I've been looking up flights from Leeds/Bradford to Paris this evening. My friend Fr Pasquino, a Comboni Father who lives nearby, and I are hoping to go there for a night or two next month to visit Cyrille Delort, a seminarian at the Seminaire aux Carmes, who completed his Masters here at Leeds Trinity a few years ago. He is studying for the Missions Étrangères de Paris. He recently told me that the numbers from the Mission in the seminary is growing rapidly, from 14 when he first arrived to 27 now. I don't have favourites, but if I did he'd be one of them. When most English lads think serving at the altar somehow cissyish, Cyrille put on an alb and brought Gallic grace to the sanctuary. Once when the bishop came to celebrate Mass and I had forgotten to organise any servers I ran round to Cyrille's room while the bishop was vesting, appealed for his help and with a smiling "of course" he was in the sacristy within two minutes, poised and serene. He also plays tennis excellently, is very comfortable in the presence of young women (who evidently enjoy his company) and he often used to join me for Adoration. It was while he was at Leeds Trinity that he began to think seriously about the priesthood. He subsequently spent a year in Thailand, continuing to discern. He has just received the ministries of lectorate and acolytate and sounds very happy. I'm going to put a photo of him on the Chaplaincy Facebook site to show that celibacy is cool.
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