Obituaries

Francis Joseph Ripley
FRANCIS JOSEPH Ripley was born in St Helens, Lancashire, on 26 August 1912. He studied for the priesthood at the Capuchin Friary in Birmingham and at St Joseph's College, Upholland, where he was ordained on 3 June, 1939.
After ordination, his first appointment was as an assistant priest at St Cecilia's Liverpool; in December 1939 he became spiritual director to the Morning Star Hostel of the Legion of Mary, an association with the Legion which was to continue throughout his priestly life.
In January 1941 he became Secretary of the Catholic Truth Society and served as Chaplain to the Forces from from 1943 to 1947. On his return to Liverpool he was appointed as assistant priest in St Francis de Sales Parish in September 1947 moving the following year to St Gerard's Liverpool. In February 1951 he began work with the Catholic Missionary Society based in London and was appointed their superior in 1957. Time years later in 1960 he returned to Liverpool, working in the Catholic Enquiry Centre.
In June 1970 he was appointed parish priest of St Oswald's, Ashton-in-Makerfield, where he was to serve for 21 years; he is well remembered in the parish not least for his work with pilgrimages in honour of St Edmund Arrovvsmith and for his continuing chaplaincy to the Legion of Mary. He became an honorary canon in March 1980. On leaving Ashton-in-Makerfield in 1991 he was chaplain to the Carmelite Monastery in St Helens before spending the later years of his life at Lourdes Hospital, Liverpool, where he died on Wednesday 7 January 1998.
John Antony Mcilvenna
JOHN ANTONY MCILVNNA, a former treasurer of the Latin Mass Society, died on December 18.
Born in Darlington in 1919, he became articled to a solicitor after leaving school.
During the war he served first in the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and then in the Durham Light Infantry. He was slightly wounded during fighting in Holland, and was mentioned in dispatches several times.
In 1947 he was admitted as a solicitor and, after marrying Hilde, moved to Germany, where he worked as a civilian lawyer. In 1950 he joined the Army Legal Services and had risen to the rank of major-general when he retired in 1980.
He was chairman, director and then vice-president of the United Services Catholic Association between 1979 and 1981.
From 1981 to 1996 he was treasurer of the Latin Mass Society. Afterwards, he continued to serve on the committee.