The current parish priest of St Mary’s is Fr Richard Howard. Fr Richard arrived here in August 2017 as an assistant priest. In March 2020 he was appointed as parish administrator (sometimes called ‘priest-in-charge’) and then, in Advent 2021 he became the parish priest (parochus). Fr Richard trained for the priesthood first in France and then in Rome at the Venerable English College.
He was ordained on the 16th of July 2016. Before his arrival in Horwich, Fr Richard spent one year as an assistant priest in the parish of St Anne in Accrington.
