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DIOCESE

A Letter from

Bishop Hugh Gilbert O.S.B.

Dear Friends, he who hears me hears the one who sent me.”
The day I’m writing this – 4th It is part of the bewildering humility of
August - is the memorial of St John God that he communicates himself through
Vianney, the Curé of Ars, the patron saint what he has himself created. God allows
of parish priests. Yesterday, a former parish himself to be mediated. When he sends his
priest of this diocese passed away, Canon Word into the world it is as a human being,
Alistair Doyle. He was 84 years old and a 1st century Jewish man. When the risen
had served as a priest in this diocese since Christ in turn communicates himself to the
1964: in Aberdeen, Brora, Peterhead, Banff, successive generations, he does so through
Inverness, Elgin and again finally Aberdeen, the many members of his Church, charging
before retiring to Buckie from where he some among them to represent him in a
exercised a remarkable ministry of “supply” special way in his role as Head of the Body.
throughout the diocese. A little before that, Holy things come to us through very human
distressing news came of the sentencing of an means.
elderly priest (an ex-monk of Fort Augustus) Priesthood is a gift. In our own diocese
for the sexual abuse of minors many years some 40 priests serve some 32,000 people.
ago. And before that again, only three weeks They differ in age, character, nationality,
ago, we celebrated the ordination of two new background, formation – not to mention
priests for our diocese, Fr Malachy Eze and shape and size. This human diversity is part
Fr Christopher Doig. of God’s plan. It is a richness. And our relative
These events - joy and pain - all highlight paucity of number, our marginal standing in
the figure of the priest. society, our failings, the freight of our own
The Catholic Church is not shapeless. weakness need not subtract from a humble
Like the human being, there is a structure and clear sense of a worthwhile mission: “we
and form. Christ gave the apostles a few, we happy few, we band of brothers”. Nor,
responsibility for other disciples; the bishops I hope, from an overall gratitude. Priesthood
inherit this from the apostles; priests in turn is beautiful, it was recently said by a visiting
are co-workers of the bishops. They have the priest. It is beautiful to be asked to do what
task of preaching God’s word, celebrating we do, to be sustained by the faith and love
the sacraments and ‘pastoring’ God’s people. of so many dedicated believers, to have such
Within their allotted spheres, they are called a hope as Resurrection to propose and such a
to lead. We live in a society which recoils from gift as the Eucharist to offer.
the idea of hierarchy and authority. Ways Pray for priests – so many do. Pray that
of exercising authority naturally vary from many will follow the late Canon Alistair
culture to culture and today a collaborative and the “new” Christopher and Malachy.
(“synodal”) mode is rightly encouraged. Encourage the eligible to take this path. “My
Nonetheless, the Church is as she is and can Father is working still and I am working.”
only be faithful to the pattern received from
Christ. “He who hears you, the Lord said to Bishop Hugh OSB
the Twelve (including Judas), hears me and

If you have access to the internet do take a look at some of
the many inspiring talks and homilies given by Bishop Hugh
Gilbert OSB and other members of the clergy and religious
which are now available on the Diocese of Aberdeen YouTube
Channel. These include Bishop Hugh Gilbert's talk on the
encyclical Fratelli Tutti by Pope Francis and more recently his
catechesis on The Good Samaritan which you can watch here:

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