Parish bids farewell to Fr Andrei

Fr Andrei Stolnicu said he is “grateful and blessed to have been working Mullingar Parish for the last five years” at a reception to bid him farewell, on Saturday evening.

Parishioners and fellow clergy, as well as Bishop Tom Deenihan gathered in the Parish Community Centre after 6pm Mass in the Cathedral of Christ the King to enjoy refreshments as they said goodbye to the popular curate.

Fr Andrei is from the Diocese of Iasi in Romania and he came to Mullingar in September 2021, as part of an initiative to support the Diocese of Meath in addressing a shortage of local clergy.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner at the Parish Community Centre, Fr Andrei said: “It’s a lovely community here, you have a community full of faith, full of, I would say, good humour, and of course a community where they are very happy this year to have Westmeath playing All-Ireland.

“I was cheering – as a Romanian priest – for Westmeath and I really hope they will go through tomorrow in the match.” (Unfortunately, Fr Andrei’s cheers weren’t enough on Sunday, as Westmeath lost to Monaghan.)

He continued: “Well, it’s time for me to go home now after five years, so I want to thank everyone for all your good things you have done for me over the last five years. And I’m very grateful and I received a lot of messages from many of you these days telling me that you appreciated me here, and that meant a lot for me. But as I said today in my homily, this says more about you than it says about me. I think you people of Mullingar are among the greats. Thank you very much.”

Fr Phil Gaffney, Adm, Mullingar Parish, has also been in Mullingar for five years – he joined a month before Fr Andrei arrived. At the social on Saturday evening, he said they had become friends in that time, and he has been a wonderful addition to the parish.

“He’s a man of integrity, has great sense of humour, a wonderful homilist, someone who relates well with the people, and would be popular, particularly in Walshestown, the area he looked after – he became popular with all the committee there, and worked hard with them over the years.”

Fr Phil said Fr Andrei’s work with the schools and in the hospital was a “particularly important part of his ministry, and one that was much appreciated by everyone”.

“We wish him every good blessing for the future, and pray that he is as good a priest as he was here in his new role as parish priest in Iasi.”

Bishop Tom Deenihan also expressed gratitude to Fr Andrei for his contribution here. He said: “We have five priests from Romania working in the diocese at the moment – Andrei is probably the best known working in Mullingar. He’s been here for five years and he’s going back to become parish priest of his own parish, and we’re certainly going to miss him.

“The large number of people here tonight is testimony to the impact that he’s made on Mullingar, in terms of his hospital ministry, his preaching, his funeral ministry, his work in the schools – there’s also a hidden side… Andrej was a very nice guy to live with, to work with, to dine with.

“He is good company, has good humour, I think that came through tonight, and it’s nice in one way to see how many people are going to miss him, and that’s the connection he was talking about at the end of Mass, the connection between priests and people in the parish.

“We’re all sorry to see him go. We hope he’ll come back again. He’s becoming parish priest, and by a coincidence, the deacon that we had from Romania, working in the parish for the last number of months – it’s his parish that Andrei is going to.

“A new priest will be coming to us from Iasi Diocese in August, but he’s going to find it difficult to step into Andrei’s shoes, because Andrei had a good mix of humour, spirituality, and of course, as you’ve heard, he’s a gifted preacher.

“We’re all going to miss him.”