We haven’t seen anything like this since Father Ted was threatened with relocation to an island off Suriname.
A petition aimed at encouraging a popular Limerick priest to stay put rather than go ahead with a proposed move to Dublin has attracted well over 1,000 signatures in recent days.
43-year-old Father Chris O’Donnell, co-ordinator of the Limerick Youth Ministry, had been due to relocate to Dublin in the near future in order to work on a project with Veritas involving school textbooks.
It’s only a year-long project, but Chris’ parishioners are so fond of him that they don’t want him to go at all, with a little under 1,500 people (at the time of writing) adding their name to a petition to get him to stay put.
If that wasn’t enough, they’ve even been tweeting the Pope himself.
@Pontifex please help us out to stop our favourite priest ever being relocated💔 #keepourhero
— Eimear Neville (@eimear_neville) June 29, 2017
https://twitter.com/grainneb18/status/880408496759504898
@Pontifex please keep father Chris from being relocated! He has made such an impact on young people! #keepourhero
— Reece (@reecejcreed) June 29, 2017
https://twitter.com/gemma_shanahan/status/880407398728572930
An Adare man, Chris has been a priest in Limerick for 12 years and in an interview with Today FM on Tuesday (a thoroughly charming one, it must be said), he expressed his appreciation for the campaign to keep him at home, but sounded like he was set on a move to the big smoke.
It’s going to be a long and lonely 12 months in Limerick…
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