It is with feelings of deep sorrow that we announce the death of our dear confrere
Father Peter Thompson, SMA. Born in the Archdiocese of Dublin, Ireland 4 July 1936 He became a member of our Society 24 June 1956 and was Ordained to the Priesthood 21 December 1962.Â
His Funeral Mass will take take place at 12 noon on Friday 12th July, in St. Joseph’s SMA Church, Wilton. The Mass can be viewed on https://www.smawilton.ie/live/
After his Ordination in 1962, Fr Peter was appointed the Diocese of Benin City, Nigeria where he served for 10 years. Following the creation of the Diocese of Issele-Uku, Fr Peter transferred there as Secretary to the Most Rev Bishop Anthony Okonkwo Gbuji, the first Bishop of the Diocese.
Fr Peter was recognized as an efficient administrator and it was not a great surprise when, at the Irish Provincial Assembly, he was elected by his confreres a member of the Irish Provincial Council [1978 – 1983]. At the same time, he was Superior of the SMA community in Wilton, Cork, which included those seminarians from Ireland and England undertaking their Spiritual Year programme.Â
After completing his term of office, the SMA Superior General invited Fr Peter to be his Anglophone Secretary at the SMA Generalate in Rome. In 1985, Fr Peter returned to Ireland and was appointed to our House in Dromantine, Newry, Co Down.
From 1987 to 1991, Fr Peter was the Vice Superior and Bursar in the SMA House, Blackrock Road, Cork. He then gave four years of service in the British Province, following which he returned to his home diocese of Elphin where he ministered in local parishes for eight years.
In 2004, Fr Peter returned to Dromantine and over the next sixteen years, he served in different capacities there, including Bursar, Vice-Superior etc. He took great joy in overseeing the extensive grounds of our Retreat and Conference Centre. In 2020, he retired from his different posts and continued to live in Dromantine.
In 2023, increasing ill health made it necessary that Fr Peter transfer to our St Theresa’s Nursing Unit, Blackrock Road, Cork, Ireland where he died unexpectedly but peacefully on 9 July, aged 88 years.
ETERNAL REST GRANT TO HIM, O LORD