New parish Priest wants his parishioners to be happy

Jan 11, 2018

By Bernard Anthony
The Feast of the Holy Innocents is celebrated worldwide, with many parishes also having the blessing of children after Mass.

At the Church of St Anne, Msgr Mitchel Anthony, who assumed the post of parish priest on Dec 26, celebrated his first Mass on Dec 28 for the Feast of the Holy Innocents.

The feast of the Holy Innocents does not celebrate the massacre of innocent babies by King Herod but, rather, the victory of that innocence over perversion and evil.

In his homily, Msgr Mitchel posed the question to the assembly. “‘If you ponder and look into your life, and if I asked each of you, ‘What is your story?’ each of you will have different stories to tell. If there are eighty of you, we will have eighty different stories.”

Msgr Mitchel added that, “even today, we see poor innocent victims being killed. All of them, like us, have stories to tell. All stories point towards the Eucharist. Then, our stories become God’s story, the story of God and His people.”

After Mass, the Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) chairperson, Ignatius Pappu, welcomed Msgr Mitchel as their new parish priest.

Msgr Mitchel, in return, told his new parishioners that he was happy to be here. He wants all of them to be happy as he is happy with them. “Happiness is not experienced when we get what we want. Happiness is experienced when we do the right thing, that is, doing God’s will.”

Msgr Mitchel invited all his parishioners to work together and added that he will always be available to meet their needs spiritually.

After Mass, Msgr Mitchel met with some of the parishioners and blessed a few children.