Fr Con Doherty, inducted as parish priest of the Sacred Heart Church, hopes to bring “joy” and “good news” to his new parishioners around the Western Road.
From Thurles, in Co Tipperary, Fr Doherty spent seven years training as a technician with Eircom (then known as P and T), before becoming a priest. Ordained in the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road in Cork City, Fr Doherty returned 30 years later to be inducted as parish priest last weekend. In the intervening years, he spent time in Galway, Dublin, and London, as well as on mission to Catholic communities in Russia.
Fr Doherty said he is delighted to have come full circle back to the Sacred Heart Church, along with Fr Des Farren, who has recently been installed as curate for the parish, and who worked alongside Fr Doherty in Galway in their early years.
“It’s a great joy, we have a great supporting community, and, I must say, the parishioners are marvellous,” Fr Doherty said. “I don’t know Cork that well, so I’m just getting to know, but I’m enjoying the challenge and I’m enjoying the work here, and, I must say, there’s a very warm welcome here. It’s a beautiful parish.”
Fr Doherty hopes to alleviate some of the heaviness in the community, by reminding people of the good news and spirituality of the heart of Christ.
“At the heart of the matter, it’s a matter of the heart,” Fr Doherty said.
“People can carry wounds and damage and hurts and hopes and fears, and all sorts of things in our hearts, and then to meet the heart of Christ, I suppose, that evangelisation is that good news, really,” he said.
Having grown up in a large family, Fr Doherty said his father taught him a lot about perseverance.
Fr. Con Doherty MSC, photographed with Bishop Fintan Gavin, Cork and Ross, following his induction as parish priest at Sacred Heart Church, Western Rd., Cork. Included are family members who attended the ceremony, John and Catherine McCormack, Thurles and Kathleen and Pat Doherty, Kildare. Picture: Mike English
“I learned a lot from my Dad about perseverance,” Fr Doherty said. “I was one of 11 and Dad worked four jobs to keep us all. He didn’t have an opportunity for education, so that sense of perseverance and trusting in the process, I suppose,” he said.
“In the words of my Dad, he would always quote St Julian of Norwich, and she would say, ‘All shall be well and all manners of things shall be well’. That resonates all the time when struggles arise, as they do, fears or difficulties or challenges... there can be a heaviness in all of us, we’re human beings and we have only one life to live,” he added.
Both Fr Doherty and Fr Farren are missionaries of the Sacred Heart, and will minister at their new parish, which includes Western Road, Mardyke, Victoria Cross, Lee Road (from Our Lady’s Hospital gate eastwards), and Sunday’s Well Road (to Daly’s Bridge).
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