Pope Francis appointed Rev. Canon Bosco MacDonald as the tenth Bishop of Clifton on 14 March 2024. It followed the Pope on the same day accepting the resignation of the Right Reverend Declan Lang as Bishop of the Diocese of Clifton, one of 22 dioceses in England and Wales.
The Catholic Herald subsequently spoke to Clifton’s new bishop-elect on issues ranging from his personal religious formation to the Sacrament of Matrimony to challenges being faced by the Church in the UK.
Catholic Herald: At what stage of your life did you feel that you were being called to the priesthood, and can you explain what it felt like and how your vocation manifested itself?
Canon Bosco MacDonald: It was in my early twenties that I can remember reading the Confessions of St Augustine and wondering then about a call to the priesthood. But at first, I was tentative and unsure. After speaking with my Parish Priest at home, he put me in touch with the diocesan vocations director who arranged an interview with the vocations discernment panel.
The bishop wanted to send me to Valladolid in Spain, and so that’s where I spent the next six years in formation and study along with around 30 other seminarians from many different English and Welsh dioceses.
Those years were an exciting and enjoyable time in my life with so much to learn both academically and spiritually. Milestones came and went along the way…moving from Philosophy to Theology, receiving the Ministries of Lector and Acolyte, being accepted as a Candidate for Holy Orders.
I was ordained in July 1991, in my home parish.
CH: What impact did being raised in a Catholic family have on you, and what do you remember about attending weekly Mass and receiving the Sacraments when growing up?
CBM: At home, growing up, the Catholic faith was front and centre and had a profound impact on me from an early age. Looking back, I can now see that it laid the foundation for a lifelong relationship with God who has been my constant companion every day. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes parents as the first heralds of the faith for their children, and my own childhood bears out that description.
I remember being an altar server at Mass along with my brothers and several others, young and old. It was a duty we performed mostly happily and sometimes mischievously. The holiness and humanity of all our parish priests made a lasting impression on me, and has been a trustworthy template of priesthood for all of my adult life.
CH: Given that the percentage of Catholics who attend Mass is low in most dioceses, how do you see the Church best going about providing the opportunity to welcome back the lapsed?
CBM: Of course we have to have an attitude of openness and acceptance towards those who have wandered from their spiritual home. Pope St John Paul II used to say, “the Church opens her arms to you, the Church loves you!” Isn’t that great? In other words, we don’t see people as being excluded, removed, somehow outside. None of us want to be treated like that.
We should recognise that even if people are away from the Church, in the sense that they don’t come to Mass, they’re still part of us, still God’s children, still loved. All of us have a place in the home that we call the Church, a room to come back to, even if we’ve left home. And I think the best way is for us to be actively inviting and encouraging people, saying “Come in!” and offering a welcome.
Pope Francis has repeatedly encouraged priests to find ways of ongoing pastoral care and accompaniment for individuals and families, not just during key moments like baptisms and first Holy Communions, but also throughout the various stages of life. For parishes this might include offering basic catechetical formation, support, opportunities to share experiences within the community. Forming groups, getting people together. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation especially, we can all experience God’s boundless mercy.
Also, I think we can take advantage of occasions when people who’ve been distanced from the Church do return, such as for sacraments or life events. We can remind them of the beautiful ideal of Christian marriage and the support the parish can offer. It’s a way we can actively reach out to individuals in a spirit of reconciliation. We’re all part of the same family and we all deserve the Church’s care and accompaniment.
CH: You have already expressed your commitment to serving priests and people with compassion: What do you see as the main challenges for priests in general and in your diocese?
Well, I am a priest, and I’m not saying I’m typical or even qualified to speak for priests in general. But I’m going to say that one of the main challenges for me, especially when life gets busy, is the challenge of maintaining a strong and healthy spiritual life. It’s the number one priority in my book: maintaining a close relationship with Christ through prayer, through offering the Mass faithfully, and praying the Divine Office. Those three things for me form the backbone of the priestly life, and all three are essential for us priests to find the graces needed for our pastoral service and availability to people.
Priests today face many responsibilities and some of them are completely outside our comfort zone. The complexity of human life, the diversity of our Christian communities, the demands placed on our time, on our emotions too: we’re human beings first and foremost before we’re priests. And if we’re not careful we can soon be deprived of the time and energy that we need for our own ongoing human formation and spiritual development. So we have to take care of ourselves as well as taking care of others.
One document I was reading recently noted that priests can sometimes feel like strangers in this world. And by the way, I don’t think we’re alone in that. Customs and values change rapidly in contemporary society and can become obstacles to faith. It can lead to a certain sense of spiritual fatigue or depression and uncertainty about how to effectively communicate the Gospel. Not to mention the profound grief and damage to priestly morale caused by the failures and misconduct of some clergy at all levels in the Church. These things seriously undermine the trust of people in their Church leaders.
We need perhaps to rediscover and re-present the priestly life to young people as a generous commitment and, yes, as a source of happiness and joy. Because for all its challenges, for all its difficulties, it really is a brilliant vocation, a wonderful privilege to walk with people, with individuals, with families and with parishes, this amazing pilgrimage of life.
CH: For many Catholics, their local parish is their second home: Do you have any plans for merging parishes and, if so, how does one go about doing it in a manner that causes as little disruption and heartache for parishioners and their “second home”?
CBM: I think everyone realises that change is part of our lives, and we live in a rapidly changing world. Some love the thought of it, but some find it very hard to even contemplate change. St John Henry Newman famously defined life as change, and perfection as the result of having changed often. So although this is a very pertinent question, I’m not sure I’m in a position to say too much about this right now. I’m in the middle of a massive change in my own life!
I suppose the question really is, how can we minimise disruption and heartache for parishioners, whilst still ensuring the effective stewardship of resources and the continuity of the Church’s mission? And it’s a question I imagine that people and priests are asking around the country, around the world. It’s not the kind of thing that can be hurried because lots of factors need to be taken into account: demographic changes, the allocation of limited resources, the need for more effective evangelisation.
It seems to me that we have to ensure that the essential mission of the Church is carried out effectively, even if the parish structures need to adapt to changing circumstances.
CH: It sounds like there are many interesting and courageous schemes and plans for outreach in the Diocese of Clifton, but will you be also encouraging traditional devotions which foster the prayer life within parishes, such as Adoration, Benediction and 40-hour devotions?
CBM: Yes! Anything that fosters prayer life in the parishes is a great thing. We have amazing people and priests in every parish community in Clifton diocese, people who pray every day for others. Just think about that for a minute – people who pray every day for others!
Devotional prayer is a treasure in the field of the church. Dig it up and invest it – put it to use. It’s really striking to see a thirst for devotional prayer among the young. In the last few months I have been acting Chaplain to the Universities in Bristol and I have seen that Adoration and Benediction are part of their lives, they look forward to it.
Our rosary group at the Cathedral was started by a group of young parishioners. We also have a prayer group that started as a Lenten initiative but has continued regularly, exploring different forms of prayer. And I’m sure many other parishes have similar experiences. I’m excited to see the fruits of prayer and would want to do everything I can to encourage it.
CH: Marriage is on the decline and many marriages founder. How do you feel the Church can assist in stressing the importance of the Sacrament of Matrimony and preparing couples for marriage?
CBM: The Church teaches that marriage is a vocation and a sacrament, not just a social contract. This means that our faith encourages couples to see their marriage as a lifelong calling and a participation in Christ’s love for the Church.
One way the Church can help is by offering short-term and long-term preparation to assist people in deepening their faith and approaching their wedding as the start of an exciting and joyful vocation.
As a priest I have always enjoyed sitting down with couples face to face, getting to know them and sharing that marriage is a sacrament that joins them to Christ’s love and grace. Helping couples to enter into this wonderful sacrament wholeheartedly is really important and rewarding.
In addition to spiritual preparation, the Church can also provide practical guidance, strategies and resources to help couples navigate the challenges of married life. This might include connecting them with people and support services who can help, and of course to use the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Maybe we should also be looking for ways to integrate marriage preparation even more into the broader life and catechesis of the Church.
CH: How do you see Catholic schools assisting parents in their duty to raise children in the Catholic Faith, especially given all the secular interference in parenting currently, not to mention non-Catholic schools often going against Catholic teaching?
CBM: With my name being Bosco (John Bosco), I’m going to say that the whole space of education is close to my heart, and I’ve been privileged to have served in various schools as a foundation governor and school chaplain over 30 years or so.
A good, engaged Catholic school can be of enormous help to parents in their duty to raise their children in the Catholic faith. It does this by supporting and developing children’s capacity for faith and understanding, which will blossom fully in later years.
It works well if a Catholic school can find a way to be integrated into the parish’s pastoral program, especially with regard to the Sacraments of Penance and First Holy Communion and Confirmation. These are among the big moments that nourish our children’s faith.
Secondary schools and colleges provide a privileged means for the Catholic community to give students a religious education, as well as their academic and vocational training.
An even bigger challenge and perhaps a more general one for the Catholic school is to help the young to be open to the Lord by upholding the Catholic worldview of objective moral truth, which is constantly under challenge in their lives by secularism. And so whatever we can do to support the young at home, in the parish, in our schools and colleges is going to help them develop a sense of faith and give them confidence in the gift of life.
The Catholic vision is that the home, parish and school should all be a united, positive formative influence on the young, leading them to the full stature of their maturity in Christ and commitment to the common good.
CH: What do you think is the main challenge affecting the Church and the Faith right now, and especially in the UK?
CBM: This is a big and complicated question to which people will have many different, interesting answers. For me, the main challenge affecting the Church and the Catholic Faith in our part of the world seems to be the pervasive advance of secularism which brings with it a loss of a sense of God in society. It challenges the Church to reaffirm and pursue even more actively its evangelising mission in the world.
In a very secularised society, there is a temptation to preach “values” on which a majority can agree, but which can partially obscure the true nature of the Gospel. And that “obscuring” of the Gospel message can even affect the Church too.
What I mean by secularism is a vision of humanity apart from God and removed from Christ. And if you separate humanity from God, you get individualism, division, estrangement. The bonds which define social living get broken. We see it in social disintegration, threats to family life, and the very ugly spectres of racial intolerance and rising wars.
The advance of secularism in England and Wales, despite our very rich Christian heritage, has led to a decline in vocations to the priesthood and religious life. It also makes it hard for us to catechise our own children, and can lead people to wonder where we’ll be in the years to come. But grace is not in short supply, hope is very much alive in the Church, and many of us can sense that we’re closer to Jesus in times of adversity than in times of relative complacency.
Our world is like a marketplace teeming with any number of quick fixes and snake oil solutions for human fulfilment. But the human heart is hungry, and will not be satisfied with anything less than authenticity, goodness, truth and beauty. Our fundamental mission as Catholics is to be authentic and trustworthy heralds of the Word. No pressure then! It’s about recapturing the Catholic vision of reality and presenting it in an engaging and imaginative way.
CH: Do you have a favourite place of pilgrimage and favourite Saint?
CBM: I have loved my many visits to Lourdes with HCPT and diocesan pilgrimages. I’m looking forward to going again in August which will be my first visit in several years. Our Lady and St Bernadette inspire me with the simple message of prayer, and the rosary is my daily companion.
The Holy Land is also such a wonderful place to go on pilgrimage, although in these terrible days it seems to be a place to shed tears. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
I am sorry to admit that I haven’t been to our National Shrine at Walsingham yet, but Walsingham came to us at Clifton Cathedral in February 2020 in the form of the Dowry Tour of Our Lady of Walsingham. I made a belated promise then to Our Lady that I would go and visit her in Walsingham! Not done it yet, but I will…
My favourite Saints are too many to mention here. I have already mentioned St Augustine, and I turn to him often along with St Thomas Aquinas and St John of the Cross. Fairly recently I have been reading the extraordinary story of the Servant of God, Elisabeth Leseur, and I’m greatly inspired by the astonishing fruitfulness of her hidden interior life of prayer and asceticism. The witness and teaching of so many Saints is such a lovely part of our faith journey. They help to make the life of faith alive and relatable.
CH: What advice would you give to anyone considering a vocation to the priesthood and how important for you is promoting vocations?
CBM: Promoting vocations to the priesthood is of the utmost importance, because we have an urgent need for priestly ministry, especially in the face of widespread unchurched-ness and indifference among many people.
The entire People of God are responsible for priestly vocations and we can all offer our support through persistent and humble prayer.
For those considering the priesthood, the most important thing is to be open and responsive to God’s call. A priestly vocation is a gift from God, not something one simply decides in isolation. The desire alone to become a priest is not enough – you have to discern if you truly have a calling from God and the necessary qualities to serve the Church.
My advice would be to begin by praying about it. If you’re not sure how to do that or what to say it doesn’t matter, God will help you find the words. You should also seek the guidance and accompaniment of the Church, because it’s the Church’s responsibility to discern the suitability of those desiring to enter the seminary and call them to holy orders if they have the necessary qualities.
I place the highest priority on fostering priestly vocations because the Church’s very life and mission depend on having faithful shepherds to exercise this unique ministry of consecrating and absolving. So I would make every effort to encourage prayer for vocations, present the call to the priesthood personally, and try to bear witness to the joy and holiness of a priestly life.
CH: What is the greatest asset/tool that the Church has for the conversion of souls?
CBM: In a word, Jesus. It is He who calls us out of darkness to who we really are. He is the one who sustains us and is the source of all our hope. And the Church offers the Sacrament of His Body. Nothing comes close to that in terms of conversion.
The Holy Eucharist is described beautifully as the source and summit of the Christian life, the Church’s entire spiritual wealth and the greatest gift of Christ to the Church. The sacrament that makes present the sacrifice of Christ offered for our salvation. So Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, the Eucharist, is the greatest asset the Church has.
After everything that’s been said in this interview, it a great place to conclude by saying that through the Eucharist, the Church is able to draw souls to Christ and facilitate their conversion and sanctification.
Like many of us on Maundy Thursday evening, I felt particularly close to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. I thought about all the fear He must have experienced, knowing that His friends would leave Him, knowing what was going to happen to Him the next day. And yet, with all that on His mind, He thought of me, He thought of us, and He reached out to take away our fears. Do not be afraid, He said.
May the Jesus who walked the Emmaus road as a stranger reveal Himself to us in the breaking of the bread as our friend, our Saviour and our Lord.
Photo: Canon Bosco MacDonald blessing Peaches Golding, Lord Lieutenant of Bristol. (Copyright Marcin Mazur.)
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