10th June, Noel Mansfield MSC, 55 years ordained (after a 7 years’ delay), a very happy day.
10th June 1967 was an ordination day for the Province but more significant than usual. Noel was teaching at Monivae at the time. His ordination had been put on hold ( he was ready for 1960) because of Noel’s experience of epilepsy in 1958. The Vatican saw this as an impediment but changed its stance in the mid-1960s. (The change was attributed to Venerable Francis Liberman, Spiritan priest: Libermann suffered from epileptic seizures, which prevented his ordination for nearly fifteen years. It was only when these seizures ceased in 1841 that he was able to become a priest.)
Noel was to have 55 years of priestly ministry teaching in schools, at Chanel College in Rabaul, at Daramalan, doing the Siloam program at Heart of Life, years of ministry in Adelaide, Hindmarsh and Henley Beach. He has retired to Kensington, to St Joseph’s.
A reminder of the oft-told anecdote:
There was a famous story from Hamilton on the day of his First Mass, June 11th, a story which he recounts. Noel used to do a radio broadcast each Sunday morning in Hamilton, comment on the previous days’ football matches. The radio compere announced to the public that Noel would not be doing his usual broadcast because ‘yesterday Brother Mansfield became a father
Noel has recounted his life story in his books, From Dawn to Dusk and Will I Go Blind? (both available from Coventry Press: check with the Coventry Press site to obtain these books).
