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Philip Birch passed away recently in Christchurch.
He had been diagnosed with cancer at the end of last year.
Birch, a former priest, was a resident of Mt Victoria for more than 20 years, and an active member of St Joseph’s Parish.
In the 1980s, while still in priestly ministry, he worked as a teacher and theology lecturer.
After a long struggle with his sexual identity, he made the decision to come out as gay and left the priesthood in 1990.
Birch returned to Wellington where he had been a student, and built a new life.
Soon after arriving, he met his future partner, Musu Aiono.
Birch never gave up on the ideal of serving others.
He once commented that although he did not have a public role as a priest any more, he thought of himself as “working undercover”.
He was a man who remained very committed to prayer, and to helping the vulnerable and disadvantaged.
Birch was born in Christchurch and educated at St Bede’s College.
After school, he spent a year as an American Field Scholar in Omaha, Nebraska, and then entered Mount St Mary’s Seminary in Greenmeadows, Napier, in 1972, to train as a priest in the Society of Mary.
Source
- The DomPost
- Image: Facebook
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