Scottish Catholic Observer

People from throughout Aberdeen Diocese and beyond joined together in joyful celebration as the first ordination in Inverness for 12 years took place last Friday, January 6. Fr Andrew Niski, a Pole, was ordained to the priesthood in St Mary’s Church with a congregation of more than 400 people present for the ‘spectacular’ Mass. Bishop Hugh Gilbert celebrated the ordination Mass alongside Bishop Emeritus Peter Moran, staff of St John’s Seminary in England including rector Fr Brian Coyle, and clergy and laity of the diocese.

Bishop Gilbert announced that the new priest will begin his priestly life as a curate at St Mary’s Church, Inverness, and thanked him for ‘for entering into this conversation with the Lord, for listening, for voicing your weakness, and letting him answer and touch you.’

“Thank you for all your gifts, of course: your young manhood, your manifest Faith, the light in your eyes, the expanding kindness, your special blend of seriousness and humour,” he said. “Thank you for your Polishness and your love of Scotland and this diocese. Thank you for following so many Polish pilgrims—Chopin and Norwid, John Paul II and Czeslaw Milosz—into another land, for our enrichment. Surely St Andrew nudged you along! Thank you for allowing yourself to be given.”

Fr Niski celebrated his first Mass on Saturday morning January 7, joined by concelebrating priests, family and friends from Poland and other parishioners in the congregation, with the homily given by Fr Matthew Carlin, a recently ordained priest from Paisley who was a fellow student in Rome with Fr Niski.

Hailing from Gdynia in Poland, 33-year-old Fr Niski is the third child of Edmund Niski and the late Beata Sachse-Niska.

He first came to Scotland in the summer of 2005 on a working holiday with a friend and fellow student, working as security guards and renting a tent on the main caravan and camping site at Bught Park Campsite.

After their belongings were stolen from their tent, the students turned to their newly-adopted parish of St Mary’s, Inverness, where they received support and a warm welcome from Fr James Bell—an act of kindness that strengthened their Faith both in the people of Inverness and in the Church.

As both men became involved in the parish’s young adults group, Fr Niski became aware of his vocation. After a formation course, he began studying for the priesthood at the Scots College in Rome, before moving to complete his studies at St John’s Seminary, Wonersh, near Guildford.

Throughout his time as a seminarian, Fr Niski fulfilled pastoral parish placements across Aberdeen Diocese and after being ordained a deacon on July 3, 2016, by Bishop Gilbert, he returned to St Mary’s—to the delight of the Highland deanery, parishioners and the young people with whom he went to World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, last year. He returned to Poland in November to complete the Ignation Exercises, a 30-day Jesuit retreat, ahead of his ordination.

Fr Niski acknowledged the support of his family in Poland, his friends from across the diocese, Rome, Scotland and Guildford. He thanked God for ‘the gift of friendship’ and those from Aberdeen Diocese and beyond who had offered him support and encouragement over the years of his formation.