Canon Brendan Alger celebrated his jubilee anniversary after serving 60 years as a Catholic priest recently.

He celebrated the occasion with friends and parishioners at the Empress Hotel.

When thinking back on his 60 years, Mr Alger recalled the highlight being his dedicated parishioners.

He said: ’I’ve made friends everywhere, all over the world now and I’m glad to keep in contact with them.

’We have marvellous people, very dedicated people involved in helping one another.’

The Canon, 85, was born in Liverpool to a Catholic family in November 1935.

’Everything was connected with the church really, my father died in Liverpool when I was four years old in the Blitz, a plane came down and straight into him,’ the resident of Onchan said.

This was September 1940 at the beginning of the Blitz, the Canon found out later his father was found by two priests and taken to hospital following the event.

Mr Alger added: ’I’ve been connected to priests for a long time.’

It was after this incident that the church became a ’huge part’ of his life.

’I had two younger brothers so our mother had to bring the three of us up and we were greatly helped by the church and by the Catholic parish life,’ he said.

At 15, Mr Alger undertook 10 years of study to become a priest and in 1961 did a university degree at Cambridge. He was ordained when he turned 25.

He said: ’You usually go straight into being a full-time priest but I was teaching it. I taught young people who were training to be priests themselves.

’It was 21 years before I got into parish life.’

His first parish was St Joseph’s in Leigh.

’Very difficult times in Lancashire then - the cotton mills had closed down, the mines were closing down because of lack of employment, so we were able to help and run work schemes and help young people into their first jobs in collaboration with the government which they were very grateful for.

’I enjoyed parish life very much, it’s what I was ordained for.’

ISLAND LIFE

In 1989 Mr Alger moved to the Isle of Man which he had never visited before.

He had no family in the island, his closest relatives being in Liverpool.

As a priest of the Archdiocese of Liverpool, the Canon could work in any area of the diocese.

The Isle of Man has been a part of the Liverpool Archdiocese since 1850.

Following Mr Alger’s appointment in Leigh in 1982, he asked to move to the Isle of Man as parish priest of St Mary’s and Dean of the Roman Catholic community in the island.

He said: ’That was a period of change, it was the end of the big holiday seasons, there were no people, they were flying to America, flying to Europe and having holidays there, there was a decline.

’On the other hand, it was the beginning of the business boom, so it was also a time of growth.

’Over the years different nationalities have come, so now we’re a parish really of Manx people and English and Irish and now the parish is a multiracial community.’

He emphasised how much ’things have changed’.

’Farm Hill had been built, Governor’s Hill was in the beginning, I remember going and visiting every house in Governor’s Hill welcoming the new people to the island and how that’s changed,’ he added.

Mr Alger was the priest for four parishes - St Mary’s in Douglas, Sacred Heart in Pulrose, St Joseph’s in Willaston and St Anthony’s in Onchan.

He said: ’The Catholic community in the island is really strong and there’s great friendships with the other churches, we work well together.’

The Canon retired at 75 in 2011 but has been continuing to help out in his parishes since.

’I’ve been very happy in retirement but it doesn’t mean I haven’t been working. I’ve helped out in the churches in the parishes still but I have plenty of hobbies like reading and television now too,’ he added.

The church has seen a decline in the number of parishioners over the years as well as the number of priests.

Mr Alger continued: ’If the families are declining in numbers then they’re the source of our priests but I think that people are more active as a result.

’The people in our parishes are less dominated by the priests and people do a lot more.’

There has also been a loss of churches over the years on the Isle of Man which partly led to the lack of priests.

’They had priests living in them and working in them and when they died out, they weren’t replaced,’ Mr Alger said.

The Isle of Man’s churches belong to the Liverpool Diocese, under which the Canon has been partaking in meetings to talk through what the needs are for local communities and to discuss progress.

He hoped there would be a new programme starting in September to try and address the lack of priests.

PANDEMIC

When asked about his experience during the pandemic, Mr Alger felt it had been dealt with well on the island.

He said: ’The pandemic was very odd really. I was retired anyhow, but it meant all the older priests had to stop working in the churches.

’The risk of Covid was that it affected elderly people more and people have managed very well I think because we’ve had the services from St Mary’s broadcast on the internet every Sunday, so people have had a chance of keeping up at home with the regular Sunday worship and that’s been good.’

The Canon was ’glad’ to get back to normality.

He added: ’People are glad to be getting back into meeting people - I think that’s very hard.

’We’ve been blessed really being in the Isle of Man because we’ve been spared a lot of it.’

A LONG CAREER

Mr Alger could not recall how many services he had performed over his long career, replying ’umpteen’.

’The church has been very busy, it’s a very busy community, a busy life and enjoyable life,’ he said.

We asked if he had ever christened someone and also performed their marriage.

Mr Alger replied: ’Yes, not only that but there are people who I christened and did their marriages who are now having babies that I am christening.

’Sixty years is a long time, so they’ve known me a very long time.

’I’ve been very lucky.’

The Canon thought it was ’delightful’ to have a celebration dinner with 128 people arranged to celebrate his 60 years.

He said: ’It was nice meeting people who I haven’t seen in a long time, people from years ago.

’They were all just happy to be out again.’