Rev Damian McGroarty was ordained to the priesthood on Sunday, 4th July 2010 by Bishop Boyce in the Cathedral of Saints Eunan & Columba, Letterkenny

Bishop Boyce with Fr Damian McGroarty after the Ordination

In the June issue of Embers Rev McGroarty wrote the following article about his vocation:

With ordination in sight I can appreciate the path that God has led me on over the past number of years. It would be accurate to suggest that my vocation to the priesthood began a long time ago. Coming from a large family with traditional Catholic views, I was blessed to have parents that engendered in me a strong sense of identity as a McGroarty, a Fanad man, and more importantly as a Catholic. In a sense my vocation is not my own, it is a gift from God, but it is a gift that was nurtured in the domestic Church that is my family. Indeed within that cradle Church of family I became aware of the most perfect human there is, Our Lady.

From my early years in national school I was influenced by a missionary priest who came into our class in Scoil Mhuire Caiseal, and again by another missionary priest, who is now Saint Damien the Leper priest. The vocation of service to God and to His Church is something that I felt from an early age. In secondary school I had hoped that the idea of becoming a priest would effectively go away, but fortunately or unfortunately that calling remained in my life. I entered the seminary after my Leaving Cert at the age of 18. I spent two years in the seminary in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, after which I decided to complete and continue further studies as a lay student.

With the world at my feet as it were, I had many career choices after completing my degree and masters. I had hoped to follow my brother into the Gardaí and was well into the process of selection when the call returned with greater force. The death of Pope John Paul II had a deep impact on me and somehow reawakened the call of the King. The rest as we say is history. My hopes for priesthood are grounded in my experience of life thus far. There are many challenges ahead for humanity not just the Church. Yet in all the sciences, philosophies and models of politics that I have studied and observed over the past number of years, I return constantly to the conclusion that Jesus Christ is Eternally Essential.

So my hopes revolve around me being able to slowly, over a lifetime, try and model my life on Him. If I can say that for one day I acted and lived like Christ, then my life will have been worthwhile. The more I reflect and pray about where God is in my life and where He is leading me, I truly cannot wait to meet Him face to face someday.

Some images from the Mass of Ordination