Bishop Philip Egan, Bishop of Portsmouth, presided at the annual foundation day Mass for the Missionaries of St Paul celebrated in St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, on 26 January.
The MSPs, as they’re known, were founded in 1976 as part of the response of the Nigerian Catholic Church to the call of Pope Paul VI at Kampala, Uganda, that Africans should become missionaries to themselves.
The first missionaries arrived on our shores at the turn of the century when Fathers Cosmas Ikirodah and Addison Okpeh served in Clifton and Southwark dioceses respectively from the year 2000.
In 2024, the Missionaries of St Paul serve in many of the dioceses in England and Wales. Bishop Philip Egan has one MSP priest in Portsmouth Diocese and is soon to have another:
“They bring the love of Christ with them. They have a commitment to Christ and to prayer, but especially to mission. And that, I think, is central to the life of the church in our country… Looking at the parishes in which the missionaries work, my experience has been that they’ve retained the faithful at a time of declining Mass attendance and they’ve managed to work like a conductor of an orchestra with the parish to release the gifts of the laity and to involve them in parish life.
“They’ve also brought a strong devotional sense. The cordial – the heart – is a very important gift to us, and something essential to our own mission.”
The motto of the society is ‘We are Ambassadors for Christ’ taken from 2 Corinthians 5:20. These are the exact words of their patron, Saint Paul, and the priests’ vestments, the garments worn at the foundation day Mass, were adorned with the words.
“Those words of St Paul are beautiful,” said Bishop Egan. “It reminds us that every baptised person, especially a priest, is an ambassador for Jesus Christ.”
The MSPs celebrate their foundation day Mass on or near the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle.
Transcript of our short interview with Bishop Philip Egan, Bishop of Portsmouth:
I’m Bishop Philip Egan. I’m the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth. And in our diocese we have currently one, although we will shortly have a second priest from the Missionaries of St Paul. And so the regional superior asked me if I would come and celebrate the foundation day Mass for them.
They bring the love of Christ with them. They have a commitment to Christ and to prayer, but especially to mission. And that, I think, is central to the life of the church in our country. So in that way, within the diocese, the missionaries work in a parish and bring a strong passion for mission. And also with them coming from Nigeria, that’s a very good reminder of the universality of the Catholic Church, the Catholicity of the Church.
One of the things I find generally with Nigerian people, Catholics, that is, let alone with the society, is a conviction in the love of God, the existence of God and the power of God as our Father, and also a love for Jesus Christ and a fidelity to the Catholic Church. It’s that faithfulness of the priests that I think is very good. We’re not in an easy cultural context in Britain in terms of our Catholic faith. So to have people deeply immersed in the faith and deeply converted to the faith is a good sign and inspiration to others.
So the parishes in which the missionaries work, my experience has been that they’ve retained the faithful at a time of declining Mass attendance and they’ve managed to work like a conductor of an orchestra with the parish to release the gifts of the laity and to involve them in the life of the parish.
They’ve also brought a strong devotional sense, and I think that the cordial – the heart – is a very important gift to us, and something essential to our own mission.
What is the biggest challenge for your diocese at the moment – for Portsmouth?
I would say the deepest challenge is evangelisation, and that is deepening our faith in Christ, becoming missionary disciples of Christ who want to serve the Lord in the needy and in those outside the Church, to bring the Gospel to others. At the same time, I think, prudently to manage the resources that we have. I call it, in our plan, bringing people closer to Jesus Christ through His Church.
On the Mass vestments, on the back, it says ‘Ambassadors for Christ’…
Yes, from Saint Paul. Beautiful. And it reminds us that every baptised person, especially a priest, is an ambassador for Jesus Christ.
