A world-renowned academic and Cambridge professor was ordained to the Catholic priesthood at St John’s Cathedral in Norwich on 21 September – and despite being older than the usual mandatory retirement age for a parish priest.
Seventy-eight-year-old John Morrill, also formerly a deacon for 28 years, was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Peter Collins, watched by a 250-strong congregation of clergy, family, friends, former students and university colleagues, notes the website of the Diocese of East Anglia. “This man has heard the voice of God calling to him on so many occasions, a man who has willingly and generously responded to the call of Jesus in so many ways across a lifetime,” Bishop Peter said in his homily, while highlighting the related role played by Morrill’s late wife, Frances, “who was your true tutor in the Catholic faith”