Obituary: Father Graham Mark Turner, priest

I am sure Graham would blush if he could read this. He had an honours degree of BSc in Chemistry and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Nottingham. When health reasons forced a career change, he gained an MSc in Information Technology from the University of Glasgow. And as he studied for the priesthood from the Beda College in Rome he gained an honours degree in Divinity. Graham was intellectually very able.

He also had spiritual gifts. When applying for the priesthood and asked what he saw as the purpose of his life, Graham replied: “What is the purpose of my life – a difficult question to answer – but I’d say it is to love and serve God – and to bear witness to Him to those around me by the way I live. I’d like to believe that I tried to do the best I can for the people I meet.”

Graham learned much about life from his happy family circle and I am sure initially grew in his love of God and of others within that circle of his loving parents Marie and George and his brother and sister Ian and Sue.

University life appealed to him as he grew intellectually but he increasingly felt the call to something else and was attracted to the Catholic faith and became a very good practising Catholic while at the University of Nottingham.

His faith grew strong, as did the call to the priesthood and he indicated that he was directly approached by one of our now retired priests, Canon Stephen Judge, and asked if he had ever thought of becoming a priest.

To help him learn more about the faith and the priesthood, he agreed to live, while working in computer science with Standard Life, at St Andrews Presbytery, Ravelston, where he also became a sort of “resident carer” for retired priests living there. He got to know more and more about the life of a priest, listening to these senior citizens in the priesthood – and he helped three of those under his care to prepare for their deaths.

Graham applied to be a student for the priesthood in our own Archdiocese and he was asked to study at the Pontifical Beda College in Rome. I know that Graham’s time at the Beda College was fruitful for him.

I was aware of this from Graham personally but also from the insightful and full reports each year from his Rector Monsignor Rod. On one occasion, Monsignor Rod emphasised about Graham that “he takes the spiritual aspect of his formation seriously and seems to be a person who is committed, faithful, and disciplined in his praying”.

Because of the way in which he was assessed by his college and by the various priests in which he fulfilled very successful pastoral placements, Graham was ordained to the diaconate and then one year later prepared for ordination to the priesthood to take place on 29 June, 2011, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

However, that ordination did not take place because Graham was diagnosed as suffering from leukaemia and then followed what was a succession of dates for ordination to the priesthood followed by cancellations quite simply because his health did not permit.

However, things came to a head during Holy Week this year when Graham and his family were told there was nothing further that could be done to stop the spread of disease throughout his body.

I let my brother priests know of this when addressing the packed congregation at our Chrism Mass. It was then that our plans for Graham’s ordination speeded up because of his own eager desires to be a priest, coupled with the views of his own family.

It was through the great co-operation of the authorities in Salford Royal Hospital as well as priests and people from both the Diocese of Salford and my own Archdiocese that Graham was ordained to the priesthood by myself on that Easter Monday, 9 April, 2012. That was an unforgettable experience for all concerned – none more than Father Graham himself.

Although his health was obviously failing he was fully alert during his Mass of Ordination and enjoyed the greetings of family and friends at the reception afterwards. I saw him some days later on the Friday of Easter Week – but then was saddened to hear on the Sunday evening that Graham’s family had been called in to the infirmary, quite simply because he was dying.

That death took place in a very peaceful way, with Graham receiving the Sacrament of the Sick once more and the final blessing from Father Frank, the Chaplain to the hospital, and dying surrounded by his parents and brother and sister, Marie and George, Sue and Ian.

One week later we celebrated Mass for Graham in St Brendan’s, Bolton.

We might ask what can we learn from the life and the death of Father Graham Turner. I would simply say we learn from him an appreciation of just what it is to be a Christian; and, a priest for just one week, perhaps for his brother priests and others giving us an even deeper appreciation of what the priesthood is all about.

Because of his illness Graham was able to live out his priesthood in a way different from the frenetic norm during his short life as a priest – perhaps fulfilling that purpose of life which he had described as “to love and serve God – and to bear witness to him to those around me by the way I live”.

Graham longed to be ordained a priest and that is the reason why I chose that beautiful Gospel passage from St Luke’s Gospel in which Jesus speaks of his desire for that “Last Supper” with his disciples, that event at which he instituted the Sacrament of the Priesthood and the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. Jesus said to his disciples: “I have ardently longed to eat this Passover with you before I suffer!”

And Graham ardently longed to be a priest and to share that Eucharistic meal before his final suffering and death. Having eaten that Easter meal as a priest and celebrating Mass for the first and for the last time Graham realised that his life’s mission had been accomplished.

We thank God for the life of Graham Turner; we thank God for that life of Father Graham Turner, a priest of Jesus Christ.

We continue to pray for him, his family and friends and all who will miss him. But in the midst of our own grief we must thank God for the many graces and blessings which He has given to Father Graham and those blessings shared so wonderfully with his family and friends, as well as with all those who have journeyed with him in a special way recently.

I thank the staff and students at the Beda College, the chaplains, doctors, nurses and all in positions of administration at the Salford Royal Hospital, and all those from this, our own Archdiocese, who knew him and loved him and looked forward to working with him in his priestly service in these years which lie ahead.

CARDINAL KEITH O’BRIEN