Rome, Italy, Apr 17, 2012 / 10:59 am
Father Graham Turner, 48, was a priest for only one week when he passed away from leukemia.
“There is a great wave of sadness here at the moment but it was important that Graham was ordained,” said Monsignor Roderick Strange, Rector of the Beda College in Rome, where Fr. Turner studied for the priesthood.
“Although we are ordained for active ministry this was also a completion of a significant period in Graham’s life of discernment and commitment. So it was wonderful that he was ordained a priest.”
Fr. Turner was supposed to be ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of St. Andrews & Edinburgh, Scotland last June. That was postponed, however, after he was diagnosed with leukemia.
Cardinal Keith P. O’Brien of St. Andrews & Edinburgh decided to move swiftly after being told by the deacon’s father during Holy Week that his son’s prognosis was very bleak.