a visit from at least one member of the community. Often, they arrived in threes and fours, helping each other along, and in danger of being mistakenly admitted. This kindness continued during my immediate convalescence at Christopher Grange and has continued to this day here in Bishop Eton, where our home-grown paramedics still attend to my daily techno– medical needs.
I’m back home again, and I’m ever so grateful for all that has been done for me. During my illness, I did live through some dark, even frightening, times, but despair was never an option. There were too many on my side. We were a power to be reckoned with. As we lived through this experience, grace, normally thought of as a theological truth, became a lived reality - became words of encouragement, a warm embrace, little acts of service, a willingness to wait and watch and listen and love. We were a grace-fuelled community and we were winners. As they say daftly on television these days: ‘Why don’t we all give ourselves a big round of applause?’”
To his community here in Bishop Eton he says so himself - and I too say this as the Provincial Superior - you are a grace fuelled community and as we say goodbye to Fr Jim today, hear his words of gratitude to each one of you!
Now Fr Jim, I say to you,
Copiosa apud eum redemptio
With the Lord there is fulness of redemption
Requiescas in pace
May you Rest in Peace
Vivas in aeternum
May you Live for ever in eternity
Fr Richard Reid CSsR
Provincial Superior
I'm back again by Fr James Casey C.Ss.R
Yes, I’m back, although I don’t know for how long. I left Bishop Eton and checked in to the Royal Liverpool Hospital at 7.30am on the 18th July 2016. A few days previously I had visited my brother in Glasgow to assure him that there was nothing to worry about and to avoid my never seeing him again if things did go wrong. I didn’t think they would, but when the patient is 82 years old and the surgery is of the car crash variety, there is room for doubt. But when I was told I had between six and nine months to live and surgery was proposed as my best chance of a cure, I was all for it. My mind was in “bring it on” mode.
I was wheeled into the operating theatre. I had been there before and so was pretty relaxed. It was a matter of breathing deeply and drifting off, for an indeterminate period of time, to a happy place, from thence to be awakened by the kindly voice of a Filipino nurse purring in my ear: “James how are you?”. At least that is how it happened in the past. This time it was different. I have no recollection of ever awakening from that general anaesthetic, or being coaxed out of sleep by some kindly nurse. No, I was locked , it seemed, in another world, in a very unhappy place, a dark place populated by drug addicts, gun runners, kidnappers—me being one of the kidnapped with no possibility of ever being ransomed. You see, I was being moved from one dank window- less place to another. There was no way I would ever be traced.
Mind you, I did resist, especially when I came to believe that my cancer was a fiction and that I and other elderly folk had been conned into hospital for experimental purposes. I fought back physically. I remember the struggle as they tied me down and I resisted with all my might. Months later when I was back here in Bishop Eton a parishioner told me her daughter, a nurse at the Royal, had been involved in one of my battles against the powers of evil, i.e. half-a-dozen nursing staff. Apparently I called the lady’s daughter a witch. Considering the state of mind I was in, or out of, at the time, she got off lightly!
Let me tell you that my operation for oesophageal cancer was carried out successfully. What set me back and laid me low was a sudden post-operational infection. While I hallucinated and raved, the doctors, nurses and staff of the Royal worked hard to keep me alive and did so with awesome good will. Such was my mental and physical state that several weeks passed before I was fully aware of where I was and what was going on around me. And it was then that I began to stand still . Days became interminable; I lay there and prayed that they would end, but they wouldn’t!
Nights were equally obstinate; there was no way they were going to give way to the days. I must confess that as I lay there, I languished — oh how I languished. You see, if there was no way the days were going to give way to the nights and vice versa, life would be at a standstill and I’d be lying there forever, a forlorn old creature hooked up to feeding tubes and electric wires, hoping there would be a powercut.
And talking of prayer, my advice to those preparing to go into hospital is: pray before you get there! This I learned years ago when I was seriously ill in Rome. I was suffering from a bacterium capable of killing me and I never said a prayer—I couldn’t. For the past sixty years as a religious and priest I’ve been more than happy to pray several times a day. I’ve studied prayer and lectured on prayer, but that has been no help when sickness was draining the life out of me. During my stay in the Royal I doubt that I ever managed to finish a Hail Mary. But, thank God, a phalanx of folk was doing the praying for me. What’s more, I was inundated with “holy” cards wishing me well and assuring me that, not one Mass, but novenas of Masse s were being offered for my return to good health. There were so many of those multiple Mass cards that the Masses promised are probably still being said — even now. If I suffer a relapse, I’m probably still covered
I was all of six weeks in the Royal. As time passed and I became a bit (but not much) brighter and more aware of life around me, I continued to languish. Who could blame me? I was, without warning, introduced to hospital food. Enough! I’ll only upset myself if I say more. I remembered the mouth-watering menus I was presented with when in hospital in Rome. I remembered, too, how we were asked to indicate whether we wanted red or white wine to accompany our meals. To tell the truth I wanted neither red wine nor white wine. There was only one thing I wanted and that was OUT . Like the big child I am, I wanted to go home to our beloved Bishop Eton—yes, to the building, but more importantly to the community that gives life and purpose to the building. Waiting for the day of deliverance/homecoming was anything but easy.
What eased the pain of waiting were the constant visits to the Royal of the different members of our community. Not a day passed without a visit from at least one member of the community. Often, they arrived in threes and fours, helping each other along, and in danger of being mistakenly admitted. This kindness continued during my immediate convalescence at Christopher Grange and has continued to this day here in Bishop Eton, where our home-grown paramedics still attend to my daily technomedical needs.
I’m back home again, and I’m ever so grateful for all that has been done for me. During my illness, I did live through some dark, even frightening, times, but despair was never an option. There were too many on my side. We were a power to be reckoned with. As we lived through this experience, grace, normally thought of as a theological truth, became a lived reality—became words of encouragement, a warm embrace, little acts of service, a willingness to wait and watch and listen and love. We were a grace-fuelled community and we were winners. As they say daftly on television these days: ‘Why don’t we all give ourselves a big round of applause?’
First Published in BE Alive June 2017
WELCOME FR JOSEPH:
Fr Joseph Musendami C.Ss.R. from Zimbabwe. Fr Joseph is currently studying in Rome and has come to help out whilst on his summer break.
FRIENDSHIP - A POEM MARKING FR TOM MOLLOY'S 90TH BIRTHDAY
FRIENDSHIP
What memories we have
Of times, now gone,
When our worlds were vibrant
And we met the challenges
Face-on, optimistic, ready for battle.
Admittedly, we were younger!
On the many occasions we met,
Still we carried that spark of friendship,
Ignited in halcyon Days,
In the missionary fields of Huyton!
Remember the engaging encounters
In the fading glory, of what once was
The domain frequented by those,
So different from our everyday acquaintances?
We knew nothing was permanent –
But we stayed: you moved on.
Your Life’s vocation took you far and wide,
Yet the bond, formed so long ago
Survived through seasonal messages.
Unsurprisingly, not all roads lead to Rome,
But, in Redemptorists’ Cycles,
Many do lead to Bishop Eton!
And so it was.
Now there is time for us to remember
The banter, the smiles, the laughter –
And musical renditions –
As we muse on the lovely, warm friendship
Which blessed our lives.
Loving Congratulations, Father Tom. Nonagenarian!
Eileen Murray © 18 June 2025
FR TOM MOLLOY, CSSR REACHES 90!
Last Wednesday, half the community and some of Fr Tom’s family were able to get to Townsend Hub and celebrate the milestone of his 90th birthday. We sat in the grounds and enjoyed a little bubbly, and he was in excellent form, reminiscing over his remarkably long, eventful and hard-working Redemptorist life.
Eileen Murray had written one of her wonderful poems in his honour. They had worked together years ago when she was teaching, and he was giving school missions. You can find the poem by clicking here
MIKE TAYLOR CSSR:
After much personal reflection, Fr. Mike has decided to leave the Priesthood and the Redemptorists. He has recently been appointed Executive Director of the Barnes Community Association. Whilst he is excited about this next chapter of his life, he wants to thank all those people that have helped and supported him through his journey into Priesthood and beyond..
REDEMPTORIST NEWS:
Gerry Mulligan C.Ss.R RIP
We have just heard the news that Fr Gerry Mulligan, who was the youngest elected Provincial of the London Province, has died in hospital in Glasgow. He had been based in Perth in recent years, but his health had gradually deteriorated; his 81st birthday was last Monday.
May I thank all those of you who joined us for Fr Beverley Ahearn’s funeral on that day. It was a blessed occasion and although the live-streaming was interrupted for a while, the whole of the Mass was recorded and is available through Church Services on our website.
I am pleased to report that Fr Jim Casey was discharged from hospital that same evening and is gradually recovering his strength
DIAMOND JUBILEES
To celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Priesthood of Fr. Jim Casey and Fr. Jim McManus there will be an additional 12 noon Mass on Thursday 11th January at Bishop Eton. We offer our prayers and thanksgiving for the dedication and service of Fr. Casey and Fr. McManus, and will keep them in our prayers.
The usual 12 noon Mass will take place at St. Mary’s.
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