OVER 250 people gathered at Malvern's Roman Catholic church on Friday, March 18, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Monsignor Patrick Kilgarriff’s ordination to the priesthood.

The special thanksgiving mass and reception at St Joseph’s Church, Newtown Road included 25 priests from around the country, among them clergy from Worcester, Upton and Birmingham.

At the end of the service, Mgr Kilgarriff, aged 75, was presented with a specially-commissioned and framed apostolic blessing from Pope Francis. The presentation was made by the chair of the parish council, Lucy Richardson.

During his 50 years of priesthood Mgr Patrick has served in Wolverhampton, Coventry and most recently Malvern, where he has been priest for 12 years.

He has also served as rector of the Venerable English College in Rome, which trains priests for the dioceses of England and Wales.

He said that during his 12 years in Rome, he met the then-Pope John Paul II on a number of occasions.

"He used to meet a lot of people, of course, and he made himself very open to people," he recalled. "I've also met Pope Benedict, but never Pope Francis.

"The college was originally a hospice for pilgrims from England visiting Rome, which was founded in 1362. It's the oldest English institution outside this country."

He said that he enjoyed Friday night's celebration. "There were members of my family, people from the parish, priests I have trained, and it was a good do by any standards."

He said that although he has reached the official retirement age, he has no plans to step down at the moment.