JUNE 2005

Fr. William Rafferty celebrates sixty years of priesthood

Fr Bill Rafferty will be celebrating his 60th year as a priest, by hosting a rosary rally for the people of the Derry diocese on the 19th June, in the grounds of Thornhill School in Culmore. It starts at 3pm and everyone is invited. A great number of priests will be present, including Fr. Rafferty's brother Colm, who is travelling from Los Angeles to be part of his older brother's special day. Dr. Seamus Hegarty, Bishop of Derry, will speak at the gathering.

Although he lost almost all of his sight after a stroke three years ago Fr Raffery still helps as many people as possible and visitors seeking advice or spiritual healing are a common occurrence at his Moville Home.

William Rafferty was born on 3rd May 1920, in a two bedroom thatched cottage on a smallholding near the village of Swatragh in Co Derry. Fr. Bill said, "I have 22 brothers and sisters out of two marriages - my father remarried after my mother died. There are four of us in the religious orders. One of my brothers, Fr Colm, is a Columban Father ministering to the Filipino community in Los Angeles. One of my sisters, Theresa became a Franciscan Nun and the other sister Veronica joined the Dominican Order."

Father Rafferty ministered in may places but has especially fond memories of his time in Inishowen - so much so that he decided to return here when he retired in 1997 eventually buying a house on the Derry road about a mile and a half from Moville.

It was at the Long Tower Parish in Derry that Fr. Rafferty felt the spirit of the Lord. "One day I was giving out Holy Communion from the large ciborium (the goblet-like container that holds the wafers of communion) and coming to the bottom of the ciborium I noticed the bottom start to glow. I didn't know what was going on but I began to feel very good kind of a little bit of an ecstasy or something - I think John of the Cross describes this as 'a touch from the Lord.' I felt Jesus was really present in the hosts there. This was the only such experience Fr. Rafferty had and as a result he set aside a holy hour of contemplation every day - a ritual he has kept up to this day.

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