While he was a “late vocation” by the standards of the time, Msgr Rick Loughnan had been serving the Catholic Church for many years before he entered the seminary at the age of 35.

After his secondary education, Rick earned an English degree from Canterbury University, spent time discerning a potential vocation with the Cistercian Fathers and worked various jobs during a time when unemployment hovered about 12 per cent.

A committed Catholic, he found ways to live out his faith through service, including with the St Vincent de Paul Society. Knowing the priests and staff at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament well, he was invited to work their full-time.

That pastoral service roused in him a desire to undertake further theological study. That ended up taking the form of entering the seminary.

After being ordained a deacon, he was appointed interim director of the Catholic Youth Team.

Fr Rick – as he prefers to be called – served his priestly apprenticeship under priests like Fr Bill Grounds in Ashburton and Fr Denis Nolan in Greymouth, eventually returning to the Cathedral. He describes that appointment as a “coming home”.

After this time back at the Cathedral as a priest, he was appointed vice-rector of Good Shepherd House, a place for young men to live for a year before entering the seminary. He was vocations director at the same time.

Fr Rick served as diocesan administrator after the death of Bishop Barry Jones and is now parish priest of Christ the Redeemer – Christchurch North.

“I loved being in all those places and in all those ministries,” Fr Rick explained.

“I love working as a priest with people one-on-one. Hearing confessions is one of the great joys of the priesthood. I also enjoy preaching, and I thank the Lord for the gifts he has given me.”

The priesthood has of course provided its fair share of challenges, especially in these latter years, having to make difficult decisions such as closing a church.

“I couldn’t survive without a life of prayer; the Lord enables you to hang on, to get through the hard times and trust him.

“And our people are so supportive of us as priests. We can sometimes forget how much our people care for us in so many different ways.”

While he is nearing the time of retirement, it’s not something Fr Rick has thought about a lot.

“I’m not much of a forward planner, but I have had to start thinking about it,” he said. “The great thing is that even after I retire, I will be able to stay in ministry. Hopefully I’ll be well enough to do that.”

Fr Rick, on whom Pope Francis bestowed the title of monsignor last year, loves travel, including in a caravan, and reading detective novels.

There’s an old saying that a particular challenge is “a marathon, not a sprint”. For Fr. Peter Costello, who has completed 25 marathons, it has a particular relevance to his vocation.

Physical activity had been a part of Peter’s life, playing senior rugby and cricket through to his adult life. At the end of a rugby career at age 30, jogging became a hobby to keep him in shape. By chance it evolved into marathon running.

It was in his late 30s that another invitation was put before him. Peter had been working as a public servant, rising to a senior position, in the then-Social Welfare Department. He began looking at different ways to serve his local community in a full-time role outside government.

Fr Mick Doyle had a suggestion: “Why don’t you become a priest?”

In response to Peter’s reaction of “I’m not really holy enough”, Fr Mick responded “Well, you don’t have to be too holy”.

Reflecting some decades later, Fr Peter suggests that even though he was a Massgoer and that his faith was important, he didn’t have an irresistible sense that Fr Mick was right. He was open to further exploring God’s will, though, and entered the seminary at 41.

“I certainly felt that it was possible that I had a calling, but I thought I won’t know until I’ve spent some time in the seminary,” he recalls. He was ordained at the age of 47.

Much of his priestly ministry has taken Fr Peter to the regions of the Diocese, serving in Whataroa, Hokitika, Greymouth, Timaru and Waimate. Over the past five years, he spent time serving in Christchurch East, Holy Cross Seminary in Auckland and Ashburton.

As Fr Peter thinks back over more than 31 years of priestly ministry, he doesn’t hesitate to mention the highlight.

“While celebrating the Mass is the pinnacle, serving the people of the Church is such a joy,” he says.

“There have been some wonderful times, some great celebrations. It is a privilege to know the people, to be of help to the people. I feel very blessed.”

With a new phase of life approaching, Fr Peter hopes to be able to continue, in some way, to serve and assist others — and grow a few vegetables.

Looking through the history of pastoral assignments of diocesan priests as they near retirement can have a familiarity about it. Some time on the West Coast, sometime in South or North Canterbury – or both – and an extended period in the parishes in the city.

Reviewing Fr Brian Fennessy’s ministry throws up a few new locations: East Timor, Afghanistan, and Bougainville, a province of Papua New Guinea.

Fr Brian’s connection with the military is intergenerational, with his father serving in the RAF during World War II and later with the RNZAF.

Ordained in 1982, on the occasion of the re-opening of the renovated Sacred Heart Basilica in Timaru, his early years as a priest were served in Christchurch at Sockburn and Papanui parishes.

In 1983, Fr Brian offered to relieve the Catholic Chaplain at Burnham Military Camp when he was on exercise. Six years later he joined the Territorial Force, and was posted to the local infantry battalion serving the upper South Island.

He carried out those tasks alongside parish ministry in Greymouth, Mackenzie/Fairlie and Hornby – the latter including chaplaincy to Burnham and St Thomas of Canterbury College, where he celebrated Masses and led retreats.

Leaving Hornby, Fr Brian served as a Regular Force Chaplain at Waiouru Military Camp before returning to the Diocese.

In 1999, Fr Brian joined a peacekeeping mission to Bougainville, where a civil war had claimed over 15,000 lives. His connection with Bougainville, which included the Peace Talks at Burnham Military Camp, his peacekeeping service in country and celebrating mass for a strong Catholic community is one of the highlights of his ministry.

Deployments to East Timor in 2000 and Afghanistan in 2004 provided other unforgettable experiences. In 2008, he went to England for a six-month NZDF exchange.

In the years since that service overseas, Fr Brian has been parish priest at Opihi Parish, Timaru and, currently, at Our Lady of the Plains Parish in Selwyn.

“This is a great parish, and we’ve had the privilege of building a new church in Lincoln and starting a new worshipping community in Rolleston,” he said.

Fr Brian, unsurprisingly, has a keen interest in military chaplains and has written several booklets on their lives and service. Since retiring from military chaplaincy, he has taken up the role as a sacramental chaplain at Rolleston Prison.

He hopes to continue his exploration of other predecessors in ministry and deepen his understanding of history when his full-time parish service ends.