The Irish Catholic’s columnist Fr Billy Swan will start in a new role in the Dicastery for the Clergy on November 24. The priest will work as part of the current Prefect, Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik’s team.
Fr Swan’s new role “has to do with matters of seminary formation and ongoing formation of priests,” he explained.
Around a month ago the Bishop of Ferns Ger Nash called Fr Swan with the news that the Holy See had requested the release from his diocesan responsibilities to serve the Dicastery in Rome.
“I had mixed emotions” the priest said. “On one hand, it is a wonderful opportunity and a privilege and an honour to serve the Holy Father in this way. On the other hand, it is painful leaving my diocese and my family,” he said. Fr Swan will be living in Rome for the next five years.
This is not the first time he has lived in Rome. “I lived there from 2002 to 2012, at the Irish College”, so it feels “a little bit” like going back home.
