FIFTY YEARS A PRIEST

FATHER HANRAHAN'S GOLDEN JUBILEE Tributes and Presentations
" Father Hanrahan, in the name of the clergy and on behalf of the Bishop, and I am sure with full agreement with all your people here, I wish you many, many happy returns of the day. I congratulate you. May your future be bright and happy, with an undimmed vigour that will not fail with the years."
Mgr. H. V. Marshall, Vicar-General of the Salford Diocese, spoke these congratulatory words on Sunday night when he (representing Mgr. T. Henshaw, Bishop of Salford), paid tribute to the Rev. Charles Hanrahan, parish priest of All Saints' church, Barton-on-Irwell, near Manchester, on the occasion of his sacerdotal golden jubilee. Mgr. Marshall was speaking to a crowded house at the Majestic Cinema, Patricroft, which had assembled to make a suitable presentation to the jubilarian on his wonderful achievement.
Fr. Hanrahan received an illuminated address and a cheque for £465, which had been subscribed to by his many friends, both Catholic and non-Catholic, throughout the Salford Diocese. In the morning the jubilarian had celebrated the event with a Mass of Thanksgiving, when an eloquent and fitting sermon was preached by Mgr. L. O'Kelly, Protonotary Apostolic and formerly Vicar-General of the diocese.
Rare Achievement
The Very Rev. L. Delaney, Rural Dean of the district, was the chairman at the presentation ceremony in the evening. He said that to be a priest fifty years was a long time and an experience that came to few priests, and he hoped that Fr. Hanrahan would be amongst his people for a long time to come.
Mgr. O'Kelly, who by his very presence at the gathering—he had come from Blackpool, where he now lives in retirement— showed his friendship towards Fr. Hanrahan, and also offered his heartiest congratulations and best wishes. " We frequently have silver jubilees in the diocese," he said, " but the difference between a golden jubilee and a silver jubilee is about the same as the difference between the two metals. That is to say that the golden jubilee is so far superior to the silver jubilee as the gold metal is to the silver metal."
Mgr. Marshall said that on behalf of the Bishop he was indeed very happy to associate himself with the beautiful celebration ceremony. A golden jubilee was a rare thing. One heard of the golden jubilee of a married couple and of a priest.
Most Criticised Being
" Now a priest. I should say, is one of the most criticised beings in the world. As a matter of fact you have a political view which is called anti-clerical. We are blamed sometimes for talking politics from the pulpit and sometimes we are blamed for not. But just as the poor hen-pecked husband and wife can look forward to their golden jubilee, so can a priest. It is the reward of fifty years of suffering.
" Fifty years ago Cardinal Vaughan ordained Fr. Hanrahan. He was called, as every priest is called, to offer up the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to baptise, to teach, to rule. And those of you who know Fr. Hanrahan, and we the clergy who know him, know how well and how faithfully he has performed during fifty years, the task to which his ordaining Bishop called him.
" But if you want to seek the real work of a priest, you must go into the poorer districts. There are boys and girls in Cireengate, Clayton, and Lower Broughton, men and women whom Fr. Hanrahan has made great. May the sunset of his life be long; and may it be bright; and may it be happy."
From Various Sources
Mr. W. Wade, headmaster of the schools, presented the jubilarian with the illuminated address on behalf of the parishioners, and the Rev. J. Martin presented him with the cheque.
Other speakers included the Rev. F. W. Kershaw, who spoke on behalf of former curates who had served under Fr. Hanrahan, and Mr. A. Stodart-Reid, a magistrate of Eccles Borough and the Catholic representative on the Eccles education committee, who spoke on behalf of the laity.
Replying, Fr. Hanrahan voiced his heartfelt thanks to all for the wonderful tributes and the magnificent testimonial they had given to him. The illuminated address, he said, was " a souvenir which I shall fondly cherish to the end of my life."