OBITUARY

Bishop Coln McPherson, the Gaelic-speaking Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, and Scotland's longest-serving diocesan bishop, died in his cathedral town of Oban on Saturday. He was 72.
Quiet and reserved with strangers, he was a man who shunned personal publicity during his 21 years at the head of Scotland's most scattered diocese.
Colin Aloysius McPherson was born in Lochboisdale, South Uist on August 5, 1917. He entered the seminary at Blairs, Aberdeen in 1931, and three years later was sent to Rome's Propaganda College, where he was ordained on March 23, 1940.
He returned after ordination to Argyll and served at the cathedral in Oban. In 1942 he was given charge of the parish of Knoydart where he served the Catholics scattered around the 50,000 acre estate owned by Lord Brocket.
In 1951 Fr McPherson was sent to serve as parish priest on the Hebridean Island of Eriskay. Four years later he was moved to nearby Benbecule, the middle island of the Uist group.
Ten years later he returned to the mainland as parish priest of Fort William, where he was serving when the call came on December 2, 1968 to succeed Bishop Stephen McGill as Bishop of Argyll and the Isles.
A man steeped in the literature and history of his diocese, he kept up contacts with Gaelic-speakers worldwide and several times visited Antigonish, Nova Scotia where the descendants of Highlanders and Islanders maintain the Gaelic language and culture. Antigonish's St Francis Xavier University awarded him an From the bishops' diaries
LENT is a time when Christians often join together across individual church boundaries for shared thought and worship, and this week see many of the bishops playing their part. Bishop Crispian Hollis of Portsmouth starts this week on Monday when he takes part in an inter-church mission at the United Reformed Church in Shirley, Southampton.
And the same day in Thamesmead, Bishop Charles Henderson, area bishop in Southwark, will join other
honorary LID in 1974.
As a bishop he avoided controversy, even when to others it seemed inevitable, preferring to settle contentious matters out of the glare of publicity.
Former Catholic Herald contributor, Fr Leo Smith, has died in Dublin aged 73.
Fr Smith, who for many years travelled around the country giving parish missions or preaching appeals for the Missions, the CTS and the Guild of Ransom, was professed as a Salvatorian in 1937 and ordained in 1942.
From 1944-55 he taught at the Salvatorian College in Harrow Weald, and later taught late vocation students at St Mary's Collge, Sindlesham.
His long ministry as a retreat giver began in 1960 and he combined this with his writing. For ten years he was based in Harrow Weald and was an energetic Mission Secretary for the British province of Salvatorians.
Priests from Portsmouth diocese travelled to Ireland to attend the funeral of Fr Michael Dominic Nugent, who died there recently.
Fr Nugent, who was born in 1920 in Co Meath, studied for the priesthood at Upholland in Lancashire and at the Beda in Rome and was ordained in 1947. He was appointed as chaplain to the Christian Brothers in Southampton, followed by four spells as assistant priest at churches in the diocese.
He went on to work in Swindon for two years until 1955, before moving to the Holy Ghost, Basingstoke, where he was parish priest for eight years. He then moved to the same post at Christ the King in Reading, church leaders for an ecumenical visitation to the Thamesmead Christian Community.
SATURDAY sees Bishop David Konstant of Leeds at a spring Ecumenical Conference at the Yorkshire Martyrs School in Bradford. Earlier in the week, on Wednesday, he will visit St Nicholas' School in Leeds.
TEACHERS and teaching will be on the agenda for Bishop Howard Tripp, too, when this auxiliary in Southwark offers mass for the chaplains to higher education at Digby Stuart College in south London.
and on to Lymington in the New Forest in 1981.
Fr Nugent retired to live at his family home in Mullingar, Co Meath, in 1988.
Rear Admiral Sir Matthew Slattery, who had a distinguished career in the Royal Navy and went on to fame as chairman of BOAC, died last week at the age of 87.
Sir Matthew, who was educated at Stonyhurst, enlisted in the Navy in 1916 and went on to qualify as a Fleet Air Arm pilot. During the early part of the war he served at the Admiralty, before becoming Director General of Naval Aircraft Development and Production at the Ministry of Aircraft Production for two years. His role involved ensuring the Navy had supplies of aircraft and equipment.
He retired from the Navy in 1948 and became managing director and then chairman of Short Brothers and Harland until 1960. He was knighted in 1955. He was chairman of BOAC from 1960 until 1963.
Sir Matthew was a staunch Catholic, and served on an appeal committee to have blitz damage repaired on the Catholic cathedral in Southwark. He is survived by his wife Mary, two sons and a dau hter.
Coming Events
THE role of young people in the Church is the theme of a conference to be held at Newman College of Higher Education and at St Philip's College, Birmingham, on April 2. Pro-nuncio Luigi Barbarito, Birmingham auxiliary Bishop Philip Pargeter and David Alton MP will attend the conference, which includes a Question Time session.
Eduardo Bonnin of Spain, co-founder of the lay movement Cursillos in Christianity, will be guest of honour at a reunion of Cursillo members at Maryvale Conference Centre in Birmingham on June 16. For further information contact Mr Finn at 87 Studfield Crescent, Sheffield S6 4SQ or by telephone on 0742 326091.
A young people's Easter celebration is to be held at Balls Park College, Hertford, from April 12-16. There are places for about 200 youngsters, and the conference is aimed at encouraging young Catholics to experience the richness of Easter. For more information contact Rob O'Neill on 0707 268686.