Priest attacked at St Patrick’s Church in Downpatrick ‘will make good recovery’

A priest attacked at his church will make “a good recovery”, the Bishop of Down and Connor has said.

Fr John Murray was hit on the head with a bottle while preparing to celebrate his last Mass before retirement at St Patrick’s Church.

Bishop Alan McGuckian, who visited the senior priest in hospital, said Fr Murray is “grateful” for prayers from the public.

A 30-year-old man is still being held on suspicion of murder after a man’s death in Downpatrick, which police said might be linked to the “brutal” attack on the priest.

Fr Murray was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for treatment to his injuries.

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster’s, Evening Extra programme, Bishop McGuckian said: “He had been beaten around the head and there was defensive injuries with broken bones in his hands.”

He said there was a lot of blood and it looked “very, very serious in the beginning”.

“On first impressions, it looked extremely serious but thank God it has turned out to be serious but not critical,” he added.

Fr Murray has served the diocese for 50 years and was scheduled to retire next weekend.

The bishop said a “a very special moment was just shattered”.

The Downpatrick Family of Parishes said on Monday that Fr Murray “continues to receive exceptional care” and he is “stable and comfortable”.

It added that St Patrick’s Church and its grounds remained closed.

Police said a man walked into the church on St Patrick’s Avenue at 10:10 BST on Sunday and hit the priest before leaving.

Det Ch Insp McBurney said it was “a completely shocking and brutal attack and has left the priest with a serious head injury”.

Fr Eddie McGee, a priest from the Diocese of Down and Connor who knows Fr Murray well, told BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme the man asked Fr Murray if he would hear his confession just before the morning service was due to start and “it was at that stage that he was attacked”.

He said the parishioners who witnessed the attack then called the emergency services, describing it as an “absolute shock” for those who saw the “terrible event”.

Fr McGee said the Bishop of Down and Connor, the Most Reverend Alan McGuckian, went to the hospital on Sunday night to meet Fr Murray’s family.

He described Fr Murray as a “very well-known” and “very well-respected priest” of the diocese who had been appointed a canon by the bishop in recognition of his work as a senior adviser.

Parishioner Raymond Rooney was in the church when the incident occurred.

He said he heard women saying Fr Murray was injured.

“Then the police arrived – there was commotion, everyone was talking and then I heard the ambulance arrive,” he said.

“It was mayhem in the church. People were aghast at what had happened, totally shocked. People can’t take it in.”

Mr Rooney described Fr Murray as a “really brilliant man”.

Hundreds of people attended a vigil in St Brigid’s Church in Downpatrick on Sunday evening.

Fr Martin Graham, who took the service, said it allowed people to be with other parishioners and pray for Fr Murray and also “for the other poor man who lost his life”.

Fr Graham said Fr Murray is “so well thought of by the people here”.

“It is just heartbreaking for them in what was supposed to be a poignant farewell this morning that it turned into something which was just grotesque,” he said.

Sinn Féin MP for South Down Chris Hazzard told BBC News NI that the “sense of disbelief, and shock and devastation is still as palpable today as it was yesterday”.

He said he had received messages from “right across the county and further afield” from people asking about Fr Murray’s health and that he is thankful to hear he is “recovering well in hospital”.

Hazzard added that there was a “sense of palatable community spirit” rallying around the parish and the family of the man who was killed and that time was needed for the investigation to be conducted and for people to “start to heal” after the events.

Sinn Féin councillor Oonagh Hanlon, who attended the vigil, described it as a “very sombre and very respectful” event which also remembered the man who was killed.

She said it was a close-knit community and there was “deep shock” at what had happened.

Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) assembly member Colin McGrath described it as a “shocking” and “graphic” attack on Fr Murray.

He said that being carried out in a “public manner and in daylight exposed an awful lot of vulnerabilities of clergy”.

“We must put this in the wider context that this is a very rare event, and that people hopefully will take comfort in the fact that this doesn’t happen on a regular basis but it does show that when it does happen that those vulnerabilities are there,” he added.