“IN THE name of the father” took on a new resonance in Galway city yesterday when a Tipperary-born priest presided over the marriage of his son.
Fr Michael Moloney, curate in Daingean, Co Offaly, officiated at the marriage of his second son Paul and partner Deborah Coyle at the Garrison Church in Renmore.
Fr Moloney’s grandchildren were among about 200 guests at the wedding, with a reception afterwards in the Salthill Hotel.
“It feels strange,” Paul Moloney said, speaking a half hour before the event.
“With all that is happening in the church, it’s very reassuring to have someone like him as a priest,” he added. “He has been through life.”
Mr Moloney said he invited his father to officiate at the wedding and the curate’s immediate response was he would “love to”.
It is the second time Fr Moloney, in his late 60s, has made theological history.
Born in Thurles, Co Tipperary, he was ordained as a priest with the Society for African Missions in December 1966. He served as a missionary in Egypt and was also based at Ballinafad College in Co Mayo. He applied to be laicised in 1969.
In 1972, a year after his laicisation was granted, he was married in Zambia to an Irishwoman. Michael and Marjorie Moloney had three sons and one daughter, and the couple returned to Ireland to work as teachers in schools in Naas and Newbridge, Co Kildare.
Marjorie died in July 2005 and her husband, then living in Naas, decided to resume the vocation he had left 35 years before.
He applied to the Vatican in May 2006 to rejoin the priesthood, and was directed to undertake a programme of theological, liturgical and pastoral studies at the Milltown Institute in Dublin.
On December 11th, 2008, he was readmitted to the priesthood by Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Dr Jim Moriarty, who welcomed him into a “new family ”.
His plan had been to serve abroad with the Society for African Missions but following discussions it was agreed he would serve as curate in the parishes of Daingean and Killeigh, Co Offaly.
Paul Moloney and his partner Deborah Coyle chose the Army’s Garrison church in Renmore for yesterday’s event as Deborah is from Ballybane and her late father, Paddy Coyle, served with the Defence Forces at Renmore.
He died in the same year as Paul’s mother.
Fr Moloney paid tribute yesterday to Dr Moriarty for readmitting him to the church and said he still considered himself to be a married man.
“I’ve been able to experience life from all aspects,“ he said.