From the District Superior's Desk: May 2025

Rev. Fr. David Sherry, District Superior

Diamond Jubilee of Fr. Alan Rolph

Father Alan Rolph, who joined our Society as an associate priest almost twenty-five years ago, will celebrate his sixtieth anniversary of ordination to the Sacred Priesthood this year. Ordained on 12th June 1965 for the diocese of Brentwood, Father Rolph’s first appointment was to Upton Park in East London, where he had to celebrate Mass on a converted kitchen table facing the people. The church had been ‘reformed’ according to the dictates of the ‘new Springtime’ with the old altar gone and the tabernacle removed to the side. Thirty-six years later, when on the point of joining the Society, he wrote:

‘For many years, I said the New Mass, presuming that it was the mind of the Church and therefore the will of God. Since we believe what we pray and likewise pray what we believe, many doctrines of the Church held for centuries as the absolute truth given to us by Almighty God, started to be both questioned and denied. Many of my brother priests gradually formed their own personal corpus of ‘truth,’ accepting what suited and scrapping what did not. The new experts in the church, priests, religious and many ex-religious, together with a growing number of lay people were brought in to tell the bishops and priests of the diocese what they should now believe. This was expected to give us a refreshed and lively church. Unfortunately, it simply meant a sad loss of priests and religious and many lay people from the Church. Vocations rapidly lessened, but this was seen as God’s way of telling us that lay people should be doing most of the work carried out hitherto by priests. Many priests who are saying Mass in parishes throughout the country barely hold a belief in the True Presence and some deny it completely.

‘Sadly, all this, and much more is known to and accepted by our bishops. When I went to my bishop to tell him that I had decided to return to Tradition and join the Society of St. Pius X, I was told that this would be an extraordinary step to take against the whole body of the Church: to join a tiny group, who considered themselves to be right and everyone else, including the Pope and the bishops, wrong. Prophetic words!? I was deeply unimpressed by any reasons given by him and others as to why I should not join the Society, to which I was more and more convinced that God and His Holy Mother were drawing me. I visited St. Georges House and was given a wonderful welcome by Father Emily, who put no pressure on me whatsoever. I knew that this was where I belonged.’

As many of you will remember, Father Rolph celebrated Mass regularly at our chapels in Kent, Sussex and Leicester for many years. He is now living in retirement in the town of Alfreton in Derbyshire, where he is visited regularly by priests of the Society. Ad multos annos! 

Fr. Michael O’Reilly

I am delighted to announce that another priest, Father Michael O’Reilly has received permission to begin his apostolate with the Society in this district and has been assigned to St. Pius X House in Dublin. Father O’Reilly who hails from Co. Tipperary was ordained in 1995 as a member of the Canons of the Holy Cross. Over time, he has become more and more convinced of the unique rights of the Traditional Mass and Faith and requested to begin his probation in the Society. Prudence dictates that we proceed with much caution when welcoming a priest on a permanent basis: he must first undergo a period of probation; his theological and liturgical knowledge has to be ironed out and his bona fides must be verified (including DBS checks). When the District Superior is satisfied that he has been sufficiently proved, that his theological knowledge is good, and that he is validly ordained, he begins his apostolate in the Society. We wish Father all the best and pray that others may follow in his footsteps and those of Father Rolph. 

D.S. 

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